The Deal

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Okay, let’s order the pizza, and we can get to work while we wait,” I said, excited to see that Anna was taking this so seriously.

  We went over the details of Myer’s Engineering. They were a small firm that was growing rapidly and was in desperate need of trained engineers. They were looking to get into the construction business in the Chicago area, and setting up this deal would be perfect for them. From all the research I’d acquired, it looked like Myer’s Engineering was an amazing firm to work for, and people talked highly about their jobs there. I’d even read a GlassDoor review from a former employee that spoke very highly of the company.

  Anna paid close attention to all the details as we reviewed the documents, press, and financials of the company. I really hoped that having her with me would help soften the negotiations and make the sale a little more palatable to the buyers. Many companies didn’t like the idea of taking over another company because of the feelings of the employees. Even good employees could have a lot of animosity toward the new owners. But with Anna involved in the deal, I hoped they would see how this transition could be very successful.

  When the pizza arrived, Anna and I devoured it like neither of us had eaten all day. The sandwich I’d had on my picnic with Clyde was certainly not enough to keep me feeling full.

  “Did you eat anything today?” I laughed as she grabbed her fourth piece of pizza.

  “No, I slept, and that was it. I’m starving. Sorry for pigging out.”

  “Uh, don’t ever be sorry for eating like a normal human being. I hate when women feel like they can’t eat. You eat, damn it,” I said as I handed her another piece of pizza.

  She laughed at me, but sure enough, she ended up eating it. We stayed up eating and reading the files until eleven o’clock and then both decided to get some sleep so we could be well rested for the meeting in the morning.

  “Wake me up in the morning, please. I tend to sleep through my alarm when I’m really tired,” Anna said as she opened the door to go back to her room.

  “I will. Get some sleep.”

  “I’ll do my best. Okay, I’ll probably be asleep before you even finish picking up those papers.”

  I was probably asleep only shortly after Anna. It was sort of nice to have separate rooms so I could stretch out and relax and not worry about sharing the room. But as I drifted off to sleep, I did think about Anna lying in her bed all alone and how cuddling with her and making love to her was becoming more and more of a priority in my late-night dreams.

  By morning, I finally felt well rested. I hopped into the shower and dialed Anna’s room to make sure she was awake. After getting dressed, I went straight to her room and knocked, but there was no answer. I knocked again, and she peeked out with a towel around her.

  “Sorry, just got out of the shower. Go eat, I’ll catch up.”

  “Okay,” I said without arguing.

  We didn’t have much time to waste, and I definitely didn’t want us to be late for our meeting. I grabbed a few items from the breakfast bar and a coffee as I sat in the large dining area and waited for Anna to come down. Seven-thirty came and went, then seven-forty-five, and finally, it was eight o’clock when she strolled into the room.

  “Damn girl. Are you trying to show me up?”

  “What? This old thing,” she teased as she spun around in her new gray suit.

  It wasn’t a normal gray suit, though. The shirt and jacket were extremely fitted, and she was wearing a red blouse underneath. She had on red heels, and her hair was put up elegantly in a fancy bun. She looked like a businesswoman from some sort of style magazine, and it was impressive.

  “You really do look fabulous. They are going to buy the company for sure.”

  “I’m sure it will be your sales technique that will get them convinced. We better get going, though,” Anna said as she grabbed an apple from my tray. “We don’t want to be late.”

  There were at least six businessmen in the dining area watching Anna as she put the apple to her mouth and bit in. It was erotic and sexy, and I couldn’t turn away, much like the other men in the room. Anna didn’t look like she was trying to be sexy, but damn she was. Her confidence radiated throughout that room, and with each bite of her apple, she had one man after another falling for her. I could feel their dagger eyes on me trying to assess if we were a couple or just business partners, and I couldn’t help sliding my arm around her waist as I led her out of the room. She was mine; they couldn’t have her.

  When we arrived at Myer’s Engineering, there was a guy not much older than Anna who greeted us at the door. He wore a pair of jeans and a polo shirt, and he walked us back to the main conference room where we were met with a crowd of lookalikes. This was a very young firm, and the diversity in the room was impressive. Finding women engineers was a difficult task, but Myer’s had three women in the room all of different ethnic origins. The only downside I could see to this company so far was that none of them looked older than thirty.

  As I looked around the room, I quickly started to get nervous. Although I clearly wasn’t that much older than this group of engineers, I was sitting there in a buttoned-up black suit with a white shirt and a navy tie. I couldn’t have looked more traditional if I’d tried.

  “Hi, I’m Jason Hartley, and this is Anna Cook, everyone,” I said in my most upbeat voice.

  “It’s so nice to meet you both,” the man at the head of the table said. “I’m Bryce Myers, and this is the crew. We won’t bore you by going around with introductions. Let’s look at the deal first.”

  This man means business. I liked that, and it terrified me all at the same time. He had nearly the whole office in the meeting with us, and I hadn’t brought that many copies of the information on our engineering department. Luckily, they had enough copies of their proposal to go around.

  “I’m going to let Anna lead you through what we have here. Do you want copies for everyone?” I asked.

  “No, we are good. Go ahead, Anna,” he said as he looked at her to begin.

  I hadn’t actually told Anna that I was going to have her lead the meeting because it hadn’t occurred to me until that very moment. Although she looked at me with a bit of surprise, Anna was a true professional and went right into the information we had about our engineers. Before long, I noticed Bryce and a few other engineers were nodding their head in agreement with Anna as she read through the numbers and specialties of our engineers.

  “Oh, and then there is Salina.” Anna smiled. “She’s been with us forever. My father hired her as a secretary and paid for her to go to college when she said she wanted to become an engineer. She could have chosen to work for any company in the country, but she came back to work with us designing cold storage centers.”

  That was exactly the sort of thing I’d hoped would come from having Anna with me. She might not have realized it, but that sincere statement about Salina could be what sealed the deal on the sale. It made our deal more relatable and much more interesting to a company like Myer’s that worked so hard to provide for their employees.

  After nearly three hours of talking back and forth, Bryce finally handed me a copy of their full proposal with the price they wanted to bid. It was enormous—nearly twice what we had hoped to get for the engineering division. But I had some things that had to be settled first before we could officially accept the offer.

  “Thank you for the offer,” I said. “As you know, this is a big project, and it will be a couple of weeks before we have secured all the final deals. Are you alright with a thirty-day acceptance of this deal?”

  “Of course, and I’d like to come visit with the engineers before we finalize the deal just to let them meet me. I think it will help with the transition. And please relay our intention to keep every single one of them, and we will be providing them with company-covered health care and four weeks of vacation a year.”

  “I’ll let them know.”

  “Anna, what do your father a
nd Marcus think about this deal?” Bryce asked as he turned to Anna.

  Panic set in as I reached over and squeezed Anna’s hand in hopes that she could come up with an appropriate answer. I clenched my jaw and put on a smile as she started to talk. This was the deal changer. If Bryce knew that Edward didn’t have any idea about the sale yet, it might all be over.

  “Bryce, my father has been very interested in retiring for a while. His most important wish is for his employees to be taken care of. Beyond that, he’s always believed in going with the flow for what is best for the company.”

  “So, he doesn’t know about this deal?” Bryce astutely surmised from her answer.

  “He has put his faith in Jason and the team, and he has me here to ensure his interests are covered. Our hope is to get the whole deal put together and surprise him with the news that he will finally get to retire,” Anna said with a huge smile on her face.

  The way she talked to Bryce was admirable for sure. She didn’t lie at all. Every statement was truthful and from the heart, and I knew it was exactly what she hoped would happen when her father found out about the deal. It was what I wanted as well.

  “Okay, well let’s give him his retirement,” Bryce said as he stood up and came over to shake hands with us.

  Anna and I maintained our composure as we said our goodbyes and were walked out of the building by the same young man who had walked us into it. Although we had huge smiles on our faces, neither of us broke character as we got into the car and calmly drove out of the parking lot. It wasn’t until we were a block down the street that we let the excitement out.

  “You did it! Oh, my God, Anna you were amazing,” I yelled as I put our windows down and let one of my hands fly out the window. “You were meant for this. Those guys were eating out of your hands. I honestly can’t believe how smooth that went.”

  “I can’t believe you threw me to the wolves like that.”

  “Sorry, but I’m so proud of you, this is amazing. Did you see how much they offered? It’s unheard of. And they are going to pay for all the benefits and extra vacation. This is the dream company.”

  “My father would be really happy about this. I just hope we can get these kinds of deals from the other companies.”

  “Me too.”

  Chapter 16

  Anna

  “Should we celebrate with lunch?” Jason asked as we both were practically jumping out of the car with excitement.

  “Of course. Let’s go somewhere fun.”

  “Hmmm, we can go downtown and walk around and find some place.”

  “Perfect,” I said as I let my hair down. I also took my jacket off and unbuttoned the top button on my blouse. Being so professional was uncomfortable for me.

  I still couldn’t believe how well that meeting had gone. Everyone was looking at me, and Jason was relying on me to say just the right thing, and I actually came through. It was so amazing to me, and like nothing I’d ever felt before. Up until that moment, I hadn’t really been sure I wanted to go into business. What had started as a lie to my father, so I could work with Jason, had turned into something that I was actually excited about.

  As we parked on the street of Champaign, Jason ran around to open my door for me. I was regretting the four-inch red heels I had on, but they did look sweet with the blouse I was wearing. I wrapped my arm with Jason’s and held onto him as we walked through town checking out the different little restaurants that were around.

  “This is perfect,” I said as I leaned closer to Jason.

  “Should we try this place?” he asked, thinking that I meant the restaurant was perfect. But I didn’t care about the restaurant at all, and we could have eaten anywhere he wanted to. I meant that the two of us walking so close together was perfect.

  “Yep. Let’s give it a whirl.”

  The restaurant wasn’t very busy, and there was no hostess at the front. It was noon, though, and they were likely going to be getting busier. There were only about twenty tables in the restaurant, and they were crammed into a room that probably should have only had fifteen. A hipster waitress met us at the front and motioned for us to follow her without saying a word.

  She led us to a table that was so small it probably only fit two plates on it and nothing else. But we didn’t care. Jason and I were so excited about the deal we had just worked out that nothing else mattered.

  “Do you have menus?” Jason ventured to ask as the woman started to walk away.

  “Up there,” she said and pointed to a television screen that displayed just four items.

  “Hmm, simple. I like it.” I laughed.

  “Would you like the sandwich, or the sandwich, or how about a sandwich?” Jason teased as we read the menu.

  “Hmm, I don’t know. I think I’ll have the sandwich.”

  We both laughed, and I reached out and let my hand sit on top of his in the midst of my laugh. It was totally by accident, but once it was there, I didn’t want to move it. I found myself looking at our hands and thinking about how much I adored this man. What had started as a crush and something that any schoolgirl could have had was developing into something that had real meaning. Being there and laughing with Jason was absolute perfection, or so I thought until Jason grabbed my hand and slowly brought it up to his lips and gently kissed it.

  His eyes looked at me as he let his lips press against my hand, and I swooned with desire. A permanent smile came across my face, and I was pretty sure it stayed there for the rest of the lunch and probably the rest of the day.

  “Oh, you’re getting frisky, are you?” I teased.

  “You were so amazing in there, Anna. I really hope you hear me when I say this; it was your element. You were honest, yet convincing. You showed so much character and poise. I really hope you do decide to go after your MBA. I think you’d be an amazing business owner.”

  “Wow, thanks, Jason. I’ve never really thought about running a business. I guess I always assumed I’d end up working as a secretary or something boring like that.”

  “No,” Jason said firmly. “Promise me right now you won’t settle for being a secretary. You have what it takes. Go to college. Get the skills you need, and you can run any business you want to.”

  Jason wasn’t just complimenting me. He was hitting all the concerns I’d ever had about myself. He saw through my fake confidence and was urging me on and pushing me to be more than I’d ever imagined. It was emotional for me. Even my own parents hadn’t appeared to have the level of confidence in me that Jason had at that very moment. Sure, my parents supported me, and they wanted me to be happy. But the look of shock on my father’s face was visible when I said I wanted to get my MBA. He wasn’t going to doubt my dream, but it clearly wasn’t something he thought I would have wanted to do or something he’d thought I could have done.

  “What would you like to order?” the waitress asked dryly as she stood over us.

  “Um, I’ll have the sandwich,” Jason said and then burst out laughing.

  “Me too, I’ll have the sandwich.” I laughed with him.

  The waitress did not look amused at all as she stood there waiting for us to pick one of the sandwiches. When we finally ordered, she wrote it down and walked away as if nothing had happened. I had to wonder if she’d heard that joke before.

  To our surprise, the sandwiches were delicious when they finally came. We both devoured them and barely talked at all while we ate. The restaurant was getting busy, and when we finally left, there was a line down the street from people who were ordering at the to-go counter.

  “What should we do next?” I asked as we held hands and walked through the neighborhood.

  “I’ve got an idea.”

  “What?”

  “This,” Jason said and pulled me down a deserted alley. He pressed my hands above my head and gently kissed my lips before he moved to my neck and down the front of my silk blouse. His teeth pulled on the top button of the blouse as if h
e was about to rip it right off me. The surprise passion from him was a huge turn on for me, and just like that, I knew I was ready.

  “Let’s go back to the hotel,” I whispered in his ear.

  Jason froze and slowly lifted his head as he looked at me. I simply nodded as I bit my lip and urged him to say yes to my offer. This was it. I wanted him, and he wanted me. We had just had an amazing day where I felt stronger and more independent than I had my entire life. Today was the day. I wanted it to happen.

  “Yeah?” he asked just to make sure.

  “Yeah,” I assured him.

  Jason practically dragged me back to the car and threw me in with his excitement. I barely had a chance to get my seatbelt on before he had zipped out of our parking spot and did a u-turn back toward the hotel. He wasn’t wasting a moment of time as he hurried us back to the hotel.

  In the elevator he grabbed me, and I reached up to kiss him as we gently let our lips play while we rode to the top floor. He held my hand as we walked down the flower wallpapered hallway to his room. One last time he looked at me to make sure this was what I wanted. No words were necessary, though, and I simply nodded my head again as we went into the room.

  His hands were gentle as they ran up and down my back and played with the fabric of my blouse. He wasn’t in a hurry any longer. Instead, Jason was relishing every moment as he took his time playing with each of the buttons before pulling the blouse off of me.

  Our lips barely left each other’s as we kissed in every possible way. Our tongues touched and moved fast and then slow again. Our hands pressed against each other’s bodies as we searched for the next piece of clothing that needed to be removed. When we were both down to our underwear, Jason pulled the covers back on the bed, and we climbed in. There was a sense of comfort in having the blankets over me, and I instantly felt less self-conscious about what we were doing and could relax.

  Jason didn’t hurry to strip off my bra and panties and instead took his time as his hands caressed my legs. Slowly, he moved his fingers from my knees all the way up to my breasts and back down again. As he took in every inch of my body, I let my own hands run up and down his muscular back.