Page 19 of Love Is an Art
“I thought you were expecting this to be a long, drawn-out battle?” Ben commandeers the chair. I stand by the wall as Ben stretches out his legs.
Brooke nods. “I was.”
“You need to bow down to Brooke now,” Ben says. “You can stop complaining about this lawsuit and focus on impressing Charles so you can move away from Arthur and be solely on the venture capital side.”
“Thank you so much.” I bow my head to Brooke.Sincerely.I’m so frickin’ relieved the lawsuit settled.
“It wasn’t me. It was our outside counsel. She negotiated it.” Brooke spins her pen. “I thought it was risky, but I agreed we might as well try.”
“This is huge. I have my schedule back.” I lean against the wall.
Brooke says, “Maybe we should host the outside lawyers for a congratulatory dinner. They seem like a fun group.”
“Done. I’ll even cover the costs from our budget,” I say.
“Dinner tonight, Brooke? We can have our own celebration.” Ben leans forward. “Now that we don’t have to sneak out to avoid the death stare from Zeke.”
I snort and push off the wall. “I didn’t think you should be distracting our esteemed counsel when she could be working on my case.”
“We should do a double date this weekend or next with that artist you met,” Ben says.
Double dates. Hanging out with a girlfriend and friends. It’s been a long time since that’s even seemed like a possibility.But …Tessa’s grin and her eyes twinkling up at me.Maybe it is.
“She’s too busy to go out this weekend.” I open Brooke’s office door, ready to make my escape. “And I’d like to have a date with her myself before I introduce you two.”
As I leave Brooke’s office, I run right into Arthur. I step back because I don’t want to tower over him. That clearly annoys him.
Arthur is wiry, like his body is a physical manifestation of how tightly wound he is. I’m surprised he’s up here in legal. He tends to insist anyone junior come to his office. Brooke may be a vice president, but he’s a managing director.
“Congratulations on your case settling.” Arthur frowns. “That was a bit unexpected.”
It’s like Arthur’s bugged my life. I just found out, and yet he knows already.
I raise my eyebrow. “You’re well informed.”
“I wanted to make sure Winthrop’s case was a top priority, and Brooke said she would have more time to devote to it because the North American Fund case settled. By the way, I scheduled our next department meeting for Friday at ten.” He darts past me and into Brooke’s office.
Poor Brooke and Ben.
Friday. At ten. My assistant just scheduled the venture capital portfolio update meeting with Charles to Friday at ten. I’d told Ming, my junior associate, to pull together the first draft of our presentation. It’s not going to look professional to reschedule that. Did Arthur do it on purpose so that there’s a conflict with my meeting with Charles? Isn’t that too petty even for him?Stop being paranoid.
I need to get out, away from Arthur, and report solely to Charles. Running the North American Fund is a satisfying challenge, but not with Arthur monitoring my every move.
But Arthur refuses to give me up. Even though his favorite is clearly Winthrop—and Winthrop’s well-connected father. It’s because I know what I’m doing. And the returns of the North American Fund show that. A sense of pride fills me. My North American Fund returns beat the market and some funds managed by far more experienced managers.
I head back to my desk on the trading floor but stop by my assistant’s desk and ask her to plan the dinner with the lawyers.
She hands me a message. “Charles called about Comidas en Canasta. I’ll organize the dinner. Is your schedule currently up to date?”
“Yes. I’ll let you know if that changes after I talk to Charles.” Or if a certain blonde artist calls me back for a date.
I take the stairs to the floor above us, knock on Charles’s door, and then enter.
“Zeke. Thanks for stopping by.” Charles swivels around in his chair, away from the three monitors that line his desk. “I’m not sure about investing in Comidas en Canasta. Why do you think this one will succeed and the other food apps won’t?”
“The management of this one. The CEO went to Harvard Business School with the CFO and then worked his way up at Seamless in the US. He knows the Mexico City market because that’s where he grew up.”
Charles nods as I explain further why I think Comidas en Canasta is the right investment for this portfolio. That’s one of the qualities I admire about Charles. He’s tough but fair.
