by Penny Avis
‘Put some clothes on,’ she said, putting her hands firmly on her hips. ‘We’ve got work to do.’
Ryan sighed. ‘Alright, ma’am, if you say so. But only if you promise to beat me if I’m bad.’
‘Clothes!’ Meredith demanded, pointing in the direction of his wardrobe. She sat down at the desk and started going through the Beau Street presentation, deliberately turning her back on Ryan until he finally joined her fully dressed.
They spent the next two hours rehearsing for the meeting with Charles Sutton; Meredith anticipating the questions he was likely to ask and Ryan practising answering them. Ryan talked Meredith through how the Equinox Practise worked and what had made it so successful. They then debated how bringing the two businesses together could help them both. Despite his initial reluctance to prepare, Ryan became hugely animated by their conversation. He strode up and down orating about the success of Equinox and waving his arms about in a dramatic fashion as he envisaged crashing the two businesses together. Meredith watched him with a mixture of admiration and amusement. He was like a small boy with a new toy, but there was also no doubt that Ryan knew what he was talking about. She just needed to steer him in the right direction at the meeting; channel his enthusiasm into something constructive. Charles had sounded quite ‘old school’ and she didn’t want him put off by Ryan’s over-enthusiastic spaniel routine.
‘That was great!’ said Meredith. ‘I’m pretty sure we can handle most of their questions. We just need to make sure Charles can see what’s in it for them. And don’t forget to compliment their business. I know yours is better than his, but you need to make Charles feel as though it’s the other way round. Convince him you need him.’
Meredith wasn’t actually convinced that Equinox was the better business, but Ryan needed exactly the same treatment as Charles. Flattery, along with the money to make an offer, was a powerful combination. Meredith had found this approach tended to work particularly well with men. She’d found women to be far less susceptible to business flattery. Maybe it was something to do with egos or management style; Meredith wasn’t sure, but she knew what worked.
Ryan slumped down onto the sofa. ‘All that talking’s made me thirsty. Shall we pop down to the bar for a drink before dinner?’
‘Okay,’ said Meredith, ‘but I can’t stay late. I need to get home tonight so I can be ready for the meeting tomorrow. There’ll be no time in the morning.’
‘Oh no, stay,’ said Ryan. ‘We can get up early in the morning and get a taxi over to yours so you can get ready. It’s pretty much on the way.’
‘No, it isn’t! It’s a good twenty minutes out of our way.’
‘But we’ll have time. I’ll make sure we get up nice and early. I’ll even order us a really boring, healthy breakfast, just for you. Please stay?’ Ryan put his hands together as if he were praying and pulled his best pleading face.
Meredith sighed. He was so hard to resist. Plus she secretly loved the fact that he wanted her to stay so much.
‘Alright, alright, I’ll stay.’
‘Great!’ Ryan jumped up off the sofa. ‘Drinks and dinner it is then…’
The next morning Meredith woke up to the inky darkness created by the heavy, multi-layered hotel curtains. She tried to look at her watch in the gloom but couldn’t see the hands, so she climbed out of bed and pulled back the edge of the curtains. Light streamed into the room, causing her to blink violently. She turned her head away from the offending light stream and peered at the time: eight twenty a.m. Meredith spun round in confusion; their meeting was at nine thirty.
‘Ryan, wake up! What time is it? My watch says eight twenty. Please tell me that’s not right!’
Ryan sat up in alarm. ‘It can’t be. I set the alarm call for seven a.m.’ He grabbed his watch. ‘Shit! How the hell did that happen? I definitely set it for seven.’
‘Did you speak to a real person or was it one of those automated call systems?’ Meredith asked.
‘No, it was one of the pre-recorded things,’ said Ryan.
‘You must have done it wrong then!’ said Meredith. ‘Otherwise it would have rung us. Computers don’t forget.’
‘I did not,’ said Ryan defiantly. ‘The stupid thing must be broken.’
Meredith just looked at him. He’d had too many beers and pushed the wrong buttons, more like.
‘Well, now what do we do? There’s no way I can get home and back in time. Shit!’ Meredith was furious with Ryan, and with herself. She should have followed her first instincts and gone home, or at least set her phone alarm as a backup. She inspected the pile of crumpled clothes on the sofa. She was wearing Ryan’s t-shirt and yesterday’s knickers. Her work shirt was badly creased and her tights had a ladder in them. Fortunately her suit jacket was on the back of a chair and her skirt would probably be okay after a few minutes in the trouser press.
‘I’ll just have to buy some new things. There’s a department store a couple of roads away. I’ll have a shower here and then head straight round.’ Meredith shook her head with exasperation. ‘Hardly the best start to the day.’
Ryan got out of bed and put his arms round her. ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be fine – and I’m sorry, you’re right; I probably didn’t set it properly. But I’m sure they’re not going to decide whether to talk to us or not based on what your suit looks like.’
Meredith pushed him away angrily. ‘That’s not the point! I don’t want to turn up at an important meeting looking like some slapper in yesterday’s clothes.’
Ryan stepped away from Meredith, looking rather bemused by her anger. He clearly didn’t see why it was such a big issue.
‘You’re not going to be in yesterday’s clothes. You’ve just said you’re going to buy some new ones,’ said Ryan. ‘Now why don’t you go and have a shower and I’ll order some coffee. Meredith rushed into the shower, cursing herself again as she washed her hair with a tiny bottle of complimentary shampoo. At least she had a makeup bag with her. She knew that Ryan was probably right and that it wouldn’t make any difference to the meeting, but it affected how she felt about herself. Confidence was everything in these types of meetings. Yes preparation was vital, but she also needed to feel good about herself, and this wasn’t helping.
By the time she was out of the shower, Ryan had ordered coffee and croissants and located the tiny hotel hairdryer.
‘Look, at least there’s a hairdryer,’ he said, holding it aloft like some sort of trophy. Meredith took it from him and peered at it suspiciously.
Meredith did her best to dry her mound of dark curls, but as she expected, the hairdryer struggled to cope. After a few minutes she gave up and tied her semi-dry hair tightly back into a ponytail. She dashed on some makeup, wolfed down a croissant and headed out for the shops. After a few minutes of pacing up and down waiting for the doors to open, Meredith rushed into the department store and grabbed some tights, a pair of knickers and a plain white shirt. She paid and then went in search of the ladies’ toilets to change. On the way, she opened the pack containing the pristine white shirt. It had two long, sharp creases down the front where it had been folded. Shit! It would need ironing! Why hadn’t she thought of that before she bought it?
Meredith signed heavily and looked anxiously at her watch. This was turning into a farce. She spun on her heel and ran back to the ladies’ department.
‘I don’t suppose you have an iron by any chance?’ she asked the bemused lady behind the counter.
‘No, sorry. There’s a dry cleaner’s around the corner, though. Maybe they could help you?’
Meredith sprinted out of the department store and round the corner to the dry cleaner’s. A petite Chinese lady was standing behind the counter carefully pinning a dry cleaning ticket onto a grey suit. She looked up in surprise as Meredith rushed in.
‘Hi. Look, I’m in a real hurry and I need to wear this shirt right now. Could you kindly just press the front for me? It doesn’t need to be perfect. Just so you can’t see the creases
under my jacket.’
As the lady took the shirt from Meredith a second Chinese lady joined her behind the counter. They inspected the shirt, chattering excitedly in Chinese and eyeing Meredith with a mixture of amusement and suspicion.
‘It is ten pounds for us to do now,’ said the first lady. The second lady nodded vigorously in support.
‘Fine, fine,’ said Meredith, grabbing the money. ‘Just please hurry.’
She watched as the two ladies carried the shirt to the back of the store. She could just see them pressing the shirt and giggling to each other. A man joined them from somewhere else in the back of the shop and there was a second wave of excited chattering, which resulted in the man coming to the front of the shop to peer at Meredith. He grinned at her and raised his eyebrows in a knowing way and then disappeared again. They had clearly guessed that she had been out all night. How embarrassing!
The first Chinese lady reappeared with the pressed shirt.
‘Is done,’ she said, handing Meredith the shirt.
‘I don’t suppose you have somewhere I could quickly change, do you?’ Meredith asked.
The lady giggled and waved her behind the counter to a curtained-off area to one side of the shop.
‘Where we do measure for alteration,’ she said, ushering Meredith behind the curtains.
Meredith quickly started to change her clothes, but in her haste she didn’t notice that a gap had opened up between the two curtains that shielded her. As she stood up from slipping into her clean knickers, she glanced at her reflection in the dusty mirror that was leaning against the wall. Behind her, she could see a very smartly dressed middle-aged man with a very startled expression on his face standing at the dry cleaning counter, holding a bag of shirts and looking directly at her. Meredith spun round in horror and whipped the curtains shut. God only knew what he’d just seen.
‘Shit, shit,’ said Meredith, trying to compose herself. After a few moments, she finished dressing, making sure that this time her bag was holding the curtains tightly shut. She checked her appearance in the mirror, smoothing down a few fly-away hairs, reapplied her makeup and then straightened herself up. She would just have to do.
The two ladies were back at the counter as she emerged. They looked her up and down in earnest and then nodded to each other.
‘Is okay, I think,’ said the first.
‘Yes, is okay,’ agreed the second.
They then burst into peals of laughter. If Meredith hadn’t felt so stressed she would probably have seen the funny side too, but at that moment she just felt like crying. That was absolutely the last time she would stay with Ryan on a work day.
Chapter 9
Meredith rushed back to the hotel. She gave herself a serious talking to as she went.
‘Come on, stop being so ridiculous and pull yourself together. You don’t know that guy from Adam, so who cares what he saw,’ she said, pushing her shoulders back and taking a few deep breaths. ‘All sorted now.’
Ryan was sitting reading the paper as she entered the lobby and he got up to greet her.
‘You look very smart,’ he said, nodding with approval, and gave her quick hug. ‘Right, let’s get this show on the road.’
They didn’t speak much as they walked the short distance to Beau Street’s office. It was a cool, fresh morning and the walk helped to steady Meredith down. By the time they reached the office, she was feeling much calmer and back in control. They walked in through the revolving doors and started to make their way towards the reception desk, but they were stopped by the security guard who popped out of his office to the side of the doors. Damn, Meredith had forgotten about him.
‘How can I help you on this lovely sunny morning?’ he asked, swaying gently from side to side, his smiling face creased into well-worn lines.
‘We’re here for a meeting with Charles Sutton,’ said Meredith, looking for any sign that he remembered her. Fortunately she must look quite different without her hat, scarf and heavily bandaged face, as he didn’t seem to recognise her at all.
‘Here for the boss, eh! Have you parked outside? The traffic wardens are very hot around here.’ He frowned and looked anxiously outside, as if he expected one to walk past at any minute.
‘No, it’s okay, we walked here,’ said Meredith.
‘Very wise,’ he said, nodding vigorously. ‘I always like to walk when I can. Good for the soul to get out in the fresh air and feel the sun on your face.’
He closed his eyes and turned his face toward an imaginary sun. Meredith and Ryan looked at each other in bewildered amusement. After a few moments, he opened his eyes again and waved them towards the reception desk with a flourish.
‘Now, you’ll need to sign in at the reception desk, over there.’
With that, he spun around and disappeared back into his room. Meredith and Ryan signed in with the officious-looking receptionist and sat down in the waiting area, which was styled in an eclectic mix of country house hotel meets modern office.
After a few minutes, a lady arrived in reception and came over to greet them.
‘Hello, I’m Linda, Charles’s PA. You must be Meredith Romaine.’ She held out her hand.
‘Yes, that’s right and this is my client, Ryan Miller,’ said Meredith, shaking Linda’s hand. Ryan smiled and gave Linda a short nod.
‘I hope Charles is expecting us?’ Meredith asked.
‘Yes, he is. I’ll take you up to him now,’ said Linda.
Meredith and Ryan followed Linda up in the lift and then out into a corridor that lead to the Beau Street meeting rooms. As they were walking, a glamorous lady in a white coat and high heels came towards them from the other direction. Meredith recognised her instantly. She was one of the nurses who had looked after her when she’d had her surgery. What was her name? Andrea, Alison, Audrey. Yes, that was it, Audrey. Meredith looked straight ahead and tried not to catch Audrey’s eye but it was no good. A glimmer of recognition spread across Audrey’s face as Meredith walked past. As the three of them turned into their meeting room, Meredith saw Audrey glance backwards, probably wondering what on earth she was doing there. Meredith sat down in the meeting room in shock, her heart beating so fast that she thought Ryan might hear it. She really hadn’t expected to see anyone who might recognise her, certainly not in the office suite anyway.
‘Charles will be with you in a few minutes. He’s just finishing off a conference call,’ said Linda.
‘Could you kindly point me in the direction of the ladies’?’ Meredith asked, standing up on wobbly legs.
‘Yes, of course. They’re just back towards the lifts, on the right,’ said Linda.
Meredith excused herself and made her way back the way she had come until she found the toilets. She stood looking at herself in the mirror, rubbing her forehead anxiously and cursing her bad luck. Seeing Audrey had totally thrown her. Meredith put both hands on the cool marble surrounding the sinks, bent her head and breathed deeply and slowly. ‘Relax, relax’, she told herself. After a few minutes, she gathered her composure and went back to the meeting room.
Charles Sutton, a kindly looking, grey-haired man in his fifties, had already arrived and was chatting with Ryan as they both poured themselves a coffee.
‘Ah, and you must be Meredith,’ said Charles. ‘Can I get you a drink?’
‘Just a glass of water, thank you,’ said Meredith.
Meredith and Ryan sat down side by side at the table and Charles sat opposite them.
‘Thank you very much for taking the time for this meeting,’ said Meredith. ‘We’re very pleased to –’
But to her great annoyance, Ryan interrupted before she could finish her sentence.
‘Yes, it’s great to meet you, Charles. Look, as I’m sure you’re a busy man, I’ll get straight to the point. The Equinox Practise is leading the way with all the latest procedures and we’re expanding fast. The board is very interested in moving into Europe and we think you’ve got a pretty neat business here. Joining
forces could be good for both of us. You’d give us a ready client base and a big footprint in the UK market, and we’d give you access to all our expertise. What do you think?’
That was not the introduction they had rehearsed at all! Meredith had been going to speak first, telling Charles a bit about Clinton Wahlberg’s approach to these types of transactions, and then Ryan was meant to follow by praising the Beau Street business, not blowing his own trumpet. He had reduced their whole well-planned approach to one paragraph. What had been the point of rehearsing?
‘That’s pretty straight and to the point,’ said Charles.
You can say that again, thought Meredith.
‘But I like that. No point using hundreds of words when a few will do,’ Charles continued, pushing his black-rimmed glasses back up his nose.
‘Couldn’t agree more,’ said Ryan, flashing Meredith a cocky smile.
Meredith seethed quietly as Charles and Ryan proceeded to get on like a house on fire. She did finally get to say her piece, but by then Charles wasn’t really listening. His mind had moved on.
‘I’ll need to discuss it with the rest of the management team here, obviously,’ said Charles, ‘but in principle it sounds like a very interesting idea.’
‘Any offer we’d make would be dependent on us getting access to your books,’ Ryan explained. ‘We’d need to be really certain about your level of profitability, claims record, all that sort of thing. We’d need a real “drains up” look at everything, you know? There’s no point flannelling us, as we’ll only find out the truth later. Just tell us how it is right from the get go, and that’s how we’ll value the business. No messing about.’
‘Again, we’re in agreement,’ said Charles. ‘We run a tight ship here, so don’t worry. What you see is what you get.’
Charles agreed to come back to Meredith once he had discussed Ryan’s offer with the rest of the management team. They shook hands and Meredith and Ryan made their way out of the building. ‘That went well,’ said Ryan once they were outside.