Aubrey couldn’t hide her mild embarrassment over the task she’d been given by Victoria. “It feels a lot like I’m stalking you.”
Mr. Clarke dismissed the idea of being stalked with a wave of his hand. “You know you don’t have to do that. Whenever you want to meet, I’m all yours.”
Aubrey seized the moment and went for broke. “How about right now? Can I have an hour of your time, right now?”
An unwelcome look passed across Mr. Clarke’s face. “Victoria sent you to try and save her deal, didn’t she?”
Aubrey knew better than to lie. Mr. Clarke would be more likely to listen if she told the truth from the outset. “She did send me here.” Aubrey decided on complete transparency despite the fact she saw Michael, Victoria’s spy, texting away on his cell phone as she spoke. Whatever she said would make it back to Victoria word for word. If she had any desire to keep her job, she would have to tread carefully. “In fact, she told me if I didn’t succeed, I wouldn’t have a job.” And there it was, Aubrey made a mental note to herself to update her resume in the truck on the way back to Timberville. Fortunately, she had a copy saved on the hard drive of her laptop.
Mr. Clarke smiled at Aubrey. “Are you trying to make me feel sorry for you, so I go forward with the deal? Because if you are, it’s not a bad ploy. It won’t work, but I do appreciate the honesty enough to give you five minutes.” Mr. Clarke glanced at his watch as if noting the time. “Go ahead.”
It was the moment to put all her cards on the table and see what happened. “Actually, I’d like to talk you into…” Here Aubrey broke her eyes away from Mr. Clarke and focused them on Michael for a full second. She wanted to make sure he was caught up and would be able to make an exact transcription. “Not selling your company at all.”
Mr. Clarke’s jaw dropped. He’d been in this game for sixty years and had all but given up on being surprised by other people’s actions. Aubrey just surprised him. “Are you serious?”
Aubrey knew she had his attention now. “As a heart-attack.”
“Well, this is the most unorthodox offer I’ve ever fielded. And I am intrigued. How much of my time would you require?”
“An hour should do it,” Aubrey replied.
Mr. Clarke was the owner of his company. He could carve out an unexpected hour if he wanted to do it. “Then an hour you shall have.”
Michael took a break from his nonstop texting to interject with an objection. “Tim, we’re five minutes behind schedule as it is. You know what it does to the flight plan when we make unscheduled detours.”
“Michael, this lovely lady would like a few minutes of my time to deliver a business proposal which sounds interesting to me. I see no reason not to give her those few minutes.” Mr. Clarke would pull rank on Michael if he had to, but he hoped that reason would do the job before it came to that.
Michael felt he had to try one more time, “but we’re supposed to be in Gastonia at two o’clock.”
Mr. Clarke realized something did need to be done about the disarray that would descend on his schedule if he gave Aubrey the time she requested. “An excellent point, Michael. Please call Gloria personally, and let her know we will not be coming today. Tell her I will give her a call from the plane to listen to the presentation she prepared. Then check with home office to see when I can reschedule the visit and send out an email to all concerned parties confirming the new date and time.”
This wasn’t what Michael aimed at when he brought up the Gastonia visit, but he’d now been given orders. He had to execute them or risk bringing his insubordination into the open where it wouldn’t function well with his current double agent gig. “Yes, sir.”
“Do you have any suggestions on a place where we can sit and talk? If not, we can probably use the conference room in the store here.”
When Aubrey didn’t immediately respond, Kyle piped up. “Do you like cheeseburgers, Tim?”
“Like ‘em, when Mrs. Clarke was still alive, she always swore I’d turn into one if I didn’t eat something else.” Mr. Clarke extended his hand toward Kyle. “Thank you for calling me Tim, son. Now, what can I call you?”
Aubrey rushed in to perform the introduction. “I’m sorry Mr.….” Aubrey shook her head. The familiar form of address was going to be tough to crystalize. “Tim, this is my…”
Twice in the same thought Aubrey tripped over her sentence completion skills. Kyle stepped in to rescue her. “Childhood friend. My name is Kyle Morgan. I volunteered to give Aubrey a ride because of the snow-covered roads.”
“A true knight in shining four-wheel drive. Well, any friend of Aubrey’s is also a friend of mine.” Mr. Clarke gave Kyle a conspiratorial smile. “And I believe you were just about to tell me where I could get a good cheeseburger.”
“Yes, sir. I sure was,” Kyle replied.
*
Aubrey, Kyle, and Mr. Clarke sat in a table near the enormous plate glass front windows of a little diner type sandwich shop called The Cutting Board. From that vantage point they had a great view of the storefront sidewalk, and all the people who passed by bundled up against the cold.
If there were ever an international contest for most Christmas decorations per square foot, this place would be a finalist. It was almost as though someone in charge in this little sandwich shop went over to Mr. Clarke’s store and bought two of everything. Perched on the ledge of the booth, where Aubrey and Kyle sat facing Mr. Clarke, were two-foot-tall replicas of Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Someone in the sandwich shop had pushed them together so they appeared to be holding hands. The ledge of Mr. Clarke’s side of the booth was garnished with eight tiny reindeer pulling a sleigh with a jolly old elf.
Mr. Clarke was taking the first bite of his cheeseburger, while Kyle looked at him expectantly—hoping he had not steered Mr. Clarke’s taste buds wrong by suggesting this place. For his part, Mr. Clarke chewed while nodding his appreciation to Kyle. As soon as he had the bite swallowed, his eyes connected with Kyle’s. “You have a lifetime pass in recommending restaurants to me, son. This is the best cheeseburger I’ve ever had.”
Kyle breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Tim. Remember this place the next time you’re visiting your store.”
“I most certainly will.” Mr. Clarke turned his attention to Aubrey. “Can you go through the details of your proposal and eat at the same time?”
Aubrey shook her head yes as she swallowed a French fry dipped in ketchup. “I’ve always been an expert at multi-tasking.”
“Alright then, let me hear it. But start with how you ended up all the way down here in Virginia. Please don’t tell me Victoria put you on a plane just to come track me down?” Mr. Clarke took another bite out of his burger. He liked it so much he was being aggressive with it, almost like the burger insulted him.
“Oh no, I was already in Virginia visiting my family for the week. It just happened to work out that my mom only lives about forty miles from this store. When Victoria heard you were going to be in Marion, she told me to come over here and give you the hard sell.” Now that Aubrey was sitting here committed to seeing this idea of hers through to its conclusion, she pulled no punches.
“Speaking of that, how did she hear I was in Marion?” Mr. Clarke had his suspicions but wanted confirmation.
Aubrey was circumspect. She wasn’t trying to protect Michael; she just didn’t think it was her place to expose him. “Not sure exactly on that one, but Victoria did make it pretty clear she had a contact within your company.”
“Probably Michael.” Mr. Clarke smiled at the knowledge his top lieutenant was the one most likely responsible for selling him out. “I’ve been telling myself for over a year now I need to let him go, but I just love his wife and two daughters so much. I mean, I can’t hold them responsible for the actions of their father, can I?”
Aubrey shrugged her shoulders. Mr. Clarke, by signaling he was already on to Michael, made it easier for her to confirm his traitorous relationship with her company. “You may be right abou
t the source of the information leak.”
Mr. Clarke thought about it for a moment as he chewed up another bite of burger. “Probably means he’s arranged some sort of kick back deal with Victoria if the sale still goes through.” Mr. Clarke put the rest of his burger down on his plate. It was time for him to display the tough side of his persona that only came out when necessary. “Aubrey, I like you, I really do. That’s the only reason I agreed to have lunch with you. To be honest, you remind me of me when I was your age. But as I told Victoria over the phone, I’ve withdrawn my offer to sell my company. I am aware this means I will face some severe monetary penalties. The truth is I just don’t think Cypress Equity and Clarke’s Department Stores are a good fit.”
Aubrey allowed herself to laugh. “I know you don’t believe this yet, but neither do I.”
Mr. Clarke picked up his burger and was halfway to his mouth with it when Aubrey finished her sentence. It made him pause. “You mean you didn’t say that stuff back in the store just to get me to come here with you.”
“Not at all. I meant what I said when we were in your store. I definitely do not think you should sell your company.”
Mr. Clarke was baffled. “This can’t be coming from Victoria.”
“Oh no. I should probably call her and give her my two-weeks’ notice, but I hear the unemployment benefits are better if you get fired.” Aubrey couldn’t have told you where this overwhelming nonchalance about losing her job came from. “I’m afraid I fit the textbook definition of going rogue. I’m finished at Cypress Equity as soon as Victoria finds out. I’m hoping my friend Kyle over here will hire me even though I have no experience in the field of construction.”
Kyle chimed in immediately. “Done.” He checked his watch. “You can start right now in fact.”
Aubrey and Mr. Clarke both chuckled. “Smart move, son.” Mr. Clarke turned his attention back to Aubrey, “Okay, I’m listening. Pitch me what you’ve got.”
Aubrey dove in. She had the sparkle of passion in her eyes just like earlier when she first detailed these ideas to Kyle in his truck. It made her look irresistible. “Your company has the best financials of any I’ve ever evaluated. And I’ve been doing this for seven years now.”
“You must be good at it too. Otherwise, Victoria wouldn’t have trusted you enough to take the lead.” Mr. Clarke said this out loud to help him remember Aubrey’s take on his situation came directly from the person who wanted to bleed his company dry. For that reason, it carried an extra aura of significance.
Aubrey knew when to accept a compliment and also when to build on one that had been delivered. This was such an occasion. “I am very good at it. Which means, I recognize a gold mine when I see one. You deserve way more compensation for the restraint and patience you and your family have shown in growing your business over the last 150 years. A kind of restraint and patience Cypress won’t reciprocate when they tear it all down by closing up and then selling off all your stores. It’s a ploy to soak up all the money they can—like a sponge.”
Mr. Clarke wanted to get to the main point. His respect for Aubrey had grown by leaps and bounds over the course of their conversation since the store, but it was now time to find out what her real objective was. “What are you driving at, Aubrey?”
“I’m saying, I know you’re an amazing businessman. So, why were you ever trying to sell your company at a fraction of what you have to know it’s worth?” Aubrey felt better now that she had gotten it all out.
Mr. Clarke vacillated, “but there are digital infrastructure investments that need to be made.”
Aubrey continued for him. “Those investments are good excuses. They are the main reason Cypress bid so low. I know because I came up with the strategy.”
“Did you know Victoria upped her offer, by half a billion?” Mr. Clarke wondered.
“She told me.” Aubrey answered.
“The investments necessary to get us up to speed online could cost a billion dollars by themselves.” Mr. Clarke knew the numbers by heart.
“Yes, but you own all your property. Can you imagine how easy it will be to raise that capital? Any offer less than four billion is criminal. I could make a 20 percent profit on the resale of the parts in a year or less at that four-billion-dollar figure.”
Mr. Clarke was now very curious about what motivated Aubrey. “Am I missing something?”
“What do you mean?” Aubrey asked.
“I mean, why are you doing this? What’s your angle? I can’t see what you’re gaining by doing this.” Mr. Clarke’s confusion was genuine. Either Aubrey was the most cunning species of business snake he had ever come across, or she was that rarest of human treasures—a wonderful human being. The problem was he couldn’t decide which of those versions of Aubrey was the truth.
“I’m not out for gain.” Aubrey thought about it for a moment. “I guess it was the fact that Victoria asked me to come here and lie to you to try and get her way that turned me against her. Or, put me squarely in your corner versus hers. She wanted me to flat out tell you we wouldn’t fire any of your workers for the first year after the buyout. She wanted me to flat-out lie to you.”
Mr. Clarke finished the scenario without Aubrey’s help. “Of course, she would have begun firing them as soon as the deal when through.”
“Within sixty days. It was part of the plan I devised to run up the profits.” Aubrey paused. She wanted to explain why she was doing what she was doing, but she didn’t want to make herself out to be some sort of saint. This was a delicate needle to thread. “But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t come here and lie to you. I am not that kind of person. I realized on the ride in here with Kyle that I didn’t want to work for a person who would make that kind of request of me. And here we are.”
Mr. Clarke nodded his approval. “I can respect that decision.”
“Can I return the same question back to you?” Aubrey asked.
“You mean, why did I ever think to sell my company for half what it’s worth?”
Aubrey shook her head, yes. “That’s exactly what I mean.”
As Mr. Clarke considered his answer, his face took on a hint of sadness that hadn’t been there before. “Mrs. Clarke, my dear sweet Annette, died over five years ago. The last few years she was alive, she was after me to do what I am doing now—look for a reputable buyer for the company. She wanted us to be able to enjoy the years of hard work we’d put in to the company. I always said I’d get to it… next year.” Mr. Clarke fell silent for several seconds as he wiped a small tear from his right eye. “I was at the office when they called me and told me she passed. It was a Saturday, of course.” Mr. Clarke dabbed at his eye a second time. “I’ve never forgiven myself for that.”
“I’m so sorry.” Aubrey couldn’t hide how much Mr. Clarke’s story affected her.
Mr. Clarke saw through her camouflage. “If I had to guess, I’d say you might know a little bit about not forgiving yourself too.”
Aubrey frowned in order to keep herself from revealing too much. No one ever penetrated her veneer this quickly. Mr. Clarke was a master at reading people. Something about this situation impelled her to trust telling her personal story was appropriate in this context. “I do. My father passed away this summer. I knew he was sick. I just didn’t make the time. I was working on this deal for your company, actually. Somehow, I thought it would be okay. That death would wait until I was ready to make time for it.”
Mr. Clarke completed her thought for her. “Death comes whether we make time for it or not.”
Aubrey and Mr. Clarke share a workaholics anonymous moment together. “I don’t think Mrs. Clarke would want you to do this to the company you two sacrificed so much for.”
“I agree, but it’s not just about her, Aubrey. I have four sons. Did you know that?” When Aubrey shook her head yes, Mr. Clarke continued as if that proved his point. “Of course, you do. You are an expert acquisitions analyst. That means you also know none of my sons wants to have anything
to do with my company. Not one of them is interested in taking over what I spent so much of my life and effort building for them.” Mr. Clarke’s head sank for a minute as he marinated in the idea his sons didn’t want to join the family business. “Don’t get me wrong. I love them with all my heart, but not one of them will be joining me for Christmas this year. Busy taking vacations with minor celebrities.”
Kyle looked at Aubrey and Mr. Clarke. He had seen enough and knew it was time to take charge. “That’s it.”
“What’s it,” Mr. Clarke asked, confused.
“You’re coming home with us.” Kyle commanded.
“With you?” Mr. Clarke asked.
“With us?” Aubrey matched Mr. Clarke’s level of confusion.
“That’s right. It’s Christmas in Timberville for you Mr. Clarke.” Kyle directed this next to Aubrey, “you have a coin?”
“No, why?” Aubrey asked.
“Ask the waiter for one.” Kyle directed.
Aubrey and Mr. Clarke were both getting riled up by all of Kyle’s charge-taking. “Why would I do that?” Aubrey asked.
“We’ve got to flip it.”
Disorientation swarmed Aubrey. “Kyle, what on earth are you talking about?”
“We have to flip a coin to see if he’s staying with your mom or my mom.” Kyle laid out the entirety of his plan like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“But I have to be in Raleigh.” Mr. Clarke interjected.
Kyle was as abrupt as he could be. “Call them.”
Mr. Clarke continued. “And Michael, and Patricia, and…”
“Call them.” Kyle repeated.
“But the plane, and the…”
“Mr. Clarke, Tim… sir?” Kyle looked at Mr. Clarke with perfect patience in his eyes.
“Yes, Kyle?”
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