Penny
Ihad just stuffed the last bite of my donut Danish (I really needed to cut back!) into my mouth when Garrett's brother said that. He and his brothers looked at me expectantly. I chugged my coffee then promptly choked on it. Garrett patted me twice on the back. His touch shot straight through me down to my pumpkin patch.
Geez, Penny, get it together.
The truth was, I wasn't really prepared to present anything. I had a few notes on my phone, but thankfully my friend had sent me the files on Sebastian the night before. There were tons of good personality information. In gratitude, I had promised my friend a three-tiered raspberry-chocolate cake. I would sure have liked a slice of that cake right about then.
"I can give you a rundown," I rasped, "if you'd like."
"Five minutes," Hunter said.
I skimmed through the files again while chugging the rest of my pumpkin-spice cheesecake latte. Next time, I was ordering two of them. I needed it if presenting to Garrett and his brothers was going to be a regular occurrence.
Bronwyn was waiting when we walked into the glass-enclosed conference room. Mace and Parker were already there. She had her various charts and graphs up on the screen. From what I could tell, they were all about how much money Thalian Biotech and Sebastian as the owner and majority shareholder would make.
Bronwyn turned up her nose when she saw me. "I thought this was supposed to be a confidential project."
Then why was she blabbing to her friend on the phone about it?
"Penny has apparently been putting together a dossier on Sebastian," Hunter said. He still sounded skeptical.
"I doubt it's as thorough as the one I made," Bronwyn said triumphantly.
I knew she was hiding information from me.
"Let's hear it," Garrett said, sitting at one of the chrome-and-leather chairs. "We need to know everything there is to know about Sebastian."
Bronwyn pulled up a profile on the screen. "Sebastian is very impressive, but not as impressive as you, of course, Garrett," she said with a laugh.
I was satisfied to see that Garrett's expression remained neutral.
"Sebastian went to Stanford and started his company five years ago," Bronwyn continued. "Based on his TechCrunch interview, he's very into exercise and technology. He likes to read biographies and wakes up early to work out. He also takes care of his younger half brother, so I know he'll be glad to see how much money he can make for his family. I have several graphs showing how much money he's going to earn with this acquisition." She looked smug.
"That’s it?" I scoffed.
"No," Bronwyn said in annoyance. "He also likes dogs."
"That’s not a character profile. You just read his Wikipedia page!" I yelled at her.
Garrett looked between us. "What information do you have, Penny?"
Annoyance at Bronwyn gave me a boost of confidence as I walked up to the front of the room and not-so-subtly pushed her aside. "Sebastian is a billionaire and a CEO, yes. He also has a half brother. These facts tell us literally nothing about him."
Bronwyn glared at me.
"Let me tell you about who Sebastian really is," I said, staring at Garrett and his brothers. "He's a man that cares about his family, about his quality of life. He also cares about his employees. This goes beyond money, though that is important for him. He wants to leave a legacy; he wants to make a difference. Did you know that when he started the company back in college, Sebastian had an opportunity to start a generic social media company that would have probably been able to sell to Facebook for a billion after a couple of years? Instead, he took the more difficult path, because he believed the world needed people to do something crazy, to really push the boundaries."
Hunter and Mace were nodding along with what I was saying.
"Did you know Sebastian is very much a person tied to the idea ofplace? He's from upstate New York. On holidays, he always goes home. He believes in work-life balance and achieves it by hiring talented people and then trusting them to do their jobs. He wants to be involved with his little brother and not just be a shadowy ATM. When we sell Svensson PharmaTech to him, we're also selling Harrogate. We're selling the small-town culture."
Garrett looked at me blankly.
"So in conclusion," I said, "you all should host a Halloween party, preferably at the Svensson estate."
Garrett's mouth clamped down in a thin line. "Never."
I pulled out my phone and showed them a picture of Sebastian and his little brother on his Instagram account. "You guys have a lot in common. Sebastian really likes kids and would appreciate our town. It’s very family friendly."
