Page 4 of Perfect Night

“Ugh, fine, but as soon as you score, I’m coming home.”

CHAPTER 2

SEBASTIAN

It had been a productive week for Sebastian, CEO of Steele Property Holdings. The decision to open an office in his home city was paying off. He still needed to recruit a general manager to run the London office, but for now he was happy to hop back and forth from New York. It had to be the right person. He’d built the company from scratch with his twin sister, Bex, and having the wrong leadership in place could undo all their hard work in an instant.

He was now on the wrong side of forty, had more money in the bank than he would ever need and a lifestyle he could never have dreamed of. When Sebastian and Bex were whisked off to New York in the middle of the night when they were twelve, they had nothing. Their mum was finally away from their abusive father, but he cut them off. Sebastian’s grandfather didn’t have much, but he gave them a roof over their head in his small Brooklyn apartment. Their mum did whatever she could to make money, but it had been a struggle growing up. Thankfully, Sebastian and Bex had both been natural athletes at school, which had won them college scholarships. Both of them studied business and dropped sport as soon as they graduated. They had enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a career for them; it was a means ofgetting into college. The Steele siblings had been taught by their grandfather to do whatever it took to succeed, as long as nobody got hurt.

Their grandfather had died just after they graduated, so had never seen their success, but their mum had, and she’d always said how proud she was of them. Even with all the money he had, Sebastian couldn’t save her from a sudden heart attack five years ago. Their father had shown up at the funeral, but they hadn’t wanted to cause a scene, so ignored him. When he’d reached out afterwards, they’d made it clear the Steele twins now considered themselves orphans.

Sebastian had just turned forty-two, and despite everything he had, he was lonely. He had his sister and nieces, but his friends had mostly paired off and were married with kids, or they had opted for cats and more holidays. The single ones were out all the time, or focused on their careers. He knew if he called one of them up, they’d make time for him, but it had gotten to the point where he didn’t want to be an inconvenience.

He was heading back to the States this weekend and their most pressing matter was finding a partner to create and execute their marketing strategy. Word of mouth had helped them get a foothold in the UK, but the market was saturated and they needed to stand out. They’d received a fantastic proposal, so Sebastian was hopeful.

In the boardroom was his leadership team. Candice, chief customer officer; she’d worked for Sebastian in New York and then moved back to the UK with her husband to start a family. As soon as he set up in London, she was the first person he offered a job. She hadn’t wanted to take the general manager role, as it would involve too much travel once they expanded into Europe, but she bit his hand off when he offered her this role. Colin, chief financial officer, was a rare breed, an accountant with a personality. Trent, chief operating officer, was a brashNew Yorker, but he got shit done and Sebastian trusted him implicitly.

“Candice, how did the meeting go with Sumptua?”

“I don’t think they’re going to be the right fit for us.”

“Why? Their proposal exceeded the others by a mile.”

“What was the standout from their proposal?”

“The social media strategy, without question. It was brilliant.”

“Exactly, but when I asked some questions about it, Nathaniel Klein couldn’t answer them. It was obvious someone else in his team had done the work.”

“And?”

“He took the pitch solo, and said he’d put the proposal togetherpersonally.”

“Fuck!”

Sebastian hated that culture in companies. Leaders who were too threatened by their talent, and never gave credit. Whoever had put that social media strategy together should have been the one to pitch it. Sebastian knew that, whoever it was, it would be junior talent, deliberately being held back by someone like Nathaniel Klein.

“Go back to them and say we want to speak to the person who put the social media strategy together, and we want a guarantee that they will be on the project team, or no deal.”

“I’ll leave it until Wednesday. Make him sweat a bit.”

Sebastian laughed. “And we want the next meeting here.”

“Do you want to be there?”

“Don’t let me hold things up. If we can’t schedule them in before I’m back I’ll attend, otherwise just get on with it. We need to get moving on this. Colin, how’s the budget?”

“We’re running around twenty per cent over, but I’m not concerned.”

They all looked at him, dumbfounded. He laughed.

“What? I know we’re gonna run in the red for a while before things properly kick off.”

“Where did you find this guy, boss man?” said Trent. “You sure he’s an accountant? I thought you Brits were tight as assholes.”

They all laughed before Candice reminded Trent he was outnumbered. Sebastian had lived in New York for thirty years. It was home, but he’d been born in London and spent his formative years here. He even still had a hint of a British accent, unlike his sister, who you’d think had been born in the Bronx.

“Trent, how’s the tech recruitment going?”

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