C H A P T E R N I N E
IT WAS ONE MINUTE PAST SEVEN IN THE MORNING WHEN LAURIE
arrived in the o ce. There were no lights on in the hallway as she stepped out of the executive elevator, though she’d specifically told Jack to arrive at seven sharp. She drew in her breath, ready to launch into a muttered tirade about her young portfolio manager’s lack of work ethic when she saw a shadow move in the darkened foyer. It was Jack, waiting beside her o ce door with a co ee in hand.
“I see you managed to squeak in on time.” Laurie gave Jack a curt nod and took the co ee, fully prepared to send it back to add milk—not half and half—but it was the perfect shade of tan. She even noticed a small splash of white in the middle. It was what happened when the milk was poured in and carried from the co ee room without stirring. It was how Laurie always fixed it for herself, not bothering to waste unnecessary time with a spoon and instead letting the liquid blend itself with each footstep. How had the woman known this trick without being told? It felt very… domestic. Laurie wasn’t sure how to feel about the realization.
She opened her mouth, ready to bark out an order for Jack to bring her the reports she’d requested via email at three o’clock that morning, then snapped her jaw shut. They were already there, perfectly printed and neatly stacked, even
though producing that many pages had to have taken at least thirty minutes. Exactly how early had Jack gotten in?
More importantly, where was the rest of her team?
“Where’s Andy?” she called out. “And Marian?”
Marian should be the one bringing her co ee, not Jack.
Laurie reached for her phone and was immediately met with the reminder that it was a weekend, which she’d temporarily forgotten. Laurie didn’t believe in weekends, not when there were deadlines to be met. And Toby’s return, which he’d inexplicably delayed by a week much to Laurie’s relief, was an unmissable deadline. She needed to have a solid plan of attack outlined for the Othonos bid the minute he walked through the door, something to blindside him with so he would agree to follow her reasoned approach instead of insisting on whatever nonsensical methods he had come up with during two weeks of day drinking in a pub with his golf buddies in Scotland. As she plunked the device back on her desk, Jack poked her head through the open doorway.
“Andy’s home sick with the flu.”
“Is that man flu or regular flu?” Laurie quipped.
“As for Marian, it’s the twins’ christening today,” Jack informed her, showing the good sense to refrain from pointing out the more obvious answer, that it was Sunday.
“I don’t see why I should have to su er because of that,”
Laurie replied, more to cover her own tracks about having forgotten the day of the week than out of any actual desire that Marian would skip such an important family occasion.
Even Laurie wouldn’t demand that from her most loyal employee.
Jack, who obviously wasn’t a mind reader, fixed her with a cold stare. “As a first-time grandmother, she could hardly be expected to miss it.”
“Well, thank goodness she only has the one daughter, whom I assume won’t be giving birth again anytime soon.”
As Jack continued to stare at her, Laurie broke eye contact and turned to her computer. “I’ve emailed you a task list for the day, and you’ll have to cover for Andy, too. If you want to be out of here before midnight, I suggest you get to it.”
As Jack retreated, no doubt still wearing a stark look of disapproval, Laurie silently chastised herself for taking her bad mood out on the young woman. No, bad wasn’t the word.
It was more like a growing sense of dread, bordering on panic. She’d been so confident that she was ready to return to the o ce. She’d taken the Othonos deal as a sign. Yet here she was, two weeks into it, and what did she have to show for her e orts? One member of her team was out with man flu, another was at church, and at the rate she was going, she’d probably drive Jack to quit by lunchtime.
Meanwhile, for all the hard work poured into it, the meat of the proposal remained elusive. Getting her stepson to agree to follow her lead on this pitch was always destined to be an uphill battle, but without a truly brilliant idea to wow Othonos, she was toast. Toby would have no reason to cooperate, and every incentive to undermine her. She had exactly twenty-four hours left to figure something out, or Laurie might as well hop the next plane back to that private island resigned to the fact Toby would drive Emerson o a cli . Laurie rifled through the stack of reports on her desk, but instinct told her none of them contained the answers she needed.
“Jack!” It took every ounce of her control, but Laurie managed not to bellow or bark. She was rewarded with the sight of a brunette head poking through the doorway, as if she’d been waiting for the call.
“Yes?” The reply was cautious but not fearful, letting Laurie know she’d been successful in dialing back her more menacing overtones. Instilling respect in her employees was
a good thing, but they’d accomplish a lot more in less time if her young portfolio manager wasn’t quaking in her boots.
“We need to brainstorm some ideas. Please,” she added, though she refrained from smiling, as there was no reason to overdo it. “Could you put aside your Millennial love for gadgets long enough to get some old-fashioned paper?
Laptops are fine, but I really prefer paper for this kind of thing.”
“I thought you might say that.” Jack waved a yellow notepad in the air. Good lord, she’d even grabbed up the proper kind of pens, the ones with a thin tip and smooth-flowing ink. In three colors, no less. Was the woman psychic all of a sudden?
“Let’s settle over there.” Laurie waved to the conference table on the far side of the room.
Jack placed her laptop to the side of the table, setting the pens and paper down in the middle, but didn’t sit. “Do you need a fresh co ee?”
“I was just thinking that.” Definitely psychic. Laurie experienced an unexpected moment of hesitation. “It’s really not your job to fetch my co ee.”
“I know.” Jack took the mug and left the room. When she returned, she’d balanced two mugs on a plastic tray, on which she’d also put an assortment of fresh fruit, a couple of everything bagels, and a tub of cream cheese.
Well, well, well. Did this mean the woman wasn’t planning on quitting by lunch, after all? Or running out for co ee breaks with the competition, Laurie thought, a cloud momentarily darkening her mood. What had that been about, really? She’d recognized Carmen Vega immediately. Bay State Bank and Trust was too small an operation to pose a real threat, but Laurie still thought it prudent to keep up on the key players. She’d be lying if she said seeing Jack there with the woman hadn’t made her feel a twinge or two of…
something. Not jealousy, surely. No, that was ridiculous. It’s not like Laurie could forbid Jack to have co ee with other women, no matter how attractive they might be.
Wait, why would she care about that?
I don’t. Laurie reached for a blueberry from their shared plate and popped it into her mouth. Of course, I don’t. “What we need is a proposal for Othonos that’s so revolutionary no one else will dare to propose it.”
Jack nodded. “He’s not your typical billionaire, after all.”
“What does that even mean?” Laurie hadn’t intended to say it sharply, but her own frustration at not yet churning out any revolutionary ideas added an edge to her tone.
Jack, however, continued unfazed. “Simply that adding to his wealth alone won’t cut it. We’ll have to give him something he wants to get his attention.”
“He doesn’t want money?”
“No, at least not only that. From the research I did on him, he has a heart in a way that not many rich people do.”
“Hey.” Laurie warned, at the same time touching a hand to her throat.
“Present company excluded, of course,” Jack added with a wry grin. “So you can stop clutching those pearls, Blair.”
“
That’s…” She clamped the o ending hand firmly against her thigh. “I wasn’t,,,”
Jack burst out into a loud gu aw. Damn it, why did Laurie find this insolent waif so charming? If anyone else had said that to her, she’d have fired them on the spot, or maybe used the fruit platter to make a nice display for their severed head.
But not Jack. When Jack was insulting, it made Laurie want to laugh. “He’s di cult to read. I’ll give you that. I’m used to bottom-line investors, the type who, deep down, regret that modern labor laws prevent them from sending children into mines to use their nimble little fingers to extract resources.”
“It worries me how quickly you came up with that example.” Jack wiggled her fingers. “I’d better keep an eye on these, in case they give you any nefarious ideas.”
They were giving her ideas, all right. Laurie’s internal temperature spiked as she recalled exactly how talented those fingers could be. She cleared her throat and gave Jack her sternest look. “Mideast oil is o the table, obviously.”
“You know,” Jack o ered in a conversational tone, “one of my business school buddies set up a hedge fund in London. He was very smug.”
“Oh?” Laurie’s attention was already drifting. Smug hedge fund managers were hardly a novelty.
“An energy fund.” Jack paused a beat. “In 2015.”
Laurie winced when she heard the year. “What a colossal fuckup.”
“Right? Between OPEC maneuvering and the Paris Climate Agreement—”
“The energy market shifted permanently,” Laurie said, completing the sentence. She was fully engaged in the conversation now. “How did he not see that coming?”
“The stupidest part is I heard he spent the whole summer playing frisbee in Kensington Gardens instead of figuring out a new plan. His family was rich, though. They bailed him out and flew him home, along with his Great Dane.”
“Sounds like a typical spoiled brat of hardworking parents.” Laurie thought of all the times she wanted to tell Bonnie to be careful about Toby but didn’t, knowing it could lead to marriage troubles. “If we needed examples of how not to succeed, that story would be perfect.”
Jack shrugged. “Depends on his goal. I’m sure he got plenty of women. I manage an energy hedge fund makes a great pickup line in bars, no matter what the reality of the market might be at the moment. Most people don’t have a clue what’s true, as long as it sounds good.”
Laurie shot her a look. “You seem quite the expert. I’m starting to think picking up women in bars wasn’t a one-time thing for you.”
Jack opened her mouth then shut it again. Laurie scribbled notes on the yellow paper and clicked away at her laptop, furious at herself for the sudden awkwardness. She’d been joking, of course, but now that Jack had made such a show of not responding, half of her wanted to know why.
The other half wasn’t certain she could take the answer.
What did the lesbian singles scene even look like these days?
The closest frame of reference she had was some episodes of the new L Word reboot she’d managed to stream on sabbatical. Laurie shuddered. She was pretty sure times had changed way more than she was ready for.
An hour passed. Neither made eye contact, nor did they speak except to occasionally call out an investment idea, which the other would invariably swat away like a fly at a picnic.
Jack stretched her arms overhead. “I need to move.”
“There are more chairs at the table.”
“No good.” Jack stood and began pacing the room. “I’d still be sitting, just with a di erent view.”
With a sigh, Laurie pushed her laptop away from her. Her own neck was sti , and her shoulders felt like someone was taking a blowtorch to the muscles. “I guess we could take a break for a few minutes. No longer, though, or we won’t make enough progress.”
“We’re not making much progress now,” Jack pointed out. She was right. They were no closer to that much needed stroke of genius than they’d been before lunch. “I think better when doing something else, like playing tennis.”
“Tennis?” Laurie crossed her arms as she leaned back in her chair, stretching her legs out in front of her. “Sure. Why
don’t we break and head out to the country club for the rest of the afternoon?”
Instead of being cowed into submission, Jack snapped her fingers. “Ping-pong!”
“What?” The woman was saying nonsense words. She was far too young to have had an aneurism, right?
Jack grinned. “There’s a ping-pong table on the fourteenth floor.”
“So?” Laurie folded her arms over her chest. “That floor’s not ours. It’s been sublet.”
“To a tech start-up, I know. We were invited down there for an ice cream social last summer.”
“Emerson employees went to an ice cream social?” Laurie was having a hard time wrapping her head around such an unprofessional image.
“Come on.” Jack held out a hand, urging Laurie up. “Let’s go play. It’ll do both of us some good.”
“This is pointless,” Laurie argued, even as she took Jack’s hand and allowed herself to be pulled from her o ce and down the hall. Somehow, letting go of hands didn’t occur to either of them until they stood in front of the elevators.
“Every floor is secured on weekends. Our badges won’t work.”
“You’re right.” Instead of heading back to the o ce, Jack reached for Laurie’s hand again and dragged her toward a side hallway. “I happen to know the back entrance via the emergency stairwell isn’t working.”
“How do you know this?”
“I have my sources.” Jack pushed the door open and proceeded to bounce down the stairs at lightning speed. She paused at the landing as Laurie struggled to catch up.
“What’s the worst that can happen?”
“We get arrested for trespassing.” In all honesty, Laurie hadn’t been holding back out of concern for consequences.
She was winded. There hadn’t been a lot of stairs in her beachside bungalow.
“Don’t you own the building?” Jack spoke the words as a challenge, one that immediately got Laurie’s blood pumping even harder.
“Technically, but…”
“But, what?”
“It’s not exactly something I’ve done before.”
“Ping-pong or trespassing?”
“Both.”
“Which one scares you more?” Jack smirked. “It’s the ping-pong, isn’t it? You’re afraid you’ll lose.”
Laurie’s back straightened, her chin jutting into the air.
“I won’t lose.”
“Then come with me.” Jack took her hand again—how many times was that now? “A little exercise and danger will get our brains moving. I swear it works every time.”
Laurie dug in her heels as Jack tugged her arm. “I’ll look ridiculous if it gets out that I broke into a tenant’s o ce space to play games like some college freshman.”
Instead of giving up, Jack’s eyes twinkled with mischief.
“Tell you what. If neither one of us gets a winning idea during ping-pong, I’ll pull an all-nighter to make up for wasting your precious thirty minutes.”
Laurie pressed her lips together to keep from giving away how amused she was. “I’ll take that wager.”
“Thought you might. It’s a win-win. Either I come up with the solution to our problem, or you get to spend the night with me.” Eyes doubling in size, Jack rushed to add,
“With our clothes on this time. I mean, with—”
Laurie sucked in her cheeks. Not laughing while Jack squirmed was almost impossible. “Stop digging your grave, and lead the way.”
After descending ten flights, they arrived at a metal fire door that swung open with a gentle push, as Jack had said it would. Flipping on the lights, Laurie’s eyes panned the tech start-up’s interior. It looked nothing like a proper o ce. She noted the open floor plan with distaste, its brightly colored bean bags and swinging chairs… “Is
this a daycare? You can’t possibly expect me to believe that adults work here.”
“They’re adult enough that they’ve raised twenty-five million in Series A funding. Investors include: Bain Capital Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Y Combinator, and Partech to name a few.” Jack ticked them o one by one on her fingers.
“The energy market and now tech companies.” Laurie cocked her head to the side, studying the woman intently.
There was a lot more going on in her pretty head than Laurie would’ve guessed. “You do keep your fingers in many pots.”
“Knowledge is power.” Jack crossed the room and picked up a paddle from the ping-pong table. She waved for Laurie to grab hers. “Do you know the rules?”
“Oddly, I do.” Visions of summers spent playing the game with cousins in her grandmother’s garage as a child flooded Laurie’s memory, but she saw no need to share details.
“I thought you said you’d never played before.” Jack arched an eyebrow when Laurie shrugged. “Play to 21?”
Laurie nodded.
Jack served. Laurie smacked the ball into the bottom of the net.
“This should be easy.” Jack set her paddle down and rolled up her sleeves.
“If you believed that, you wouldn’t be readying for battle over there.” As she said it, Laurie shed her cardigan and placed it on a nearby chair.
“And what about you? Does your undressing mean war has been declared?”
“Oh, I did that the minute I agreed to your cockamamie plan. I do look forward to you pulling that all-nighter, though.”
“Cockamamie, huh? I’m going to make you regret saying that.” Jack tapped the side of her head with the paddle. “I can feel the idea bubbling under the surface even as we speak. It’s only a matter of time now.”
She served again. This time Laurie deftly knocking it back into the left-hand corner, clipping the edge in such a way Jack couldn’t return it. It had been over thirty years since the last time she’d played, but her old moves were surging back to life.
“I believe it’s my serve now.” As Laurie held out her hand for the plastic ball, her words dripped with triumph.
Jack bounced the ball Laurie’s way with a bit more energy than could strictly be considered friendly. “It’d be rude not to let my boss score at least one point.”
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