by Penny Avis
‘Oh, hello,’ said Meredith, feeling relieved. ‘Which level do the executive floors finish at? Can I get a lift from here without needing a key-card?’
The guard eyed her suspiciously. ‘Which floor have you come from?’
‘The twenty-sixth,’ said Meredith.
‘Then why don’t you have a key-card?’
‘Well, I was a guest of someone staying on that floor.’
‘Why couldn’t they see you out?’
Meredith was starting to feel irritated by the barrage of questions. She just wanted to get the bloody lift.
‘My friend was asleep and I forgot I needed one. Now can I get down from here?’ She nodded impatiently towards the doors from the stairwell to the twenty-second floor.
‘You can get the lift from floor twenty. But as you’re not a resident, I’ll escort you out of the hotel,’ said the guard. He looked Meredith up and down disparagingly, making her suddenly very conscious of her short dress, bare legs, high heels and the fact that she stank of booze. She took her coat off her arm and put it on, wrapping it protectively around herself.
The guard picked up his walkie-talkie. ‘John? It’s Mike. I have an unauthorised visitor on floor twenty-two. She’s come from the executive suites. I’m bringing her down now. Can you monitor the upper floors for me? Thanks.’
Meredith glared at him. ‘I am not an “unauthorised visitor” and I do not require escorting, thank you very much. I’ll just keep heading down the stairs, as you’re clearly not prepared to help me.’
What an odious little man. She turned her back on the guard and started marching down the stairs. He immediately trotted after her.
‘Sorry, but I need to see you out.’
Meredith stopped and spun round in anger. ‘For fuck’s sake, just leave me alone!’
‘Can’t, I’m afraid. Can’t have you bothering other guests,’ said the guard, puffing out his chest. He moved to stand in her path, as if to reinforce his point.
‘Why on earth would I bother other guests?’
The guard’s face softened slightly. ‘Look, don’t have a go at me, okay? I know you girls have got a living to make. But it’s the rules, see. If we find your sort in the hotel, the boss says we have to escort you out. They don’t want you wandering the floors, putting your cards under people’s doors. It upsets the guests. Well, some of them anyway.’ He grinned leeringly at her.
Meredith’s face fell in horror. He thought she was a prostitute!
‘How dare you! I’ll have you know that I’m a banker, not a, not a… hooker.’ She spat out the word with disgust.
The guard laughed. ‘Well, that’s a new one. Bit more original than masseuse, at least.’
Meredith opened her bag and took out her wallet. She grabbed her driving licence and a business card.
‘See this?’ Meredith held her driving licence next to her face, so that he could compare it to the photo on the licence. ‘That’s me, okay? Meredith Romaine. And now look at this.’ She shoved her business card in the guard’s face. ‘This says “Meredith Romaine, Director, Clinton Wahlberg”. That’s a bank, by the way. Not a brothel. I’ve never been so insulted in my life. This place is a disgrace. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going home, and you can tell the hotel manager that he’ll be hearing from me in the morning.’
The guard opened his mouth to speak, but having looked at Meredith’s thunderous face, seemed to think better of it. He stood to one side and reluctantly let her march past. Meredith trotted angrily down the last two flights of stairs, muttering to herself in indignation.
‘The bloody cheek of it. Honestly. They’ll so be hearing from me in the morning.’
But by the time she was in the lift, her anger had changed to acute embarrassment. What a nightmare! She looked at herself in the lift mirror. Her dress was creased and looked much shorter than it had in the daytime, when she’d been wearing it with black opaque tights. Several strands of her hair had escaped from her hurriedly tied top knot, which, she had to admit, did rather make her look as if she had just got out of bed. Her eye makeup was smudged and her face was blotchy. She shook her head in disapproval at the image in front of her.
The lift doors opened and Meredith marched across the lobby floor with her head held high and her shoulders back. A prostitute! How dare they! A second security guard, who Meredith guessed was ‘John’, watched her intently as she left. She stopped momentarily and threw him a furious glare, daring him to approach her. When he didn’t, she tossed her head back and stormed out of the hotel in disgust.
Chapter 13
Meredith got back to her apartment well after two a.m., still feeling mortified. Instead of going straight to bed, she jumped in the shower and scrubbed herself from head to foot. She then climbed into a pair of crisp white cotton pyjamas, and finally went to bed.
The next morning, she had decided against complaining to the hotel. She couldn’t face all the insidious questions. She couldn’t even face telling Ryan. Rather than being furious for her, he’d probably just think it was funny, and that would be a humiliation too far.
As she’d promised in her note, she rang Ryan.
‘You ran out on me,’ he said, sounding offended. ‘I hate waking up alone.’
‘I’m sorry, really I am. I just couldn’t sleep. So I decided to come home. Look, why don’t you come over here and we’ll get the offer letter for Beau Street sorted out?’ Meredith couldn’t face going back to the hotel right now.
‘Okay, cool, give me an hour,’ said Ryan.
Meredith popped out to her local deli and picked up some fresh croissants, a jar of ridiculously expensive strawberry jam and a bag of coffee beans. She ground the beans in a small hand grinder and used them to make a large pot of strong coffee that left a lovely smell permeating through her flat. She laid out the croissants on the kitchen island and tuned her radio to a classical music channel, in a deliberate attempt to create the opposite environment to the one she’d experienced with the security guard the night before.
When Ryan arrived she gave him a long hug, silently willing him to comfort her about the prostitute incident, even though he knew nothing about it. He seemed to sense her disquiet.
‘You okay?’ he asked, giving her a squeeze.
Meredith nodded. ‘Sorry I left’.
‘Hey, look, it’s no big deal,’ said Ryan. ‘Wow, that coffee smells good.’
‘I just made it fresh,’ said Meredith, taking a deep breath. ‘Why don’t you help yourself while I get my laptop?’
She fetched the laptop and perched on a barstool at the end of the kitchen island. Ryan poured them both a cup of coffee and tucked into a croissant, spread with liberal amounts of butter and strawberry jam.
‘So, here’s the first draft of the offer letter,’ said Meredith, turning her computer sideways so that Ryan could see the screen.
‘Do we have to have all that crap at the beginning about being excited to meet them? Can’t we just tell them the number?’
‘Yes, we do,’ said Meredith firmly. ‘Not only is it good manners, but it’s also true. You’ll need a great relationship with these guys if the deal goes ahead, so start as you mean to go on.’
Ryan rolled his eyes and read on.
‘You mention the assumptions that we’ve made here. Do you think we should spell them out a bit more? I want them to be totally clear how we’ve reached our valuation, so if something comes up that we’re not expecting, we’ll have every right to drop the price.’
Meredith nodded in agreement. ‘Good idea. I’ll add in some of the notes from Alfred’s valuation model.’
She amended the letter and, after another read-through, emailed it to Lawson Green in the US. She looked at her watch.
‘We’ve got a couple of hours at least until he’ll be up. How about a walk? It’s a lovely morning.’
Ryan pulled a face. ‘Can we see what’s on TV? I’m still feeling pretty jetlagged.’
Although she fancied some fre
sh air, Meredith wasn’t really feeling that energetic either. So instead they lay on the sofa, eating the rest of the croissants and channel hopping between various obscure digital sports channels.
As Ryan had predicted, Lawson was up early and soon sent them a reply approving the offer letter for Beau Street.
Ryan grinned at Meredith. ‘We’re off.’
‘So it would seem,’ she said. But exactly where to was another matter.
Meredith rang the Beau Street Group first thing on Monday morning to make an appointment to see Charles Sutton and deliver Equinox’s offer letter to him. Although she could have posted it, in her experience the personal touch made all the difference, like delivering a birthday present in person. Ryan didn’t quite see her point, but happily went along with the plan as he had nothing else to do. As she suspected, once she explained why they wanted to come, Charles agreed to fit them in straight away.
They arrived at Beau Street shortly before lunch and were shown up to a meeting room. Charles joined them a few moments later, looking excited.
‘Hello, nice to see you both again. Please do sit down.’
‘Thank you for seeing us so quickly,’ said Meredith. ‘Mr Miller flies back to the US shortly and we were keen to deliver the offer letter to you in person.’
Meredith slid the letter across the table and flashed a stern glance at Ryan. This time she would get to say her piece.
‘As you can appreciate, my client’s offer at this stage is just indicative and is subject to them having a good look at the business.’
Charles nodded. ‘Yes, we understand that.’ He looked down at the letter and Meredith let him read for a few moments.
‘As you can see, the headline offer for the business is forty-eight million pounds. The offer is not subject to raising any bank finance, as my client has the necessary funds in hand. They have assumed that once part of the group, you would participate fully in all new product launches, including any that would require your doctors to have additional training.’
‘Yes, I see,’ said Charles, still reading. Finally he looked up, his eyes glinting. ‘It’s a very interesting offer. I’m sure that the management team will be pleased to let the process move to the next stage, but I’ll have to confirm that, obviously.’
‘We’re very keen on your business, Charles,’ said Ryan, keeping to the script that they had agreed. ‘And we’re looking forward to meeting the rest of the management team and finding out more about how you operate here.’
‘Tom Duffy, our finance director, has appointed financial and legal advisers to help us prepare the information you want,’ said Charles. ‘They’ll be giving it the stamp of approval, so to speak, before we give it to you.’
‘Yes, so we understand. That’s really helpful, Charles. It will definitely speed things up.’
‘I’d like to have an all-party meeting as soon as possible then, if you agree,’ said Meredith. ‘So we can go through the timetable, get a progress update from your advisers and generally make sure everyone is on the same page.’
‘Yes, good idea,’ said Charles.
‘Shall we arrange that for a week today?’ Meredith suggested. ‘You could join by phone,’ she said to Ryan.
They spent a few more minutes discussing the practicalities of the next few days, and then stood up to shake hands.
Charles looked at his watch. ‘Perfect timing. There’s another meeting in here in a minute. My secretary just squeezed us in.’
‘Well, I’m very glad she did,’ said Ryan.
Charles smiled warmly at him. ‘So am I.’
Meredith smiled to herself. She knew that coming in person had been the right thing to do. Chemistry was everything.
As they were packing their papers away, the door to the meeting room opened. Charles looked up.
‘Oh, hi, Lloyd. We’re just finishing up. Come in.’
Meredith froze in horror as a smartly dressed, silver-haired man in his late forties came into the room. It was Lloyd Cassidy, the doctor who had performed her surgery!
‘Lloyd, this is Ryan Miller from the Equinox Practise and Meredith Romaine from Clinton Wahlberg. They’ve just been delivering their offer letter. I’ll be circulating it shortly,’ said Charles. He turned to Meredith and Ryan. ‘Lloyd is one of our most senior surgeons and very successful; one of the stars of the show.’
Lloyd looked at Meredith in surprise, his eyes darting down to her chest as if to confirm how he recognised her, but then, much to her relief, he composed himself. He smoothed his perfectly neat hair and flashed them both a rather smug smile. ‘Pleased to meet you,’ he said, holding out his hand to Ryan. His voice was deep and theatrical. Meredith almost expected him to bow.
‘And you,’ said Ryan politely. ‘We’ve seen how well the business is doing. You must be a busy man.’
‘Very. My list is pretty much full for the next three months,’ said Lloyd, throwing Meredith a knowing glance.
Meredith took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. He must be bound by patient confidentiality; he wasn’t going to let on that he knew her. Thank goodness Beau Street was a reputable business.
Ryan look impressed. ‘That’s what we like to hear.’
‘I should arrange for you to meet some of the other doctors, particularly those on our management committee, like Stella Webb,’ said Charles to Ryan, quickly adding, ‘once they have had a chance to go through your offer, obviously.’
‘That’s a great idea,’ said Ryan. ‘We’ll arrange it next time I’m over.’
‘Thank you so much for your time today, Charles. And very nice to meet you… Doctor Cassidy.’ The pause, she hoped, indicated that she had to think to remember his name.
As they sat in the taxi after the meeting, Meredith stared out of the window, deep in thought. She wanted to tell Ryan that Lloyd had been her surgeon, but she wasn’t sure he could be trusted not to blurt it out at some point. He was so excitable and the temptation to make some sort of clever comment about Lloyd’s handiwork would just be too strong. Lloyd had behaved very professionally and she should do the same. And, as she tried to keep reminding herself, she had done nothing wrong. She hadn’t even been working for Clinton Wahlberg when she’d been his patient.
But she was beginning to get very worried about Ryan. Under the firm’s rules, their relationship would be deemed to cloud her professional judgement, meaning that she shouldn’t really be advising Equinox on such an important deal. Now it looked as though the deal was going ahead, she should probably stand down from the project and hand it over to someone else, like Lars maybe. But that would be a pretty dramatic response and what reason could she give?
At the same time, Ryan was the best thing that had happened to her in years. He made her feel sexy and special; commodities that until now had been in short supply. But was there really any more to their relationship than that? Meredith couldn’t decide. She gave a loud sigh and Ryan looked at her in surprise.
‘I thought that went pretty well,’ he said, misinterpreting her negativity.
Meredith smiled at him. ‘Yes, it did. I’m sure we’ll get the green light on the offer quite quickly, once the rest of the team see the numbers involved.’
‘You don’t seem very excited.’
Meredith thought for a moment, then said, ‘I’m still worried that they’re going to find out that I was a patient.’ That much Ryan already knew.
‘Look, so what if they do? What are they going to do with that information exactly? It’s a great advert for their business and it has no impact whatsoever on our offer for them,’ said Ryan.
But it would be round the office in no time and everyone would be laughing about it behind my back, thought Meredith. The whole point of getting her surgery done while she was changing jobs was so that she could keep it a secret. She’d let her feelings for Ryan carry her away and she’d not really thought it through properly.
Ryan slid closer towards her and put his arm around her. ‘Please don’t worry
. I’m sure it will be fine. This process will all be over in a few weeks.’ He kissed her cheek and gave her a reassuring squeeze. ‘Come back to the hotel with me. I’ll soon take your mind off things.’
Meredith laughed. ‘Don’t you ever think about anything else?’
‘Not with you around,’ said Ryan.
Meredith felt torn. Her head was telling her one thing, but her emotions were telling her quite the opposite. Ryan was like a drug that she couldn’t get enough of. She thought for a moment. She’d had enough of the hotel thing: too many embarrassing situations and too much creeping about. It was making her feel seedy and unprofessional.
‘Come back to mine instead,’ she said.
Ryan looked surprised. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Not really, but let’s go before I change my mind.’
They only just made it through the front door of the apartment before they began frantically pulling off each other’s clothes. As Meredith led Ryan into her bedroom, she knew that she was doing the opposite of cooling things off; she was taking things to a whole new level. But as she lay in the familiarity of her own bed with one of the most gorgeous men she had ever known, it seemed like the best decision of her life.
Chapter 14
The next morning, after a rather rushed goodbye, Ryan went back to his hotel to pack and Meredith made her way to the office. She was immediately collared by Hazel.
‘You haven’t forgotten about the healthcare conference tomorrow, have you? I’ve got you down as going for the day. Lars and Rupert are covering Thursday and Friday.’
‘No, I’d not forgotten,’ Meredith lied, cursing herself for not being more on top of her diary. She really needed to get a grip. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be there,’ she told Hazel, who scurried off in search of the next office drama and Meredith spent the rest of the day preparing to be out of the office again.
The next morning she took her time getting ready, as the conference didn’t start until nine thirty. She stood with a large mug of coffee and perused her wardrobe, searching for something ‘smart casual’ to wear. It was a dress code that she had always found utterly unhelpful: in her mind, she was either smart or casual, not both.