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“Thank you for reconsidering that offer. I thought it might be nice to meet with Alex, informally, this week. I wondered what your planswere.”
“I’m free, except Fridayevening.”
“I know he’s available for lunch tomorrow. I just want you to sit down with him and chat. He’s excited to meetyou.”
“You already told him aboutme?”
“I told him you were a possible candidate,” she said with asmile.
“My reservations come, not because I don’t think I can grasp what’s required, but more to do with letting you down if I can’t cutit.”
“You wouldn’t have been considered, Lauren, if we didn’t believe you could. You should have a little more faith inyourself.”
“And the fact Jerry said he wanted to ensure I still had a job,” Isaid.
“Whenever we take over a company there are always members of staff the owner wants to ensure stays. The deal would not have been done had we not agreed with his demands, however, we wouldn’t deal if we didn’t agree.” She laughed when she’d finished hersentence.
“He is rather demanding, isn’the?”
“I really like him, and I know Mackenzie wants to keep a relationship withhim.”
“I have to say, I was surprised Jerry took on a partner, let alone sold out. This has been his life for so manyyears.”
“I guess the offer was just too good not to accept. At the end of the day, one man can only take a business so far. And the prudent thing is to always bail out on a high offer, while still at the top of thegame.”
Jenny returned with two takeout containers fromCosta.
“I got black, I didn’t know what you wanted,” she said as she placed them on thedesk.
“Thank you, black is perfect for me,” Gabriellasaid.
“I’m honoured that you have such belief in me,” Isaid.
“You know, sometimes it’s great to take yourself out of your comfort zone, try newthings.”
I blinked a couple of times.Were we still talking about the job?Ithought.
“That’s what I’mdoing.”
We chatted a little more about the companies she controlled, and then she surprisedme.
“I started off the same as you, Lauren. The man I was desperately in love with had been killed in a car crash, and for a long while I was totally lost. Mackenzie took me under his wing and look at menow.”
How had Mackenzie taken you under his wing?I wanted toask.
Was that what he was doing to me? I shook the thought from my mind; I wasn’t goingthere.
“Well, I need to get across London in less than ten minutes,” she said, and thenlaughed.
She stood, we said goodbye and then sheleft.
I liked Gabriella, she was honest, clearly a good businesswoman, and someone I’d aspire to. But I was curious as to how she’d gotten to her position. I mentally slapped myself, wasn’t that very thought the same as I received? Didn’t it piss meoff?
It was one of the things that I hated the most. My experience was that women didn’t often support their female colleagues, especially if one was rising up the ranks. I made a vow never to be that woman. I vowed to be likeGabriella.
I thought back on what Mackenzie had said, about giving respect. Maybe, because I was so isolated, because I was on guard all the time, I did come across aloof. I didn’t support my female colleagues; perhaps I was just getting back what they perceived Igave.
I carried on with my day, making a point to take a moment to say goodnight to my team as they left for theevening.
