Triple Crown was in the building.
Thankfully, Derek had at least warned her this time that the man would be coming through. But that was probably only because he wanted her in a meeting he was having with the basketball star turned rap star turned businessman.
After Portia’s Christmas party, Derek opted out of taking his girlfriend home and had actually stuck around to help her clean up. They’d had a long talk. And while she still didn’t agree with his plans, they had come to some sort of truce. Derek would agree to look at other options if Portia would agree to just meet with Triple Crown and consider his offer.
Today was the meeting.
Portia glanced at the clock and knew she had five more minutes before she had to head to the conference room. She opened her purse and pulled out her sticky-note for the week. With all that had been happening, she now resorted to taking her verse of the week with her during the day instead of leaving it at home. She could use the extra encouragement throughout the day.
The heart is deceitful above all
things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
Whose heart was this referring to right now? Hers? Her brother’s? Triple Crown? Maybe all of them. She sure hadn’t been understanding her own heart of late, especially with it wanting things it shouldn’t want, feeling things it shouldn’t feel, and not being willing to feel the things it should.
She had worked so hard to structure her life the right way. Between her eating plan, her daily routine, the boundaries she set for herself, she made it so she didn’t have to trust her feelings. Her intuition was all out of whack and she needed something else to guide her. And for a while, it worked well. But now, her feelings gained a strength of their own and were trying to pull her in directions she was afraid to go.
Milo stuck her head through the door. “James is in the building. Everyone’s headed to the conference room.”
Portia nodded. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Milo bit her lip and peered at her. “You okay?”
Portia smiled. “Yeah. Just a little tired.”
“Didn’t sleep again?”
Portia smiled sheepishly. “What gave it away?”
“Your eyes,” Milo smirked. “And the two dozen muffins and scones you brought in this morning, which by the way, are almost gone. You sure you okay, babe?”
Portia drew in a deep breath. “I’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” Milo tapped the doorframe with her hand. “I’ll tell them you’re on your way.”
The woman disappeared from the entrance. Portia closed her eyes briefly. She wanted to pray, but if she started now she wasn’t sure she would stop so she settled on a few words asking for help before escaping her office and heading to the conference room.
Portia entered the meeting room moments before Triple Crown, who came with a number of associates. Six to be exact.
Portia glanced over at Derek and raised an eyebrow. He shrugged.
“James, glad you could make it.” Derek reached over and shook the man’s hand. “This is our COO and my sister, Portia Wynters. And of course, you know our assistant Milo.”
The seven foot man shrugged off his fur coat, which one of his associates managed to snag as if it was her only responsibility. He turned to Portia and smiled, revealing enough platinum for a necklace and earring set.
“Nice to finally meet you.”
Portia was certain the glass window vibrated a little at the heavy bass in his voice. She shook his hand. His four rings clinked as they touched each other.
She smiled, but probably not for the same reasons he did. “Likewise.”
“Let’s get down to business, shall we?” Derek began once everyone was seated. “James, we are interested in having you invest in Solid. But as you can probably understand, we want to ensure that we still have controlling interest in our company. We have worked hard to get to where we are and we want to continue to build this company into something that is going to be able to withstand the changes in our economy.”
“I completely understand.” James leaned back in his chair. “And to be honest, I don’t really want to get my hands deep in this. I might throw an idea your way every now and then, but I’m just about the money. You cats have been doing the thing, building this slick shoe company and my people say share price is gonna keep going up once you go public, so I figure this is a good place to put my money. Get more return than the bank, you know?”
“You say that now,” Portia folded her hands together on the table. “But what happens when you decide you want your own shoe line and want to start putting your name on everything? You know we can’t do that right? You’re not exactly family friendly.”
Portia could feel her brother shooting daggers at her with his eyes, but she kept her eyes on James. He let out a whistle before grinning at her.
“So, you’re not just a pretty face.”
She had heard this sentiment before. So many times before on so many occasions with so many people who still thought athletic shoes and companies were the sole domain of men. It shouldn’t still get on her nerves. But it did. She knew better than to respond to it. But just because she knew better didn’t mean that she always did better.
“No, I’m not.” She held his gaze. “But you have yet to prove to me that you’re not just another dumb rapper.”
James popped a bubble with a huge wad of gum. “A dumb rapper with three NBA rings and several million to invest.”
“Have you ever heard the saying about a fool and his money?” Portia asked.
James glanced over at Derek. “Is she here to win me to your side? Cause this is some kind of welcome party.”
Portia sat forward. “Okay, James. Here’s the thing, we want your money to grow our business. You want to invest your money somewhere, where you’ll get more than the 1.5% the bank is offering you. If we get what we want, you get what you want. But if we don’t get what we want, then your investment doesn’t grow the way you want it to. We’ve been in this business long enough that we know how to make it a success. You? Not so much. So we have to know that you’re going to allow us to run things the way we think best. That’s the only way we can make this good for both of us.”
James rubbed the surface of the table slowly and winked at Portia. “Oh, believe me. I want it to be good for the both of us.”
Portia grabbed her brother’s arm under the table stopping Derek from lurching towards the other man. James was a dog. Portia had known that before she even stepped into a room with him. Now Derek did too. But there was no sense having the meeting descend into anarchy because of it.
“Good.” Portia pushed on. “Then if we decide to work together we’re going to bring you on as a silent partner. Would you be okay with that?”
James sat back again and rubbed the thick growth on his chin and jaw. “Silent partner. So basically, you’re asking me to be a money partner and invest in the company, receive returns related to profits but not be involved. You want to offer me a security. At least, that’s how the SEC would look at it, right?”
Portia raised an eyebrow, impressed. “Yes. That’s correct, actually.”
James nodded. “I can’t change my mind later on and decide to be involved?”
“We’re not a hostile company, James,” Derek said. “We’re not going to bar you from the building. Your money is here, so we want you to feel comfortable about it.”
“But we’re not running things by you or inviting you to board meetings,” Portia finished.
James continued rubbing his jaw. “Tell me some of what you have in mind for Solid.”
Portia and Derek took turns sharing their vision for the company. It was a ten-year plan they had orchestrated together and fine tuned with their lawyers and financial managers until it became the company’s official vision document. They knew it so well they could talk about it without notes, or without even deciding what each other was going to say. They might not agree on some of the fine details, but when it came to the vision of their company, Portia and Derek were completely in sync.
James glanced between the both of them. “You both know what you’re doing, don’t you?”
Portia leaned back in her chair. “Well, we didn’t trip and fall into a multimillion dollar company.”
“With the help of God, we built this company from nothing to what we have today,” Derek said quietly. “And we intend to keep going.”
“Alright.” James clapped his hands together. “I like it. I’m gonna have my people call you and we can draw up the details.”
Portia stood and the men followed suit. “Then we’ll talk again soon.”
James stepped closer. His eyes slid from her head to her toes then back again. “I was hoping you and I could talk a lot sooner.”
“I don’t think so.”
“What? Still think I’m a dumb rapper?”
“No, actually, now I just think you’re a smart, sleazy rapper.” She smiled. “Have a good day, James.”
She heard his whistle follow her down the hallway and felt his eyes on her behind.
Great. They had a new investor on board, but one they would have to worry about tarnishing their image. And one Portia would have to deal with harassing her every time they came in contact. Now she would have to talk to Morgan about putting a damage control plan in place in case it became public that Solid was linked to Triple Crown.
She closed her eyes briefly and drew in a deep breath to try and calm her frazzled nerves.
Why couldn’t some things just be easy?
She stepped back into her office and dropped her notes from the meeting on her desk before she noticed the woman sitting at the table in the corner. The woman stood when she caught sight of Portia. Her amber skin lost some of its color. She pushed her dark curly hair back and Portia noticed a bridge of freckles across her small petite nose.
“Hi, uh, your…uh…secretary said I could sit here and wait for you.”
Portia felt her brow furrow as she stepped into the hallway and glared at the front desk a few feet away where a young woman sat in for Milo while she was in the meeting.
“Carla, so we’re just letting guests into other people’s offices now?” Portia snapped.
Carla’s eyes widened into saucers. “I’m sorry. She said she was your—”
Portia didn’t hear the rest as she stepped back into her office and slammed the door closed. The woman in the corner jumped.
“I-I’m C-Cas—”
“I know who you are.” Portia folded her arms, feeling the muscles in her face tighten as she frowned.
“I’m sorry. I should have waited for you to call, but I left you a whole bunch of messages and you didn’t call me back and then I found the address for your company on the internet so I thought I could just come down and then maybe you would...you might...we could...”
“What?” Portia’s chest tightened. “We could talk and hang out and become besties?”
The younger woman seemed to shrink back at Portia’s words.
“How did you think this would go? We would be friends? Talk about how much we look alike because we share some DNA?” Portia asked.
Casey narrowed her eyes. “I just wanted to talk to you. Get to know you.”
“Why?” Portia shrugged. “What do you want to know me for?”
“Because we…we’re sisters.”
“Let me ask you something,” Portia planted her hands on her hips. “If your mother had used a sperm donor to have you, would you have gone to the sperm bank she used and asked to find out who the other people were who used the same sperm donor? Would you have tracked them down and tried to get to know them?”
Casey’s lips pressed into a hard line. Her eyes pierced Portia. “I see this was a mistake.”
“Yes, it was.” Portia nodded.
Casey shook her head and lifted her bag onto her shoulder. “Sorry to have bothered you.”
Portia opened the door to her office and stepped aside. She watched the woman walk out, clutching her huge hobo purse to her rail thin frame. Her heartbeat pounded so loudly in her ears, she almost missed the last words Casey threw at her.
“You know, sometimes life doesn’t go the way we plan. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn to play the hand we have. At least your brother knows how to do that.”
Portia closed the door behind Casey and leaned against it. She willed her limbs to stop shaking, willed her heart to slow down, willed the room to stop spinning and her world to be right again. And then, when none of that happened, she sunk to the ground, crawled over to the garbage can by her desk and emptied the contents of her stomach.