Outside of the front gate in the courtyard, between the palace and the town of Monaco Ville on the headlands, the docent led them to a statue of an evil-looking monk holding a knife. He said, “May I presentIl Malizia,the first Grimaldi ruler of Monaco.”
Colleen stared up at the statue, and she instinctively reached out and grabbed Tristan’s hand. He held on. “He looks kind of mad.”
The docent assured her, “He was not mad, this Italian Lord of Genoa, but he might’ve been a little crazy. His nickname,Il Malizia,means The Malicious One. On the evening of January 8, 1297, Francois Grimaldi disguised himself in the robes of a monk and begged the guards for shelter for the night at the fortress in Monaco. He finally convinced the unwitting guard that he was a poor, humble man of God, and the guard took pity on him and opened the gate.”
Colleen gestured at the statue. “He’s holding a knife.”
“Yes, indeed, and he slaughtered the guards and opened the gates of the fortress for his men, and that was how the Grimaldi conquered Monaco.”
“You always think ofconqueringas, like, riding into the glorious battle on a white horse.”
The docent chuckled. “Not like slitting the throat of an easily manipulated guard in the dead of night? He is as much a myth as he is a metaphor for Monaco. We are small and few, but we could conquer the world if we wanted to, for we areIl Malizia!”
In the afternoon, Tristan showed Colleen the small “old town” of Monaco Ville, where winding medieval streets were lined with terra-cotta and ochre rowhouses. A park ran around the edge of the cliff that overlooked the harbor.
He said, “You can see why the fortress’s position was so important. From right there,” he gestured back at the palace a few blocks away, “the fortress could use the canons we saw to defend the harbor from any ship that sailed into it. If you held that fortress, you could hold the harbor forever. You can see the gray stone parts of the original fortress that were integrated into the Italian palazzo-style castle they built around it.”
The warm sea breeze tossed Colleen’s hair around her face, and she tried to hold it back with both her hands. “This is all amazing. I’m having such a great time.”
He stepped closer to her and ran his hands down her upper arms. “I’m having a great time, too.”
“When people aren’t trying to kidnap our friends or us, you plan the most amazing dates.”
With that, Tristan grinned and even rolled his eyes so that he looked out on the ocean instead of at her. His grin seemed like more than just happiness, more like she’d given him a gift. “I’m so glad you think so.”
The breeze blew from the sapphire sea, over the rock parapet around the edge of the cliffs, and through the parks and towns where people were chattering and laughing. “This is all just amazing.”
“I have a proposal for you,” he said.
Even though she really liked him, and even though shemuch morethan really liked him, she couldn’t fathom anything like thatyet.“Um, Tristan, we’ve only known each other for twelve days.”
He chuckled. “Not that kind of a proposal. It’s more of a proposition.”
She laughed. “Oh, you know I already said yes to your proposition that Saturday night at the Devilhouse almost two weeks ago.”
“It’s more of a business proposition.”
Well, that was new. “I’m all ears.”
“After the dividend went out this morning, I seem to have purchased a rather large amount of GameShack stock.”
“Well, yeah. I’ll bet a bunch of people took you up on that offer.”
“Including my holdings, I now own sixty-three percent of all GameShack stock, which makes me the legal owner with the power to vote anybody I want in or out as the CEO or the board.”
“Okay, that’s cool.”
“You had a lot of good ideas about how to make GameShack a profitable company, and I trust you to implement them ethically rather than just slash and burn and pillage it for whatever profitable parts are left.”
“Well, of course.”
“I don’t know what your plans are, but you can’t start university classes for another six weeks or so for fall semester. Would you like to be the CEO of GameShack and set the company off on a good track? You can do it for just six weeks, or you can take a semester or a year more off from university and take the helm for as long as you want.”
Colleen blinked as her mind fluttered around, trying to process that. “You want me to be the CEO?”
He nodded. “With commensurate salary, stock options, a corporate jet, and golden parachute when you decide to go back to college.”
“Holy crap,Tristan.”
