Accidental pregnancy, p.15
Accidental Pregnancy, page 15
“You want to go gallivanting around,” he had growled when I’d questioned him. “Then you can stay here where I can watch you.”
I feel like a child again. I know there’s no point in arguing, though. I simply set myself up at the desk and do my work quietly, trying to ignore the way my father glances at me every now and then.
Maybe this will end up being a good thing, I try to tell myself. My father can see for himself how much effort I put into my work, and then he won’t be so hard on me anymore.
I snort softly to myself. That will be the day.
No, this is just an extremely transparent attempt to control me once more. He doesn’t want me to leave the building without him knowing, on the off chance that I might find my way to Energy Plus Co. I scowl down at the papers in front of me. I would fight against this, but I know better than to try when my father’s in this mood. If I don’t step carefully, I could very much end up being fired.
And that would make everything I’ve done up to this point completely pointless.
On the desk, the phone rings, the sound loud and obnoxious in the otherwise quiet room. I glance up quickly and then look away. For once, I don’t care who might be phoning my father. I’m not interested in what’s happening with the company. I’d rather just stew here and do my work. And if he attempts to ask me for advice since I’m sitting in the room, I’ll probably snap at him.
“How dare you think you have the right to call me,” my father suddenly growls.
I look up, my attention was caught by the tone. That’s not normal. As brisk and stern as my father can be, he would never talk to clients or business partners like that.
So who is on the other end?
A deep scowl settles on my father’s face. The expression in his eyes is almost terrifying. I’ve never seen him so angry before, and I feel my shoulders tensing. I don’t know what’s going on.
Then I remember Lyle’s promise. He was going to do something. He asked me to trust him. Could it be him on the other end of the line? It would certainly explain my father’s attitude.
Surprisingly, however, my father has settled. He still looks very angry. But his lips are simply pressed into a thin line and his eyes are narrowed as he listens.
“Fine,” he spits. “We will see you tomorrow.”
Without bothering to say goodbye, he slams the phone down. I jump at the suddenness of it, stunned.
“What…what was that about?” I ask cautiously.
My father looks up at me. His eyes are burning.
“That was Lyle Thompson,” he says.
So, it was Lyle. I eye my father. What the hell did Lyle say to him?
“He wants to know about the alliance?” I guess.
“Naturally,” my father grunts. “He would like you and I to go over there for a meeting tomorrow. He said his company has not changed its stance, so he would like to have a formal meeting to determine where we go from here.” He snorts. “Didn’t know the kid had it in him.”
Is it my imagination, or did my father just sound grudgingly impressed by Lyle?
“Tomorrow at one,” my father barks. “We’re going over to Energy Plus Co. We will decide then whether this alliance is worth our money.”
In other words, my father wants the chance to turn Lyle down in person, which is likely the only reason he has agreed to this meeting. I look down. I’m not an idiot. I know where the cards are about to fall. My father doesn’t want this alliance anymore, and he’s using my apparent transgression as an easy out.
Well, I think sardonically, at least he won’t be able to accuse me of a conflict of interest anymore.
I almost called Lyle to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing. Surely he realizes that this is the quickest way to wreck everything that the two companies have tried to achieve in the last month?
I’m half through a message when I remember Lyle’s plea.
“Trust me.”
I told him I did. But it’s surprisingly difficult to remember that as I worry about what’s about to happen next. I’ve always been independent; my father taught me to rely on myself and to never trust anyone to do something that I can do myself. Even my mother’s influence wasn’t able to get that idea out of my head once it took root. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t need to lean on anybody; I can get by in life on my own.
Yet, suddenly, here’s Lyle, asking me to trust him as he takes care of a situation that I have no idea how to get myself out of. I don’t want to leave it to him. Knowing that I don’t know what Lyle has planned leaves me twitchy and anxious. I want to be involved and know that any plan that is being devised will definitely work.
But I slowly lower my phone, deleting the message. That isn’t fair. I told Lyle that I would trust him. He believes he can turn this around in our favor, and I have to believe that he can do that.
Though…that doesn’t stop me from asking what, exactly, he said to my father today.
I dial Lyle’s number, telling myself that I won’t ask anything about what he has planned for tomorrow. I need to leave that to him.
“Hello, Amanda,” Lyle greets as he picks up on the second ring. He sounds surprisingly cheerful. “Is everything okay?”
“You tell me,” I say. “I was in the office when you called Dad, you know. He’s furious.”
“Yeah?” Lyle sounds even more pleased by this. “Excellent.”
I snort.
“I can’t see anything good about it,” I inform him. “He’s planning on breaking the deal.”
“Yeah, I figured,” Lyle said, and I can imagine him shrugging from the dismissive tone of his voice. “In a perfect world, I’ll be able to convince him not to. But, if he does, I have my people working on an alternate plan, just in case.”
I swallow. That makes sense, of course. Lyle is the owner of a huge business. He needs to have a plan for any eventuality so as not to lose money.
But this deal was important to me for other reasons entirely. It makes me feel empty to hear that Lyle is already moving on from the alliance I fought so hard for. I know he doesn’t mean anything by it, but it still hurts.
Lyle must have understood something from my silence, however, because he sighs.
“I’m sorry, Amanda,” he says.
“What for?” I ask.
“A lot of things,” he says with a laugh. “But mostly because things are falling down around you. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth straight up; we would have had longer to come up with some kind of plan if I had.”
“Well, I was the idiot who decided to tell Dad about us,” I point out. “So I guess you can’t take all the blame for this one.”
“It was better for you to tell him now,” Lyle disagrees. “If he had found out by accident, he would be even angrier. And the longer it took to tell him, the worse it would get. Imagine being in the final stages of development when he found out…”
I take a moment to consider this, and shudder. That would not have gone down well.
“But, cheer up, we have a meeting to attend tomorrow, and I’m putting all my cards on the table,” Lyle continues. “I think Alan is the type of man who respects power, and having things told straight to him. Is there anything in particular that I should avoid saying, though?”
“Honestly?” I say dryly. “I really can’t think of anything that can make this worse, so say whatever the hell you want.”
“Great,” Lyle says. There’s an anticipation in his voice. “With luck, everything will work out exactly the way I want it to.”
I almost ask. I want so badly to know what his plan is, to make sure it’s all right. But I bite back the words. I won’t ask.
I’m going to trust him.
“My father and I will be there at one,” I say. “What did you even say to get him to come to your company, anyway?”
“Not much,” Lyle says. “I reminded him that my company is fully invested in this product, whereas his participation has been grudging, to the point where he sent a representative in his stead and only told me so the day before the original meeting. Then I told him that if he wants to cancel the deal, then he needed to come to my office and do it himself; I wouldn’t accept anything less. After that, I told him that I was free around one tomorrow if he would like to discuss it.”
“Woah,” I say, impressed. “You actually said that to him? No wonder he was a little impressed.”
“Really?” Lyle asks, interested.
“Well, I might have been imagining it,” I amend. “But he sounded grudgingly impressed by you. He said he ‘didn’t know you had it in you’.”
“Huh,” says Lyle. “Maybe tomorrow will go even better than I could hope for, in that case.”
“Don’t count too much on it,” I laugh. “My father has a way of stubbornly doing exactly what you don’t want him to.”
The two of us laugh. But there’s a nervous quality to the sound of my laughter; I truly am incredibly worried about what will happen tomorrow. I know that my father is going to dig his heels in. I’ll be lucky if we come out of the meeting with him not caring about who I see.
And, as far as I can see, there’s absolutely no hope for our collaborative efforts. Lyle sounds optimistic about the future between our companies, but I know that’s pointless. Even if the meeting goes well tomorrow, my father will not agree to further cooperation because of his pride. He would rather tie himself up in battles over creative license and discussions over who put more effort into what and, therefore, who get the most profit, then continue working at the alliance. Especially since he didn’t want it in the first place.
“Don’t stress too much,” Lyle advises. “Everything will be fine.”
Personally, I think Lyle could stand to stress a little more about it all. But I just sigh.
“Yeah,” I say. “I hope so.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lyle
I’m more nervous than I let on to Amanda last night.
This will be the first time I have come face to face with Alan Simmons on my own, as another business owner. I remember watching the verbal battles between him and my father when I was younger, half hiding behind the door as I watched with awe. Even back then I thought the man was terrifying.
In the two years since I took over Energy Plus Co., I’ve only ever spoken to Alan over the phone. It was different to have all his growl and disdain directed at me rather than my father. Part of me wonders if I’m insane for having goaded him into coming here in person.
But this is important on so many levels. I didn’t say it to either Amanda or my employees, but…the collaboration between our companies is the furthest thing from my mind right now. I’m looking toward something much greater.
Amanda.
If the deal falls through, then it falls through. I know that will upset Amanda, who had a personal stake in the project. I, myself, had put a lot of money toward it and, in normal circumstances, that would upset me.
But this isn’t a normal circumstance. Money and business matters are a distant concern right now as I focus on how much I want Amanda in my life. She’s carrying my child. She’s amazing and beautiful. She’s everything I didn’t realize I was looking for in a partner.
I’m not about to let her go, Alan’s disapproval be damned.
I nod firmly to my empty office, and then grimace. Hopefully, I can still show that backbone when Alan gets up here.
My intercom crackles and I jump. Not a good start.
“Alan and Amanda Simmons have both arrived,” Alicia says. Her voice is tense; I sat down with her yesterday and spoke to her about my plan today. I know she’s worried. “I’m sending them in now.”
“Thank you, Alicia,” I say sincerely.
This is it. This is my last chance, now. I’ve overcome the lies that I told Amanda and the secrets we told ourselves. Alan is the last obstacle in my way.
The door opens roughly, swinging to its furthest point and then sliding back. Alan storms in first, his stocky shoulders tense and his frown pronounced even behind his thick mustache. He’s glaring at me and his entire demeanor says that he’s more than ready for a fight.
I glance behind him as Amanda slips into the office. She grimaces at me.
I didn’t really expect Alan to arrive in a towering temper, but maybe I should have. He would have had all last night to stew over the way I spoke to him and the demands that I made. I feel a little sorry for the employees he no doubt terrorized this morning.
But I can do this, I can face Alan Simmons as a fellow business owner and prove that I’m just as capable. I am a strong, capable business owner, and I have a plan… somewhat.
I hitch a smile on my face and stride forward, holding my hand out.
“Alan, it’s good to see you face-to-face,” I try.
Alan looks at my hand like it’s something evil and doesn’t take it. I’m left standing there awkwardly for a moment, my hand hovering in the air. I cough and drop it, well aware that I just lost the first power play. Behind her father, Amanda bites her lip.
She looks nervous. I can’t blame her. Now that Alan is in front of me, I can feel my own nerves stirring.
“So?” Alan rumbles. “You called me here. Start the meeting already.”
“Of course,” I say. It’s hard to stay pleasant, but I need to. I won’t stoop to his level of rudeness. “Please, take a seat.”
I didn’t expect Alan, in a completely jerk move, to move around the desk and slump down in my own chair, leaving me to sit with Amanda in front of the desk. I’m abruptly reminded that Alan has been a business owner a lot longer than I have. He’s played this game for years and he knows exactly how to get under his competitor’s skin.
Deep breath, I tell myself. Don’t give him the satisfaction.
I force my shoulders to relax and I take a seat in one of the remaining chairs, facing Alan across my own desk. His jaw twitches slightly as I stare evenly at him, refusing to be upset.
“Amanda?” Alan says, glancing at his daughter.
Amanda hovers awkwardly for a moment before taking a seat next to me. She, like me, can feel the power struggle that has already started in this room, a struggle that she is only a witness to right now. But then she straightens in her chair and faces her father with me, presenting a united front against him.
Was it just my imagination, or was there a faint glimmer of respect in Alan’s eyes for our calm reaction?
“So,” Alan says. He folds his hands on top of the desk, staring at us. “The strategic alliance. First, in order to get the facts, I would like to exchange reports on our current progress.”
“Of course,” I agree. “Why don’t you go first? Since my company has been hosting the production, my reports will likely be a little longer.”
The air turns frosty. I smile at Alan. All my nerves are gone. I will not let this man push me down. This is my office and my company. I am on the home ground, not him. He might have stolen my chair, but he is still on my turf.
“Fine,” Alan says. “We have sent over three of our employees with Amanda. Margie Bowler from advertising, Paula Reed from hardware maintenance, and Warren Dunn, who has shown himself to have a talent for design and thinks outside the box.’
“I’ve met all three,” I say with a nod. “You made a good choice sending them.”
It’s an olive branch, in a way. The praise seems to calm Alan slightly. Good. I need him calm before I bring out the big guns.
“According to the reports, your employees have been showing them their current hardware designs and asking them to improve on it,” Alan continues. “Margie has worked with your representative to start discussing advertising of the product, and they managed to sketch out a possible release date as early next year if all goes well.”
“That’s correct,” I say. “Thanks to your versatile team, my team have managed to make several leaps. While the original ideas that we were working on are still there, most of the original product has been obscured by the changes our collaboration has already wrought.”
Saying that is a gamble. I want Alan to believe that our collaboration is going so well that it would be impossible to pull out. It wouldn’t be true, of course; production is still in the early stages, after all. But pressing the importance of the contribution both companies have so far made might be enough to make him pause.
“I see,” Alan says. “I’ll be honest with you, Thompson; I was wary about going into an alliance with you in the first place. The company hasn’t been the same since you took over, and I wasn’t sure if that would affect my business dealings.”
“Has it?” I ask.
“That remains to be seen,” Alan mutters. He sits back, staring at me. “Give me one good reason why this alliance should continue.”
There are many good reasons. The first, and most important, is how much it means to Amanda. Then there’s the amount of work everyone involved has put into it so far. And how much I had hoped for this to happen, to prove once and for all that my inheritance of this company wasn’t just a fluke.
But those are all emotional reasons. If any of them left my mouth, I’m certain that Alan would laugh on his way out the door. He doesn’t want emotions. He deals in business, where those sorts of reasons have no place.
So I lean forward, my hands on my knees, and look Alan dead in the eye.
“We’re currently estimating a profit of almost four hundred million,” I say, and Alan jerks, surprised both by words and my argument. “At a fifty-fifty split, which is the current agreement that Brandon and Amanda have hashed out, that would be approximately two hundred million per company. That money can then be used to make more hardware products, either together or individually. Either way, this cell phone is set to be one of the biggest products on the market.” I lean back and smile. I know I shouldn’t, because it would just be poking at trouble, but I can’t help the quip that leaves my mouth. “I think that sounds like a pretty good reason.”
No one says anything. Alan is staring at me, and I can almost see him running figures through his head. Amanda is still; she already knew the figures since she helped work them out. I suspect she would have been the frontrunner of getting early prospective figures, if only because she knew her father would listen to talk of money.
