Page 35 of Stuck with the Hot Boss
‘What?’ he said.
‘Don’t be a berk, lad,’ said Nigel. ‘What did those two bastards want with you?’
Leo scratched back of his neck, hesitating. Finally, he said, ‘To apologise.’
‘For giving you the boot?’ Nigel persisted.
‘No,’ said Leo. ‘For hiring me so close to the sale. They said if they’d known it was going to happen, they would have held off.’
‘How can they not have known?’ said Evie. ‘Don’t those kind of business negotiations take months?’
‘Normally …’
Leo was obviously reluctant to say more. But Nigel was having none of it.
‘Spill the beans, lad,’ he said, ‘Or I’ll take your nice shiny laptop and give you a clout.’
‘Okay!’ Leo raised his hands in surrender. ‘But this stays between us, right?’
Nigel made a zipping motion across his mouth.
‘Seems that Plumbing Ultra have been after Double K for a couple of years,’ Leo told them. ‘Made a bunch of offers; Keith and Kev rejected the lot. But now there’s a new CEO, whose first move was to tell Keith and Kev that if they didn’t accept, Plumbing Ultra would set up here in competition. It would be a big investment on their part, sure, but their buying power meant they could undercut Double K by miles, and in short order, crush them like a bug. Keith and Kev didn’t want to see everything they’d built destroyed, so last Thursday, they provisionally agreed to a sale. Wanted to give staff a heads-up soon as possible.’
‘Isn’t there some law against that kind of behaviour?’ said Evie.
‘Buying Double K won’t give Plumbing Ultra a monopoly,’ said Leo. ‘So – no.’
‘You say they’veprovisionallyagreed?’ Nigel asked. ‘It’s not a done deal?’
‘As good as,’ replied Leo, with a shrug. ‘There’s no way Double K can compete, so it’s the only sensible decision, really.’
‘That’s it then.’ Nigel sat back in his chair. ‘Our jobs are for thelaguillotine.’
‘You don’tknowthat,’ said ever-positive Ange.
‘The new Plumbing Ultra CEO managed to put the frighteners on our Kev,’ Nigel pointed out. ‘They’ll have no mercy on peasants like us.’
‘Happy Monday, everyone,’ said Evie, with a sigh. ‘Is it too early to start drinking?’
Red alert! All hands on deck! Trouble is brewing and we need to be ready for action …
Chapter Eighteen
Five o’clock on the dot and Nigel packed up and left. Ange followed soon after, but Evie waited to talk to Leo. It had been a long, frustrating day, with no meaningful interaction between them bar a short discussion about the social media plan for that week.
‘Is it worth doinganything?’ Evie had asked, dejected.
‘You’re still getting paid, aren’t you?’ was Leo’s unsympathetic reply.
It had stung more than it should have, and despite knowing she was overreacting, Evie had withdrawn in a huff and stayed huffy until it became obvious Leo was putting all his focus on his own work, and she might as well be invisible. It was turning out to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, and Evie was seriously considering booking tickets to Australia because at least they had koalas and wombats there as well as man-eating crocodiles.
Once Nigel and Ange had both gone, Evie was sure Leo would drop his guard and they could finally be themselves. But he kept on tapping away like a woodpecker. It was driving her insane.
‘Leo,’ she said. And again, louder. ‘Leo!’
He held up one finger in the officious ‘wait’ gesture. Evie was tempted to lunge forward and bite it off.
A whooshing sound signalled that an email was on its way to itsveryimportant destination. Leo looked up to find Evie scorching him with her angry eyes.
