Page 35 of Return Billionaire to Sender

“Right?” I say. “So, yeah. I think Malcolm would rather have his skin flayed than endure my coaching.”

“No doubt,” Lawrence says.

“But even so,” I continue, “my goal is that he comes away with increased empathy for the people who his business touches.”

Coralee is grinning at me with great anticipation, like she’s waiting for a punchline.

“Yeah, good luck with that.” Nisha takes some bread. “Though you have to respect a man who fully is what he is. People expect Malcolm to be totally misanthropic, and he delivers, which is a weird form of integrity, but integrity all the same. He’ll always be what he is. But, your empathy goals? Not in a million years. But you’ve probably figured that out by now.”

I nod politely. I’ve figured out that that’s what the world thinks. Am I crazy for thinking different based on nothing but my gut? My initial intuition of him?

“So let me ask you, why do you guys work for him?” I ask.

“Our resumes. He’s the absolute best, hands down,” Lawrence says. “Nobody can touch him. When they see the name Blackberg, Inc. on your resume, they know you can handle any type of personality.”

“Yeah,” Nisha agrees. “It’s not easy to work for him, but on a professional level? They know you’ve had a front row seat to a master at work. We live for the after-session roundup where he asks us what we’ve noticed.”

Walt nods. “He’s trying to get information from us, like if we caught things he might not have caught. You always want to pay attention to the kinds of questions that he asks. If he responds to something that you noticed with a word likeindeedorinteresting, that’s huge.”

Coralee says, “One time when I made an observation, he just looked at me and he goes,Helpful. One word, but it was everything.”

“I remember that,” Lawrence says, nodding.

“Right?Helpful!” Coralee says. “But it’s an opportunity to see what he thinks. What he’s reading in the room and what he does with it. If he saysHmm, that’s a good sign too, it shows it’s worth thinking about.”

“I’ll always take ahmmover a nod,” Walt says.

“Me, too,” Nisha says.

“Isn’t that turnover bad for a company? As soon as you get expertise, you leave?” I ask.

“Malcolmlikeschurn or it wouldn’t be that way,” Coralee says. “He doesn’t like us to get too cozy.”

“We’re all just interchangeable to him,” Nisha adds.

The discussion turns to whether he even has friends. Lawrence declares not, since Malcolm’s always at work.

Walt, who apparently exchanges information with Malcolm’s other assistants, tells me that Malcolm has gifts sent to business associates and random people from his past, but he never travels to see anybody, and he rarely even seems to go out to dinner with people, except that Kyra once in a while.

“Kyra’s a shark like him, and they’re both vicious and on again, off again,” says Coralee, who seems to be most up on the gossip in the group.

“But no gifts for her,” Walt says. “Or for family. He has holiday cards sent to his father here in San Fran, but never any gifts. Interestingly—and you can’t repeat any of this—but his instructions are that the father card should acknowledge the holiday, but nothing emotional or sentimental.” Walt points his fork at me and Nisha. “And get this—even though he signs the holiday cards that go out to his business associates and old friends, he never signs the cards to his father. The unsentimental cards for his father are to be sent with no signature.”

“Oh, wow, I didn’t know that,” Nisha says.

“The relationship with the father isnotthe best ever,” Coralee says.

I frown. “Did Malcolm grow up here in California?” I ask. “Because his accent…”

“The family lived in England until he was five, or so,” Coralee says. “And then they moved here, but they apparently sent him back for one of those English boys’ schools where the boys are all cruel to each other. And the mother’s out of the picture. Took off somewhere…”

“Australia,” Walt adds. “No cards for her. No nothing for her.”

Dinner comes and we dig in. My pasta is insanely delicious, but I feel strangely sad for Malcolm. The boys’ school and the distant parents. And everybody who works with him is on their way to somewhere else. Even the guy he’s negotiating with just wants something from him. Is that how Malcolm likes it? How could anybody prefer that?

The gang is planning a day trip to the wharf. They’re all on their phones checking maps and schedules to see if there’s a gap between negotiation sessions and work sessions.

“Guys,” Lawrence says. “Don’t look.”

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