“Soph, you should speak to Sonia,” said Jon abbreviating her name again and in turn annoying Steph once more.
“I hate to contradict you, Sophie.” Steph emphasised her full name. “But if you are tweaking and negotiating, you do not have the deal in the bag, so assuming this is one of the deals you are emailing me I would ask that you don’t close until I have had chance to give the figures the once over unless the tweaking and negotiating don’t relate to Brooker money, especially as you are so new to your role and the company.”
Jon sat back in his chair and watched the exchange carefully.
Sophie huffed and sighed loudly as she admitted, “They do want more money and a few more shares, but there is some flexibility in the deal for us to negotiate.”
“Of course there is, but we don’t want to use that flexibility unless we have to, do we?” asked Steph not expecting an answer.
“I for one don’t,” exclaimed Jon. “So ladies, you two are going to meet when?”
Steph pulled her diary out. “I can do this afternoon.”
Sophie flicked through the pages of her own diary. “Technically I can too, but . . .”
“But?” asked Jon.
“I may need time to prepare everything,” she admitted nervously.
“Don’t worry about it being all pretty and well presented for me,” said Steph. “Email me the same email you sent to Mr Brooker and bring the offer with you. We can go through it together and see what we can come up with.” With her professional persona back in place and the focus being on business, Steph was more tolerant of the other woman.
“Half past one?” asked Sophie.
“Yeah,” said Steph and pencilled it in her diary.
“Thanks, Sophie.”
Steph relaxed further that he hadn’t called her Soph again, but then he touched her arm and walked her to the door as Steph looked on.
He returned to the table. “You were scary.”
“Good, she needed to be scared. Fucking seasonal allergies? It is quite obvious that this face is one that has barely slept and cried in sleep’s place for over a week!” she snarled making Jon stare at her sadly and concerned.
“Steph, I am so sorry,” he said again before she held her arm up and stopped him.
“Not here and not now, and you need to stop apologising too,” she told him. “I have Rosie calling SuLyn to make an appointment for her to come in and see me so can I have the details of Brooker’s donations to her research?”
“Yeah, I’ll call Lucy when I get back to my office,” he replied and then looked uncomfortable at the mention of Lucy’s name and what she had represented between them. “How’s your dad?” asked Jon trying to change the subject.
“Okay, thanks. Smug that he knew there was something less than kosher about you,” she replied. “He’s relieved to be home and out of the hospital,” she added, then remembered her last visit there when she had tried to gate crash the ward after leaving Jon, something she assumed he was unaware of.
“Maybe we could meet later and have dinner,” Jon suggested.
“Sounds good.”
“I’d like to pop into your office later, to see how you are. I know we can’t just forget everything, but if we’re going to move past it I’d like to get a degree of normality back,” he almost pleaded.
“I’ll be free from half past three, that should give me enough time to sort out Sophie’s deal,” she said and got to her feet to gather her things and leave.
She had just got to the door when Jon said, “I know I am an idiot Steph, but I really do love you, darling.”
She turned to face him and offered him a nod and a smile. “And as I told you earlier I love you too. Oh, I emailed my leave request to you this morning,” she said and left him alone in the conference room.
Eighteen
Steph had returned to her office and immediately began to go over the Richards file again and after a couple of calls and some very specific online searches she knew that Jon had been right when he had thought that Richards were more desperate for the deal to go through than they had claimed. She then checked her emails and was pleased to see one from Sophie with details of the new deals due to close. She called Sonia Hansen and invited her to meet with her and Sophie that afternoon along with the accountant. Rosie had arranged for SuLyn to come in later in the week and Jon had called to say that he had passed her number onto Lucy. Steph was surprised when Rosie knocked on the door carrying more yellow roses, these were in a more elaborate arrangement though.
“Where would you like them?” asked Rosie.
