Something about Elle Ch. 04

"Thanks mother."

"You're welcome, dear. Are we finished, here, Mr Williams? My family and I have a wake to organize for this evening for us to say our final goodbye. My husband Ryan was still very Irish when I first met him."

* * *

Donovan was waiting for Elle at the airport, holding a bouquet of colorful flowers in green paper against his light-weight coffee-color business suit, his tie pulled open.

He waved, and Elle waved back, wondering if she had the strength to drag them out of this hole they were in. The problem was nothing had change, they were the same to people; she had to change something to create a new order but first she had to listen to his explanation. Hannah had said it could be explained satisfactorily and she expected to hear that and probably accept it providing her judgment wasn't more severe than Hannah's.

She watched Donovan approach her quickly but with a suggestion of cautiousness and was grateful he held the flowers to his chest until the very last second, rather that flaunt them ahead of him, holding them out like a seductive peace offering.

"They are very beautiful, thank you," Elle said in her best voice, full of warmth, resonance and sincerity.

He kissed her -- she turning away to present a cheek, and after a peck -- it could only be described at that -- he stepped back awkwardly and said the most banal thing possible, "Nice flight?"

She spared him of course and replied, "Very nice, thank you."

Then came the awkward moment until Elle gave the prod: "Well?"

"Oh would you like coffee?"

"That would be great."

He returned with two machine coffees, knowing she preferred Italian-styled coffee. She'd been watching him, turning her mind to try to anticipate what he would be thinking, feeling, wanting to say. Her heart felt for him -- she wanted to hug him, kiss his face, ears and neck telling him she was sorry, that she gathered she'd jumped to a wrong conclusion. Well, do it!

"Donovan..."

"Excuse me Elle but I was ordered her via mom to explain myself."

She waited to hear the confession, er the explanation.

"Well there's not explaining to do because I'm not of a mind to make an explanation. I've done nothing wrong. Period. If you can't accept that then tough."

His face softened and his shoulders relaxed.

"Is the coffee to your satisfaction? It's so lovely having you back home."

Elle's mouth turned dry.

She'd heard that he was a formidable negotiator and tough on anyone who stepped out of line professionally, but until now she'd not seen a hint of this steel in him. Perhaps she should have been impressed but instead she was outraged. Fancy him the naughty boy or perhaps not so naughty boy speaking to her like that!

She had the fleeting thought of walking away from him, but that was cowardly. Perhaps he deserved to be slapped, but that was not her thing and as a minor consideration she had her nails to consider.

He then came dangerously close to losing a tooth simply because of extreme provocation: "Has my eloquence struck you dumb?"

Elle, trained to cope in such situations despite her personal thoughts, dutifully counted 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 and breathed out softly and sucked air back in through her nose, and replied with measured authority.

"Do you want me to continue working with you (emphasis on 'with')?"

Titling his head to carefully examine that comment for hidden nasties, he nodded.

"Do you want me around to give our relationship a chance to heal?"

He nodded without hesitation.

"Then I impose only one condition to make that happen: That you agree to immediately begin negotiating with Milly Hepburn to extract hers from the company, setting a target to have that happen in ninety days from tomorrow."

Donovan's eyes bulged and he hunched his shoulders before shaking his head to take on the appearance of a sanctimonious clergyman.

"Elle, I don't think you quite understand. May I speak to you in absolute confidence?"

Elle nodded.

"I was in almost financially crippled when Milly arrived and pumped $500,000 into the business three years ago. If that hadn't happened the company probably would have collapsed. My debt to her is enormous."

Elle shrugged and asked could she speak in absolute confidence.

"Of course."

"Milly is bad for your company, her actually daily contribution appears nebulous, entirely out of kilter with the salary she'd bound to be pulling. She is disruptive and not liked within the company -- I want her gone and her over-sexed daughter gone with her."

"But Janna is not employed by the company."

"Then when Milly is gone I can call security to have Janna escorted from the premises for being there without a legitimate business reason."

"Yes and those are excellent ideas but impractical -- when Milly goes with her $500,000 plus revaluation plus disruption penalty then our company collapses like a pricked balloon."

"Unless you find a replacement investor of course."

"Yes unless I find a replacement investor."

Elle attempted to look modest: "You're looking at her."

"You?"

Elle put on a show of looking around behind her for someone else Donovan appeared to be talking to.

He flushed but a smile came lurking.

"Yes, I have come into a bit of money. Just offer to buy her out but without saying where the money is coming from. Offer her original $500,000 back plus a generous capital value increase for a total buyout of $900,000."

"That's very generous and practical of you, but she'll argue that her holding is now worth well over a million."

"But you'll counter and say $900,000 -- take it or leave it. If she stays you'll place her in charge of presenting project concepts to clients and explaining them in minute detail because I'll be resigning."

"But she knows the project leaders do the presentations."

"You'll say you are changing the system."

Donovan turned white.

"But she doesn't know a damn thing about project concepts and design and implementation. It will be a disaster and it would bring our entire business crashing down."

"Yes and she knows she knows nothing about the operations of this business and you'll tell her if she fails in the task and business suffers that you'll sue her for negligence."

"That's inhuman."

"It's only an exercise in semantics. By that stage she'll have the message you don't want her around any longer."

Donovan scratched the back of his neck.

"Christ, you're tough."

Elle ran her tongue over her top lip, watching his eyes transfixed. "But you'll know I can be incredibly lovely and I suspect even Roger Grossi half likes me."

"True and he has a problem he thinks only you can crack, but getting back to our precise discussion I suppose in buying out Milly's stock at a premium, you'd want her position as well?"

"Only on one condition -- that all personnel including yourself take part in a secret ballot on the one issue, that you want to promote me to VP and I only take up the position if there is a vote of at least 85 percent in favor. They won't know of my financial involvement until documentation goes through or perhaps not even until the draft of the next annual report is being circulated for checking."

"But why take the risk of rejection out of jealousy?"

"Because I don't want them thinking I'm in line for the promotion because I'm the boss's girlfriend."

The itch at the back of Donovan's neck was back again.

"But you've made it quite clear you're not my girlfriend," he smiled thinly, looking under his arm.

"By that stage there may have been a miraculous reconciliation."

Donovan showed his teeth, his eyes narrowing under the full smile. "How soon is that likelihood?"

"That depends on your devotion to courtship. You really hurt me allowing that hot-ass on sex steroids to move in on to you like that; I saw the big smile and you didn't see me because you only had eyes for her breasts."

"That's conjectured up and misinterpreted with just a pinch of truth Elle. But let's bury that incident until we resurrect it for whimsical discussion at some later date when we're both capable of having a mutual whimsical discussion about it."

"Well done Donovan. That's a very mature and conciliatory suggestion I must say."

Donovan stood up and held out a hand to help Elle stand.

"I'm glad you're impressed Elle."

"Thanks Donovan and shall we say this successful ironing-out meeting marks the start of courtship."

More Coming