Beneath The Orange Sunset ✔️

Five

Between the devil and the deep blue sea

~5~

Supporting his aching head on his angled hand, Antoine Lacroix dozed off on his desk for a fleeting moment. He had too much to drink last night and he barely had enough sleep. He was drowning in a pool of his guiltless pleasures.

He could still hear them talking - the board of directors and other executives, speaking loud grumbling noises that amounted to nothing. There were eight of them, and then Basil, his secretary and if the CEO arrived early that would be a perfect ten men gathering. Right now the meeting made no headway without his presence.

Antoine drifted silently.

Then someone tapped his sides. He raised his head to find about nine pairs of eyes staring back at him.

    "Are you sleeping in the meeting?"

He jumped as he turned to his right to find the mean eyes of the CEO glaring back at him. The older man was looking serious as always.

Antoine sprang up to his feet.
    "No sir. I was just tired," a smile coiled in his lips.

    "You think this is funny?" Fabien Lapointe squinted his dark eyes. His beard, showing signs of greying, was neatly trimmed and he looked dashing in his two piece grey suit.

    Antoine shook his head. "No, sir."

    "Where are the files for the monthly transaction estimates?"

Antoine shuffled through the papers in front of him.

    "Here, sir."

Antoine watched Basil stretch his hand across him with the said documents.

Fabien snatched the papers. He gave Antoine one last threatening look before walking back to his seat, at the far opposite end of the table.

Antoine smirked. He hated when Basil showed off his secretarial skills especially in public.
    "I hate this job, did you know?" Antoine murmured.

    "I'm fully aware of that," Basil whispered back.

Fabien flipped through the pages of the file, his eyes quick to capture the important figures and signatures.

    "The reason we have this emergency meeting is because we did spend a lot on the electronic bills over the winter," the older man sitting beside him began.

    "How much was budgeted for that?" Fabien asked.

The man flipped through the files again.
    "Ten million. The major reason being that the food market created is collapsing. It dropped from the beginning and is continuously dropping. We can't continue paying bills when there is no significant growth," he reckoned.

The man was right. Continuous investment in the food sector without any positive profits could lead to a total breakdown of the business.

    "And who is responsible for the premium food market, Mister Guillaume?"

    "Antoine is in charge."

    Fabien faced Antoine. "You said that the premium food sector was created for the upper class?"

    "Yes."

    "How do you explain this collapse?"

    "I will increase the profit back up." Antoine gestured like it was a simple thing to do.

    "How do you plan on doing that?" Fabien cocked an eyebrow.

    "Sir, if I should suggest, we can -" Basil said. He made to stand.

    "I wasn't talking to you, Basil," Fabien cut in. "Antoine how will you get the profits back up?"

    "Trust me," Antoine said. He tapped his fingers nervously on the table avoiding the intense gaze from Fabien.

    "Trust?"

Fabien retorted. Angered by that word, his eyes blazed from its sockets. A man of few words with more action; but it seems Antoine has failed to realize this. He made himself clear in simple terms.

    "If you can't get the premium market sector out of this collapse stage in three months, I will shut it down. Do you understand?"

    "Yes Sir."

Fabien stamped the documents onto the table and stormed out of the boardroom. The other executives followed suit.

When they got out to the corridor, Antoine stopped and looked at his secretary.

    "Sorry," Basil whispered.

    "It's your fault. It was your suggestion," Antoine gestured. "That we open some premium market for the rich, now it's on the verge of collapse."

    Basil shook his head. "Have you been there just once to see how the market is fairing?"

Antoine hesitated. He made to speak but his hands hung in the air.

    "You haven't been there for once, have you?"

    "You expect me to go there? It's so stuffy and crowded," Antoine said. "I can't go."

    "Well, then, it will be shut down, remember."

    Antoine sighed. "I don't know what I ever did to this man. He hates me."

    "No, actually he wants you to learn."

    "Are you advising me now?"

    Basil adjusted the eye glasses on his nose. "No sir."

    Antoine blurted. "Just fix a date when we will visit the market. I'm just getting tired of the whole situation."

He had been a spoilt kid when his father, Alberte Lacroix was alive. Antoine had been a free man. He had no idea about maths, economics or business management. He only had access to cars, bank accounts and hotels.

When Fabien LaPointe took over, every access to property and cash was cut off. Antoine had to work before he gets paid. Lapointe had told him to create a business project he would run single handedly.

Basil, his secretary had suggested the premium market business which unfortunately was about to be shut down.

    "Here are the documents boss," Basil said.
  
    "You can have them," Antoine gritted his teeth and walked away.