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“That’s not your business to know,” Joe muttered with his head bowed down.
“Of course it’s my business to know. How else would I have convinced Ms Lisa Brown to invest in my company instead of yours? Now don’t be mad that I stole her from you. It’s only fair I did since you snitched Zimmerman from my hands. It’s just good business, right?”
Sam’s use of Joe’s own words rendered the opposing man speechless. Joe was utterly dejected. By then, Joe’s big-man façade was wholly shattered.
Sam sat back down with a sigh. He wore no hint of superiority now. Instead, there was a layer of empathy on his wrinkled face. “Had you been honest with me from the beginning, I wouldn’t have argued an equal split. I might have even agreed to accept less. This project means more exposure than money to me. You must have known that.”
Watching all this unfold before my eyes, I observed the different emotions these men transitioned through in mere minutes. From arrogance and hatred to weakness and pity. But what impressed me the most was the revelation about Joe’s company.
“Joe, is all of this true?” I spoke sympathetically at him.
He simply nodded once without even meeting my eyes.
In all the years I’ve known him, I do not recall ever seeing him this miserable. I knew what the company meant for him and now I understood why the long hours at work. He was giving his all to save it.
“So you didn’t tell her, huh.” Sam’s smirk returned. He leaned back on his chair and set his arms on the armrest, the gesture making his posture more prominent. “Must be too shameful to admit to her that you’re failing as a businessman for the second time in your life. Tell her that’s one of the reasons why you never wanted her to work with your company. And while you’re on the subject, tell her how after nearly ten years of despising me with all your might, one day you called me, asking for a favour and begged me to employ her with me. Tell her that too.”
Joe begged Sam to employ me? Now, I was the one stunned. That cannot be. I must have heard wrong. The words replying in my head weren’t true, right?
My eyes locked on Joe. “Tell methisisn’t true, Joe.”
Joe looked up at me. Yet he didn’t say anything. The way he timidly peered from me and back down to the surface of the desk before him was my only answer.
My palms planted on the table with a bang as I stood up. “For fuck’s sake, Joe. Stop ignoring me and just talk to me straight.”
Joe held my gaze. Finally. “Yes. Yes, I called Sam. But I didn’t beg him.”
“You definitely pleaded,” Sam interjected. “All that was left to do was kneel before me. But hey, you missed out on her. She might have helped salvage your business –”
“Shut up, Sam.” I cut him off. “You’ve said enough already.”
I rounded the enormous table to Joe’s side, my heels stomping loudly. Now I was the furious one in this room. I stopped close to Joe just enough to glower at him directly. I needed to face him. I needed to hear him admit the truth to my face.
Obliging to my silent request, Joe got up from his seat and braced himself to hear what I fired at him.
I couldn’t stop myself from poking an angry finger at his chest. “You had no right to ask for favours on my behalf. You of all people know how serious I am about my career. I certainly never wanted or ever needed anyone meddling with it. Not you. Not anyone.” My fury quickly turned into sadness as tears pricked my eyes. “Would it really have been so bad if I worked with you? You preferred begging someone you hated over working with me?”
Joe sighed. His fingers ran into his short hair. “My company has been in trouble for a while now. I saw the first signs three years ago. I didn’t tell you because yes, it is shameful. Of course it is. And I didn’t employ you because I didn’t want you to take the fall with me. Besides, we had gotten ourselves into a messy, complicated situation. We literally fucked up. It was only a matter of time until we hit an iceberg. And we did. We drifted apart, so far apart. How would we have gone about it if you worked for me then? I don’t believe any kind of personal relationship could survive at work. I still don’t.” Joe concluded with a glare directed at Sam.
A sarcastic raspberry sounded from Sam’s mouth. “We don’t need your advice on romance. You’re terrible at it.”
This time, Joe perked up. He rounded the table in the opposite way I did. Sam stood up to welcome the stand-off. With the fury suddenly displayed on Joe’s face, he appeared to tower over Sam despite his shorter height.
“Iam terrible? What would you call someone who kissed another man’s woman? For two years, you believed Lucy was mine but still you went ahead and kissed her.”
“I believed that because you told me she was. You may not remember but you never told me her name during that call two years ago. You only called her ‘your girl’.I need a favour for my girl. My girl is brilliant. Don’t think of it as a favour to me but as a favour to my girl.You led me to believe she was your woman. You wanted me to.”
What the hell? My brows must have furrowed probably up to my hairline with astonishment. “You never called me ‘your girl’, Joe.”
“He sure did to me.” Just then, Sam looked down and paused. He spotted Joe’s fist hanging at his hip. “Are you going to punch me again, Parker? Add a few more stitches to my face?”
Joe’s jaw bulged out with what I could possibly decipher as withheld rage. “Not intending to stoop to your level.”
“You’re already on a different level beneath me. I don’t stop caring about the woman who stood beside me for years just because another aspect of my life isn’t going so great. She worried for you every day but you didn’t even bother to answer her texts to let her know you won’t be going home. She was craving your attention and affection but you didn’t even try to make time for her. You neglected her and left her all alone because you were selfish enough not to bother much about how she was doing and what she needed.”
“Luc, you know I cared so much about you. You know it was never my intention to hurt you. Those aren’t your words but his, right?”
I didn’t answer.
