Team Victor: A GoldmAnna Fic

Chapter 7: Goldman

Friday

"Goldman. GOLDMAN!"

"Yes! Sorry, um, what were you saying?" Glen had been staring out the window while letting ink flow out of the Rollerball pen onto the steno pad.

"Are you paying attention at all?" Victor leaned against his desk, his sterner than usual frown pulled Glen back to reality.

"Sorry, I uh, I guess I'm a little distracted."

"Get it together. You aren't of any use to me like this."

Glen sat up straight in the chair in front of Victor's desk. "I will, sorry, what were you saying again?"

"Is this about a woman?"

"What?"

"Woman problems. You look like a guy that's got woman problems."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess."

"So, fix it. It's no excuse to waste time here."

"I don't really know how to fix it."

"Try being direct with her."

"I tried that. She's not interested."

Victor scoffed. "Seems like she is."

"Who?"

"Anna Huang."

"You knew?"

"Everybody on the LFG board of directors knows. Did you think we didn't notice your footsie sessions during the meetings with Miracle Finder?"

Glen felt his ears heat. "Oh."

"Plus, you know there's a video camera in the elevator, right? Security thought I'd like to see the video. I told them not to waste my time with any more crap like that."

"Oh my God." Glen put his forehead in his hands.

"It's not a big deal." Victor sneered, "I didn't watch it. I don't have time to care about stuff like that. As long as you get everything done that you need to get done, and now whatever your woman-problem is has become my problem."

"Right. I'm sorry, sir."

Victor sat down behind his desk and folded his hands. "Were those I'm sorry flowers or let's get serious flowers?"

"The second one." Wait, what? Glen couldn't stop rubbing his face in embarrassment. "You . . . . knew about the flowers?" Glen wanted to curl up under his desk.

"You've been dating her how long?"

"Dating is not the right word. Just. Physical."

Victor looked off to the side and dropped his voice to a casual tone. "Uh, yeah, I got it. So you tried to up the ante."

"Yeah."

"Now, I don't know a whole lot about Anna Huang, but what I do know is that she isn't the flowers and romance on a river cruise type."

"HOW did you know about the flowers?"

"You are not in the habit of planning my entertainment for me, and I wasn't sure until after I spoke to you yesterday, and the cruise line sent me a confirmation email about the changes in the bookings. Then I saw how it was expensed on the report back to your credit card. Expensive trip. Expensive flowers. Next time, don't forget to write a card with your flowers."

"I did! And they were, expensive yes." Glen had hoped Victor wouldn't notice the expense report

"I allowed you to save face yesterday, by letting the mix up, however it happened, stand as it was. This works out much better for everyone involved. Ms. Huang would have declined, and you would have been out the first payment on a non refundable trip. I'm no expert, but maybe you should start a little slower."

Glen flashbacked to table top sex in his mind. "I'm not so sure."

"Ms. Huang and I have a mutual business acquaintance. He's a real jackass. Anyway, according to him, and this was a while back, she likes a pool-hall dive-bar and a cold beer."

What Victor had just said did not compute. "Really? Anna?"

"That's the impression I got from him, yes."

Glen stayed quiet for a moment, thinking about Anna saying she wasn't the dating type. And then he just said, "Oh. That might help. Thanks." But he didn't think it would.

"Good. Now, pay attention. We were going over the details for the CloudBlue purchase. I just scheduled a dinner meeting with their CEO for tonight at 7. I need you there. I'll text you the address. Should look like a house. Food should be pretty good. Dress casual, I want to keep this laid back. No neckties - I don't want to scare him off. Don't be late."

"I'll be there." Oh, great. Now Glen had to work tonight too. All he wanted to do was go home and mope with his cat. But if Victor said the food was going to be good, at least it was going to be amazing.

*Scroll on to Chapter 8*