The Arrangement

Chapter One: The Meeting

When you're a younger, female CEO, you tend to have to try harder to get respect from people.  Whether they're CEOs or CFOs of other businesses or they're your own employees.

The only solution to that problem is to run your business with an iron fist and to keep relationships of any kind (friend-wise or date-wise) out of business, and I found it better if you just cut the useless, relationship aspect out of your life completely.

When I was younger, I used to adore the thought of growing up, getting married, and having children to love.  I would daydream about my made up future family and set incredibly high expectations for the man I would marry.  He'd be sweet and funny, and he'd be passionate.  Eventually I realized that if I'd ever met a guy who was rare enough to meet all of my expectations, he'd never settle for me anyway, so I just gave up on that dream instead of deciding to settle for a guy that wasn't my dream guy.

Well, I also gave up on the dream because I was taking over as CEO for my father's business.  At least, that's what I told anybody who asked about when I was going to settle down and start a family.  I just never had the energy to explain to people that my dreams required a much better person to replace me.

I pushed away all thoughts that didn't belong in business before stepping onto the elevator and pushing the button that led to the floor that my office was on.  The elevator lurched upward, but I didn't even rock the slightest bit.  It stopped, and I stepped out of the elevator, my black heels clicking on the flooring as I walked towards my office.  Everyone was rushing to get out of my way, but I tried to ignore it.

"Where's my coffee?" I asked my executive assistant, Pandora, as I walked past her desk and into my office.  She stood and followed me in.

"The new intern should be bringing it any moment," she informed me.

"It's only their first day, and they're already not doing well here," I commented as I picked my mail up from my keyboard.

"Well, he's just adjusting, Ms. Smith," Pandora attempted.  I gave her a look. "You have meetings at ten, noon, and six thirty today, Ms. Smith."

I nodded.

The door to my office swung open, and a guy walked in with my coffee.  He handed it to me, and I took a sip.

"I'll give you one more chance, but if I don't have my coffee in my hand the second I step off the elevator tomorrow morning, you're fired," I said. "Capische?"

The intern nodded.  I waved him away and took another sip of my coffee.

"Email me my schedule, Pandora," I said, sitting down and scooting into the desk.

"Yes, Ma'am," she said before hurrying out of my office, her heels clicking as she retreated.  I started my computer and went to my inbox to look over my schedule.

Once I knew that I had the first hour free, I began to fill out forms and answer emails.  I reminded the different branches of their sales reports that are due soon.

My phone rang, and I lifted it to my ear.

"Mr. Donaldson is here," Pandora informed.

"Send him in," I replied before placing the phone back on the hook.

The meeting took longer than I expected it to since Mr. Donaldson was older and felt strongly that I was not fit to run my father's business, so it took a bit longer to get the answers to my questions.