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Shall.Only an pretentious asshole or a stuffy librarian used such a word in real life. I’d only just met him and I couldn’t stand the man already.
“Fact: your marketing company recently lost Legendary Gaming to ours.”
The way he said it made him sound all smarmy and aloof. As much as I hated it though, it still didn’t make the statement any less true.
“Fact: you’ll most likely be okay until your current contracts run out, but after that you’ll be hemorrhaging money.”
My scowl deepened. I couldn’t deny this one either, although his timeline was probably a little bit off.
“Fact: your company is quite competent. Extremely competitive. You have good people and great resources, overall.”
Flattery. Maybe. Either that or he was finally about to get to the point.
“You just put too many of your eggs in one basket, that’s all,” the man said coolly. “You expanded too quickly, without diversifying your income sources.” He shrugged theatrically. “And it bit you in the ass.”
True or not, I hated him for using my own analogy against me. Rather than giving him the satisfaction of knowing that, I yawned and tried on my most bored expression.
“Are you done?”
The man slid forward instead of retreating. And now, against my wishes, hedidtake one of the chairs.
“Let me buy out your company,” John James said excitedly. He leaned forward, his eyes going wild. “Let me take over Shameless!”
With that he pounded a fist on my desk. Instinctively my arm shot out and grabbed him by the wrist.
“What the—”
The door to my office flew open so fast it nearly shattered into a thousand pieces. Aric was on the man in a second, sliding one big arm just beneath his chin and wrapping it tight with the other.
“Aric, no!”
He flexed, and I saw John James’ face turn bright purple. He was five seconds away from being squeezed unconscious. Maybe three, considering how angry Aric was.
“Let him go, Aric! Please.”
My assistant relaxed his grip, although he didn’t fully release his prisoner. John James let out a huge gasp of heated air, then looked around like he didn’t immediately know where he was. Very slowly, the color began returning to his face.
“He was slamming things around,” Aric insinuated. “I saw him raise his hand toward you, and—”
“It’s okay,” I cut my assistant off. “Our guest got a little too excited, that’s all. But he’s all good now. Right?”
Slowly, groggily, the man in the chair nodded. He didn’t look much like the CEO of a major marketing firm, much less one that had stolen my biggest client. In fact, he looked like a 25-year old kid who’d just woken up with a really bad hangover.
“Could you get him some water?” I asked Aric.
My assistant was reluctant to leave. Eventually I shooed him away.
“Go on. I’ll be fine.”
Aric retreated slowly, this time leaving the door to my office open. When I was alone again with my guest, I turned to face him.
“Fact: your rich, real-estate mogul of a daddy gave you the money to start this company. At the rate you’ve been spending it, you’ll be crawling back to him for more very shortly.”
John James looked confused, then hurt, then infuriated by the accusation. But I wasn’t done.
“Fact: your company uses click-farms and employs the use of bots to bump up the subscription counts of those you represent in social media. For that reason, you won’t be able to deliver any actual results. The clients youdidsteal are going to abandon you quickly, as soon as they figure out they’re paying for nothing.”
The man seated across from me rubbed at the base of his neck. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, testing his jaw.
