The Reluctant Heiress (A Christian Romance Novel)

Chapter 5: The Big Idea

Telly, with her elbows on the table and her chin resting on her clasped hands,  stared at Greg who was sitting across from her in her office, which made him a little bit uncomfortable.

She was trying to read Greg and to understand how she would present her idea to him. She had learned through her many years in the marketing field, that there was always a convincing way of saying or presenting ideas to the point that at the end, the other person would rally with her. That's what she was paid for.

"Come on, what's the idea?" Greg asked smiling, excitedly waiting for her response. Telly did not realize she was staring at him for quite some time. She could not peel her eyes away from his beautiful face. 'Why had I not noticed him before? Oh yeah, dad called him Mr. Downey all the while!'she thought. She looked at his hand and she did not see any wedding band. Promising.

"Sorry," she laughed and closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands. "I was just thinking on how to say this in the best way."

"Oh come one, you don't have to reconstruct sentences with me. I am not a client remember? I am your ally. Just say it however it crossed your mind."

"Ok! Here goes. Hotel de Lavi will be turning 30 next year," she started. "Maybe it is time for Hotel de Lavi no. 2!"

"And where would that be?"

"Where else? In New York."

Silence. Greg was in deep thoughts. "It is a very good idea, but-"

"But what?" she asked.

"But your dad had always disagreed to such expansion programs." he replied.

"Why? This is such a very profitable venture, why not duplicate it? I can ask my friends to do the market research study there and I am sure we could find a location even if New York seems to be flooded already with hotels," she explained at length.

"You have to check with the board on that," he cautioned her. Greg was quite familiar with Telly's stubbornness when it comes to doing some things, as Mr. de Lavi shared quite a number of their father-daughter conversations with him. So he needed to steer her away from such grand prospects and maybe even fizzle out the flame.

"But do YOU believe this is feasible?" Telly looked at him searching for answers. "I was told that you were an aggressive, go-getter kind of guy, so I'm sure this would appeal to you."

Oh no, that alluring smile and flattering remark, Greg thought to himself as he looked at her as she smiled back at him.

"I think it is an exciting prospect, a very grand endeavor. We have just not explored that within the ten years I was with your dad. He had always been very conservative because he said, chains of hotels whether company owned or franchise, a lot of times lose their personal touch, lose their character, and-"

"No, no, no," she interrupted. "You will have the same standards, same brand, same look, same experience. The Hotel de Lavi signature experience can be enjoyed by people in other states."

Telly had always been the big idea girl. That was why she enjoyed her stint at the New York hotel she worked at. They gave her the opportunity to explore huge markets. But looking at her office right now and looking at the hotel, she could not justify spending hours in the office just to greet the staff, meet with some of them once in a while, greet the guests and sign documents, and doing that all over again for the next week. Nothing was exciting about that. Nothing CEO-y. And nothing about that warranted her presence and her paycheck. She had always thought her managers could already do that very well, and her dad had trained them so well.