“Well yeah. They’re the ones who make the decisions aren’t they? You’ve done your part Kimberley. Go back to the hotel and give yourself a pat on the back and have a spa day or something.”
Jeez what the actual fuck am I playing at? If someone had implied to me that my part in a deal was over because the numbers were done, I’d have hit the roof, yet here I am playing that card with Kimberley.
Kimberley stands up abruptly and scoops up the file off the desk. She bends down and picks up her briefcase but she doesn’t wait around to put the file inside of it. She heads for my office door without a word, and I have to bite my tongue to stop myself from calling after her and apologising. I can’t apologise, because then she’ll know I’m being a dick to her on purpose, that this isn’t my usual way of handling this kind of deal. She’ll know she’s getting under my skin, and I can’t let her know that or she can play on it in future negotiations.
She reaches out for the door handle. Her hand is resting on it, then suddenly, it isn’t any more. She whirls back to face me, her face cloudy with barely concealed anger. She comes back towards me, a lioness closing in on her prey.
Chapter Eight
Kimberley
I am absolutely seething as I make my way out of Sebastian’s office. I don’t know who the fuck he thinks he is, but he doesn’t get to decide for Joe who does or doesn’t represent Benton’s in a meeting. What an absolute arrogant jerk he has turned into.
I wanted to say something, but I bit my tongue. I’m not going to get into a slanging match with Sebastian. He’s not worth the effort. Instead, I’ll feed back this information to Joe and make it known I want to be at that meeting. He won’t exclude me. Will he?
He might if he thinks bringing me along will be a deal breaker. Well fuck that. I’m not having Sebastian think he is somehow my boss. That won’t be the case after the merger, and it certainly isn’t the case now. How dare he try to cut me out of my own deal? Who exactly does he think he is?
I turn back to him before I leave the office. He’s watching me with the damned smirk on his face again.
I walk towards his desk, trying my best to bite back the anger I can feel. I don’t want this to turn into a he said she said style slanging match. I just want to make it clear to him that I will be in that meeting. I want him to think it’s going to happen either way and let him think he should just save himself the embarrassment of telling Joe to exclude me. Just in case Joe actually does it.
I reach the desk and bend slightly at the waist, flattening my palms on the desk to keep me from flapping my hands around as I tend to do when I get angry.
“What exactly is your problem Sebastian? Is it because I’m a woman? Or is it more personal than that?” I demand.
He gets to his feet, not wanting me looking down on him for this. I straighten up and stand tall, facing him, looking him directly in the eye. I force myself to keep my hands by my sides and keep them still. It takes everything I have not to ball them into fists, but if I do that, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself from punching Sebastian in his smug mouth.
“I don’t have a problem. The finances are covered. What more is there to say?” Sebastian says. “You’re being ridiculous Kimberley.”
He sounds calm and I sound angry. Great. The hysterical woman cliché is always a treat. I force myself to calm down, counting to three in my head before I speak again.
“I’m being ridiculous?” I repeat with a bitter sounding laugh that I don’t like at all. “You’re the one being ridiculous. Not to mention childish. Honestly, it’s like trying to do business with a sulky teenager.”
“I …,” he starts, but I’m not finished and I don’t let him cut me off this time.
“Tell me honestly if at any time through your whole career you’ve tried to exclude the finance team from another company from a meeting,” I demand.
He doesn’t reply and he won’t meet my eye. He shuffles uncomfortably and gives an awkward shrug.
“Yeah. That’s what I thought,” I snap. “Now I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume this isn’t because I’m a woman.”
He does look up then.
“Some of our best associates are women. Don’t even try to play the sexism card on me,” he says.
“Oh I’m not. I know this is personal. Are you really going to mess this merger up because of something that happened between us when we were just kids?” I say. I pause for a second and go on, some of the anger leaving my voice now. “Do you really still hold a grudge against me for wanting a career of my own? You of all people should understand being ambitious Sebastian. We used to talk about our futures all of the time. And when we did, we always talked about our careers. You knew I wanted more than being some part time shop assistant who lived off her husband.”
He looks up and meets my eye. He gives me a sad smile.
“Yeah. I remember. But I’m not the one who shattered the dream. I’m not the one who left,”
