AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was then that Joe returned to his seat like a docile little boy.
I looked from Joe to Sam, ensuring I had their attention. “One: neither of you shall speak negatively of the other, directly or indirectly. Two: a big no to exaggerate sarcasm, a huge yes to big smiles and being nice to each other. Three: don’t piss each other off or I’ll be pissed off too. A team of angry people isn’t a great start to a new project.”
“Translation on that last rule.” Joe interrupted. “I think what you meant is ‘don’t anger Sam ‘cause now he’s my buddy and you’re not, so obviously I’ll be mad and angry at you instead.’ Did I get that right?”
What the hell? Who traded the sweet Joe I loved with this conceited asshole sitting before me? Or did I do that?
“What I meant is that we are not having this conversation because of me or Sam or you. We are sitting around the same table for the best of your individual companies which I know first-hand that you both love. Honestly, I got nothing much to lose if you mess this up. It’s not my name that gets a bad reputation if this fails. I’m just an employee here.”
“She’s right.” Sam offered. Thank you very much.
Joe sighed, relenting. “Yea. She’s right.”
“Great. Now talk to each other.” This time, I was the one who crossed my arms under my breasts. I’ve done my part.
Joe played with his pen, flicking it between his fingers. His gaze was directed at Sam. Ready to take my advice but considering what to say to him. “You haven’t changed your mind about letting me be the main driver of this project forward, have you?”
Sam nodded. “We agreed, didn’t we? I don’t go back on my words.”
“Need that in writing too. I’m not the idiot who relies on your words alone anymore. Already been bitten before.”
Time to butt in again. “Okay, another rule –”
“You, bitten?” Sam leaned on his forearms on the table and his brows furrowed as he retaliated back. He was undoubtedly too triggered by Joe now. “And wasn’t I bitten too? You betrayed me. You went behind my back, consulting a lawyer to split the business. You ruined us.”
Unlike a worked-up Sam, Joe remained unflinching. “You left me no choice. We were supposed to be equal partners but my opinion always counted less than yours.”
“That’s not true. You practically took all the financial decisions by yourself.”
“Yes. Because those were the decisions you didn’t involve yourself in. You only wanted to get hands-on with the design and the brainstorming and you undermined all of my opinions. We were not equals, Sam. On papers, yes. In real life, not even close.”
“For fuck’s sake, you didn’t have to take that road. You lead to us liquidating. My parents – our biggest investors – they were beyond furious.”
Joe didn’t shy away from laughing derisively at that. “Right, your parents. As lovely as your parents are, they were the root of our problem. You always had this idea in your head that just because your family was fueling our company with their money, you owned more than me. No, Sam, it was still fifty-fifty. You weren’t the head of everything like you are here now. Maybe your parents shouldn’t have invested in us in the first place.”
Those words touched Sam’s nerve. He pointed a straight finger at Joe. “Well after your little stunt, my parents didn’t want to invest in this company that I had to open on my own afterwards. That should make you happy to hear, doesn’t it? Do you know how hard it was to start afresh without their money?”
Joe’s fist rumbled on the table surface as he stood up. The fair skin on his face became red from the boiling anger. “You don’t think I know hard? Did you assume I started my company with an overflowing pot of gold? You know that my family went bankrupt long before then and definitely couldn’t afford giving me a nice head start like you got.”
Sam stood up too. His palms were planted on the table in stand-off. “Good thing you stole all the other investors we had then.”
“Alright, stop. Both of you.” I straightened up to level with them. “You guys grew up having each other’s back and now that you’re adults, you can’t mend your issues in a civilized way? Didn’t it ever occur to you that maybe you should have stopped your business relationship not your friendship? Seems to me that lack of communication was the problem. Same as it is now. I didn’t hear any reference to any quarrels outside of your partnership.”
Joe clicked his tongue in seemingly severe disagreement. “That’s because I decided not to mention those episodes.”
“What episodes?” Sam questioned. One raised brow from Joe and he figured it out. “No. Don’t tell me you’re still holdingthatover my head. It just isn’t what you think. I’ve explained that to you a million times.”
“You broke the fundamental rule between brothers. No stealing each other’s women.”
“So you prefer to believe that floozy what’s-her-name over me? For heaven’s sake, I’ve sworn to you before. I didn’t invite her to lap dance on me.”
“But you gladly accepted her advances.”
“I also accepted the punch you threw at my face despite not deserving it at all. Still got a reminder of that. Two stitches, here.” Sam touched at the edge of his right brow where a small line of an old scar was visible. “And frankly, you should be thanking me for helping you get rid of her. She only wanted your wallet. I warned you about her but you took it as my attempt to steal her. All the years you’ve known me, did I ever steal a woman? Always got plenty of choices and easily.”
“That’s enough.” Having had more than enough, I picked up my laptop and phone. “I refuse to be the mediator anymore and I cannot work with you two if you don’t work this out.”
“I didn’t come here to mend fences,” Joe spoke as he sat back down. “I’m only here for Zimmerman.”
