Controlling Vulnerable

Chapter 8

The following Monday the investors piled into Joe's board room, and Lara slipped into the seat alongside Joe. She seemed uncharacteristically nervous, and Joe gave her hand a squeeze under the desk and nodded. She took a deep breath and nodded back as proceedings got underway. The intention had been to save questions until the end, but a couple of the investors were keen to dig into things a little deeper, almost as soon as Joe had finished his introductory comments. Rather than this rattling her, Lara found it actually helped settle her nerves and made the whole session flow more naturally. At the end, one of the investors, Mason Williams, a shrewd venture capitalist addressed Joe, "This has been great. I have to say I was concerned you wouldn't have much to show us today since Lara's only been here what, six weeks? But I think we're all pretty impressed with the direction of travel Callex has taken. I think I probably speak for everyone in the room when I say I really appreciate the work that's gone into this, and I feel way more comfortable with the funding structure now I know what you've got mobilised." Joe smiled at the murmurs of assent around the table, and the meeting came to an end. Lara would have slinked off back to her office, but Joe was blocking the door talking to a couple of stragglers, so she busied herself unhooking the laptop and clearing the cups. When the last person had left, he walked towards her, radiating just how pleased he was with the way it went and holding out his hand. He said, "Leave that. Come here, I'm taking you for lunch. You've frickin' earned it. Lara, you were absolutely awesome. In his exuberance he pulled her into his arms, taking her by surprise, but she relaxed, and he felt her nuzzle into him. He could have held on to her for longer, but Joe knew they'd be on display to anyone courtesy of the glass walls, so he broke the moment and guided her out and into the elevator.

Sitting in the sunshine having ordered lunch he looked at his companion, "I swear Lara, I've never come out of one of those sessions without either a massive list of shit to follow up with, or a feeling they weren't convinced about what we'd said. You were amazing." Lara gave him a small smile, "We prepared for this well, and you've given me pretty much carte blanche to go ahead and set up exactly what's needed." He leaned forward, "Mason Williams just described what you've built as industry leading. Where the hell did you come from Lara? I was minding my own business sitting on a plane, and you just appeared." Their food arrived, and Lara picked up her fork, "You were most definitely not minding your own business." Joe was taken aback and amused in equal measure. She looked him in the eye, "You stared at me off and on for four hours." He laughed in surprise, "I didn't think you'd noticed." She shrugged and he shook his head, "I'd seen all the movies on the flight out, and you were much more interesting."

Just after five Lara made her way to the elementary school to collect the girls. They'd settled well after the first couple of weeks, finding the work a little easier than they were used to and making friends without too much trouble despite their accents. As she approached the door to the after-school programme, a vaguely familiar man joined her. He smiled and reached to open the door for her. Lara muttered thanks, and he said, "Are you Grace's mom?" Lara smiled, "Yes, I am." He stuck out a hand, "I'm Ryan. My daughter's pretty taken with Grace. It's Madison, Maddy Newman." Lara nodded and laughed, "Ahhh, Yes, I believe they've bonded over a shared passion for some awful program on the Disney channel." Ryan was slim with close cropped brown hair and artfully casual stubble. Charlotte appeared and Lara introduced her, "This is Charlotte, Grace's sister. Lottie, would you go round her up for me? And maybe mention to Maddy that her Daddy is here." Ryan was thinking Lara was very different to Farrah's description, and he said, "I love an English accent. I think we may have some mutual friends." Lara looked surprised, "Really? I don't know very many people here." He laughed, "For a big city it's amazing how small a town it can feel. I believe you've just started working for Joe at Callex?" Lara looked wary, "Yes, do you know Joe?" He nodded, "Yeah, known him a while." The children ran up precluding any further conversation, and Lara smoothed Grace's hair, bending to kiss her head, "Maddy will have to come over to play Gracie." The two younger girls bounced up and down excitedly, and Ryan laughed, grabbing his eight year old's bag, "Let me give you my number." He reached into his pocket and passed her a card saying,"Maddy's with her mom part of the week, we're not together, but I'm sure we can sort something out."