Jason and Jade left us two days later to go back to New York. I had been getting way too many emails to manage everything remotely within the 3 days we had been in Germany, I shuddered to think what would the state be when I would go back. It was one of the reasons I couldn't wait for Thea's plan to get into motion. Working remotely would become a piece of cake if she allowed me to extend the usages beyond schools to offices and other establishments. In my absence, Jason could look after at least some of the work, and well... he'd be away from Thea.
I couldn't help the surge of annoyance rise up in me when he made a whole display of hugging her while leaving, and my words to Thea seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Or maybe she enjoyed riling me up again. Whatever the case may be, I would be better off not knowing the full nature of their relationship, but at the very least they could keep things professional when around others.
Like you know the boundaries of personal and professional.
I grimaced. From the second I'd stepped into her house I had crossed all my boundaries and thrown my rule book out of the window. No matter how much I wanted to convince myself that I had a good cause and a reason for my actions, I knew that my mind was muddled in ways that Thea couldn't even begin to imagine. A precisely good reason to push away whatever was brewing in my head: Thea didn't feel the same way. I saw it in the way she was always more comfortable around Jason, joking, hugging, fucking sunbathing...
That had been my personal hell. Thea wasn't carrying any swimwear with her, and she had to borrow something from Jade, which wasn't exactly ideal considering Thea had a more filled out chest than Jade, and the small damn triangles of fabric weren't exactly doing a lot of hiding as they were supposed to. She'd sat with Jason and drank and laughed and rubbed lotion on his back, while I had sat at the bar and tried to keep my eyes off her. But now Jason was gone and Thea was pouting the whole flight to Marseilles, and the next morning too as we headed for our first meeting on the schedule.
"It won't kill you to look a little alive," I told her as she continued glaring at me instead of absorbing the view of the beautiful city in front of her.
"Lead by example." She tossed a fake smile my way, and I sighed. Back to square one. It's always one step forward and then ten steps backwards with her, and often I was too lost to understand what page we both were on. At this point, maybe we weren't even reading the same book. We arrived at Schneider Electric's office a few minutes later, greeted by two men I'd never met before in my life. They were kind enough to arrange for a translator for Thea and Monica, saving me the trouble of doing the job for them.
"You speak French?" Thea whispered as we walked with the two men into the building, immediately noticing the hushed whispers falling down. The French weren't loud by any means, and I lowered my voice to match the environment, "Elective in school and then a lot of business here."
And there was that face again. My kryptonite. I'd not found the right word for that expression yet, but Thea's eyes would go wide, a huge smile on her face, the dimple in full prominence. It was somewhere between fascination and adoration, but the only reason why I hadn't figured it out was that she did not adore me, nor was she by any means impressed by anything I did. Whatever on earth that was, it was enough to make my blood rush, and I cleared my throat, looking away to avoid getting fixated on that.
Anyone who wanted green on the walls of their office belonged to a psychiatric ward as far as I was concerned. Thea was charmed, as I expected, unbuttoning her blazer with two fingers swiftly before taking a seat. I'd be lying if the action didn't cause me to grit my teeth, because she'd done it the same way I do it, which meant she'd observed it multiple times and copied the action.
Because she's getting paid to observe you. It's her job description.
One of the several advantages of knowing French was that negotiating was a lot easier when you could almost hear and lip-read their internal conversations. Too deep into the meeting I realised that these people were speaking an entirely different language while they spoke to each other, some South Asian language if their complexion was anything to go by, and the translator they had provided was as white as mayonnaise.
I was annoyed.
As I waited for their offer to come, I felt a nudge on my leg, Thea looking at my crotch where a crumpled paper lay. When did that get here? Appearing disinterested in their conversation, I tried to open up the ball with as much care as possible. This felt childish, juvenile, to be passing notes while the teacher explained some important concept, something I'd never experienced before. How ironic to be receiving the first of these at 32, from Thea, of all people.
Hoping 30% minimum
Expecting 45%
I presumed her knowledge came from staying with those neighbours all that time ago. I wanted to laugh. Fat chance they'd be getting any of it at this rate. I kept turning to Thea as negotiations progressed, starting at 50% share in profits, which was a ridiculous and terribly stupid statement to make, and lowering to 35%.
"They want to put us on hold to find someone else to run the ship with them" Thea whispered in my ear.
"What do you propose we do?"
"Let them try. Our margins are the highest anywhere, for the kind of support we provide in this partnership and when they can't find someone else, we can negotiate on our terms."
I wanted to kiss her. I had no doubt in my mind that she would be a good leader, and she'd turn anything into gold wherever she went, like a mini-Midas. Nothing about Thea's expressions gave away that she understood their conversation perfectly, not even when one seemed to crack a joke, making the other laugh. Thea's pen might have stopped for a second but she regained herself quick enough that no one noticed. Not unless you'd been staring, you know, like a creep. It dwindled down to the last offer from them I was willing to entertain, peering over Thea's notebook to see 32.5% scribbled at the bottom. I refused it the moment they'd said it out loud, letting them know that we would in fact be ending our business with them. The men swallowed, looking at each other. A day, they asked for a day to let us know their company's response.
Good. I wasn't going to take it still.
But it'll keep them occupied on useless things while I met with a Board member for breakfast tomorrow morning, to discuss the incompetency of their top-level management. He'd agree. Anyone would agree, given that they don't want to be on bad terms with us, and I could put some gears in motion to bring the whole company to me soon enough. It would take more than a few months, but I could wait. I had all the time in the world.
Shaking hands with these men, we were walking out in the hallway when I quizzed Thea about her opinions and thoughts. "They're really bent on finding someone who can give them 45%, and someone with access to North African countries. It's not technically our field, and they're heading in a direction we don't want to go in. I would want to quit this deal."
Pride surged in me, with the currents of something stronger, deeper in me, which I suppressed with a shake of the head. I had to make it stop. "You're right. We're quitting."
"Then this whole meeting was a waste of time." Monica clipped, pressing the elevator buttons to the ground floor.
I shrugged, "What can we do?"
It appeared that the two men from the conference room were also of the mind to go out of the building, presumably to get some lunch, appearing right behind us from the second elevator. Their voices were louder than the rest of the office, and I pinned it to the fact that their language was unfamiliar, making my mind focus more on it instead of French.
"Are you sure we're not going to be working with them?" Thea asked me as we were heading out. I nodded, confused why she would ask me that when she was the one who arrived at that conclusion barely five minutes ago.
"Give me one minute." She said and dashed off in the direction of the men, stopping them in their path. I couldn't quite hear what she said, but she gave them a terribly fake smile, in the end, making their faces turn pale. They looked genuinely terrified of whatever she had said, and when she came back, the murderous rage in her eyes silenced me. She'd told them off, and one could only assume what had transpired in the conversation I couldn't understand. Monica was not all that privy to Thea's moods as I, because she asked what all of that was about as soon as we were out of the doors.
"Piece of shit," Thea muttered so low, only the two of us caught it, and only barely, "He kept talking about me to his colleague in this stupid..." she made a sound of disgust, "Whatever. He wouldn't dare do that again."
"What did he say?" I asked, getting in the car. Monica chose to sit in the back, which I was secretly glad for. Thea buckled her seatbelt in and making sure we were ready; I pulled the car out of the lot.
"There's no exact one word for it in English," Thea said thoughtfully, "but I guess you could say they called me your sugar baby, which really wasn't something that I thought bothered me anymore."
"It doesn't?" Monica's exclamation almost made me laugh.
"You kind of get used to it when everyone's been saying it behind your back since the day you came in." her laugh was sadistic, making me prouder. I could not believe how much she had changed and for the better.
"Why the reaction then?" I stopped at a red light, facing her.
"As I said, there's no one word in English for it, but it's a very dirty term. Kind of somewhere between a whore and a honey trapper. Sugar baby was the best compromise I could find."
"You should have told me." I pressed my foot on the gas as the lights turned green again.
"I thought you'd be proud." She shrugged. "It's called character development." Her tone was clipped, and I knew she was pissed again. Why though? She flipped moods faster than I could ever hope to catch up with, and at some point, I had learned to let it rest for a while. She'd come back to her cheery self soon enough. Brooding didn't suit her much, nor did she care enough for it.
"What time is this dinner?" Thea asked in the hotel elevators as we headed up.
"Meet me in the lobby at 6."
"Any dress codes?" Monica was thorough, I would give her that, but I was still sentimentally unable to trust her the way I trusted Lydia. My bad for 'firing' her. All for a reason...
"Fancy?" I suggested, which seemed enough for both girls to start planning and plotting strange things that involved anything except the fucking colour of their dresses. Was it so bad that I had packed the heaviest in my whole travel life so I could get the colour of a shirt right? If Jason knew, he'd call me pathetic. Dad would just laugh, before reminding me I could get a shirt for any colour of the rainbow wherever in the world I was. But everything had to be perfect for this. I had every second planned, and I wasn't going to let anything ruin it.
"You think I could wear that white dress?" Thea asked Monica finally, giving me the hint I needed.
Monica made a face, "Maybe the red one from-"
"Nah, I think I'm bloated, sort of."
Whatever invisible bloating she was talking about was pissing me off, because all I wanted was a fucking answer, and patience was never my strongest virtue.
"What about the yellow one?"
Oh god, please don't wear yellow. The colour would look hideous on me, and I had nothing in my range of outfits to work with yellow.
"At night?" Monica scrunched her nose, making Thea think again.
"I'll just wear the black one with the sleeves doing that thing-" Thea's gestures were awkward but described a sleeve that rested off her shoulders, and Monica agreed just in time for the elevator doors to open on their floor.
"See you." Thea waved at me before leaving, not technically waiting for a response. Not that I had one to give anyway. Now to put wheels into motion...
I feel like I'm more excited for the next few updates than I am for my own birthday, and that's saying a lot xD
What do you think of Aiden?
What is he planning?