“Because you’re married,” Tomas chimed in.
“I admit it’s not great,” Allan added. “But can’t we just shuffle the deck again? Have Marcie take him when she gets back?”
“Actually,” Marcie said, “I’d like to discuss what’s going to happen when I get back.”
“Go on,” Bill said.
“I think it’s time that we supported our women athletes in the same way that we support the men. Miss Markham and I would like to work more closely with female athletes, but the compensation opportunities are lower there. In an effort to close the compensation gap, we’d like to have a division of Athlore dedicated to female athletes, and have it supplemented by the male division.”
Bill rubbed his lips together and dropped his chin to his chest. “This is a noble cause, Marcie, but it doesn’t make financial sense.”
“With all due respect,” I started, fully knowing that the phrase usually incurs no respect whatsoever, “if we’re ever going to have a world where women are paid equally to men, we need to set an example ourselves. We’d also hope to recruit more female agents to give more visibility to women in the industry. This could be great for PR and for sports on the whole.”
“Do you have some numbers for us to look at?” Dev asked.
“I do,” I said, distributing some papers I’d spent the morning printing.
“How are we paying for this?” Bill asked. “Where does the money come from?”
“We have investors,” Marcie said with a grin. “From some of our current clients. But they would also have a hand in recruiting, so they’d get a cut. We’d be taking on the finest athletes, driving up their pay and thereby raising the industry standard.”
“And what happens if I don’t agree? You have to have a unanimous vote for something like this,” Bill said.
“Then you can accept my and Miss Markham’s resignation,” Marcie said, her demeanor soft but confident.
Heat flared in Bill’s cheeks. “You won’t be able to get any clients. The non-compete—”
“Applies to this immediate geographic area. But I’m still well-connected in Tennessee and have someone at the ready to file the business license there.” It was a bit of a balk. I’d called Rogerthe night before with my tail between my legs, asking him for a favor. He agreed that he owed me one, and said he’d register the business in Tennessee if we needed it. He also offered to back us. So had Guy and Kitty.
Bill tossed the projections on the table, disgusted. “Marcie, why are you aligning with her? She’s been sleeping around with a client half her age. If I did the same—”
I bristled. “Nick is young, but he’s not thirteen, Bill.”
Marcie put a hand out to stop me from running my mouth.
“Miss Markham is excellent at what she does,” Marcie said plainly.
“She lost a major new prospect!” Bill cried.
“Big deal,” Dev said. “We all lose them sometimes. Would you rather Annie and Marcie be our competition or on our team?”
I felt unbelievably gassed up by how much Dev was going to bat for me. I had no idea he cared enough.
“How do we know she’s not going to do this again?” Bill said.
I didn’t love them talking like I wasn’t there, but Marcie gave me a calming glance. “Everyone in this room knows that Miss Markham mixing business and pleasure isn’t great, but it shouldn’t be a reason to lose a fantastic asset. To lose both of us, Bill. I’d like to make Annie partner here and move ahead with this initiative. We’re giving you, and the rest of the partners, first right of refusal before we make our own moves.”
“It’s not first right of refusal. It’s an ultimatum!” Bill said.
At that moment, the door to the conference room swung open. There stood Nick, panting in a suit with Retha on his heels.
“He just came back here,” Retha said, looking bewildered.
“Hi, Nick,” Dev said with a chuckle.
Nick looked over all of us, cleared his throat, and pulled a crumpled paper out of his pocket. He unraveled it, giving me a quick glance before he launched into reading it aloud.
“Hello, Mr. Anderson, everyone. I wanted to talk to you about your concerns over Paxton Marshall and Annie Markham. I, uh,”he held up the paper, “wrote it down so I made sure I said it right.”
