Amulet, p.13
Amulet, page 13
Val looked at his watch again. “It’s too early to go in there. Do you want to take a short walk to kill some time?”
“Sure,” replied Alex.
They walked in silence for a minute, away from FiberTech and toward some shops down the street.
“Do you want me to carry—”
“I can carry my own computer, thank you very much.” She had a teasing grin on her face, and Val couldn’t help laughing at her response.
“So,” she continued in that same mischievous tone, “you seem quite relaxed about this meeting with FiberTech. So much so that you can take a leisurely nap in the car on the way over here. Must be nice.”
Val chuckled in reply. Alex had a familiar way of speaking with him sometimes that was very attractive. He never felt like she was trying to get something from him. Rather, he felt like Alex genuinely cared about the company. She wanted to help him. Perhaps it was because she already had a man in her life. Billy. Still, Val couldn’t shake the feeling that Alex cared for him on some level. It was that uncertainty, the challenge that Alex represented, the closeness that she alluded to, that made her so sweetly seductive. There was no way anyone could do that on purpose.
They walked for a few blocks, commenting on the things they saw along the way, then circled back to FiberTech’s building. They entered the lobby eight minutes before their eleven o’clock meeting, but Val figured that was close enough. The receptionist called Yaakov, and a few minutes later a man in his late thirties walked into the main lobby where Val and Alex were sitting and waiting.
“Yaakov, how are you!”
The two men shook hands warmly as they exchanged greetings. Then Val turned to Alex, who was standing next to him with her hands together, a warm smile lighting up her face.
“Yaakov, I’d like to introduce you to Alex Weaver. She is the attorney who has been going through all the document requests from FiberTech’s counsel and has been interfacing with them on the acquisition.”
Alex stretched a hand toward Yaakov, who took it gladly in his own. “Very nice to meet you, Yaakov,” she said, shaking his hand. “Val has told me a lot about you.”
“Has he? All good, I hope.”
“Of course!” she replied, eliciting a chuckle from Yaakov.
So far, so good.
“She’s much easier on the eyes than Kurt Donovan, isn’t she?” Yaakov addressed the comment to Val, still looking at Alex. Val hadn’t warned Alex about this particular aspect of Israeli culture—very open and direct statements about people’s physical attributes, even the people they worked with. It was an HR nightmare for many Israeli companies that opened offices in the US, including FiberTech.
Alex didn’t blush, look away, or act offended. Instead, her smile only grew wider as she said, “I’ve never met Kurt Donovan, but I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Yaakov let out a belly laugh. “As well you should, Miss Weaver—as well you should!”
Yaakov turned back to Val and patted his arm in a friendly gesture. “Come, I’ve booked us a conference room down the hall. Why don’t we deposit your things in there? Then we can go grab Gideon and take a tour of the office before heading to lunch. How does that sound?”
“Sounds perfect,” replied Val.
The three of them went through some glass doors off the reception area and down a bright hallway to a conference room with glass walls. Val placed his laptop bag on the long wooden table in the center of the room, and Alex came up beside him and did the same. Then they followed Yaakov back out of the room and continued down the hall to an open area filled with cubicles. Several people looked up from their computers and acknowledged them with a polite smile or nod before getting back to work.
At the far end of the room was an office enclosed by more glass walls. The placard by the door read “Gideon Krantz.” Yaakov knocked on the closed door, and Gideon turned away from his computer and motioned them in.
Yaakov opened the door and entered, with Val and Alex following him. Gideon smiled broadly as he stood up to shake hands with them. He was a tall man, standing almost a foot taller than Yaakov and a few inches taller than Val. The top of his head was bald, with a crown of shortly-cropped brown hair surrounding it. He looked a little older than the forty-nine years Val knew him to be.
“It’s good to see you, Val. And it’s good to meet you, Alex. How was the flight yesterday?”
“It wasn’t bad at all,” answered Val. “It’s long, but we had no problems with the connection.”
“That’s good,” replied Gideon. “The flight to the West Coast is terrible. I always try to stop in New York for a couple of nights when I go to Silicon Valley. My sister and brother-in-law live in Brooklyn, so it’s good to break up the flight that way.”
Gideon moved toward the door. “I thought you might like to see the new data center where we test the equipment. We can start there, then go to the Engineering floor where you can see some of the new projects we are working on. That should take about forty-five minutes to an hour, then Yaakov can take you to lunch. Unfortunately, I have a call at noon that I must take, so I won’t be joining you. But Ayala and I are very excited to have dinner with you all tonight. She even has a new dress for the occasion.”
Val could tell that both Gideon and Yaakov were proud of the new data center. Alex was quick to pick up on that feeling, as well, and very skillfully encouraged it. As Yaakov described the different equipment on the racks and explained the system of cables, devices, and corresponding connections, Alex listened attentively, nodding at the right times and asking intelligent questions that prompted Yaakov and Gideon to further elaborate on their accomplishments with pride.
By the time they got to the Engineering floor, which consisted of another open area with white boards on every wall and couches in the middle surrounded by an array of cubicles, Gideon was speaking almost exclusively to Alex, and Yaakov had dropped back to engage Val in a separate conversation.
“She’s something, your Alex Weaver,” he said to Val, well out of earshot. “Why haven’t you ever brought her to visit us? We could have avoided this whole mess had you brought her instead of Kurt Donovan.”
“She only just started working for me earlier this month,” replied Val, watching Alex’s hands as they moved gracefully to emphasize the points she was making to Gideon.
“Really? Well, she seems to know a lot about our business, and yours. And all of that knowledge comes in a very attractive package.”
Val looked at Yaakov to assess his last statement. He hadn’t meant it in a lewd way, Val could see that, and his initial defensive posture softened a bit.
“I hadn’t noticed,” Val finally replied.
A quiet laugh rumbled out of Yaakov. “This is why I trust you, Val. Because you are a terrible liar.”
After saying goodbye to Gideon and retrieving their bags from the conference room, the three of them walked across the street to an Italian restaurant for lunch.
“This is Italian food, with an Israeli twist,” said Yaakov as they were seated at a small table by the window. Yaakov and the waiter exchanged a few words in Hebrew, and the waiter handed Val and Alex an English version of the menu.
“I’m beginning to wonder if the English version has all the same items as the Hebrew version,” said Alex with a teasing smile as she opened the menu and scanned the selections.
Yaakov chuckled as he gestured for the waiter to bring over a basket of bread. “The items are the same, Ms. Weaver, but I’m not sure about the prices.”
When they had all placed their orders, Yaakov turned his attention to Alex once more. “Val tells me you just joined his company a few weeks ago. Are you just out of school, then?”
Alex looked surprised before breaking out into a grin. “Oh no, I’ve been done with school for years.”
It was Yaakov’s turn now to be surprised. “I don’t believe it. How old are you?”
Upon hearing that, Val’s human resources instincts kicked in. “Yaakov, we don’t ask questions like that in the U.S.,” he said, smiling to make the statement less of a reprimand.
“That’s okay,” replied Alex, good-naturedly. “I’m thirty-two.”
Val could almost hear Yaakov’s jaw hit the table. “Impossible. You look twenty-five or twenty-six, maybe twenty-seven at most.”
“Well, thank you,” said Alex, taking a sip of water. Then, turning to Val, she added, “You know, I’m really starting to like the Israeli custom of saying what you think, political correctness be damned.”
Yaakov laughed and slapped his hand on the table. “You know, it does work well when you are talking to an intelligent and beautiful woman. But not so well when the woman is, well, not so intelligent or beautiful.”
This time, Val could see the color in Alex’s cheeks rise slightly, and she only smiled in response.
“Are you bringing your wife to dinner tonight, Yaakov?” asked Val, trying to steer the conversation in a different direction.
“Oh yes,” Yaakov replied. “She will enjoy very much meeting Alex. Plus, the restaurant you picked for tonight is new and is getting great reviews. Mara has been bugging me for weeks to try it, so she is very excited about tonight.”
Without Gideon at lunch, the atmosphere seemed a little more relaxed and casual to Val. Alex had an amazing ability to ask personal questions in a way that was not at all intrusive but rather came off as genuine interest, and Val could see Yaakov’s ego swell with each exchange. From his educational background to his decision to return to Israel after living and working in the States for eight years after college, to how he met his wife, Alex managed to get more information out of Yaakov than Val had been able to extract in the previous six visits.
On the drive back to the hotel, Val had wanted to have a debrief with Alex, but Alex’s position in the front seat, coupled with Val’s recent paranoia about talking business in front of people, even harmless Ori, made him reluctant to have that conversation right then and there.
Alex was quiet as they entered the hotel and ascended the steps from the street level to the lobby area. At the top of the stairs, she finally turned to face Val, excitement sparkling in her eyes. “So, how do you think it went?”
From the look on her face, Val could tell Alex had been biting her tongue for the past half hour, trying to keep herself from asking that question in front of Ori. Val grinned with equal excitement. “I don’t think it could have gone any better. What did you think?”
A relieved smile spread across Alex’s face. “I was thinking the same thing. They seem to like and respect you and Span Global. And I think it meant a lot to them that you came all this way just to see them for a day.”
Val nodded as they walked past the lobby area to the elevators. “It helps to have that personal touch. But I think you’re leaving out a very important aspect of the meeting.”
Alex gave him a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” he replied, enjoying the intrigue, “you left out the part about you doing great. You handled yourself really well, even in some awkward, politically incorrect situations.”
Alex laughed as the elevator doors opened and they got on. “They meant no harm. It’s just a cultural thing, I think.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard stories from my lawyer about some of her clients who are based in Israel and decide to open up shop in the States. They go through all this employment law training, telling them what they can and can’t say to their employees, both male and female, and those companies still run into trouble very often. Which of course my lawyer doesn’t mind one bit since she gets paid by the hour.”
“Damn lawyers,” Alex replied sarcastically, the corner of her mouth raised in a smile.
They got off the elevators on the sixth floor, and Val felt a twinge of disappointment that her hotel room was so close to the elevators. He walked Alex to her room, and she turned to look at him before reaching into her bag for the room key.
“So, what’s the plan now?” Alex asked. “What time is dinner?”
“I’ve made reservations for seven o’clock at a restaurant back in Tel Aviv called Jewel. We should give ourselves forty-five minutes to get there since I’m not sure what traffic will look like at that time of day. Ori doesn’t drive in the evenings, so we’ll have to take a taxi. Let’s say we meet at ten after six to walk down. I’ll come by your room and pick you up, does that work?”
“We don’t need to meet beforehand to talk about anything?” she asked, surprising him.
Wishing there actually was a legitimate reason for them to meet, Val responded with a slightly dejected, “I don’t think so.”
“Okay,” said Alex. “I guess I’ll keep going through the files I brought with me until I have to get ready. I can probably get a good chunk of it knocked out in the next few hours.”
“All right,” Val replied, smiling, “but don’t work too hard. I need you in top form for tonight, when we go in for the kill.”
Alex threw him a heart-breakingly beautiful smile in return. “Don’t worry. I’ll be ready.”
Chapter Thirteen
Alex looked out her hotel room window at the blue sky beyond and tried to focus her thoughts. Accordion files and manila folders were scattered on the desk in front of her, as well as on an extra chair nearby and on the edge of the bed. There was a lot left to go through, but her mind kept wandering.
Instead of thinking about Span Global’s tax returns from 2018, she kept replaying scenes from their tour of FiberTech and the lunch with Yaakov in her mind. It had gone well—much better than Alex could have reasonably hoped it would go. She had understood what Gideon’s main concerns were, had seen what the man valued in his organization, and had said just enough to help him realize that she and Val—Span Global—shared his company’s values and concerns.
She had done a good job. And Val had noticed.
Val. He was so good at what he did. He was easy to talk to and trustworthy, and he knew how to navigate a conversation, even when the topics got uncomfortable or bordered on inappropriate. Val just always knew what to say and what to do. And it made him that much more attractive.
Alex amended her last thought—she wasn’t attracted to Val. Not in a romantic sense, in any case. She was learning a lot from him, that was for sure, but she didn’t want to date him or anything like that. She had Billy, and Billy loved her. She didn’t need anything else.
At the thought of Billy, Alex reached for her laptop, which was sitting off to the side on another small pile of folders, and logged into her personal email account. Still no messages. Even with the time difference, her boyfriend was certainly awake by now, probably already at the office. Hadn’t Billy gotten the email Alex had sent yesterday after checking into the hotel? And the email she sent later, just before falling asleep?
Alex reached for her phone. Maybe Billy was in meetings this morning. He often had meetings with clients or with the partners managing the cases. He probably hadn’t had time to look at Alex’s messages, let alone respond. She had told him she was shutting off her phone while she was in Israel to avoid having to pay for international cell service. Could Billy have forgotten and been trying to call or text her?
She set the inactive phone down. Billy would email her when he was out of his meetings. It wasn’t like he was mad at her. He wasn’t avoiding her on purpose. They had made up before Alex left on Friday afternoon. He had kissed her and told her he loved her. He had told her to be safe. Alex had smiled and kissed him back, though she still hurt from the emotions she’d spent on Christmas Day thinking he was finally going to propose. Billy hadn’t noticed that, though. As far as Billy was concerned, it was business as usual and she had gotten over her little outburst.
Sighing, Alex picked up the next file and opened it. Vendor contracts from Q2 2018.
Billy would email her when he could. Until then, she wasn’t going to worry about it. She would do her job, learn as much as she could from watching and listening to Val, and maybe even relax and enjoy herself.
And hopefully, get through a few more files.
****
The next four hours went by at a snail’s pace for Val. He laid down on the bed with his computer and answered a few emails, but unfortunately, that didn’t take nearly as much time as he had hoped it would. Then Val reviewed some proposals for new products and a marketing report. Still, the clock had only moved forward by an hour and a half.
Restless, Val grabbed the hotel key off the dresser and went downstairs to the lobby. Across from the check-in desk were some glass doors that led out to the beach. Val pushed open the doors and went outside. The afternoon sun felt good, and the sound of the water lapping gently onto the sand had a calming effect.
As he walked down the stone path that ran parallel to the beach, Val wondered what Alex was doing. He could picture Alex sitting at the desk in the little living room of her hotel suite, her lovely neck bent over some documents she was reviewing. Was she still wearing that white silk shirt and tight skirt? Or had she changed into something more comfortable?
It was almost four-thirty when Val got back to his room, a little sweaty from the long walk in the Mediterranean sun. Shrugging out of the fleece he was wearing and kicking off his shoes, Val made his way to the bedroom, where he tugged his t-shirt up and over his head in one swift move. He tossed the shirt onto a pile of dirty clothes, then pulled off his jeans and hung them up.
Before shucking his socks and boxers and stepping into the shower, he answered a couple more emails that had come in during his walk.
Val tried his hardest to take a slow shower. Once done, he just stood there under the steady stream of almost-too-hot water, head down, eyes closed. He’d taken countless showers as a kid, and those had been so different—always hurried, with Val constantly worried one of his siblings would barge in and scold him for taking too long. And there was never any hot water left by the time it was his turn to shower, and he had to dry himself off with his brother’s used, damp towel. But the thing Val had always relished about his few minutes in the shower, even back then, was the peace. The sound of the water drowned out all other sounds. He couldn’t hear his parents fighting. He couldn’t hear his siblings yelling. It was just him, and he could pretend there was no one to bother him, even if only for those few precious minutes.
