by R. R. Banks
“I thought I was,” he replied calmly. “I don’t know if there are enough hours in the day though for me to run both of those companies.”
“Can’t you delegate some of the responsibilities to others in the organization? Do you have to do everything for them?” asked Marisol as she tried to relax Dillon, noticing that he was starting to stress again. “I’m sorry if I’m making you worry again, but I want you to do well and I want you to be successful, but I also know that you are…”
“A micro-manager of my assets?” finished Dillon with a coy smile. “I know I am, and I will be successful, but I really don’t want to screw over Robert in the process. We’ve been great together. I want our relationship to remain great professionally and even better personally. I don’t feel right putting him in a position to fail after he put his heart and soul into making that move happen.”
“Believe me, I get it,” continued Marisol. “I may not be as business savvy or as professionally attuned as you are, but I understand the need to maintain your friendships and grow the things that need to be nurtured and cared for. If you don’t mind me asking, does Robert know about what Sulagna Patel wants you to do?”
Dillon shook his head slowly as he turned his head back to look up at the moon. “Robert has no idea that Sulagna is the brains behind the scene making all of these moves happen,” he explained. “Mina is facilitating everything on our end to ensure that everything moves according to plan, if I decide to go through with it.”
“So, it’s not a done deal then? Does Sulagna know this?”
“I like to think that she does, but I also know that Sulagna Patel always gets what she wants,” continued Dillon. “I can try and rationalize this as much as I want, but in the end, Sulagna will always be the puppet master pulling the strings from above. We have to make sure we keep her as an ally so that we can keep our support. I would love for us to become like the Americans and get full autonomy inside the consortium, but right now, we have to earn it and play by their rules, especially hers.”
Marisol looked up at the sky to see the moon that Dillon was staring at. “Why don’t you talk to Robert about it before you make any decisions,” advised Marisol. “Honestly, from what you’ve told me, the only thing that he is going to lose is your undivided attention. In all reality, he could actually make more money and become more successful.”
“Yeah,” replied Dillon. “He’ll make a lot more money but he’ll also have to do a lot more work.”
“Then talk to him before you make a decision and see what he has to say about it,” continued Marisol. “Look, both of you want Nathanial Jenkins out of the picture. Maybe he can give you a fresh perspective on everything.”
Dillon nodded as he turned and moved his body closer to Marisol, falling out of the chair and into the sand before planting a rough kiss on her cheek. “Ouch,” exclaimed Marisol with a smile as she looked down at Dillon in the sand. “I don’t suppose you were intending on that happening!?”
“No,” laughed Dillon. “Clearly I’m not as suave as those people on television. I suppose I should really work on that.”
“I think you should!” she replied playfully. “I’m going to have to make sure it doesn’t look like I have a bruised cheek. I’d hate for everyone to think I took up mixed martial arts.”
Dillon laughed as he rose to his feet and dusted the sand off his khaki shorts before stretching his hand out to assist Marisol. “Babe, no one would ever think you took up any type of sport,” he joked as she grabbed his hand. With a quick tug, she rose to her feet and looked up at Dillon, wrapping her arms around him and leaning in to kiss him on the lips. “I’m so glad I found you,” he said after their lips released. “And I’m so glad you’re willing to put up with me.”
Marisol laughed as she leaned in to kiss him again before walking up the beach toward Dillon’s rental home. They walked up the stone pathway outside the beach and reached a large sliding glass door. With a gentle tug, the door opened and the cool air inside immediately rushed out, startling the two of them as they walked into the house and closed the door behind them. Inside, the ceramic tile floors depicted a mosaic of life at sea. While the cream-colored walls maintained the mariner theme with paintings of fish, boats, and other tropical scenes. The kitchen was incredible, with all sorts of digital gadgets and other equipment that Dillon had no idea how to operate. The master bedroom possessed a king size bed with purple sheets and a thin blanket. With carpet so plush it felt like walking on a cloud.
He reached for his phone before looking at Marisol and shaking his head. “I may need a drink after this,” he said as he looked for Robert’s number in his contacts. With a quick selection, the phone started to ring and Robert immediately picked up.
“It’s always awkward when you call me at this time of night, Dillon,” greeted Robert with a quip as a smile immediately crept across Dillon’s face. “What seems to be on your mind?”
“Can’t I just call to small talk and gossip?” asked Dillon rhetorically. “I mean come on, what if I just want to know the news of the day?”
“You know all of the news though, Dillon,” answered Robert. “There is nothing that doesn’t go on in the company that you don’t know about. So, spill it, what’s on your mind?”
Dillon chuckled as he shook his head, knowing that Robert was already seeing through him. “Fine, I’ll spit it out,” he said as Marisol looked on with a concerned gaze. “Robert, this may come as a surprise, but there is another deal going on behind the scenes at the consortium that I’m involved in.” Dillon paused for a moment while he listened to Robert breathe on the other end. “I don’t want you to be alarmed, but it does affect you some.”
“Is it about you purchasing all of Jenkin’s shares in Australia?” he asked immediately, prompting an immediate look of surprise from Dillon.
“Umm,” stuttered Dillon, caught off guard at how Robert knew of the deal. “I mean, yeah.”
Robert laughed loudly on the other end. “Clearly, he knew something you didn’t,” jibed Marisol with a sly grin. “I suppose there is nothing you will ever get past him.”
“Dillon, Sulagna Patel is a brilliant woman and her daughter is going to be even better, but I want you to be honest with me about something. Do you really think that a deal like this would go through without someone like me pushing it there?” he asked arrogantly.
“Wait a minute,” said Dillon as he looked at Marisol with a stupefied expression across his face. “Don’t tell me this was your idea and Sulagna is just pushing it through?”
Robert laughed again. “It’s taken you this long to figure that out? Of course this was my idea, but the consortium wouldn’t go through with it unless Jenkins steps out of the way.”
“So, taking over the market was your idea?” asked Dillon.
“Absolutely,” replied Robert. “I want that market and I think we can do amazing things in it.”
Dillon nodded as he continued to hold the phone up against his ear. “But the consortium won’t go further with Jenkins still at the helm of the Australian company?”
“You’re two for two,” answered Robert in his thick, British accent. “Basically, Sulagna Patel and the rest of the consortium doesn’t trust Nathanial Jenkins with his own company. He’s a great guy and a very charismatic leader, but he has no business in this business.”
Dillon chuckled. “No business in this business?”
“You heard me right,” continued Robert. “This move will be great for you, good for me, and hell, it’ll still be good for Jenkins. He’ll make what he’s making now with the smaller shares and he’ll get to spend time taking up new hobbies.”
“What about Jacoby Burgess?” asked Dillon. “Do you think he’ll be on board with this? He and Nathanial go pretty far back.”
“Jacoby will do what is needed, so long as he’s still making a lot of money,” answered Robert. “Dillon, don’t worry about Jacoby. I have a feeling he’ll be t
aken care of. Why don’t you stop worrying about it and take the night with your beautiful girlfriend to celebrate the fact that you’re about to make a few billion dollars?”
Dillon laughed. “I think I might, but first I’ll need to call Mina and Hannah to make sure everything is still on with our current moves.”
“You do that, but don’t leave Sulagna hanging long,” replied Robert. “Hell, leave her a message at her hotel in Sydney. That’ll make it easier for you.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” he replied. “I’ll do that now.”
“Great, have some fun and get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow,” replied Dillon as he hung up the phone and immediately called Sulagna, leaving a message on her machine with Marisol looking over at him with a pair of seductive eyes. As he placed his mobile phone on a table beside the entrance to the kitchen, Marisol walked up and gave him a firm kiss on his lips. “I take it you don’t want to go get dinner?” he asked as he released his lips from hers briefly, only to plant them back on them after a brief second.
“Why don’t we work up an appetite and then find a drive thru,” she replied quickly, again removing her lips for a split second to answer him before placing them right back on his. With their tongues intertwined, their kissing became more passionate as their hands wrapped around each other. He worked his way down her shoulders and placed his hands on the small of her back, pulling her closer to him as they continued to kiss. Marisol, an incredibly impatient woman, moved her hands up to his neck, running her fingers through his sandy blonde hair. Impassioned, the two stood still as they made out with one another.
As if on que, Marisol’s phone started to ring from across the room, alerting her that her father was calling her from Spain. With a grunt from Dillon and a sigh from Marisol, the two released the kiss for her to walk over and see what her father needed. “I think he knows when things are starting to get a bit hot,” quipped Marisol as she walked across the living room to the table where her phone was sitting. “It’s like he has a built-in radar for when his daughter might actually get laid.”
“Most fathers do,” replied Dillon sarcastically. “I know mine had some kind of radar to know when I was on the verge of doing something stupid.” At that moment, in sheer irony, Dillon’s phone rang. “Speak of the devil,” he said with a coy grin as Marisol looked on at him with scorn. “Hey dad, how’s it going?” he said as he answered the phone with Marisol also answering hers. The night was young, but with business in the background and interferences coming from every direction, Dillon and Marisol were destined to have an awkward evening.
Chapter 2
Jacoby Burgess stood in front of a large pane of glass in his office looking out at the calm Pacific Ocean. With his hands gripping the railing in front of the glass, he stared out into the emptiness that was the ocean as it crashed into the shore. His office was in a tall sky scraper in the center of the Sydney that possessed one of the most incredible views money could buy. To his left, he could see the white fins of the famous Sydney Opera House.
“I’ve been all over the world and have seen many incredible places, but I promise you, nothing beats this view,” he said confidently as he tightened his grip on the railing while his gaze remained affixed on the ocean. “I don’t think I could ever give this up.”
“And why is that?” asked a warm female voice from the other end of the room.
He smirked as he continued to stare out into the vast emptiness. “Because no matter how bad my day is or how difficult this job becomes, I am always reminded of how insignificant I really am anyway and that all I can do, is all I can do. Nothing can change fate.”
She nodded. “I understand, but you’ve never been that way,” she said calmly, adjusting her legs and making her purple dress shimmer in the moonlight that penetrated the windows and lit up the floor. “You used to be more positive and gung-ho about life. I remember a conversation we had a long time ago regarding your stance on waiting for the deal to come to you. What happened to that man?”
He stared out the window as his mind wandered a bit. “He died with his wife,” replied Jacoby in a soft, cold tone. He was a very average man and didn’t stand out much in terms of his physical appearance. But he kept himself in reasonable shape and took care of his appearance. His black and grey hair complemented his very pale complexion. Being stuck in an office all day left him with a severe lack of exposure to the sun, he hardly ever got a decent tan.
“I didn’t mean to upset you,” she announced.
“Sulagna, its fine,” replied Jacoby. “It’s been two and a half years since my wife died and I still mourn her.” Jacoby paused briefly as he looked over at Sulagna Patel sitting in a chair at the other end of the room. “I guess I will never give this view up because I have such a connection with this place. Annette and I used to spend hours up here getting work done. She was my partner, my best friend. We would always work late into the night making sure everything was perfect but also making sure our children were taken care of.” He paused and turned back to face the water. “I just have such fond memories of that place,” he said, referring to the Opera House in the distance. “One of my favorite memories took place there.”
It was such a wonderful day and she looked as beautiful as I had ever seen her, even better than on our wedding day. Her hair was perfect, falling down to the center of her shoulder blades and curled throughout with a beautiful platinum clip in the center. It was perfect, because earlier that day, she had her hair done and put light streaks in, so the clip magnified them exquisitely. She wore a beautiful black dress than hung down to her ankles with heels that brought her up a few inches, to put her even with my eyes. I always joked with her about how short she was, even though I’m not very tall anyway. With every step she took in those heels though, she glided through the air and looked regal in her stance. She carried an aura about her that constantly reminded me of how lucky I was to have married a woman like her.
We walked into the Opera House and saw one of our favorite operas, La Bohème. Ironically, that was the first opera that we had ever seen at the Sydney Opera House, which made the day a little bit more bittersweet. We walked up the red carpet and into the majestic venue, getting my tickets at will call and immediately heading to our private booth. It was a difficult journey to our booth, with Annette unable to walk for long periods of time. Ever since she gave up on the chemotherapy, her strength had abruptly left her. We both knew that our time together was quickly drawing to a close, but I refused to let the Grim Reaper hover over our anniversary. That night three years ago was about our love and our longevity as a married couple, not about how it was soon to come to an end.
The opera was beautifully done, bringing out all the emotions that we wanted and taking our minds off of the world around us for three hours. From the moment the curtain rose until the actors and actresses took their final bow, my wife didn’t have cancer and I wasn’t going to lose her. During those moments, we were able to escape this cruel world and enjoy ourselves immensely. As much as it pains me to say it, if she could’ve passed away right them, at the close of the show, it would’ve been perfect. She was surrounded by emotions that weren’t fear or worrying, but immersed in the show that we always talked out wanting to see again since our first trip to the Opera. She experienced a wonderful yearning for the performance and I could see the enjoyment and happiness on her face as the story progressed. It was perfect, but unfortunately, the worse had yet to come.
Our children hadn’t come to terms with what was going on. They knew their mother was stricken with leukemia, but Annette and I both felt that telling them that she had stopped the treatment would bring about an undue hardship on them. We chose not to tell them that their mother had given up the fight and that she was allowing herself to be taken into the next life. That night three years ago was a celebration of what we had achieved as a couple, not about mourning the fact that I was about to go on without
her. I didn’t want to think about it, nor did she. Annette spent countless nights wondering how I would manage without her, of which I always told her that I couldn’t. I knew that’s not what she wanted to hear, but since her death, I’ve been a shell of what I used to be.
“It’s not fair that we have to speak like this,” said Sulagna solemnly as she wiped a tear from her right eye with her sleeve. “Jacoby, I’m not going to lie to you or try to sugarcoat any of this. When your wife died, I grieved for you and your family. I stayed back and watched as the company you and Nathanial Jenkins owned collectively fell further and further into the doldrums of business. I refused to get involved because I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries. I wanted to give you time to grieve, to pull yourself together and to save your company on your own, because I knew that you were the only one capable of doing it.”
She leaned forward, grabbing a glass of brandy and sipped on it slowly before setting it back down. “You and I both know that Nathanial Jenkins, while a compassionate and smart man, is not cut out for this business,” she continued, keeping herself leaned forward while she looked at Jacoby. “He’s intelligent and a great leader of men, but this business is ruthless and incredibly dynamic. There isn’t much time to analyze data and make decisions. This is why we put our stake in you, even though he was around.”
Sulagna paused briefly as she leaned back in the chair and looked up at Jacoby still standing by the window. “After a few months, I was starting to get frustrated with you because you were mourning your wife just as much as if she passed the previous day. It was as if time stood still and, while your company was dying, you were stuck in neutral and refused to get on with your life. I stayed back though, out of respect for you. I spoke, repeatedly, with Nathanial though, trying to get him to step in and finally be a leader. I tried to tell him what to do so that the company wouldn’t go bankrupt. Unfortunately, he couldn’t seem to grasp what needed to be done and the company went into an awful tailspin, to which, only recently has it finally come out of it.”