Acquired: A Billionaire Auction Romance

by Charlotte Byrd

  “That’s it! Say it again. But say it loud.”

  “JUSTIN IS AN ASSHOLE.” It felt even more invigorating screaming this while completely naked. I’m not sure why. It just did. I laughed and threw Danielle a grateful smile.

  “So, on that note. How about you start looking for someone that’s not an asshole. A gentleman. A real man. I have just the man for you. He’s everything that Justin isn’t. And I know you thought that Justin was gorgeous, but trust me, this guy is even better looking. And to go with the looks comes a sparkly and shiny personality. Just what you need and deserve.”

  “Thanks Danielle. But I’m going to say no. I’m sure you’re not surprised at all at. But it’s not because I’m anti-men. Well, maybe I am a little. But I won’t be forever. I just need a bit of time to be myself. To figure out who I am as a person. I was with Justin for a very long time. Years of my life wasted on that idiot. And in that time I have completely forgotten about who I am as a person. What I want. I’ll be honest, I actually have no idea who Jane Griener even is. If you had to ask me I could only tell you that I’m a 26 year old female with a bachelor’s degree in Communication and MBA and that I’m particular good with social media and company branding. I can tell you that I have curves in places I like and curves in places that I don’t like. I can tell you that I have light brown hair and light brown eyes and that I hate how everything is just light brown and nothing else. How I wish my hair flowed down to my legs rather than just cutting short just above my shoulders. How I hate that I’m not taller. I can tell you all these things. But you already know that. And a stranger talking to me would pick all that up within minutes. That’s because that’s not all that I am. But I don’t know what that is anymore. I don’t know who I am. I need this time to just be me.”

  There was silence after that. My spray tan was finished and I was standing in the booth just staring into space. Danielle was looking down at her feet. Then she looked up and smiled.

  “I’m proud of you Jane. This is your time.”

  And standing there, completely unclothed and free for the first time in a long time, I knew that she was right. This was my time!

  Chapter 6 - Sebastian

  “Hi everyone. Thanks for all coming today on such short notice. So are you all ready to talk business?” I laughed at their solemn faces. It was a common practice for me to call meetings at all hours of the day and night but it didn’t seem to be to most people’s liking. Right now it was 9pm and most people either wanted to go out or go to sleep. For me, this was one of my best thinking times. My best times to strategize. I’d prefer it to be later even, perhaps when the rest of the world was asleep, but I knew they’d kill me for it. They would still show up, though, even if I did hold a meeting in the middle of the night – because at the end of the day I was still the one that paid them – but they’d do it begrudgingly. And I needed everyone quick on their toes. And I still wanted them to like me.

  “Oh come on everyone. Don’t look so grumpy. I have pots of coffee and whisky and a hell of a lot of snacks.” I pointed to the array that I had put out. Well, that someone had put out for me. It looked amazing.

  “Great, coffee to stop us from sleeping and snacks to make us put on weight. Just what I need right now.” Grumbled Abbie while rubbing her eyes. Abbie was one of the best assistants in the marketing department, and she always had a smile on her face. Unless we held our meetings at night. Then she complained. Sometimes I felt that I did this just so that I could see her grumble.

  “Oh Abbie, you could afford to put on some weight anyway. You’re all skin and bones. I’m actually doing you a favour right now. You should be thanking me.” I said and then handed her my sweetest smile.

  “Hmmph. Don’t try and use some flattery to change my mind. You know that things like that don’t work on me. I’m not one of your casino girls.” But I could see that she was already starting to smile. Girls were so easy.

  “Okay, so thanks to everyone for coming in today. I promise that we’ll make this quick. We only have one agenda item for today so I don’t see why it has to go on for too long. Then you can all go party your asses off. Or fall into some well-needed sleep. Whatever it is you’re after. Let’s try get this done in an hour at the most. I’ll probably see some of you on the dance floor later which is why I am personally adding some of this whisky to my coffee. There’s some cute girl waiting for me.” I high fived a few of the guys and laughed at Abbie mumbling, “Isn’t there always?” under her breath. I absolutely loved grumpy Abbie.

  “Anyway,” I continued, “Today I want to talk about the online contest for the social media campaign that we ran and to finally decide on the right candidate for the job. We’ve had a lot of entries so thank you to Abbie for going through all of them so carefully and for selecting the top ten. For those that don’t know I sat with Abbie yesterday and we whittled that down again until we were left with three. Three fantastic candidates who I really think could turn this place around. Just imagine what this place is going to be like with a bit of media buzz surrounding it. I’m not sure why it’s taken us so long to do this in fact. Okay, Abbie please tell everyone about the top three candidates. And please everyone, help yourself to something to eat and drink.”

  Abbie cleared her throat and got out her papers. I noticed that she didn’t bother to stand up. She did, however, take a big gulp of coffee. That seemed to perk her up a bit. “Okay, well like Sebastian said…”

  “SIR Sebastian.” I interrupted.

  She glared at me and I grinned back at her. “Like Sebastian said we had some great entries for this competition. Of course also some not so great entries but those were discarded easily. I was shocked at how many people thought they would be great for the job and had absolutely no qualifications. Some guy actually wrote ‘because I like casinos and money’ in his application.”

  “Ooh, I like the sound of him.” I interrupted again.

  Again, she glared at me. “Well then you hire him.” Snappy Abbie. “So, like Sebastian was saying before he so rudely interrupted me… we have three candidates to choose from. The first is Jane Greiner, a 26 year old female who got her bachelor’s degree in Communication and MBA from the University of Arizona. She’s got a good solid background in social media and knows what people want to see and what they don’t want to see. She was the one that headed the Beanz campaign a few years ago that turned that company around in a matter of weeks. So she definitely knows what she is doing. Then we have Martin Trumpor, a 32 year old male, no postgraduate degree, went straight to work with some of the top companies and moved his way up until he was heading their social media and marketing team. He might be different in terms of what we’re used to, but he is a hard worker and doesn’t stop until he gets what he wants. He’s had quite a few jobs over the past years which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it but it seems that when he gets a job he certainly does it justice. Lastly we have Molly Earnest. Like Jane she also received a bachelor’s degree in Communication. She has lived in New York her whole life and has lead the marketing team in four of her company’s divisions. She is also a graphic designer and creates beautiful vision representations for her marketing campaigns. This is always a good thing to have – because a vision without an eye for design often doesn’t work. Having said that we already have some great graphic designers so we probably wouldn’t need much more than just her input. I have a copy of their CV’s to show each of you,” Abbie handed one out to everyone, “And then I’d like to take you through the ideas that each of them had for the company. You’ll be surprised at how different their visions are and hopefully after that you’ll be able to figure out who you like best. Sebastian, I think we take it to a vote at the end. I know who I want already.”

  I nodded and signalled for her to continue. Abbie took the team through the slideshows and I was impressed at just how much time and effort these people had gone through to prove that they were the ones for the job. I liked people like this. A
ll three were proving that they wanted this badly and it was hard for me to not just hire all three. There was merit in all of the ideas and I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t taken steps to do this before. But I was also quite proud that I had managed to get the casino to where it was today without the help of social media. I had a feeling I was about to see this casino explode to even greater heights. My parents were going to be very surprised. And hopefully very proud. I wondered briefly if my brothers were going to be jealous of my success.

  “That was great and very interesting. Thanks for that Abbie, I know people don’t see the work that you do behind the scenes but I know it was a long process to get to where we are today. Trust me everyone, Abbie literally had piles and piles of paperwork to go through.” I noticed that she was back to her sweet and smiling self. She always perked up when she was asked to do her job, and I’m sure the coffee helped in making that happen. She was a good girl and a great assistant and I just loved messing with her. Also, she was a girl and so was easily swayed by compliments. “Now, let’s go around and see what everyone thinks. Let’s take it to a vote.”

  In the end it was down to either Jane Greiner and Martin Trumpor. Three votes for Jane and three for Martin.

  “I honestly think Martin is our guy. He’s by far the most interesting one. Also he’s a bit older than everyone else and for once that might be a good thing.” David Ellis was the main marketing director at the casino and someone that I had hired because of his ability to stand up for his beliefs at all time. He had a good eye for people and it was important that the right person was chosen for him – because he would be working with them closely. However, for probably the first time, I disagreed with him.

  “No, I don’t think so. I’m sorry to disagree with you but I have an inkling not to go with him and I think I should follow my gut. It’s never lied to me before. I think Jane’s our girl. Martin seems great but he seems a bit all over the place. That can be good in a lot of ways, but I want someone with a more clear direction. I want to be able to see their vision clearly and to see how they are going to execute it without me constantly wondering what they’ll do next. Jane sounds like someone with a good head on her shoulders.”

  “You can’t say that though, you haven’t even met her. Okay, let’s ask Abbie. Abbie, you’ve met everyone – what are your impressions of them compared to what they showed you on paper.” I knew that Abbie had voted for Jane so I was confident that this was going to help my case. Not that it mattered, I’d choose Jane regardless. But I’d like everyone to think that they at least had a choice in the matter.

  “Well, my vote is for Jane too. Now, don’t get angry David. I know exactly why you wanted to choose Martin. Martin is great. I chose him for a reason too and if the majority were going to go with Martin then I would’ve been happy with that decision. But there was definitely something about him that I didn’t like. I had a feeling that he would be the one that would flip decisions easily. Jane is a solid choice.”

  “I think that as the marketing director for this company I should have the biggest say in the vote. It’s three for Martin right now so surely I have the right to choose him? I’m going to be working with him after all.”

  I looked at David then and felt bad that I was going to undermine his authority. But I always believed in going with my gut and gut was telling me to definitely not go for Martin. “David, I do appreciate your input. That’s what this whole thing was about. And like Abbie said, if everyone went for Martin it would’ve been another story. But as the owner of the casino I do believe the final choice is ultimately mine. And with that I’d like to hire Jane Greiner to head this marketing campaign. But, having said that, we can keep Martin’s details on file so that if something does go wrong and we need someone else then we can have a back up.”

  David looked at me and then sighed. He knew that he didn’t have a leg to stand on when it came to final decisions. At the end of the day, I was still his boss, even though he was ten years older than me. “Fine, Sebastian. We’ll take Jane. I’m sure it will all work out just fine. But please do keep Martin on file.”

  “Wonderful! That’s decided then. Abbie, you can give Jane a call in the morning and set things up. Right guys, that’s a wrap. Party time!”

  Chapter 7 - Jane

  “Psst. Danielle. Over here.” I waved to Danielle the moment I spotted her. She waved wearily at me and carried on working. I had rushed all the way to Palms Casino to see her with my big news. I’d been a waitress before and I knew that any distraction was normally welcomed, but it seemed that things were very different when you waitressed in a casino. For a while Danielle completely ignored the fact that I was even there. She carried on with her work and focused on the job at hand and didn’t once look my way. I had to admire her for that. I took a seat at one of the empty chairs and watched her. She was wearing a very short, very tight and very revealing dress which I’m sure was part of the reason why she was tipped so well. I noticed all the men looking at her – the way her legs looked as if they went on forever and ever. She might not have big breasts, but she certainly made up for it with those legs. Most of the time she was delivering drinks to the black jack players, who played in a separate room to the rest of the casino. I couldn’t see what was going on but from what Danielle had told me in the past I knew that these were the high rollers who played with a minimum bet of $500. I couldn’t imagine ever taking a chance with that much money but I knew the deal – in order to win big you had to bet big. Every time I saw her coming out of the room I hoped that they treated her well in there and that they appreciated her hard work. But she always came out with a smile on her face and I knew that she loved what she did. She was good at it too. It was clear to see that. And after watching some of the other waitresses I knew that she was the best at what she did. She had a no-nonsense attitude, a bit of sass, and enough flirtation to get her what she wanted. I made a mental note to remind her that drinks were on her that night.

  I spent some time watching the rest of the people. Some looked ecstatic, winning wads of cash at a time. Others looked despondent and I could see them doing calculations in their head and trying to figure out if they could still carry on playing. It was both an exciting and depressing place to be in and I was fascinated by the different characters that milled around. I’d always been a bit of a people watcher and this was probably one of the best places to do it in. Mostly because people didn’t seem to worry about anyone other than themselves and it was easy to just sit and stare.

  “How you doing lovely lady?” I looked up and saw an elderly gentleman leering down on me. That’s when I noticed one of my buttons had come undone and a good portion of my cleavage was showing. I wanted to quickly do up the button but I didn’t want to make it obvious so I just left it.

  “I’m doing great. How about you? Making lots of money today?” I knew I had to be polite. This was where Danielle worked after all and it was not fair on me to make a scene. Plus, he seemed like a nice enough man.

  “Oh yes. Today is a good day. A great day in fact. Yesterday, not so much. But you know how it goes – you win some and then you lose some.” I wanted to ask him what the point was then but I decided against it. These casino people did not want anyone telling them what to do with their lives. This was their little escape from the world and in a way I did understand it. Sometimes all you needed was a bit of a break and if the casino was the place for them then who was I to tell them otherwise.

  “Well, I’m glad today is good.” I wasn’t in the mood to talk but he certainly was as he made himself comfortable next to me.

  “You’re not playing?” he asked.

  “Oh no, not me. I’m actually here to see a friend. She’s working so I’m just waiting for her to take a break.”

  “Oh, which friend? I come here often, I probably know her.” I wanted to say that it was obvious that he came here often – from the bloodshot eyes and the pale skin. This was a man who didn’t spend a lot of time outdoors.


  “That one over there. Danielle.” I pointed to her. At that precise moment she was bending down to give a seated customer a drink. She is all legs.

  “Danielle. Of course. The pretty one. She’s a doll.”

  “She certainly is.” Danielle would hate hearing someone call her a doll and I tried not to laugh, putting it in my mental notebook to tell her later.

  “Can I get you a drink?” His attention was back to me, although I noticed how he had stared at Danielle’s legs.

  “Oh no, that’s okay. Thank you though, that’s very kind of you.” A drink from him would only make him stay longer and I was never one to take drinks from people that I didn’t know.

  “Nonsense. I will not take no for an answer. If you’re going to sit here and wait you might as well get a drink. I could do with a few moments more of rest anyway. Excuse me Michelle, can you please get the two of us a glass of champagne. You can put it to my account. Thanks my darling.” He said to a waitress that had walked past. She grinned at him and told him that it would be her pleasure. He wasn’t lying when he said he came here often. When Michelle got back she handed us each a glass.

  “Thank you.” I said and took a sip. And I had to admit, it tasted good. It tasted far better than the bottles that I bought myself. But that could very well be because of the environment I was in now. Everything just seemed expensive. Even my taste buds.

  “No, thank you. It’s lovely to take a break. I’ve been on my feet forever.” The man continued to talk without rest and I found myself getting agitated. I wanted to sit in peace with my drink and watch the rest of the people. But he had given me a drink and I felt bad just getting up and leaving him. Thankfully I saw Danielle coming my way and I shot her a grateful smile.