I was meeting with Gary in a different spot than I had so many times before. It felt a little strange meeting him anywhere but at Bertrand’s, but it was nice to see that he had an actual office and staff.
“So what are we going to do about this, Greg?”
I set down the small tumbler of whiskey. It was too early for hard liquor, but somehow I knew that wine wasn’t going to cut it.
“There’s nothing to do, Gary. Donald did it by the book. I’ve had my lawyers looking at the paperwork, and from what they can tell he’s been planning this for some time. I always thought he was laying up in Mexico or somewhere, but the whole time he was in New York undercutting our deal and waiting for the right time.”
Gary was still confused. “But how did he convince the board?”
That question made me a little uncomfortable. I didn’t want to say why. I knew that it was my actions with Desiree that had clinched the deal. While some of the greedier board members had already been on board with Don, I knew that my lack of control with her was what had done me in with the rest of them.
He waited for my answer, and I was happy that one of his assistants came in and stopped the conversation. She was bringing in paperwork that Gary had asked for. Watching him watch her leave, I figured that he might understand after all.
“I fell for one of the interns. The rest of them got jealous, so I fired the other nine and hired Desiree. Donald and Desiree got into it, and I think that is what started the ball rolling.”
“You don’t fall for the help. That is rule number one.”
Given his own crude ways, Gary wasn’t really one to talk, and I found that I didn’t like thinking of Desiree in that way. I had fallen for before I put my hands on her, and now it was even stronger. There was no getting around it. I wanted her so badly.
“She is smart and beautiful, not the help. Desiree was perfect for the post. She even slapped Don. How could I fire her?”
Gary sat back and whistled through his teeth. “Well, we have quite a mess now, so I hope she was worth it.”
I didn’t tell him that she was, hands down, a million times over. It wouldn’t have been very considerate, because I knew that my actions had caused problem for him, too. I had really messed everything up.
“I haven’t seen her in a couple of days, but it was worth it to see her hit Don. Lord knows I’ve been wanting to since about a year into the business. There was a lot I didn’t know about him when we started working together, and it has just gone downhill over the last fifteen years.”
“Business and money change people.”
I had to agree. I took another drink of the liquid fire. It burned down my throat as I tried to get a grip on the situation. I needed a plan to get my company back and a plan to keep Desiree. The latter seemed far easier to accomplish, and she started to take over my mind. I hadn’t talked to her in a couple of days because of everything that was going on, but now it seemed like far too long to not speak to her.
“It seems like love does as well, Greg,” Gary continued. “I don’t think I have ever seen you like this. You’ve always been cool and confident, but this is the time to be freaking out. There is a lot at stake here, for both of us.”
Nodding, I sat up and tried to push her to the back of my mind. “It’s going to be okay. You have a contract with him, and Donald may be stupid, but he’s not going to break it. He’d never do that. I’m not saying he won’t try to find a way out of it, but I’ll have the company back before he can.”
“I hope you’re sure about that. If you’re just talking out of your ass, I need to know now so I can take care of damage control.”
I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, but I knew that I wasn’t going to let Donald take over. If he did it wouldn’t be long till the company went under. That was part of the reason that I had taken over and he had bailed out in the first place.
“Don’t worry. Gary. I’ll be back at the helm in no time.”
***
The idea came to me after I had sobered up from my meeting with Gary. It seemed so simple. Donald had the votes, so he thought he could count me out. Well, maybe he could, from the company that I shared with him. But now I realized that instead of entering into a long struggle to take back control of Jefferson & Marshal, I could just start another fund. Several of my largest backers were already on my side, and with the help of Tommy and other loyal staff members, it wasn’t long before I had almost all of the major clients ready to jump ship. I didn’t need Donald anymore. I was ready to move on to bigger and better things.
I sold most of my stock, losing a lot of money in the selling frenzy that followed, but it was all going as planned. I could have been sore about the amount of money I lost, but I wasn’t. It was actually less than I had been willing to pay Don to leave, so in the end, it seemed like a small price for peace.
I spent a lot of my energy on building up the new fund and negotiating my way to a good deal. I thought about Desiree sometimes, but she was a distraction that I couldn’t afford. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see her or hear her voice, but either one would make me addle-brained again.
It was almost two months before I had the new company up and running, and it was another few weeks before I was ready to find Desiree again. I had heard about her and the rest of my staff getting laid off. When I was in a position to take them all back on while Donald ruined my old company, I knew it was time to find my accountant.
At first I had wanted to see her right away, but as time passed, I was nervous about how she would respond. The longer that went by, the less inclined I was to call her. She was surely going to be mad at me for ignoring her. I had her number, but she didn’t have mine, and even if she had, I honestly don’t know if I would have answered. Now that I was finally ready to talk to her, I was scared. What if she had moved on?
The idea of that made me angry, and that was a feeling that I could process better. It was the emotion that carried me through the time that it took to dial her number. It was on my contacts list and I had been letting it go to waste for too long. I knew that I needed to see her, and when I heard her voice, I forgot all about the reasons I hadn’t called before. How could I have denied myself such pleasure?