“Are your offices like this?” I ask, glancing out the windows at the city.
He rolls his eyes. “No, we’re in a single story building and there’s a lot of dark green and burgundy in the common spaces. I’m old-fashioned, as Crawford has no doubt told you. I’m sure all the young men who work for me would much prefer his style to mine. I’m a dinosaur, really, that’s why I’m selling. New blood. New vision. That’s what we need… apparently.”
“You don’t seem all that happy about it,” I say, before I can bite the words back, and his eyes sharpen.
He stares at me for a long time, and I swallow, realizing how this could look.
“Sorry,” I say hurriedly. “This isn’t some kind of setup. Crawford asked me to make you a coffee, not pepper you with questions. It’s just… I was in the meeting the other day. You didn’t seem enthusiastic about the sale.”
Barnes places his mug down beside him and leans forward.
“My son, who bought me this tie, is employed at my company. So is my daughter; she’s about your age. I know Crawford thinks I’m crazy for wanting to give them three years of security, but I need to know my family is protected. He has a vision for what he wants to do, and I wouldn’t be selling to him if I didn’t think he’d make us a profit in the future. But ruthlessness is in his blood.”
He pauses, as if waiting for me to refute that, but I stay quiet.
“Crawford is buying us out because we havepotential. But with potential comes greed,” Barnes continues. “I suppose there’s a part of me that feels as if I’m giving up on my family, my employees. That once I’m gone, everything I’ve built will come crashing down.”
He sighs, leaning back in his chair, and there’s a ring of truth in what he says. He appears to have genuinely opened up to me, which I wasn’t expecting.
I nod, placing my own mug beside his. It’s very quiet in the office, as if it’s just the two of us in the whole building.
“Family is important,” I say solemnly. “My sister is my whole life. I know what it’s like to choose between long-term and short-term gain. All I will say is that I believe Mr. Crawford wants the best for your company. He may be ruthless, but he recognizes what you’re offering. He’s talked about trying to save as many jobs as he can. I don’t think he’s being dishonest about that.”
I rise, smoothing down my skirt as I hear my phone ringing at my desk.
“Tell him what you want,” I say firmly. “What youreallywant. If all restraints were lifted, how would you move forward? He isn’t an unreasonable man, and I think he’d rather listen than argue.”
Barnes rises from his chair, and he holds out a hand to me.
“What did you have to choose between?” he asks as I shake it.
“For what?”
“You said you know what it’s like to choose between long and short-term gain. Was that about your family?”
I wonder if he’s asking to be polite, but the same fierce focus remains in his eyes as I find myself speaking before I think about what I’m about to say.
“I’m moving my younger sister away from my parents. They love her in their way, and in the short term, it’s easier. But long-term, they’re not going to help us move on in life. She’s better off without them. It’s hard, but it’s for the best. If you don’t mind me saying so, Mr. Barnes, it seems to me that you have the opposite choice to make.”
I shake his hand, walking out of the office to answer the phone.
I wonder if I shouldn’t have said anything, or if Crawford will be furious with me for overstepping my bounds as an EA. But there was a light in Barnes’s eyes when I left the room that wasn’t there before.
Maybe some of what I said got through.
Chapter 28
Lucas
Fuck. I’m forty minutes late.
After being hit with all that fog on the way back, my pilot had to land for thirty minutes before we could take off again. I can’t believe my bad luck. This is the first time I’ve been able to speak to Barnes one-on-one in the last few weeks, and now I’ve missed over half the allotted meeting time.
I’m jogging as I get out of the elevator, waving Beatrice off as she approaches me with a thousand questions. I head immediately to the partition between Amelia’s desk and the rest of the office.
Tugging at my tie, I stop beside Amelia’s desk, hearing laughter coming from my office.
I enter to find Barnes and Amelia standing by the window, with Amelia pointing at something ahead of them. Barnes is laughing at whatever she has just said, their shoulders brushing as she continues to talk.
