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No. No, no, no.
I wasn’t going to take the bait and get into a discussion about my work with him.
I sidestepped that and retorted, “I’m not vacating this building for work that can be done while I’m using it andpaying rentto use it.”
“First up then is changing the locks so you can’t access the building while the work is being done. I’ll reimburse you for a week’s rent.”
My eyes narrowed. “Is this your new ploy to shut me down?”
“No, it’s my ploy to make sure you can do your work without someone coming in and stealing all your shit and or doing something hideous to you if they show while you’re in here working.”
All right, the neighborhood wasn’t the greatest. It was in a borough of New York City, one of the biggest cities in the world. One could argue every part of NYC could be dicey.
But it wasn’t Syria, no matter what he said. Not even close.
“I’ve had this space for two years without incident.”
“You’ll have it for two more with less chance to court an incident.”
“I’m a native New Yorker, Mr. Wheeler, I know how to look after myself.”
“Did you miss the part where I said this isn’t up for discussion?” he asked.
Another nugget of news: He sure was pretty. And an absolute asshole.
One thing I knew was that I could not go dark when I had three huge offers on the table.
I could find some temporary space, but that would be a pain in the ass. And it wasn’t like I could tape my segments days in advance. Celebrity news waited for no woman. I couldn’t be talking about Prince Harry when Harry Styles was up to something.
As I thought all of this, Hale watched me.
He then said, “If you’re that bent out of shape about it, I’ll relocate you at my expense while the work is being done.”
If I was that bent out of shape?
“Thank you so much for that offer, which I will accept, considering it’s the least you can do when you’re shutting me out of space you’re contractually obligated to allow me to use for the purposes I’m using it,” I returned. “But allow me to register my complaint at terminology such as ‘bent out of shape’ about you feeling you can allow or disallow me to work at all.”
Hale ignored that and declared, “And we’re filming our interview on Saturday. Forward the questions you intend to ask me tomorrow so I can have a look at them.”
On the one hand, I wanted to jump at this. It was the perfect excuse to get out of dinner with my family. Even Mom wouldn’t turn her nose up at me missing dinner because I was interviewing Hale Wheeler at his father’s penthouse apartment.
On the other hand, as big as this interview was going to be—and it was going to be huge, he might have his office make statements to the press, but he’d never sat down to an interview like the one I intended to capture—after this friendly tête-à-tête, I didn’t want to be in his presence again for oh…I didn’t know. Twenty years, at least.
“I’m booked on Saturday,” I lied.
He studied me.
I held his stare and fought the need to cross my arms on my chest protectively.
Then he said, “We either do this shit on Saturday, or it doesn’t happen at all. We made a deal. I don’t renege on deals. You’ve ignored my communications or sidestepped making plans for an entire fuckingyear. If you can’t do Saturday, I’ll accept that as you reneging on our deal.”
Dammit, dammit, dammit.
I couldn’t lose this interview.
An interview like this could add another zero to the negotiations I was currently in.
Seriously.
