“Are you saying these questions can happen every day?”
“Yes. Does that work?”
She shakes her head in amusement. “I wasn’t expecting it to be so formal, but I guess that will have to work. Who starts?”
I pat my mouth with my napkin. “You.”
“Right now?”
“Isn’t that what you want?” I ask as I try to hide my irritation.
“I mean, sure. I guess I wasn’t prepared for you to be so open.”
“I’m not a complete asshole, Lottie.”
Her lips quirk to the side, telling me she believes otherwise. “Okay, fine, I guess I’ll start with the questions.” Her eyes pin me. “Why is this deal with Dave so important to you that you’d go to such an extent to secure it?”
I should’ve known her questions weren’t going to be easy.
Shifting in my seat, I casually turn toward her and drape my arm over the back of my chair. “It’s pretty simple, actually. When I set my mind on something I want, I go after it, no matter the circumstances. Dave has three properties that would be extremely beneficial for our business. He’s not going to just sell them to make money, he wants to make sure they go to the right person. I want to be that person.”
“Just seems so . . . aggressive.”
“When you’re in commercial property development, you have to be aggressive. You can’t sleep on anything. You have to know what’s selling, where it’s selling, and the potential for the spot. Breaker, JP, and I always keep our eyes and ears open, while developing our existing properties to continue to make money for us. Dave’s properties would be a huge opportunity that I can’t just let slip by because he doesn’t know me as a person. That doesn’t sit well with me.”
She nods. “I can see how that might make sense. I wouldn’t go to the extent that you do, but I get it.”
The hostility in her voice has subsided and the pinch in her brow has loosened. I hate to admit it, but maybe this questions thing wasn’t a bad idea after all.
“Do you want me to ask a question now?”
She nods again. “Yeah, take a whack at it.”
Okay, if she’s going to come in hot with a hard question, so am I. “Why are you so ashamed of telling your mom and Jeff about being fired?”
“Should’ve expected that question, given what I asked you.” She sighs. “I grew up with Angela, the owner of Angeloop, the lifestyle blog. She’s giving Gwyneth Paltrow over at Goop a run for her money. We were on-again, off-again friends.”
“What’s that?” I ask. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re either friends or you’re not.”
Lottie shakes her head. “Not with Angela. She’d have a friend of the week, kind of like a flavor-of-the-week situation. She had no problem bouncing from friend to friend, and when she got tired of one, she’d move on to the next, and then they were her next best friend. Growing up in a rich city on a blue-collar income, Angela was exciting to me. I know it sounds ridiculous, but when you’re a kid, flashy things are fun. Angela had all the flashy things, and we had so much fun together. We’d roll into school in her BMW, spend weekends at her house having pool parties, and then one random day, I’d be dropped as the person she went to. It was torturous, toxic, and yet, I kept accepting her back because of the fun times we had together.”
“I see,” I say. “That’s the definition of toxic.”
“I know, and that’s what my mom said to me. My mom really hates Angela, actually. So, when I graduated from school with a master’s in business and Angela offered me a job at her growing start-up, my mom was extremely skeptical about me joining forces with someone who’s so hot and cold.”
“A natural feeling.”
“Yes, perhaps. Mom was so right. She once said something that hits me more now than it did at the time. ‘She’s treated you with disdain and relentless cruelty as a friend throughout your whole friendship, Lottie, so how do you think she believes she can treat you in business?’”
“The same way, right?”
“Yeah. But my options were slim. I could go work somewhere that had a hint of the field I wanted to be in, or I could work for Angela, grow a business, and take charge. She offered me a low starting salary and said after a year, if I helped grow the business, she’d give me the raise I deserved. I thought it was a solid situation. My mom, Jeff, and sister all said not to do it, that Angela couldn’t be trusted. But I did it anyway and I excelled. I grew that business to where it is now. I had a huge part in bringing Angela to the forefront of everyone’s eyes. And when the time came for my raise . . .”
“She fired you.” I shake my head. “I’m pretty ruthless when it comes to business, but there’s no way in hell I’d ever do something like that. I know a good employee when I see them, and instead of cutting them out, I make sure to develop them. They would do so much better under my wing, than with a competitor. My guess is Angela felt threatened by you and she wanted to get rid of you before everyone else in the company realized how valuable you were.”
“Probably.” She glances down at her linked hands. “Either way, I was too embarrassed to tell my mom and Jeff. I didn’t want to hear the I told you so’s, and that’s how I came to be sitting here, with you. Desperation to save face.”
“I understand the need to protect a reputation. I think it’s one of the reasons I’m being so aggressive in my approach with Dave. Everyone in the business knows I’m going after the properties, and everyone knows I get what I want, but Dave is giving me a run for my money, and that puts a blemish on my reputation.”
“You can’t win them all.”
“I do,” I tell her. “I always win.”
“Glad your perspective is forgiving.”
I let out a light chuckle. “What’s your second question?”
Tilting her head to the side, studying me, she asks, “You seem so stiff all the time, it’s hard for me to imagine you actually having fun, so I guess my question is, what do you like to do for fun?”
I rub my hand over my jaw. “When I get to take a second to breathe, I enjoy going to baseball games.”
“Let me guess—you sit in the cushioned seats.”
“I wouldn’t settle for anything less.”
“I know this is another question, but we’ll call it question 2a.”
“I’ll let it slide,” I answer.
“Do you have a favorite team?”
I shake my head. “Not really, actually, which seems odd. I like a few of the California teams here, I enjoy going to the different ballparks and seeing how they differ from others, and I follow my good friend from college. He’s retiring this year, on his farewell tour.”
“Ooo, question 2b, who’s your friend?”
I chuckle. “Penn Cutler. He pitches for the Chicago Bobbies, but we went to college together. He’s had a bumpy road in the majors, but he’s looking solid this last season.”
“I’m going to have to look him up. But . . . baseball, that’s it? That’s the only fun thing you like to do?”
“Nah, I like hanging with my brothers. Pool days. Simple games like ring toss, cornhole, going to the beach. I’m not a surfer, but the boys and I play football on the beach pretty often.” I shrug. “Just chilling when we get a chance.”
She blinks a few times and then chuckles as she shakes her head. “I never would’ve picked you as someone who’d play football on the beach. I figured you’re a man who likes to hang out in old smoke rooms, wearing a logoed smoking jacket, cigar in hand, talking about the stock market and how the Dow is fucking you over. You’re the kind of guy who goes to the opera and likes it. The kind of man who takes piano lessons in his spare time because he needs to be good at everything.”