“For you?” He sucked on his lower lip. “Maybe. But now that I’ve tasted the challenge, I’m afraid I won’t know how to quit. The woman will come to want me against all her better instincts. I’m already visualizing the moment.”
“So that’s your angle? You’re taking revenge on her for rejecting you? Is this going to become a new thing for you, Dane? Should I be worried?”
“How is that any different than your interminable war against Geraldo?” A smile played on his lips. “Think how satisfying it will be to see her fall all over me and humiliate herself as badly as I did back then.”
“So true love then?”
He snorted. “What would you know about that?”
Val laid her hand over her heart. “You wound me.”
“Is that a no?” He took a step back, and God help her, she wanted to follow him, she wanted to say yes.
She considered the lay of the land, the position of all her pieces. “I’ll tell you what. You capture your little rabbit, and then we’ll talk.”
He slid the crisp Benjamin from his pocket and dropped it on the tip plate. “Is that a wager?”
She shrugged. “Sure, if you like. You finish up your little game with Noelle. If you can bring her to her knees and walk away, destroyed as you intend, I’ll be all yours.”
She flashed a smile that radiated self-confidence and total control. She could appear aloof and uncaring. Whatever he did, it couldn’t bother her. Her smile communicated her power.
Dane moved toward her and bent so close she could feel his warm breath on her cheek. Her smile faltered, and without meaning to she leaned forward a half an inch into his space. His lips vibrated against her skin when he said, “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
When he turned and left, Val swallowed hard and sucked in a deep, shuddering breath.
Sophie,
Life is good. The interns all went out to this nearby restaurant and got a long table. We started out trying to converse as a group, each sharing a bit about where we were from and why we’d decided to intern at Fleetwood. But then everyone ordered a couple of drinks, and after a bit, we were talking in small intimate pairs or trios, and it was brilliant. Val was so smart to send us out like this to bond. I’m sure she knows the value of close personal relationships in the workplace.
And then . . . that cute boy Anthony took a chair next to me and asked me who I was hoping to intern with. I told him Dane of course, and he said he’d also wanted to work with Dane, so maybe we’ll be competing for the mentorship even before we’re fighting over who will be the best here. Speaking of that contest, one of the guys drank a bit too much and started boasting about how he had a stronger background than any of us and would easily win the job. I probably could have dropped my dad’s name, but I wonder if they’d assume I wasn’t capable of winning on my own merits. What do you think? I’m here because I’m smart enough, right? I don’t want to trade on my dad’s reputation alone.
Anyway, we ended up being asked to leave after a loud argument broke out. I hope Val isn’t mad at us.
How are your summer classes going? Make sure you have some fun. I highly recommend it.
Best,
Selena
The quarterly board meeting always came at an awkward time. Although Val’s presence wasn’t strictly required, she arranged for one of her new hires, Kyle, to take the interns through their first exposure to the bond trading software that would be their life for the next several days. They always grumbled about it, and she felt sorry for Kyle. He wasn’t getting paid to babysit and hold hands. But there was nothing she could do. If she skipped the board meeting, they’d forget she existed. She’d spent too much time gaining their trust to let it slip away.
None of the board members would actually fly out to this meeting. Val could have stayed at her desk and dialed in, but she made it a point to move down to the larger conference room where a webcam had been set up for the remote. She wanted to make sure she’d be seen. She rarely talked at these meetings except when there was something she wanted. She had a small sphere of influence, and she tried to use her power judiciously.
Since this was Noelle’s first official presentation, Val had extra incentive to attend to support their new local leader. It would consolidate Noelle’s trust in her as well.
Val entered the meeting room. Most of the chairs around the long table were already occupied. She secured one of the remaining seats near the end of the table since it would put her closer to Noelle, who sat at the head.
The screen lit up with a Powerpoint and a list of all the attendees who had dialed in. Maxwell Baker, Aloysius Holstein, Amy Waterson, Louis Beauchamp, and the rest of the old guard who owned the umbrella company that had purchased Fleetwood several years back. Since Fleetwood was so small and so different than their other holdings—and so profitable—they had left the company alone rather than try to force it into the larger group. The board still had the power to make big decisions, but they usually needed reasons. And they rarely turned their eyes on the company beyond these quarterly reviews—unless things were going bad. Like when the company suffered the publicly devastating loss of their CEO last quarter.
Things were going quite better now that the problem had been addressed, but the board was still skittish.
Fortunately, Noelle had recently quit her position at R&M, and the board had hired her based on Val’s strong recommendations, not realizing that Val was appraising her for qualities that didn’t appear on her resume.
Noelle smiled into the webcam as she called the meeting to order with a “Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for calling in.”
A small picture-in-picture flashed on the corner of the screen, and the board room displayed everyone present.
Noelle pressed the clicker, and the presentation began. Graphs showed the earnings for the prior quarter broken down by activity. Most of the revenue had come through brokering transactions for the day traders who used the software to make their own trades but relied on the added expertise of one of Fleetwood’s real-live consultants. But Fleetwood in turn made its own investments by buying and selling mortgages, trading in stock, and maximizing any other financial tool they could master. For a small Midwestern company, they could compete with many of the bigger New York City banks. And this was thanks in large part to the experience of the staff.
