Page 28 of Collateral Damage
I try to relax in my chair, the weight of this heavier than I thought. I don’t want to let Perry down, but I can’t get his hopes up. “I’m sorry, but the board won’t agree to something like this, and I don’t have the kind of money you’re talking about. No offense, but Laurence is trying to distance ourselves from King, not enter into more agreements.”
A hush falls between us. For a second, we’re at a standstill. Whose move?
“Perry, why don’t you excuse yourself? There’s something Sybil and I need to discuss in private,” Cooper says, and my stomach drops.
His move, apparently.
“I actually need to head out, but I’ll be in touch. Sybil, you don’t want to miss this.” Perry finishes his drink and disappears out the front door, his hand raised to hail a cab.
I glower at Cooper. “If you think you’re going to use your little five percent to blackmail me into going to the board for you, you’re crazy. I love Perry, but our two companies working together is not a good idea, and I’m not going to be the one to pitch the idea that has a snowball’s chance in hell.”
Cooper is slow to answer, as if methodically thinking every word through. I wish I could be like that. I’m hot-tempered, the words often rolling off my tongue as soon as I think them.
“He’s trying to build his career. Do you blame him for asking?” Coop asks.
“I’m trying to build my career, too.”
He lets out a small laugh. “I thought your career was already made for you.”
Anger burns hot. IknowI’m a nepotism hire, that I come from immense privilege, but I fight tooth and nail to prove myself every day. Cooper should understand what that is like, considering we’re in the same position.
“As if you have room to talk.” I take a long sip of my remaining wine, trying to hide my frustration behind the glass.
He raises his Coke in a touché gesture and takes a long drink.
“If you agree to do this—really do this—get the board to give you the money to fund the first season successfully. Then I’ll give you that five percent stake I took.”
The world has been upside down for the past two weeks and suddenly it flips right side up. I set my glass down, trying not to gape at him or get my hopes up. “Are you serious?”
“We’ll put it in writing, but there’s a caveat.”
“Of course, there is,” I sigh, the hope gone as quickly as it came.
“The show has to be good. Ithasto succeed, for Perry’s sake, or it’s all a waste.” He pauses, and a faraway regretful look overtakes his features. “I’m doing this for my best friend. I’ve had a lot of friends over the years, and Perry is theonlyone who stayed with me when it mattered most.”
Ouch.
Everything I was about to say falls flat on my tongue. He’s talking about me. I know he is. And while I had my reasons, I still don’t blame him for hating me. I ruined our friendship. I gave it away.
Because I had to.
“I don’t need stake in your company,” he continues. “As much as it delights me to have your panties in a twist, it’s not what’s driving me forward.”
“As if you have any effect on my panties.” Once again, my words tumble out without going through my brain first.
He smirks, his eyes dropping down my body and slowly back up again. Traitorous heat floods every inch of my skin. This cannot keep happening. It’s been years. Cooper shouldn’t be able to rattle me like this with a suggestive look.
“Sure,” he drawls. “No effect at all.”
Damn him.
Thirteen
Sybil
Present - Age 27
“I knew you’d do anything for your family,” Cooper says to me when I slide into the booth across from him and Perry a week later. I bite my tongue from snarking back.
