Chapter Eight
Finding the room was easy enough; all she had to do was quietly exit her office so that William’s EA didn’t take notice, and take the emergency stairs down a floor where she took the elevator down to floor 42. Once there, she acted innocuous enough so that nobody took notice, and then asked a random employee where room B2 was.
A voice inside of her somewhere was trying to tell her what she was doing was crazy, but she adamantly ignored it.
She reached the room with exactly one minute to spare. Taking a quick second to make sure her phone was on silent, she quashed any doubts about what she about to do, and walked confidently into the room.
The four heads in the room immediately turned towards her. From the side of her eye, she could see William’s eyes widen, his body freezing in place. She didn’t look at him, afraid that if she did, she would lose her nerve.
Looking at everyone except for William, Molly put on her brightest smile.
“Sorry for cutting it so close to the start of the meeting,” she started. The shock that she could feel emanating from William was slowly evolving into something else - something that felt very much like anger. Perhaps if she didn’t look directly at him, it would disappear.
Out of sight, out of mind.
“I’m Molly, Mr. Harding’s new apprentice. It’s a pleasure to meet you three.”
“Ah,” the man to William’s left returned her smile, and stood up from his seat to shake her hand, “It’s very nice to meet you too. You must be brilliant, if Mr. Harding here has taken you under his wing.”
Finally, William broke his silence as if awakening from a stupor. “She’s quite talented; recently graduated from the University of Toronto’s with honours,” His tone of voice was quite diplomatic, although Molly could feel him glaring at her. He was quick to adapt, and if Molly wasn’t aware of how royally she was interrupting his meeting, she would be none the wiser. “Molly, this is Mr. Xi Pexin, head of operations for SIMCO Asia, his legal advisor, Mark Thrushberg, and the head of marketing, Jason Wu.”
Molly tried to avoid the seething glare that was being directed her way, and shook the hands of the executives before taking a seat beside William. “Thanks for the introductions, Mr. Harding.”
The best way to describe the smile he gave her was that it was tight-lipped and strained.
Xi cleared his throat, “Well, Molly. I was telling William how Toronto has fallen so far behind Hong Kong with its construction of their international airport.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve been saying for the longest time that if they built new terminals, it wouldn’t take so long to get through customs.” Thank God she’d worked at the Burger King at the Airport’s food court for two years. “And the food choices…”
Xi slapped the table with his palm, “Precisely! In Hong Kong, we have three Michelin star-certified restaurants, two in departures, and one in arrivals. It’s considered poor hospitality if you offered anything but your best to arriving guests.”
Molly scoured her knowledge of Hong Kong, and Asian airports. She’d binge watched some show on luxurious travel destinations just a few weekends ago, and decided to take a shot in the dark with the useless information that she’d digested while a bottle deep in red wine, “I traveled to Singapore a few months ago. The gardens at Changi airport…”
“Bah!” It was Jason who spoke this time, “The Singaporians have nothing on us.”
“Let me tell you,” Xi interrupted Jason, “the architect of that airport was Chinese! From Shanghai!”
The three dissolved into a debate, and Molly used that as a moment to take a breath to calm her pounding heart. She could feel the pounding in her fingertips; the rush of adrenaline was that powerful. The last time that she’d asserted herself anywhere was maybe at the McDonalds where she’d ordered a filet-o-fish a few months ago, and they had given her a Big Mac by accident. She’d normally have walked away, but after feeling like the world had shit on her for a consecutive few years, had decided to demand the right order. Perhaps it was because so much had changed all at once, or because William had pushed too many buttons, or because she was so totally out of her breadth here, but she felt like she had access to a new pool of confidence that she’d never known existed. Maintaining her composure, however, she used that as a moment to slip a quick peek at William.
It was the wrong choice.
He had leaned back in his chair to cross one ankle over his left knee, and was watching her languidly. If looks could kill…
She blinked at him innocently, before returning to the conversation at hand.
Xi eventually returned to the agenda of the meeting, at which point Molly pulled out the notebook she brought along, and began to take notes.
It turns out that SIMCO was having issues with entering the African oil & gas market, after it was revealed to the public that one of their oil-rig manager off the South China Sea had abused local staff and had skimmed thousands of dollars off pay checks to fill his own pockets. They had issued a public apology after firing the manager at hand, had developed an entirely new CSR team, and had even developed a new HR training program - but they had been met with nothing but resistance in early negotiations with government heads representing Sub-Saharan African countries.
“Why not ask an African consulting firm to help?” Molly interjected when she had the opportunity, her pen paused at the middle of her page, “why find a Canadian firm?”
William nearly choked on the coffee he was sipping, “Apologies, she doesn’t mean -.”
“It’s a good question,” Xi waved him off, “We’re currently in talks with Red Soil Consulting, if you would like us to be completely transparent with you.”
“Red Soil?” Molly scribbled the name on her page, “Why…” her question trailed off as she felt a firm hand press on her thigh under the table.
She swallowed her words, and tried to stop the blood from rushing to her cheeks. What did he think he was…
“Red Soil is an excellent competitor of ours,” William’s hand was firm on her thigh, as if to make sure she didn’t keep talking, “I’m glad we’re being transparent, so I can tell you exactly why you shouldn’t work with them.”
Only after it seemed like he was certain that she wouldn’t speak, did he remove his hand. She shot him an annoyed glance, which didn’t appear to bother him in the slightest. The three clients didn’t appear perplexed or even aware of what had happened between them, as the conversation dissolved into a heated conversation on the merits of working with WTA over Red Soil.
The hour passed by quickly, and Molly found herself constantly writing down acronyms of companies and terms that she didn’t know or understand. To her dismay, William Harding was as good of a negotiator that people said he was. Knowing that WTA wasn’t their only option, she saw the way that he turned on the charm, and parried every question or concern that Xi Pexin had about working with an international company located in North America. Without even letting them realize it, William led the conversation away from Red Soil to focus solely on WTA, and what WTA could do for SIMCO that nobody else could.
It was only because of a gentle knock on the door that the group of them realized that the hour was over. William’s EA popped her head in, and her eyes widened at the sight of Molly. “Um… Your next meeting is here, Mr. Harding.”
“Thank you, Holly,” he nodded towards her before turning back to Xi to wrap up the meeting, “We will have to schedule a phone call to finish this discussion.”
Xi waved him off, “Better than a phonemail, let’s do drinks. I hear Toronto is quite the city for cocktails.”
“Cocktail bar, it is.”
“And I do hope we’ll see you there,” Xi smiled warmly at Molly, “Why don’t I let you two pick the location. Sometime this week, before my flight back to Hong Kong?”
The formalities seemed to last forever, but the door eventually closed behind them.
Molly knew what was coming, and she braced herself for it. She turned to him, and found him standing there with his arms crossed. His green eyes looked as if a storm was brewing behind them, his jaw completely firm.
Molly opened her mouth, “Before you even -.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He didn’t let her get a word in, “Do you even realize what you might have ruined? That’s a possible 1.2 million dollar contract!”
“But I didn’t ruin it, didn’t I?”
He furrowed his eyebrows, “That’s not the point. You don’t know what you’re doing, that was not only completely unprofessional but it was also highly unprofessional. It could have jeopardized months of negotiating that we’ve been attempting with SIMCO.”
“You wanted me to sit at a computer all day.”
“You want an internship, I gave you one.”
“I actually want to work,” she walked up to him, matching his ferocity of stare, “I’m not going to just type emails all day. I agreed to this ridiculous plan only if you actually teach me the ropes around here.”
It didn’t help that he was a whole foot taller than her, which made him look a lot more domineering and powerful. He breathed through his noise, frowning down at her. “You could have simply scheduled a meeting with me and -.”
“No, and wait till your Thursday four-o-clock window?” Molly crossed her arms, “If you want me to act like your fiancé, I want you to teach me the ins and outs of this industry.”
“I don’t have time to babysit little girls.”
“Oh, please,” she wanted to punch him, “I handled myself just fine in there. In fact, if it wasn’t for me, you might not even know there were talking to another consulting firm. And if you didn’t hear properly, he wants me to show up for drinks -.”
A knock interrupted them and the two turned to see Holly poke her head in again, “They’re waiting. Down the hall, room B8.”
William sighed, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose, “Seat them. Tell them I’ll be there in two minutes.”
“Got it,” the EA gave Molly a look, as if to clearly say what the hell are you doing, before closing the door again.
“I’m not going back to my office,” Molly said immediately. She had the faint knowledge that she was definitely playing with fire here, but she’d waded way too far in the water to turn back now. “I’m either coming with you to your next meeting, or this contract is over.”
William looked like he wanted to break something. After a prolonged silence, however, he finally spoke. Or rather, grumbled. “No interruptions. You’re going to shadow me, and that’s it. You’re going to sit in the corner, and listen. I don’t care how smart you think you are, you’re not to speak again. The next two weeks will only be for learning, otherwise I’m firing you. And go exchange your notebook for your laptop, nobody here uses a notebook anymore. And get me a coffee. You’ve given me a headache.”
If she wasn’t so pleased with herself, she would have objected. But she didn’t want to make him regret agreeing to her plan. Like a kid who’d just been told they’d been gifted a ticket to the county fair, she withheld her grin and left the room barely able to hide her giddiness.
x.x
The day passed by faster than she anticipated and the first day nervousness of her job began to dissipate by around lunch-time. William’s entire day involved meetings, rubbing shoulders with big-wigs, conference calls and dial-ins. He’d paused at two-pm for a twenty-minute lunch, at which point, she went back to her own office to gather her bearings. She’d packed a few snacks, and she downed them in addition to eating an energy bar taken from the vending machine.
She stayed true her word and didn’t say another word during the remaining meetings. William would introduce her, and then she basically disappeared into the background. She was sure most people probably forgot she was even there, including Mr. Harding himself. He barely spoke to her for the rest of the day, simply grumbled something under his breath when he wanted her to pay attention or do something. She didn’t mind though. It was better than reading the company website for the entire day.
It was nearly seven when William’s last meeting ended. Looking at her phone for the first time that day, she was overwhelmed with the amount of messages, and calls her friends had left her in order to check in to see how she was doing. There was also a missed call from Aiden, and an accompanying voicemail from him too.
The knock on the office door was followed shortly by Holly walking into her office. The same look of basic disinterest and disapproval was on her face, as it had been every time she came across Molly that day. “Mr. Harding wanted me to give you this.”
“What is this?” She took the bag, and looked inside. There were a pair of dark jeans, and a white satin blouse.
“I don’t know. He says to be downstairs in fifteen for some dinner.”
“Sorry?”
“Listen, I’m not your EA. Figure it out,” was all she said before closing the door shut behind her.
Well that was rude. Someone isn’t getting laid, she muttered under her breath and then emptied the contents of the bag. That was when she saw it. A square, baby blue, velvet box. She recognized the Tiffany’s symbol immediately.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…” She murmured as she opened it.
Who knew that her first proposal was going to be so romantic?! She rolled her eyes. Cushioned in the middle of white silk was a diamond ring, glittering under the fading sun pouring in from her office window. There was a note attached to the box with a sticker, which she pulled off.
Dinner tonight with my family. Wear the ring. It’s a 1 carat diamond, don’t lose it.
W.
Even in writing, he was a pretentious ass.
Faced with it, Molly still couldn’t believe she was doing this.
Shaking her head with incredulity, she let out a heavy sigh and then slipped the diamond ring on her engagement finger.
God, it felt heavy. Although, she wasn’t sure if that was her guilt for the impending lie she was about to tell complete strangers.
It’s all part of the hustle, she told herself as she took the clothes and headed to the bathroom. It was all part of the hustle.