Mergers and Acquisitions

by A. E. Radley

  Her eyes drifted towards the browser window beside the email.

  Trust Georgina Masters to have her face emblazoned over the homepage of her corporate website, Kate thought.

  She leaned a little closer to the screen.

  Either she’s had work done, or that photo had a team of Photoshop artists working day and night for a week.

  Georgina was flawless: she was approaching fifty and didn’t seem to have one wrinkle. Her shoulder-length brown hair looked like molten chocolate; her eyes were the exact same hue.

  Kate angrily dragged the empty email window over the woman’s smug face. She drummed her fingers on her desk as she again pondered how to start the message.

  She ignored the tentative knock on her office’s open door. Whoever it was would just have to learn to knock with confidence if they wanted to speak with her. If they couldn’t get her attention with a knock, she certainly wasn’t about to listen to whatever they had to say.

  A soft female cough sounded.

  Kate sighed. She slowly removed her glasses and looked up at the door. She didn’t recognise the frightened young thing standing in the doorway.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “You, um, wanted to see me?”

  “Do you, um, have a name?”

  “Sophie. Sophie Young.” The scared mouse took a small step into the office.

  Ah, the new girl.

  “Come in, close the door, and take a seat.” Kate gestured to one of the two visitor chairs in front of her desk.

  Sophie edged into the room and slowly closed the door behind her. She had the look of a new starter: terrified, unsure of herself and her role.

  The girl was the very embodiment of the term preppy. Her long blonde hair and geeky glasses perfectly matched the style. If Kate was a fan of the preppy appearance, she’d be impressed. Unfortunately, for Sophie, Kate hated the rising trend among millennials. More so, she feared that Sophie wasn’t actively going for a certain style. Sophie appeared to be geek chic without the chic.

  By this time, Sophie had crossed the room and sat on the edge of the visitor chair. She held a notepad in her hand and looked expectantly at Kate.

  “So, you interned for us? Is that right?”

  Sophie nodded. “I did. I spent three months in accounts.”

  “Accounts. Riveting.” Kate opened her desk planner and looked at her upcoming appointments. Sophie was going to have to work to get her attention. Kate needed to know what the girl was made of.

  “It was the only position available,” Sophie said quickly.

  Kate glanced up at her. “I see. What brought you to Red Door?”

  “You.” Sophie fiddled with her glasses. “I… I love marketing, and I wrote about Red Door at university. It was my case study. You were… um, I mean—”

  “I see.” Kate returned her attention to her desk planner. She’d heard enough desperate wannabes telling her that she was their idol. They were all so keen to emulate her rather than walk their own path. “And now you’re working up on the top floor. That’s a big step for an intern in accounts.”

  “I’m a hard worker. And very willing to learn. I came here because I wanted to learn from the best.”

  Kate smirked to herself. “Well, we are the best,” she agreed. She looked at Sophie and interlaced her hands in front of her. “Tell me, Sophia, what do you know about Georgina Masters?”

  Sophie swallowed and bit her lip. “Um, she’s… she owns Mastery. The American agency.”

  Kate rolled her eyes. “Your industry knowledge clearly knows no ends… or beginnings.” She picked up her pen and looked at her desk planner again.

  She waited. Sophie’s worth to the company would make itself known within the next twenty seconds, if she had any.

  “Georgina Masters set up Mastery in New York when she was twenty-two. She had one client, a local bookshop, which she got into the New York Times within a month. Mastery is the biggest marketing agency in America, they have some of the biggest names on the planet on their books. She’s been credited with starting the trend of world leaders having Twitter accounts. She’s won hundreds of awards. She’s been on the cover of Life Magazine three times. And she likes dogs. Beagles, I believe.”

  Kate lowered her pen and considered Sophie again. “Impressive. But it’s Basset Hounds.”

  “Damn,” Sophie muttered and shook her head.

  Kate allowed the error. She knew full well that Sophie had just demonstrated more knowledge than most of her staff knew existed.

  “Red Door and Mastery are going to temporarily work together on a new project for Atrom,” Kate explained. “I’m about to invite Georgina to the London office. I’d like you to be her primary liaison.”

  “M-me?”

  “You,” Kate confirmed. “I need someone to keep an eye on her. Make sure she has everything she needs.”

  “I can do that.” Sophie fidgeted in her seat.

  She’s so nervous, Kate thought. Georgina’s going to chew her up and spit her out. Still, the slap in the face of being assigned an ex-intern will send a clear message. Shame to lose this one so soon, she almost has promise.

  “Jonathan will give you more information nearer the time.” Kate put her glasses back on and turned her attention to her laptop. After a couple of seconds, she looked at Sophie. She raised her eyebrow.

  “Oh, I’ll… yes, thank you.” Sophie stumbled to her feet and scurried out of the office.

  Kate watched her fumble with the door before apologising again and rushing out. She shook her head and returned her attention to the opening line of her email.

  Chapter 4

  Sophie unlocked the front door and stepped into the cramped hallway of her apartment. She let out a deep sigh. The whole Tube ride home, she had been berating herself for her pathetic performance in front of Kate.

  If she was going to work for the woman then she was going to have to get herself together. And she needed to tell her that her name was not Sophia. Although, she suspected that the name change was a power play. One that she had allowed Kate to win easily.

  She needed to get her nerves under control. Not that having Georgina Masters come to Red Door was going to make that any easier. Georgina was the American version of Kate. Glamorous, successful, famous, and rich. Having both impressive women in the Red Door offices at the same time was going to be incredible. Like a dream come true. A very, very frightening dream.

  The fact that Kate had handpicked her to look after Georgina was amazing. And terrifying. Now Sophie had a real deadline to get her nerves under control. She couldn’t embarrass herself in front of Georgina like she had with Kate.

  “There she is, my marketing genius!” Matt padded into the hallway and helped her out of her coat. “How was the first day?”

  “Scary,” she admitted.

  “It will get better,” he promised. He hung her coat up on the long hooks shaped like cat’s tails. Sophie looked at it with a small grin. She’d been so pleased when she’d found the novelty coatrack at the market. She looked just above it at a figurine she didn’t recognise. It stood shoulder to shoulder with the other collectibles that Matt insisted would one day be worth money.

  “I know, it’s just I want it to be better now. You know how nervous I get.”

  “I know.” He pressed a soft kiss to her cheek.

  She looked at him in surprise. “Hey, you shaved!”

  In the three years they’d been together, she’d constantly asked him to shave his beard and moustache. He’d always refused, but here he was, cleanly shaven. “Aw, did you shave because it was my first day? Is this my treat?”

  “Of course. That, and a great dinner.” He looped her arm through his and walked her into the kitchen.

  On the small dining table was a homemade pizza and a bottle of white wine. Sophie grinned excitedly. “You made pizza?”

  “I made pizza,” Matt confirmed. “And I’m only having one slice, so you can take the rest to work tomorrow.”
/>   Sophie sat down and looked up at him in confusion. “Just one slice?”

  “Well, one big slice. But, yeah, one slice.” He sat down. “You know I have military fitness tomorrow morning. I don’t want to go through all the pain of getting up at five in the morning and going to the park to be shouted at if I’m going to put loads of weight on by eating too much pizza.”

  Matt had always been overweight. He carried it well because of his height, but he loved food and always ate to excess. Sophie was lucky, she could eat whatever she liked and never seemed to put any weight on.

  Recently, Matt had signed up to a fitness group that met in the park at the crack of dawn. It was based on military fitness training and seemed to consist of a chiselled ex-Army officer shouting at people to run faster.

  “Well, I like you to be a little cuddly,” Sophie reminded him. “But you do what you think is best.”

  “I just want to be slimmer. For you.” He poured two small glasses of wine. “I’ve already lost quite a bit of weight, but there’s a long way to go.”

  “You know that I don’t need you to lose weight, right?” Sophie reached out and took his hand. “I love you just the way you are.”

  Matt smiled. “I love you, too. So much it hurts.”

  Sophie smiled. She let go of his hand and reached for the pizza cutter. “Mm, pizza.” She started to run the cutter through the pizza, creating equal slices.

  “So, how was it?” Matt asked. “First day on the top floor.”

  “Yup. I spoke to Kate, and she told—”

  “Oh, it’s Kate now is it? It’s always been Kate Kennedy before,” he teased.

  Sophie could feel the blush flare on her cheeks. She knew she talked about Kate a lot, she always had. Matt had joked a few times that Kate Kennedy was the third person in their relationship as Sophie spoke about her so often.

  “I work with her now,” Sophie defended. “I can’t call her Kate Kennedy all the time. It would be weird.”

  “I know,” he said. “I’m just teasing you. I’m glad you’re working with your idol. It’s cool, you worked hard to get there and you totally deserve this. Sorry I interrupted, Kate told you?”

  Sophie placed a slice on her plate. “She told me that Georgina Masters is coming over from New York, and I’m going to be her primary liaison.”

  She looked up to see Matt staring at her open-mouthed. “Are you kidding?”

  “Nope.” She took a bite of pizza.

  “That’s incredible! I’m so proud of you,” he said.

  “I’m not. You should have seen me speaking with Kate, I sounded like an idiot.” Sophie shuddered a little at the memory.

  “It can’t have been that bad if she asked you to look after Georgina Masters, even I’ve heard of her. And not just from you.”

  She shrugged. “There’s probably no one else available. There’s some kind of audit happening, everyone is super busy. And super unfriendly. No one spoke to me, except for Jonathan, he’s Kate’s PA.”

  “What’s he like?” Matt asked.

  “He’s nice. Really nice, actually. Which is a relief because I think I’ll be working with him mainly.”

  “Maybe the others just don’t waste their time getting to know the new person?” he suggested. “It sounds like the HR department at Red Door has a revolving door. Maybe they wait a week to see if it’s worth their time.”

  “Maybe,” Sophie agreed. “It’s just hard, you know. Lonely. Being in a packed office but no one speaking to you.”

  “At least you have one friend.” Matt bit into his pizza.

  “Yeah, at least I didn’t make a complete fool of myself in front of him.” She remembered her impassioned speech about marketing and winced. “Well, not much of one, anyway. I just don’t know how I’m going to get these nerves under control. I’m smart, I know what I’m doing. I’m articulate, I have good ideas. Until I need to speak to someone new and then I sound like a complete idiot.”

  “You need to take a deep breath and calm down. Ask yourself what’s the worst that can happen,” he suggested.

  “I could look like an moron and they could fire me?” Sophie suggested.

  Matt chuckled. “Well, I’m no help. You know me, I don’t care about looking stupid in front of other people. You just need to find your own path. You’ll figure something out that works for you.”

  Sophie hoped that was true. Her debilitating nerves were holding her back. She knew she was talented and had good ideas, but she didn’t know how to convey them to other people. And with the likes of Kate and Georgina around, she felt smaller than usual.

  Matt shifted in his seat a little. “Would you mind if I went to the pub tonight? You don’t have to come, I just want to try to work on Marcus, I really think I can get him to sign the contract. It’s easier to talk to him out of business hours, and you know he’s in the pub every night. If I can sign that contract, the commission for this month will be great. We can get the tyres replaced on your car.”

  Sophie bit her lip. She’d been dreaming about a night in with Matt. Cuddled up together, watching television. But now he was planning to go out and work, to make them extra money to get her car fixed. She felt guilty about wanting to spend the evening in when he was thinking about work.

  Matt hated his job in sales. He was reliant on commission for them to make enough money to pay the bills. As the economic situation started to pinch, he had started working evenings and weekends to schmooze more potential clients.

  Matt was great with money; he dealt with all their finances and protected Sophie from the depressing state of their financial situation. He assured her that he’d work all the hours he needed, even get a second job if necessary, to make sure she had whatever she wanted.

  Not that Sophie wanted much. She lived a simple life with no frills, no extravagant expenses.

  Still, Matt was the reason Sophie was working at Red Door. The unpaid internship had taunted her, her dreams almost within reach. She’d practically decided against applying for it when Matt had told her she couldn’t let the opportunity go to waste. He’d taken on extra hours, working late as he entertained clients at pubs and clubs, despite hardly drinking anything himself to save money.

  Sophie had worked for three months without pay, Matt refusing to allow her to take a second job. He told her he wanted her to be fresh at work in the hopes that they would give her a paying role.

  It had worked out, she was now finally earning a salary again. And she was working for the company of her dreams. But she felt guilty that her salary was less than it had been before, and Matt was still having to work late nights to make up the difference.

  She blinked back to reality. “Sure. I mean, I’ll miss you, but I get that you need to work. If you can get that contract then it will be great.”

  “Exactly, and I won’t be home late. I won’t drink either. Well, nothing alcoholic.”

  “You can drink if you want,” she offered. She felt guilty enough that he had worked a full day, cooked dinner, and was now heading out again. They were saving money, but she didn’t want him to feel that he couldn’t have a small drink if he wanted one.

  “Nah, I don’t want to be out too long. Then I can get back to you and maybe we can watch an episode of something before bed?” he suggested.

  “That would be great.”

  “Great.” He smiled. “Now, tell me all about your day. Don’t leave a thing out.”

  Chapter 5

  “Why is it always so grey in London?” Georgina stared up at the clouds that lay over Heathrow Airport like a patchwork quilt of misery. So much for a sunny summer.

  She knew that London wasn’t as dark and rainy as people implied. She’d seen gorgeous sunny days in the English city. It just so happened that the dark weather coincided with her mood. She loathed not overseeing her own work schedule. Kate Kennedy had somehow convinced Yannis that it was essential that Georgina come to London. Plus, it was terrible timing, as her personal life back home had just
imploded.

  She shook the thought from her mind and watched as her luggage was loaded into the back of a shuttle van.

  “Be careful with that, it’s Gucci,” she informed the porter. She watched him meaningfully as he lifted the remaining cases with more care.

  “It’s as grey here as it is in New York,” Michael told her. “Come on, let’s get in the car and let this man do his job.”

  She glared at the porter one last time. She turned away from the luggage van and stalked towards the luxurious BMW that Kate Kennedy had sent to meet them at the airport.

  “This is ridiculous, coming all this way when it would be just as easy to talk online. I didn’t pay ninety thousand dollars for that video conference suite for fun. If we never use it, it looks like we could only afford half the chairs.”

  Michael held the door open and gestured for her to get into the car.

  “It’s ridiculous,” she repeated, hoping to get more of a reaction from him.

  “It is,” he agreed.

  She nodded and got in. He walked around the back of the car and got in the other side.

  As soon as he sat down, she turned to him. “My luggage is being manhandled.”

  “Your luggage is fine,” he told her. “Are you going to tell me what is happening with Jessica, or do I have to suffer this mood throughout the entire two weeks in London?”

  Georgina stared at him for a moment before turning to look out of the window.

  “There’s nothing to say.”

  She knew bringing Michael along would be a problem. He was the only member of her staff brave enough to speak his mind. He was practically a friend, which gave him the courage to ask personal questions that she would rather were left alone. Like why she was in a foul mood. And why her girlfriend of the past three years had suddenly, very publicly, moved out of their apartment.

  “That’s not what Twitter has to say.” Michael pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket. “Twitter seems to think that you and Jessica have broken up. I get all my major news from Twitter these days.”