In Between

2: Dos

Sage

Thinking about my first meeting of the morning as I drive to work, I scour through any important information about the deal I seem to be losing track of. That was my brain's way of overthinking every detail for perfection I sought after.

"Call Preston", I speak into my pods in my ear. I like to go over every final detail of important meetings like this, with Preston.

"Morning Ms. Michel. I have your files and notes ready for the meeting. I know you..."

"That's fine Preston. Thank you. Quick question, what was the percentage increase anticipated if this deal pushed through. I know we talked about this but I want to be specific down to a T," I ask cutting him off while my hands tapped on the steering wheel of my i8.

"3% except we sink in a whole $50m into the company to get some increase in percentage output. Which may or may not be negligible," he replied off the top of his head.

"Alright. I'm coming up," I said as I drive in front of the building and step out, handing over my keys to the security/concierge out front. Stepping into the building I walk straight to my private elevator, pretending I don't see my employees quieten down and act busy, even though they were just in the lobby. The elevator opens and I step out onto my floor lobby where I see Preston waiting for me in front of Emily, my secretary's desk. I have just Preston, who's my Personal Assistant, Emily
and myself on this floor. Not that I'm in need of extreme privacy but we just moved to this floor and hadn't decided what to do with most of it. My office is on the far end and will require getting past the two offices to get to mine. I liked how it was tucked in farther way from other offices and how I can look out into the city below me.

"So that means, this is more in their favour than ours if we accept," I say while I walk past Preston, heading towards my office.

"Yes it does. Your tea is on the table and the files too. Do you need me to read through your schedule for the day?," he asks still standing while I take a seat behind my desk.

"No thank you. Just let me know when my 9:45 gets here," I tell him as I flip open the files on my desk, knowing he has heard me. I see him nod in my peripheral view before he closes the door.

I sit down looking through the detailed notes stuck on the file cover. Reading through all the lines of intended agreement, I mark up the places needing adjustments and revisiting in the meeting. I make notes to call the head of legal team to join me for the meeting since my Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Nick, is away on a much needed vacation. His wife, my friend, Nessa, would kill me if I ever interrupted their vacation.
The thought of hearing her tear me a new one makes me grimace and wince.

Getting deep in the moment, I lose myself in the documents in front of me forgetting about the time.
I was just about to take the last sips of my tea when a knock interrupts me, making me look at the minimalistic grandfatherlike clock at the corner of my office. The time was 9:45 already, letting me know, it was time.

"Come in," I call out, before the door opens and reveals Preston.

"They're here. Emily's leading them to the boardroom," he says, while holding his things for taking notes. I place my feet back into my shoes before I step around my table, leaving my office with the files.

Walking into the boardroom, I see three new faces talking amongst themselves with Emily standing at one end. I give a quick smile before dropping the file at the end of the table.

"Good morning, gentlemen. Pleasure meeting you this morning. It would be lovely getting to know who I'll be working with in the future," I say with a smile, as I take my seat at the end of the table.

One piece of advice in business, is that you should always make the other party comfortable and still have the upper hand. Sadly, it happens often times than not, because the men always think less of me and take me for a fickle counterpart. Which is the biggest mistake, on their part, not on mine.

The men are all smiles and smirks as they look at each other before the oldest amongst them decides to speak first. He introduces himself as Jeremy Wormack, Director for their company, Yeildsure. While the second person introduces himself, beckon on Emily to call our Head of Legal. My little distraction made the second speaker break what he was saying a number of times, thereby irritating him. That made me smile. It's always the intended reaction I get when I deal with certain people in the business industry.

I blindly ignore the glares and nod my head as a sign that I heard him speak. The last person decided to introduce himself as the CEO of Yieldsure. He was in the middle of going further when Frankie, the Head of Legal walks in. Frankie Delgado is as stubborn as they come, which is why we make a great team. Her instincts are always spot on and she kills me with her attention to detail. Knowing Frankie, there's nothing quiet about her entrance even though she barely says a word as she walks in and takes a seat beside me.

Turning back to the CEO, I notice how red his face almost gets for the interruption and lack of attention.

"Apologies gentlemen for the interruption. I did hear you all introduce yourselves, so we can proceed from here," I say.

The CEO, Andrew Barton didn't say anything but kept looking at me in a predatory way, when I stood up and began speaking.

"Is this all? Or would you love to add to it?," I asked.

"Yes, I would," the Director stands up and presents their slides with more details. I still feel eyes on me making me look to the right, just to see Andrew smirk at me.

I look away and pay attention to the person speaking even though I had done my thorough research about Yieldsure.

"Thank you, Jeremy," I say as an indication it was good enough.

"To be really honest, anything that was to be done here wouldn't have changed my mind about what to do. I have done my research and I don't think we, ZTS, buying part of your company for that price would profit us at any point," I stated looking Andrew in the eye, watching the smirk disappear from his face before I continue.

"This simply means we're not going forward with the deal on paper," I say with finality.

"So if you knew that, why still acknowledge this meeting?," the Director asked with his lips in a straight line.

"You guys insisted," I say shrugging nonchalantly.

He was about to blow his fuse again before I cut him off,

"The deal on paper is void to me. But I have a new proposal. Why don't you take a look at the paper being passed around?," I say as Emily passes round a sheet of paper to each person.

"What is this?," the second man from Yieldsure asks with irritation in his voice.

"That, is my deal for you. Sell Yieldsure to ZTS for the amount on the paper," I say while my hands stay folded on the desk.

"What rubbish is this? You bitch think you can downgrade my hardworking and company to one of your toys? I would never..."

"Never say never, Andrew." I say smirking.

"You walked into my building knowing fully well that the proposal sent was not a truthful one. Knowing fully well that I would lose more and gain nothing, except I sink more costs into Yieldsure so you can get profits even after buying percentage shares at an exorbitant price. The rubbish is that you don't do your homework before you approach. If you did, you'd know I'm very thorough with deals and agreements. So since you want me to sink in that amount into Yieldsure, I might as well own it. Sounds fair right?," I say as I look around the table.

"Right. So gentlemen if you agree to the deal, I'd like you all to sign on the papers before we draft the official documents," Frankie says while getting up.

"And if you don't, please find your way out. The deal will still be open till tomorrow," I say while walking out.

"We could just go to someone else," Andrew says in a boastful tone which stops me.

"You could. But you won't. Not when I have my discovery ready to be printed out to the world to see. Please do well and see yourself out," I say with a smile.

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