by Penny Avis
‘Hell, yeah. Show me the way, sister,’ he said in a deliberately affected Southern American drawl.
Ryan’s over-exuberant good humour lasted throughout the train and taxi journey from the airport, and when they reached The Brook Hotel, he was still chatting excitedly about everything he’d been doing since they last met. But as they entered his luxury bedroom suite at the hotel, his mood quietened. He put his bag down and came over to Meredith.
‘It’s been a long few weeks,’ he said, pulling her towards him.
They stood still for a few moments, just looking at each other, barely touching. Ryan ran his hand down the side of Meredith’s face and then through her hair. He put his hand gently on the nape of her neck and pulled her face up toward his, brushing his lips against her cheeks. Meredith’s heart began to race as he slowly undid her the buttons on her shirt and allowed it to fall to the floor, revealing the white lace bra with the red bows that he’d bought for her. Instead of reaching to turn the lights off, as she would have done in the past, she stood confidently with her new figure on full display. Ryan ran his finger slowly down the centre of her cleavage, making her shiver. Her long and rather painful journey to this perfect moment had so been worth the effort.
‘Yes, please,’ Ryan said hoarsely. He put his arms around Meredith and they fell backwards onto the huge double bed, piled high with an unnecessary number of pillows and scatter cushions.
The next morning Meredith woke up to the sound of Ryan ordering breakfast.
‘Yeah, waffles, bacon, maple syrup and a couple of cokes. Great, thanks. Yes, room two-four-oh-eight. Thanks so much.’
Meredith sat up in alarm, waving a hand at Ryan to catch his attention.
‘Hold on a second.’ Ryan put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and smiled at her. ‘Morning, sexy. Anything I can get you?’
‘Well, not that pile of sugar-loaded junk food for a start,’ said Meredith, laughing. ‘Can you order me a fruit salad and English breakfast tea?’
‘And madam would like a fruit salad and some lovely English tea,’ said Ryan in his best plummy English accent to the person on the other end of the phone. ‘Thank you, that would be so super,’ he finished with a dramatic flourish and put the phone down.
‘You’re so funny,’ said Meredith, throwing a cushion at him.
‘I know, I just can’t help it,’ said Ryan, dropping back down on the bed. He rolled onto his side and rested his chin on his crooked arm. ‘So, what shall we do today?’
‘I thought we would do a bit of an alternative tour of London. Show you the bits most tourists usually miss. Then I’ve booked dinner for tonight at a new Lebanese restaurant near my friend Daisy’s art gallery. It’s had great reviews, so I thought we’d give it a go.’
‘Tour sounds great,’ said Ryan, ‘but Lebanese food? Not sure about that. What sort of food is it?’
‘Oh, you know hummus, tabouleh, spicy lamb dishes, breads, that sort of thing.’
Ryan pulled a face and shook his head. ‘Yuck. Sorry, no, not my thing at all. Is there a grill place or somewhere like that we could go to instead?’
‘I’m sure there is,’ said Meredith quickly, rather deflated that her suggestion had been so roundly rejected. ‘I’ll make a couple of calls later.’
They lay side by side on the bed until a loud knock on the door signalled the arrival of breakfast. Meredith jumped up and grabbed a robe from the bathroom. Ryan was already half-dressed in a t-shirt and boxer shorts. The waiter came in, expertly carrying a large tray on one shoulder.
‘Good morning, sir, madam,’ he said, nodding at each of them in turn. ‘Where would you like me to put the tray?’
Ryan moved his briefcase and papers off the round table in the sitting area of the suite and the waiter set the tray down. After he left, they sat down to eat. Ryan served himself an enormous portion of cooked breakfast, liberally smothered in rich maple syrup. Meredith looked at his plate in mild disgust.
‘How can you eat that?’
‘Pretty easy, actually. I just open my mouth and chew.’ To illustrate the point, Ryan put a huge forkful of sticky bacon into his mouth.
Meredith shook her head and ate her fruit salad while simultaneously checking her phone. She’d left a message for the CEO of the medical testing business to see whether he might be open to a takeover approach and she was hoping he’d called back. She had a few emails, mostly dealing with internal admin, but no phone messages.
‘I’ll jump in the shower,’ said Meredith after breakfast. She pulled back the heavy, gold curtains and peered out of the window. ‘Looks like quite a nice day. Not raining anyway, which makes a change!’
She headed into the bathroom and turned on the shower, dropped her robe onto the floor and stepped under the water. She’d only been in the shower a few seconds when she heard Ryan open the bathroom door. She instinctively wrapped the shower curtain around herself and peered around the edge.
‘Hi, do you need something?’ she asked, not quite sure what else to say.
‘Yup, and it’s standing in front of me…’ said Ryan, slipping out of his boxers and t-shirt.
It was nearly midday before they finally left the hotel. They wandered for hours around the back streets of London, either holding hands or with Ryan’s arm around Meredith’s shoulders. For a while Meredith even slipped her hand into Ryan’s back pocket, something she had always felt should be strictly reserved for love-struck teenagers.
‘I love the fact that all the rest of the world is at work,’ said Meredith as they sat in a small cafe refuelling with coffee and muffins. ‘I should spend more Mondays like this.’
Ryan laughed. ‘Sadly that doesn’t pay the bills. I wish I could stay longer than a couple of days, though.’
‘So do I,’ said Meredith.
They sat in silence for a few moments. Sensing that a ‘Where is this all going?’ conversation might be heading her way, Meredith changed the subject. She wasn’t ready for that yet.
‘Who covers for you while you’re away?’
‘Oh, quite a few people. There are five of us who work the desk as well as seeing patients, so it’s pretty easy to juggle shifts about,’ said Ryan.
‘Do you like “working the desk” as you put it? I mean, talking to all those patients online must get a bit tedious.’
‘No, not at all. It’s one of my favourite parts of the job. I get to talk to people from all round the world, and it’s great to be able to help them.’
‘I’m surprised most people don’t just talk to the doctors who did their surgery.’
‘You didn’t. There are loads of reasons why people prefer getting online advice. You don’t have to leave the house and you can ask questions as often as you like, whenever you like. No waiting around for appointments or for the surgery to open. You want an answer at four a.m., you get one.’
‘Provided you pay,’ Meredith added.
‘Yes, provided you pay. But you get what you pay for in this business. Talking of business, I’d better just check my messages.’
Ryan got out his phone and started scanning through his emails. ‘Hell!’ he exclaimed after a few moments.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘It’s an email from Lawson. He’s been speaking to the rest of the board and apparently they’re very enthusiastic about this European expansion idea. He wants me to give a presentation at the board meeting on Thursday on the possible options for companies to buy that I’ve come up with during this trip!’
‘Shit,’ said Meredith.
‘Now what are we going to do? I don’t get back until Wednesday, which doesn’t give me much time.’
Meredith looked at her watch. ‘It’s only four o’clock. I’ll get the team in the office on the case. They’ll pull something together by tomorrow. Don’t worry.’
Meredith got up, rang Alfred and told him what she needed.
‘So I need a sharp-looking presentation by close of play tomorrow.’
�
��Why so quickly?’ Alfred asked.
‘Because my contact has an important board meeting on Thursday and needs Wednesday to prepare.’
‘I’ve a friend’s party tonight.’
‘Well, you’ll just have to work round it.’
‘Fine,’ said Alfred.
Meredith knew it wasn’t really fine, but his social life wasn’t her problem. And she ignored the little voice telling her that it was her social life that had caused the issue in the first place.
‘Do you have any companies in mind?’ Alfred asked. ‘You know, give us a bit of a head start.’
Meredith suddenly realised that she did. When she’d been looking at where to have her surgery done, she had researched all of the leading players. She had a pile of notes and brochures at her apartment.
‘Yes, I do actually. I’ve looked at this market before. So I’ll email you some names in an hour or so,’ said Meredith.
She and Ryan quickly made their way back to Meredith’s apartment. Ryan whistled as she opened the door.
‘Wow, this place is pretty cool,’ he said, wandering around the sitting room. ‘Maybe I should stay here next time.’
‘No waffles with maple syrup here. And besides, you need to at least try to look like you’re here on business,’ said Meredith, rather horrified by the suggestion.
She disappeared into her study and returned with a large pile of brochures and a notebook. ‘I have at least four names that Alfred can make a start on,’ she said, tapping the list into an email on her phone.
‘How do you know they’d be right for us?’ Ryan asked.
Meredith looked at him impassively. ‘They’re European cosmetic surgery businesses, what more do you need? And besides, we’ve hardly got time to find the perfect match. Just tell the board you didn’t find any good ones, and the issue will go away.’
‘If I do that, they might switch the project off. No more fancy trips to London,’ said Ryan, cocking his head to one side.
‘Good point,’ said Meredith, laughing. ‘Better say you haven’t found the right one yet, then.’
She picked up a glossy brochure about the Beau Street Group. ‘I’ve got loads of information about Beau Street. They sent me a whole heap of stuff once I decided to go with them.’ She flicked through a brochure. ‘You should take these. At least it will look like you actually met some businesses.’
‘Good idea, and perhaps I could also give a detailed account of how good their work is at the presentation,’ said Ryan, sidling up beside her.
Meredith grinned. ‘Well, I think you’d better have another look then. You know what they say: practice makes perfect.’
Chapter 6
By the end of the following day, Alfred had delivered Ryan’s presentation to Meredith. She smiled at the arrival of the email from King, Alfred, opened the file on her computer and started going through the slides. The team had looked at all of the cosmetic surgery businesses she had given them, plus three other clinics. As before, the analysis was very detailed and beautifully presented: key facts about each business, details of the management team, an overview of financial performance, strengths and weaknesses, the lot. They had also benchmarked each company on a number of different criteria, and as she scanned the tables, Meredith noticed that Beau Street Group came out on top of most of them. Meredith nodded approvingly. She knew that she’d made a good choice. And damn, Alfred was good. This time she really needed to tell him; it was the second time in less than a week that he’d pulled her out of a hole. She emailed him:
Great presentation on the cosmetic surgery targets. Several of the businesses look like they might suit my client. Will keep you posted.
In typical form, she got a one-word reply:
Thanks.
Meredith sent the presentation to Ryan, who was equally impressed and rang as soon as he got off the plane back in the US.
‘This is good stuff,’ said Ryan. ‘Your team did a great job.’
‘I know,’ said Meredith. ‘I’ve said thanks but I can hardly tell them the whole story, so I kept it short. At least now you have something to show for your trip. Does it give you enough for the board meeting?’
‘More than enough! In fact, it’s pretty interesting. Not sure why we hadn’t looked at some of these businesses before. I guess we’ve just been so focused on the US market.’
‘Good, crisis over. How was the flight?’
‘Dull and taking me too far away from you,’ said Ryan.
Meredith smiled; his constant flattery and attention was very addictive, to the point that she’d been almost relieved when he left and she was able to think about something else for a while.
She didn’t hear from Ryan again until Friday morning. The board meeting finished late on Thursday night UK time and his email arrived overnight. He’d also sent her an intriguing text message:
Rather stunning outcome. Looks like we’ll be seeing quite a bit of each other! Speak later.
Meredith couldn’t quite believe the email that Ryan had forwarded her when she read it. The board had loved the presentation and were fully supportive of Ryan looking for a European business for them to partner with. They were particularly interested in the Beau Street Group, given how well it compared to the others, and wanted Clinton Wahlberg to make an approach to the CEO on their behalf. Meredith sat back in her chair. Approach Beau Street? She hadn’t expected for a second that they would actually be interested in any of the businesses. She read on. The email also said that the board were happy to appoint Clinton Wahlberg as advisers for the transaction for a ‘mutually agreeable’ success fee. The email was copied to Lawson Green, Equinox’s CEO, as well as some other names Meredith didn’t recognise.
Meredith sat for a while thinking about how to respond. She was pretty sure she could approach the management team of Beau Street Group. Her patient information was confidential to Doctor Cassidy and there would be no reason for anyone in management to know who she was, and besides, she’d had her surgery before she’d even joined Clinton Wahlberg. But her relationship with Ryan was a problem. If she went ahead, Equinox would become her client and relationships with clients were totally forbidden. But on the other hand, the approach might not go anywhere, and even if it did, she could always hand the project over to someone else and no one would be any the wiser. Plus she’d get the kudos of having delivered a hot lead with the potential to deliver some very large fees.
She went through the options over and over again in her head and eventually decided that it was a risk worth taking – she’d do it. But deep down, Meredith knew that she was just rationalising a decision she’d already made: there was no way she was giving Ryan up, not yet anyway. She’d have to get Nick to approve the project, though, if she was going to make an official approach. And that meant coming up with an explanation for how she’d met Equinox. Being new would help. She could just say that Ryan was ‘an old contact’ with whom she’d followed up when she changed jobs. Meredith picked up the phone.
‘Nick Rees’s office, please,’ she said to the internal operator.
He picked up the phone after just one ring.
‘Nick Rees,’ he said sharply.
‘Hi, Nick, this is Meredith Romaine. How are you?’
‘Meredith, good to hear from you,’ said Nick, his voice softening. ‘How are you settling in?’
‘Really well, thanks.’ She guessed that Nick wasn’t the sort of person who made small talk for long, so Meredith got straight to the point: ‘Look, Nick, I’ve got a new deal on the table that needs your sign-off. I’ve been in touch with an old contact of mine who works for the Equinox Practise, a US-based cosmetic surgery business. They’re interested in buying a similar European business. We’ve done a search for them, and they’d like us to make an approach to one of the targets we identified.’
‘Sounds interesting. Who’s the target?’ Nick asked.
‘Beau Street Group. They’re one of the leading players here.’
‘Have we a
cted for Equinox before?’
‘No, they’d be a new client for us,’ said Meredith. ‘We’d be on a success fee arrangement with them.’
‘Okay. Get the team to do the usual background checks on Equinox, see that they come back clear. Then send me a completed deal approval form with all the details. But in principle, it sounds like something we should take on. Any reason to think Beau Street will be interested?’
Meredith hesitated. Not really.
‘Well, the Equinox Practise is a really high-quality business. They’re right at the forefront of all the new procedures being developed in the US, so I’m sure they’ll have a lot to offer Beau Street,’ she said, repeating a line she’d heard from Ryan.
‘I guess we’ll find out soon enough,’ said Nick. ‘And well done, Meredith. I knew you’d be bringing in the leads soon enough with such a great contact base. Keep me posted.’
‘Thanks and will do,’ said Meredith. She winced inwardly; if only he knew.
Meredith rang Alfred and asked him to come and see her. A few minutes later he walked slowly into her office and sat down wearily on her spare chair. His frameless glasses did little to hide the dark rings under his eyes. His navy suit was creased at the knees and elbows, and his shirt collar was undone behind his tie. Meredith wondered whether he’d actually been sleeping at the office.
‘You look shattered,’ she said.
‘Too many late nights,’ said Alfred.
Meredith knew better than to ask what on, particularly as she was partly to blame.
‘Can you help me set up a new project?’
‘Sure,’ said Alfred, sitting up and shaking himself slightly. ‘What do you need?’
Meredith couldn’t help but admire his relentless work ethic.
‘That presentation you did for me on the cosmetic surgery business – well, it’s landed. So we need to get the paperwork going.’
Alfred looked impressed. ‘Wow, that was quick!’
‘Yes, I know. My client is keen to get on with it. Can I give you the details?’
She ran through all the details and Alfred took notes.