Page 80 of Man Vs. Woman
“This is serious,” I insist, reaching for my purse and removing a few documents from the inside. They’re everything I have on Hiram, detailing some of the shady connections his businesses have. I’m grasping at straws here, since I don’t have anything solid to present, but…
Just as I’m about to stack the documents together, the pages slip from my fingers and fall on the floor, flying everywhere. This time, the few residents that were snickering at me don’t even try to hide their laughs.
Great.
“Ms. James,” I hear Hiram say as I try to pick the documents up from the floor. Gritting my teeth, I turn around to face him. He just smiles. “I know that it might be hard, being so close to bankruptcy. After all, if you don’t secure a site for your spa, you’ll go under in just a few short weeks. Isn’t that correct?”
This time, I hear a few whispers coming from the crowd. I guess I wasn’t the only one snooping around...Hiram did his research as well. And it’s true—just a few more weeks, and if nothing happens...I’m truly screwed.
“Still, trying to smear the competition is beneath someone like you, Serena,” Hiram’s words are smooth, but the way he says my name makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Almost as if his words were small worms crawling trying to get under my skin. “Please, let’s keep focused on what matters, shall we? You should pitch your business, and I should pitch mine. Doesn’t that sound fair?”
“I agree,” Seymour states from the dais. Judging by the way he’s rubbing his hands together, I guess the pompous prick fancies himself some sort of high and mighty authority...if he had a gavel in his hands, he’d hit on the table with it and scream outoverruled. “Ms. James, do you have anything to say about your business? Or shall I just move on?”
“No...I...I do,” I stammer, nervously getting back to my seat.
My God, did I just crash and burn?
No way are the residents going to side with me now. I screwed up. I almost look at Daphne for some reassurance, but I stop myself right in time—I don’t want to see her cringe as I stumble and fall through this.
Sweet mercy, I just want this to be over so that I can OD on cheap red wine and ice-cream.
Somehow, I manage to spend the next fifteen minutes outlining my plans for the spa. I do my presentation—which includes a PowerPoint presentation and a speech that now feels flatter than a pancake—and then sink down into my seat with a sigh.
This is it. I’m finished.
“Hiram Hooskins?” Seymour asks from his seat.
Hiram gets up. He starts to speak.
“Ladies and gentlemen of Clarendon Tower,” Hiram begins. “I stand before you with only one aim. To build a place that will help others.”
The moment Hiram starts to speak, almost every single resident enters a trance.
“I’ve profited greatly from globalization,” he says. “But I understand that its left many of us in this great land adrift. Without a purpose. Cast aside by the giant machine of progress.”
People are nodding.
“What if the wealthiest of us could allocate a space that would give those who have been forgotten a voice? What would the world think when the most elite give the poorest souls a helping hand?” he continues.
Shit. Even Daphne starts to nod.
“How powerful would it be if the 1% of this city set aside a space that would help the other 99%? When those in here who have profited handsomely from automation and lower cost goods can say that they stand with the common man, how much goodwill would Clarendon Tower generate?” he asks the audience directly.
They’re drinking it all up.
From someone else, it might actually convince me. He’s a charismatic bastard, I gotta give him that much. He knows exactly what to say, and when to say it.
But I know enough about him to know not to trust him.
“The Jobs Center will do just that,” Hiram concludes. “Help me help others. And by doing so, help yourselves.”
“Very good, very good,” Seymour claps his hands together as Hiram finishes his flowery speech. “Judging from what I’ve heard, I guess this is going to be an easy call. All in favor of Mr. Hooskins’ proposal?”
My heart sinks as I see most of the residents start to raise their hands up in the hair.
Well...game over.
For me, at least.
“Now wait just one goddamn minute,” I hear someone shout from the back, and I turn around on my seat so fast that I almost fall to the floor. And, just like me, every single person in the room turns around to see the newcomer.
My heart flutters.
Standing on the entrance, cocky smile on his lips, is none other than one Colt McCoy.
