I’m quiet for a minute.
Then— “Fuck, Oli— Stevenson. You slept with her.”
“Is there really a Stevenson? Is your assistant listening in? Are you going to bring about another man’s divorce right now?”
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“That she’s single, I’m single, she’s never going back to Manhattan, I’m never going back to New York, and she’s…fun.”
“I’m all in favor of fun, but dude, there are lines.”
“I’m not getting back together with Margot. Actually—can you do some snooping for me? Find out if her father’s plotting some kind of takeover of M2G? Don’t care for my sake. I think it’d make Daphne feel better to know Margot only wants me now for my company.”
“Lines andbad ideas.”
“Daph doesn’t want my money.”
He snorts.
I growl.
“Bad. Ideas,” he repeats.
I’m aware he’s trying to look out for me. Dude’s been the best friend I desperately needed.
But this subject is off-limits.
“You see my parents?” I ask him.
The grunt that comes through the phone isn’t exactly what I want to hear either. “Hold on.” The treadmill stops. A door shuts.
Then another door.
“Not in person, but I know they were at Kenniston’s last night. Rumor has it your dad’s expecting you to back his bid to get back into the CEO spot.”
“You still ready?”
“Cannot wait. Though I think you need to give Carmen a heads-up.”
He’s standing in for me at the board of directors meeting in a week and a half. Acting as my proxy to hand over my resignation and pass along my recommendation for the next CEO, and then he’ll be my proxy again at the subsequent shareholder meeting to confirm the board’s choice for the next CEO.
And then he’s helping me divest my M2G shares once I no longer need them to vote.
“She’ll be in. She’s said as much without saying as much.”
“You’re all the way off your itinerary now?” he asks me.
“Completely.”
“The end goal…”
“Still the same.”
“Solo?”
“Yes.” It’s what he wants to hear, even if I’m hesitating in my mind.
Stupid, I know.
