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“I don’t want to go with Zoey. I want to go with you.” The green eyes shone with challenge.
She chickened out.
“You said your reputation means everything to you. I think perhaps it would be better for everyone if you took them,” she tested him, wanting him to fail.
He leaned forwards, his elbows on his knees, his stare arresting her in place.
“You don’t mean it.”
A tenseness to match his spread through her. She sat straight in her chair.
“Yeah, you’re right. I don’t.”
He grinned, which annoyed her.
“Now beat it, I’ve got work,” she grabbed back control.
“I love it when you order me around.” He spoke over his shoulder as he left, checking whether he made her grin, which he did. The smartass had to have the last word.
Chapter 17
The Thinking Nook
Talking to Dafna about Gal had lifted his spirits. She made it easy to confide in her, and offered knowledge and practical advice. A thrill ran up his spine as he thought about how she definitely did not want him to take Zoey on a distillery tour.
The youthful-looking Daniel, he had a head full of bouncy curls, sat in a large, airy open space with his Customer Success and Marketing workers. The only privilege Daniel took for himself was that he kept a small glass-enclosed booth at the edge of the room for occasional use, and that was where he and Erez had conducted their interview.
“Our sales cycle should have been more handless by now, with cold onboarding, but our product just isn’t there yet.” Daniel said.
It was clear that it was Daniel who was the brains of the operation. If Erez had to guess, he would say that Menni may have found investors, but Daniel was the reason they actually invested.
“If we get the money from Motti,” Daniel continued, “Dafna told me she has prepared a stack of potential great customer success personnel, ready to give me additional support and manpower. She is the best. An experienced HR manager like her–she’s a real asset to our young company. I brought her here. It’s one of my wins. And it’s not like she needs the money. She is loaded.”
“Loaded?” Her house was quite large, but not much different from the other houses on the block. Perhaps she received a good divorce settlement.
“She had a huge exit from a previous startup she worked at. Even after she gave Ilan, that’s her ex, half, she is still super rich.”
He cringed inwardly at his own chauvinism, automatically assuming it was her ex-husband who made her rich.
“How did you hear about her?” Erez asked.
“I’ve known her all my life. Her parents are best friends with mine, and she was friends with my older sister for years.”
He burned with curiosity, wanting him to go on talking. “Did you have a crush on her?” he asked, smiling encouragingly.
“Did I ever!” Daniel grinned widely. “She’s beautiful, but it’s more than that. There’s something about her, this calm. You just want to be around her.”
It was true. He liked that Dafna’s demeanor was cool and collected. Cracking her perfect façade was part of the challenge she presented to him.
“I wonder how come she’s divorced,” he said, dropping all pretense. He was nosing around unashamedly now, and he stumbled upon a consummate gossiper.
“The divorce came out of nowhere. There was no sign, they kept such a quiet front. Anyway, her ex, Ilan, is the best. All the single women in the moshav had plans to get him. But nada. And a couple of years ago, he left for Tel Aviv. But they get along great. Just before you got here, Dafna had to miss an entire week of work, taking care of her parents, and Ilan was there the whole time, helping. What a mensch.”
Jealousy twisted his guts. He tried to recall the face of the man in the photos in Dafna’s house, understanding why she didn’t cut him out.
“Did she need a lot of persuading to come to work here?” he asked, tired of hearing how awesome her ex was. “Seeing that she doesn’t really need the paycheck.”
“She likes what she does. She says that she’ll continue to do this with us, that she loves Kisharti.” There was no mistaking the pride in Daniel’s voice, how flattered he was that Dafna ‘chose’ his company. “We’re really lucky.”
