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Five minutes later, the knock returned, and I rose to open the door.
As I opened it I found Josh, looking like a puppy that had been locked outside all night.
“You make any progress?” he asked, walking past me.
I hadn’t made any progress buying Tiffany's, which is what he meant. “No. It's not gonna happen. They're just dead set against having to report to anybody else.”
Josh took a chair, inviting himself to stay as usual. “Didn't you explain all the benefits of joining us?”
I glared back at him. “Blow me. Of course I did.” I sat behind my desk. What I didn't need right now was more inane commentary.
Josh took a deep breath. “They'll be back when they find out they can’t get anywhere near the price they'd like from anybody else.”
I knew that wasn't going to be the case, but I couldn't explain why to Josh right now. He didn't need to know I’d offered to put my own money into their company.
“That won't be happening. We need to move on to Springbok.”
Josh brightened. “Good thing I set up the meeting then. You're scheduled for dinner with them Saturday night.”
Way too soon for me. “Saturday?”
“We agreed that Springbok was Plan B, and we need to get moving. They’ll love you.”
I nodded silently. Amy hadn’t committed, and if I couldn’t convince her, I would be out of options.
* * *
Amy
“Can you say that again?”Samantha asked. “Slower this time.”
I slid off my shoes. I had walked back from the Quigley-Fulton office to our building to try to compose my thoughts, and my feet were reminding me how bad an idea it had been.
“Liam Quigley, the head of Quigley-Fulton,” I repeated slowly, “is willing to invest twenty million of his own money in us. On top of that, he’ll give us a proxy for his twenty-five percent voting rights.”
Samantha's eyes lit up. She understood how important that would be going forward, and also how unusual. “That part I understood. It all sounds great, but you said something about a condition.”
She was not going to understand this any more easily than I had when he’d first said it.
“The condition is…” I started, unsure exactly how to say it without getting laughed at. “I have to be his girlfriend for a few months.” It almost sounded normal when I said it out loud, but of course it wasn't.
Samantha's mouth dropped. “I can't let you prostitute yourself like that.”
My first reaction had been pretty much the same. “No, it's not for sex——”
“That's what they all say,” she interrupted.
“He needs me to help him close an acquisition.”
Samantha cocked her head. “And you believe him? It’s the screwiest thing I’ve ever heard.”
That was certainly a legitimate question.
“Yes. I do.” He’d promised me.
By any objective measure, I didn’t know him well enough to judge his truthfulness, but my intuition told me I could trust him, and what choice did we have?
“You sure he doesn't need you to tie him up and whip him or something equally kinky?”
