Shut Up and Surprise Me

04. Ordinary Day with Not-So-Ordinary People

No matter how hard I try to ignore Danielle's comment about my job, it annoys the hell out of me. I still don't understand how working for a sex toy company automatically puts me in the bottom class in business society. Is my job inappropriate? Or does she picture me selling my products by applying them to me in front of my clients? And if she believes people will look down on the industry I'm working in, I bet their sex life is as dry as a desert. And how is that my problem? I should've known better than to take Danielle's words to heart.

Shoving Ashton's mother's face to the back of my mind, I glance at the faces around me; the faces belong to my teammates, who are proud of what we're doing because there is no reason to feel otherwise. People sit or stand around the oval table in the middle of the meeting room, their eyes fixed on Leopold Sauer, who is giving a quick closing speech for Monday's briefing.

After over three months of suspension, Leo returned to ErosBross. I'm glad that he finally worked it out with his dad, but things aren't the same as before he was forced to take a time-out. The workload has doubled, and the pressure to reach our targets is real. Meanwhile, the holding company is slowly letting go of our hands, leaving us to fight in the wild alone.

"They haven't approved the loan proposal?" I ask Leo after almost everyone leaves the meeting room.

"Nope." He closes his laptop and lets his secretary put it back in his suitcase, together with his other documents. "And I don't think they will."

I also tidy up the papers that are scattered on my table. "But I don't understand. How are we going to roll if there is no sufficient fund to support our plans?"

"My father wants to see how we're doing in the first two years and show stability. Then they might grant additional financial means." When he sees his assistant is still standing by the door and waiting for him, he says, "You don't have to wait for me, Amy."

"We will need to leave for the meeting with Mr. Bronz in ten minutes. Should I wait for you in the lobby?"

"Yes. I'll be right there in five."

I cross my arms over my chest, frowning and biting my lower lip. "That doesn't make any sense, though. How are we going to show stability if we haven't even started anything significant? We need extra funds, Leo, or it will be almost impossible to grow. It's how business works; we have the capital and we gamble with it. Well, not exactly a gamble, but the money is for us to take off or fuck up the first years."

"The holding company believes the capital they've provided was enough." Leo sighs and glances at his wristwatch. "The thing is, ErosBross isn't a brand new company. We still have our old loyal customers to maintain and grow from there. So, it's not like we started from zero."

"But that's not enough, and you know that."

"Yeah. I'll see if I can talk to him again about this and negotiate a bit." He taps his fingers on the table before getting up. "But I won't hold my breath. On that note, I have to go now."

"Alright." I get up and pick up my documents. "You will be back before lunch?"

"After lunch. I'm meeting someone for lunch." He walks to the door and turns around, showing me his bright smile. "We should have lunch sometime this week. We haven't really caught up since I came back."

"I would love that," I say, smiling back at him.

Leopold is right. Since Mrs. Horn gave back the CEO chair to him a couple of months ago, we haven't really talked. We were pretty close at some point, but work has been a bitch and gives us little to no room for social interaction.

I have a lot of questions for him because he's not the same guy I met several months back. The never-ending grin on his face is now replaced with tight lips and a slight frown on his forehead. He lost his humor too. I'm sure something is going on, and it's probably about his situation with his family.