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"You're right. I needed you to rescue me, thank you Ethan." Nyla said and touched his cheek for a moment before a car alarm going off broke their connection.
"Anytime, Nyla, anytime." Ethan said grinning, and opened the car door for her.
THE END
Snowed In With A Billionaire
Another participant had just dialed in. "Good afternoon. May I have your name and title?"
"Bill McConnell, CEO."
"Thank you, Mr. McConnell, you are now checked into the sub-conference. Is there anything you need?"
"I was about to ask you the same question. Do you have everything you need?"
"Yes, thank you sir, I believe I do." The IR guy and call leader, Donnie Kingman, had spent ten minutes giving her updates to her script and griping about how much he hated earnings calls. She didn't say that, though. Rather she replied, "I have all the updates Mr. Kingman, and nearly all the participants have checked in. I expect the rest will be dialing in any moment now."
"Good. Good. And your name is?"
"Amanda." She could hear the scratch of pen on paper.
"I like to know so we can use your name during the call, Amanda" he explained. "I think it makes us seem friendlier, more personal."
"I agree, sir."
"This is your first time with Forlanie, isn't it? Are you new?"
"Yes, sir. And this is my first earnings call," she said, neatly avoiding the wider aspect of his question. It was her first week working as a conference operator. This was, in fact, her first really big, important call. She'd done a couple of inter-office calls for various companies, but that was just signing people in and making sure the right people got heard at the right time. This call was different, and though she'd never have admitted it to a stranger, particularly one who was paying her salary, Amanda was a little nervous.
"Don't let anyone rattle you. Sometimes the callers can be aggressive. Just be firm with them. Donnie will give you your cues. He's very good about that even if he does come across like a cranky bear."
"Good to know. Thank you." She did appreciate the pep talk and the humor. Mr. McConnell had a nice, baritone voice, and it calmed her.
"Good, well done. I'll let you go about your business, now, and talk to you on the other side."
"Thank you, sir."
Once she'd put him on music hold, Amanda went down her checklist of things to do. She double-checked the script, signed a few more people into the conference, and went over the company roster of speakers. It lacked a minute to the start time, and one of the management speakers still hadn't checked in with her. At ten she made a quick announcement about checking in more participants, and paged Donnie Kingman, a tenor with a light Texas accent and a gruff manner.
"Are you not ready to start?" he asked. He sounded miffed.
"Mr. O'Dowd hasn't checked in yet, Mr. Kingman." she told him. O'Dowd was the Chief Operations Officer.
"Oh for Chrissake, he's forgotten to dial in again. I'll take care of it."
A minute later the COO dialed into the sub conference, and Kingman said, "Let's get rolling. Time is money."
Amanda took a deep breath. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Forlanie Resort Group's twenty-fifteen fourth quarter and year-end earnings conference call," she said into her microphone. "At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the opening remarks, management will be available for questions. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. And now I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Donald Kingman, Director of Investor Relations for Forlanie. Please go ahead, Mr. Kingman."
"Thank you, Amanda," Kingman said, and Amanda switched off her mic and sat back with a sigh. She'd done it perfectly and had sounded very professional. She was grateful to have done a little voice-over work in commercials in the past. It had taught her how to read through practically anything.
She listened to the opening remarks, following the outline she'd been given. After Kingman spoke, Mr. McConnell took the floor. He had a nice voice, too, kind of dark and a little rough as if he'd just been sipping brandy. She was sensitive to voices because she'd done so much voice work over the last few years. Bill McConnell could have done voice-overs if he wasn't CEO of some big company. If he was ever desperate for money he could record sexy audio books. Not that a guy as wealthy as Bill McConnell would ever have to scratch for a living.
The financial guy spoke after McConnell. He had an unfortunate voice thanks to a combination of a heavy New York accent, and a tendency to speak much too fast. He also sounded kind of spitty to Amanda, the sort of guy who sprayed when he talked. By comparison to McConnell, the poor guy sounded like someone's idiot cousin.
Someone else spoke after Mr. Spitty, and then turned the call over to McConnell for a few final remarks. When he finished, she would be starting the question and answer session, so she perked up a bit.
"And now we'd like to open up the call to your questions," McConnell said. "Over to you, Amanda."
