AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And I did that,” Becca said. “I did my job. I walked you through every piece of that deal and you okayed it.”
“No,” he said. “No. If I had known about those IP rights you let go, I would never have signed off on this.”
“I told you all about that!” she said. “I specifically went over all that, in detail, to make sure you wouldn’t freak. Like you are right now.”
“I am not freaking out. You dropped the ball.”
“No, you were probably high on cocaine and Adderall when I reviewed the deal with you, and you can’t remember a goddamn thing,” Becca said.
It wasn’t much of an exaggeration. Ryan was charming when he wanted to be, yes, but he was also sloppy and careless and liked the smell of cocaine a bit too much for anyone’s good.
“You lost the firm a ton of money, Becca. A ton of money.”
“What are you talking about?” she said. “I didn’t lose anybody anything. You wouldn’t have even had that deal if it weren’t for me. I brought it in, not you.”
“That’s not true.”
“That’s one hundred percent true,” Becca said. “None of those guys at Rayak like you, Ryan. I believe the term they used was ‘pencil-necked weasel’.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Well, start believing it. The only reason negotiations started at all was that their head of legal reached out to me. Tome.”
“What? Did you fuck him too?”
“Ugh, you prick,” she said. “You know what? Maybe I should have, seeing as how I have yet to get a good lay out of you. Which, by the way, has just come to a screeching halt, in case you were wondering.”
“You’re right about that.”
Becca paused. Ryan was being an utter douchebag, and she really was in a mood to tell him what was what, but something was up, and she needed to know what it was.
“What are you talking about?” she said.
“That IP you left on the table. That stuff was a gold mine and you let it go for pennies.”
“That nerdy guy worked his whole life on that do-hickey whatever it was that he invented. We couldn’t just steal it from him.”
“Oh, grow up. This is what we do.”
“No, it isn’t. We make deals. That doesn’t mean you have to screw the other guy over. You look for a win-win, one where everybody gets a good deal.”
“Please,” Ryan said. “Save the preaching for Sunday.”
“It’s not preaching, it’s called not being an asshole. And, by the way, it’s how you build a solid reputation for future deals. If all you do is screw over every person that you deal with, the word gets out and nobody will work with you. Which, by the way, is exactly why nobody works with you and I end up bringing in all the deals.”
“I’m so glad I’m not going to have to listen to this anymore.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Becca said. “What’s going on here, Ryan?”
“Just… keep your mouth shut and your head down, and maybe it won’t be too bad.”
Becca bit her lip on any retort. There was no reason for her to be in trouble, none at all, but the way Ryan and everyone else was acting, it looked like somehow, she’d wandered into a minefield.
This is ridiculous, Becca thought.I brought the firm a multimillion dollar deal, got it signed off on by my supervisor, and now they’re going to complain about the money I brought in for them? What is going on around here?
She kept her thoughts to herself as she walked into the conference room with Ryan. It seemed like every one of the partners was in there, sitting around the massive table, all wearing the same expensive dark gray suit.
“We’re going to get right to it, here,” one of them said. “Some very serious issues have been raised concerning job performance.”
