Hiding from Mr. Billionaire

30 Be The Man

She felt eyes on her all around.

There was an elderly fat man with broad shoulders and pepper hair. He had freckles and wrinkles that bore deep into his forehead as he analyzed Vivian from head to toe. His bold, gray brows scrunched together with a strict facial expression. She gulped. The goosebumps crawled up on her skin when he slowly rose from his chair.

"Hey Jasper," he walked up to Jasper with a cigar steadily placed behind his fingers. "We were just talking about you, say, is it true what you did to Reuben?"

Jasper gave him a slight nod. "You won't be let from by this young man right here, Mr. Crawford. He's an outsider that comes with a special talent."

"Ah!" he turned to Vivian in awe. "and who are you?"

"Mr. Smith," she said hesitantly.

"Mr. Smith you say, there's a lot of those in this town. Intrigue me, boy. What makes you different from the rest of em Smiths?"

"I'm from Charleston," Vivian said awkwardly. "I handle business in er- finances."

"finances ey?" he asked. "You look young, you must be super smart to be with a lot of old men so young. Sorry, I meant, to be above us all. Especially coming from a small place. Mind if I ask you a question or two?"

Vivian eyed Jasper with the upmost nervousness. Jasper glared darts at her in return, as if he were to say, 'don't mess this up'. Vivian nodded her head hesitantly.

"Tell me, how to you connect the amount of buyers to a certain product that's sold? I've been meaning to ask what's a good range to aim for and what's practically out of the ball park. You see, I've been trying to grow my business, more- but it seems to have slowed down this month. Tell me financial genius, hat can I do to up the amount of money coming in?" 

In the moment Vivian's head went blank. All her years of teaching and acting in order to please the man definitely did not involve personal fiance questions. There was none of that in the lady's handbook she had at home. And being smart definitely wasn't a requirement on her part.

Drat.

She didn't know what to do.

Vivian glanced at Jasper once more, who remained silent in hopelessness.

"I-I," she stuttered.

The older man learned forward, his oily ear nearing her mouth. "What was that? I couldn't hear you."

"Vivian. You and your education, my, I wish I had the same mindset as you, I really do. You're literate, determined, beautiful. A woman with our same income could only dare dream to have half of the pursuits as you. But face the reality of it, Vivian, upsetting this man holds dear consequences to you and your standing." Ruby's words from the ball echoed in her head like a two story stair well to hell.

"I think you should tally up the marks and keep track of your records," Vivian said, straightening herself. "Have a built in system, you know, like a sheet of paper to keep track of what everyone's buying. As far a growth goes, find what the consumers want and evolve the product into something bigger and better. I'm sure something as simple as that will increase spending."

The elderly man leaned back and ruffled his mustache. In an instant his expression changed. "A little beginner lesson I see? you think I'm stupid, aye?"

Vivian froze. "I-I didn't mean to insult you, I-I wasn't, I just thought-"

"You thought you'd insult my intelligence by giving me foundation," he snarled. "Haven't you gone to school, Mr. Smith, haven't you learnt anything about the statistics of things?"

"Statistics?" Vivian questioned.

"Don't play dumb with me, you know what I mean."

"That's quite enough." Jasper frowned. "You asked, the gentleman delivered. Let it go Mr. Crawford, let it go." 

"Mr. Wright -"

"You've been a great father figure to me Mr. Crawford, as well as a good friend to my father. It'd pain me to have to fire you for ill mannered treatment among new head figures. And we wouldn't want that now, wouldn't we?"

Mr. Crawford stepped back at Jasper's threatening glare and nodded his head in understand. "My apologies, sir. I didn't mean to question my role in this company I-" His blue eyes flickered to Vivian. "I was only saying what was on my mind. Surely someone of your statue could understand?"

Vivian gave him a sore look. The anger boiling inside her. "You know there is a saying, if you have nothing nice to say then don't say it at all. Especially if you know nothing about me."

She brushed past the old man angrily and Jasper smiled and bid him a nice day, heading toward the front of the room where an angry looking Reuben sat.

Vivian felt a warn hand pressed against her shoulder and she stiffened.

"I'm impressed," Jasper snickered. "Keep it up and I just might begin to like you."

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A/N - *NOT EDITED* sorry for mistakes. None of my chapters are edited and I'm just getting back into the groove of writing. Had a three day writing discouragement period. Ugh, it sucks. I lack motivation to do anything sometimes. I have a Physics final online tomorrow so I'm nervous as hell. I'm ready to be done with physics, merely for the fact that I don't have enough common sense to compensate for my stupidity. Anyway, please vote and comment if you like the story. Love you all ! (;