Amelia
“Amelia?”
“Yes, Drew?”
“Lincoln’s about to come back in from vacation and he doesn’t sound happy. Brace yourself,” he said.
“You mean a week of screwing beautiful women on the beach didn’t do it for him?” I asked.
“Who knows? But, whatever he says, don’t take it personally. There’s a reason he never takes vacations. All he does is get in his own head.”
“Got it. A gird my loins sort of deal,” I said.
I figured Lincoln would want to talk about a few things anyway. A lot happens in a company like this when someone is gone a week—especially when the person gone is the owner. Lots of plans had been set into motion and I was finalizing things with the cancer treatment center, but the moment he busted through my doors I could tell he wasn’t simply upset.
He was irate.
“Miss Wilson, I did not authorize you to simply give my money away,” he said.
I looked up at him, his glaring eyes staring down at me, and I motioned for him to sit. He sat down in the chair before he crossed his legs, but the fiery look in his eyes was only beginning to rage.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“This deal with the cancer treatment center. I gave the go ahead because I thought you had a decent head on your shoulders. I didn’t hire you to give away my money, Miss Wilson.”
“Does someone need to define to you what ‘donation’ means?” I asked.
“I would have never authorized ten percent!”
“The deal is not to give away ten percent of what the hotels earn. The deal is—
“To match ten percent of what the earnings of the entire company are and donate it,” he said.
“Yes. So, we tally up your earnings at the end of every year, subtract the tax write offs from it, divide that by—”
“Do you think I’m an idiot, Miss Wilson?” he asked.
“No, but I think you’re incredibly angry at something that you should instead be very proud of. We are the first hotel to ever do this type of program. The public is going to eat it up, causing sales to skyrocket, and in the process we will be actually helping people. Where do you take issue with that?” I asked.
“Ten percent is what I take issue with! Miss Wilson, giving away massive chunks of my money is not what I hired you to do. It is not the premise on which I built my investment banking opportunities, and it is not the premise I will build this hotel chain on. Giving away money means we are making less—”
“But giving it to a charity can potentially bring in more than you could ever have imagined! Lincoln, I’ve—”
“It’s Mr. Collins, when we are in the office, Miss Wilson.”
“Mr. Collins,” I said, “ten percent is nothing compared to the projected earnings because of the part of the population you will sway with this deal. If you drop it, not only will it look bad—especially since the cancer center has already confirmed their end of the deal—but you will lose out on an entire market. And, you could end up compromising the rest of your market in the process!”
“Of course they’re alright with the deal. They’re getting free money! Who in the world wouldn’t be alright with free money!? Setting aside our sexual history, Miss Wilson, this is not something I can allow to slide.”
“Yet, you are somehow letting our intimate evening slide?” I asked. “It takes two to tango, Mr. Collins. I am not at fault for it any more than you are.”
“But you are most certainly at fault for this. You’ve taken advantage of the rope I gave you on your leash—”
“You hardly have me on a leash, Mr. Collins. You hired me to run this entire damn project. I’m going to make you rich and I’m going to do it while freshening up your image with the public. The media hates you, Mr. Collins. I can change that.”
“I didn’t hire you to change that,” he said.
“Mr. Collins, if you’ll just take a look at the profit you stand to—”
“Can it, Miss Wilson. We aren’t going through with the deal. Call the cancer center and let them know there’s been a change of plans,” he said.
I sat back in shock as I studied Lincoln. He was posturing, and I had a feeling he was doing so because of the intimate night we shared before he took this fun little vacation of his. Something had gotten into his head while he was gone, and I wished I could just reach in and figure out what the fuck was wrong with him. One minute he trusted me with this venture, and the next he was saying that he was forgiving some of my mistakes, but this wasn’t one of them.
I didn’t know what he thought about that night, but the last thing I thought of it as was a mistake.
“Mr. Collins, I have a meeting to get to. Feel free to brood in here, but when I get back, I’ll expect you to be gone,” I said.
“I’ll stay here as long as I like,” he said.
“Go pout somewhere else. I don’t know what’s crawled up your ass, but I’m not your girlfriend. I’m not dealing with it.”
Before he could get another word in, I grabbed my purse and started out of my office. It was ridiculous how many times he had chased me out of my own space, but I knew I needed to get away. I’d talk myself right out of the job fighting with him if I allowed him to draw me in, and I apparently had a phone call I needed to make anyway.
But, when my phone began ringing and the cancer center’s name flashed on my screen, I felt my stomach roll with guilt before I picked up the phone.
“Amelia Wilson speaking.”
“Miss Wilson, this is the Cancer Center Hospital calling for you. Is there a way you could get down here?”
“Yes, I was actually about to call you guys. I’ll be there in a few minutes,” I said.
“We’ll have a room prepped for you.”
“Wonderful. See you all in a bit,” I said.
I sighed as I cut the call and took one last look at Lincoln. He was still sitting in that chair staring out the window, probably thinking about the next thing he could with argue me on. He had slumped down into his chair with his legs still crossed, and for a split second he seemed to be nothing more than a tired, lonely man.
Maybe that’s why he was pissed.
Because he was alone on his vacation.
“Not my problem,” I murmured. “Time to go break some more hearts.”
And with that I started for the car, so I could drive over to the cancer center.