As I watched Chloe and Nina ooh and ahh over their purchases while I waited for the elevator, I felt a small smile creep onto my face. I immediately stamped it down. This sight should not inspire cheer, Christmas or otherwise. Chloe had spent what looked like thousands of dollars on decorations. That was money I shouldn't be throwing at Frost Tower.
I knew that financially the best decision was to cut my losses and find a buyer for the tower. Though it was illogical, I didn't want to give up, and a part of me hoped Chloe's Christmas magic worked. I hated losing, and signing away the tower felt like admitting defeat.
When I returned to the penthouse, I forced myself to prep for the morning meeting with Svensson Investment. They were partial owners in Frost Tower, and they were not pleased with the performance of their investment.
* * *
The next morning,I took the subway to the Svensson Investment tower. I knew this was not going to be a pleasant meeting.
"There's our Christmas-baking-loving judge!" Liam Svensson, my Platinum Provisions cofounder, said when I walked into the lobby of the Svensson Investment tower. He threw an arm around my shoulders.
"You really are grasping at candy canes," he said jovially, "if you're judging a baking competition to try and convince my brothers not to force you to sell that tower."
"I just need a few more months," I told him. "I don't want to lose. I don't want that black mark on my resume."
"Who cares if Frost Tower goes under?" Liam said. "It's the real estate business. These things happen."
"It's my first real estate venture," I told him. "I can't fail on my first try."
"Everyone fails their first real estate venture," he said as the elevator door opened. "When I was eighteen, I bought this car wash, and it hemorrhaged money. I finally burned it down. It was a complete disaster. "
"Yes, but this is a skyscraper that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build. There is already an uncomfortably long section on my Wikipedia page about what a failure it is," I told him.
The elevator for the top floor pinged. I tried to steel myself.
"You should move to Frost Tower," I told Liam.
"I'm living rent free in one of my brother's condo towers," he said. "And the rest of my brothers are there. Besides, Frost Tower doesn't even have a restaurant. What would I eat? I would starve."
He must have seen the dejection I was trying to hide.
"I'll see if we can't convince them to keep your tower on life support for another quarter," Liam said, clapping me on the shoulder. "But my brothers are going to want results soon."
"I know," I said. "I should have stuck to the industry I excel at—making products people can buy and use. Real estate is nothing but dark magic."
Walking into the large boardroom at Svenssons felt like going to a funeral. There were two broad-shouldered blond men, spitting images of Liam, seated at the table, and they did not look happy.
Greg Svensson stood from his place at the head of the table and came over to me to shake my hand.
"You smell like frosting," he remarked.
"It’sTheGreat Christmas Bake-Off," I explained. "It permeates the air."
"I don't care about the bake-off," Greg said, sitting back down. Carl, Greg and Liam's other brother, tapped at his tablet. A screen descended from the ceiling, and the lights dimmed.
"As you know," Carl began, "I handle a large portion of Svensson Investment's real estate portfolio."
A graph popped up on the screen.
"Your tower is our worst-performing asset," he said. "By quite a large margin."
"I know," I said through gritted teeth. It was like a punch in the gut to see such low numbers on the screen.
"There is an eighty-seven percent vacancy," Carl said. "The tenants you promised to deliver never materialized—"
"The financial technology firm that was going to lease several floors the building is having difficulties right now," I said, cutting him off. "The Securities and Exchange Commission has them under investigation, and the senior leadership is probably all going to prison. Our other big tenant declared bankruptcy because they were defrauding their investors. That's hardly my fault. It's just one of those things. I promise I'll find more tenants, better tenants."
Greg looked at me steely-eyed.
