Page 3 of Enemies to French Kisses
With a deep sigh, he slips his hand into his pocket. We’re all waiting for him, and he knows it.
He lifts a pen out of his pocket as if through molasses. I don’t want to guess what he’s up to.
“This.” The red dot of his laser pointer stings my sales figure where my green laser point was just a moment ago. “Add approximately thirty-thousand euros to it. Northern Ireland trades in pounds, our dear American. And you’ve forgotten the exchange rate.”
The sound of twenty-five bottoms shifting on their chairs to look at me stops my breath. Only a squeak emerges.
“You see, Guillaume,” Marc says, but my eyes are stuck on the currency total. How did I miss that? “She’s even more brilliant than you thought.”
I blink in the darkness of the room, my eyes landing on Marc, and I don’t know what to make of him. He’s at once teasing me and giving me credit resulting from a mistake I should have found myself.
Heat burns up my back, wrapping around my neck.
“Magnifique.” Guillaume shakes his head in amazement. “With Northern Ireland alone, Laura, you have covered all costs of Phase I UK prospection.Fabuleux!”
He applauds and the rest of the room joins in.
Smile, Laura, the people are watching.I nod slowly and paint a smile on my face. I’d better sit down before superlatives escape my lips. His sneaky little way of making me the star does not take away from the fact that he just made me a fool in front of my peers.
The rest of the meeting is a blur of continental Europe figures, which I normally pay close attention to, as it drives me nuts when Fiorella out-does me. But even her sales can’t keep my attention.
How can one man be so infuriating, frustrating, and yet complimentary all at once? Thanks to him, my currencyfaux-paswas swept right under the rug like it never happened. But someone like Marc doesn’t let such things just slide by.
I owe him. And he knows it.
“That’ll do for today,” Guillaume stands and we all stand at the table at the same time, “except for one final announcement.”
Nobody moves. This is our normal Tuesday morning update; there shouldn’t be surprise announcements. There’s a procedure for that which begins with informing the portfolio manager. There’s no reason for Guillaume to break procedure unless…
“We are opening a new portfolio.” His eyes sparkle like a kid in a candy store as a rush of gasps and quiet squeals emerge from the room. No sound escapes my lips. I’m waiting to hear what he has to say. If it’s an English-speaking country, he would have notified me in advance. So, there’s only one possibility.
Guillaume clasps his hands in front of him. “It’s a whole new market.”
A whole new market means it’s not going to fall under my domain. Even though our working language is English in order to eventually open up to the American and Australian markets, the other countries left in Europe are beyond my linguistic abilities and the Netherlands has never been an option. No opportunity for me here, which is too bad, since the Northern Ireland results just got me a whole basket of bonus points.
Questions emerge from all over the room.
“How did you land it?”
“Where is it?”
“Come on, Guillaume, you can’t keep us waiting like this.”
Guillaume purses his lips and scans the room like a soothsayer. “It’s the Netherlands.”
A pin could drop, and its echo would be deafening. Guillaume has been trying to break into the Netherlands ever since the Belgians got onside, but he couldn’t get through the bureaucratic red tape. Something must have really changed.
A thing about the Dutch…
They speak English. And English… that’s my domain. A nervous tick of mine—my foot begins to bounce under the table. I want this Dutch portfolio. I want it bad.
“I’m going to build a multifaceted team. Adream team. For this is a mission I won’t allow to fail. Vincent, you are on tech.” Guillaume points to the man who is the closest thing to an engineering wizard I have ever met.
“Oui.” Vincent makes a fist like he just won lawn bowling, but that’s about as enthusiastic as he ever gets.
“And Laura.”
He points to me from across the room, and I could fall with the flutter of a feather.
