CHAPTER 3

 

 

Sitting in Dante’s swanky office, Desmond pulled up a blank note on his iPad while holding a stylus in his right hand.

Dimitrius stared at his computer screen, replying to an email.

Dante, leaned back in his chair, was still on a conference call that had run over.

Desmond glanced at his watch. The meeting was supposed to begin promptly at ten, but it was already eight minutes past the hour. He didn’t care, but he knew Dimitrius did. Dimitrius was a stickler for time. Usually, when a meeting was a second behind schedule, Dimitrius would be downright irate, annoyed and fuming with irritation. So why wasn’t he going ballistic right about now?

Desmond observed his brother, trying to figure it out. Seemed that since Dimitrius had married Melanie, he’d leveled out, wasn’t so tightly wound and took some time to relax. Marriage changed him. A baby changed him. Fortunately, it had been a change for the better, but unfortunately, not all marriages changed people for the better.

Desmond stood up, lowering his iPad and stylus to the table and stepped out into the hallway, heading for the vending machine in the break room. He took some change from his pocket and fed the machine enough money to purchase a honey bun. And just to be on the safe side, he purchased some M & M’s, too.

Ripping the clear, plastic wrapper, he took a massive bite of the honey bun while heading back towards Dante’s office. He opened the door, took his seat again and dropped the packet of M & M’s on the table.

Using the stylus to bring up his calendar, he scanned his schedule for the upcoming week while cramming the remainder of the honey bun inside of his mouth. While he chewed, low hums of mmm seemed to be coming from deep within his throat.

Mmm…mmm…

Before he could even swallow, he was already tearing open the M & M’s, tossing a handful of them into his mouth, chewing hungrily, and the uncharacteristic humming sound started up again.

Dimitrius looked at Desmond and frowned. Since when had he become a junk food addict, and why was he eating like food had been a new concept, and he’d just discovered it? Dimitrius then glanced up at Dante as if silently asking him these questions.

Dante smirked and shrugged his shoulders. Finally ending his conference call, he said, “Sorry about that. Some people are extremely long-winded.”

“It’s cool,” Dimitrius said.

Desmond tossed a second handful of M & M’s inside of his mouth, catching Dante’s gaze as he did so.

“Did you skip breakfast or what, Des?” Dante inquired.

“No. I ate breakfast,” Desmond told him and kept on chewing. He’d had fruit and a protein shake earlier this morning before a strenuous workout and then a scone while he was busy irritating Sherita.

“So what’s with all the junk food?” Dimitrius asked.

“I think I burn so many calories during my workouts, my body is craving this stuff.” Lie. He’d been craving sweets for as long as he had given up women. It had been a year since his last encounter and to keep his desires at bay, he replaced them with sugar-filled snacks and increased his workouts from one to two hours a day to burn off the extra calories. He didn’t want his brothers to know any of that, especially about the women. He wanted to get to know himself, to figure out why he’d been so unwaveringly against marriage and why, in the past, it was so easy to hop from one bed to another.

“Okay,” Dante said, bringing his hands to a clap. “Let’s get started so we can wrap this up pretty quickly. Dimitrius, what do you have on tap for next week?”

“I’m still focusing on the virtual piano lesson studio…will probably be working on it for another two weeks or so.”

“And you, Des?” Dante asked.

“I’m supposed to be heading to New York, but I’m either going to postpone it or delegate it to Kurt,” Desmond responded. Kurt Hempstead was the new marketing manager they’d hired over a year ago to help alleviate some of Desmond’s responsibilities.

“Kurt can handle it,” Dante said. “We’re going to need to stay around the office for a while, anyway.”

“Why?” Dimitrius asked. “What’s up?”

“Victor Westwood is in town,” Dante told him. Victor Westwood made a living buying and selling online companies. He’d buy a company like a dating service, revamp it and sell it to the highest bidder. He made a fortune doing this, but since he wasn’t computer savvy, he would seek out and pay the best companies to design and market these companies to potential buyers.

Five years ago, Dante had approached him about a collaboration, but Victor declined, stating that The Champion Corporation wasn’t big enough for him to work with and that Dante and his brothers weren’t stable. If Victor was going to pay millions of dollars to roll out a project, he wanted to ensure his money was in capable hands. And with the rumors swirling around the Champion men, he declined Dante’s offer.

Dimitrius scowled. “You’re not talking about the same Victor Westwood who declined to do business with us, are you?”

“I am.”

“Seriously, Dante?” Desmond asked. “As I recall, the man said we were, and I quote, little fish in this business,” Desmond said with a hardened jaw.

“That’s right. He did say that,” Dante responded, “But that was before The Champion Corporation was the multi-million dollar company it is today. We’re not little fish anymore. We’re sharks in this business.”

“So you’re thinking about approaching him again?” Dimitrius asked.

“No. My gut tells me he’s thinking about approaching us. That has to be the reason he’s in Asheville. The Champion Corporation owns the online business market share in the southeast region, and I’m positive Victor is aware of that.”

Dimitrius blew an exasperated breath. “Oh, so now that were big enough, he wants to do business with us.”

“I honestly think he would’ve worked with us back then,” Dante said. He stood up from his desk and slid his hands in his pockets. Walking around his desk, he sat on the front edge of it, directly in front of his brothers now.

“Then why didn’t he?” Desmond asked.

“He said some things to me that I didn’t tell you guys. He said we weren’t stable, and when I say we, I’m not talking about the corporation as a whole. I’m talking about us, individually.”

“Unbelievable,” Dimitrius hissed.

“Wait a minute, Dimitrius…before you pop a blood vessel, think about it. The old man was right. We weren’t stable. It’s no secret that we all had a reputation around here. Even though some things weren’t true and blown out of proportion, we had a reputation. Looking back at myself, for example, I can see how people perceived me. When Anita died, I was a mess. I was partying, drinking – I did it to hide my pain. The people who saw me living that lifestyle had no idea I was grieving. They just saw someone who was out of control. I say that to say we all had issues going on in our lives, and then on top of everything, we lost Mom and Dad.”

Dante watched Desmond grimace. Desmond seemed to have taken the death of their parents the hardest. He was young at the time and though he never talked about it, Dante and Dimitrius knew how much their deaths had affected him.

“So now what?” Desmond asked.

“Now, we sit back and wait. Word is, Victor’s not buying or selling a company. He’s looking to start one of his own.”

“A web company?” Desmond asked.

“From what I gather, yes,” Dante responded.

Dimitrius folded his laptop closed and said, “Dante, why are you even considering working with Victor? It’s not like we need the money now, like we did back then. We don’t need any work from Victor.”

Dante smirked. “Would you change your mind if you knew he was offering twenty-five million dollars for the launch of this new business venture of his?”

Dimitrius sat straight up in is chair. “Okay, now we’re talking.”

The men chuckled.

“What I’m concerned about is, if Victor is here because he’s heard we recently married and have families now, and that’s why he considers us as being stable, what will he make of Desmond?”

Desmond’s brows snapped together. “What do you mean?”

“I’m just speculating here,” Dante said, “But he may have a problem with it is all I’m saying.”

Desmond shot Dante a hard glare across the room. “Well, if he does, he can take his business elsewhere.”

Dante shook his head. “Des, do you know what The Champion Corporation could do with twenty-five million dollars? Remember when we were talking about expanding our design and technology team a few months ago? And we were exploring the option of building a fitness center, cafeteria and daycare facility for our employees. I want TCC to be a place where people actually enjoy coming to work, and this extra money will enable us to do that without taking away from our bottom line. But, like I said, this is all speculation as it stands. We’ll cross the bridge when we get to it. For now, I just wanted to put it out there to you.” Dante rolled his wrist to check the time. “It’s 10:35. Is there anything further we need to talk about?”

“Not from an accounts perspective,” Dimitrius said.

“I’m good, too,” Desmond responded.

“Well, that’s a wrap,” Dante said. “I have a few phone calls to make, and then I’m heading out.”

“Same here,” Dimitrius said.

“Hey, Des, what time can I expect you tonight, or have you changed your mind about babysitting?” Dante asked.

Changed his mind? And miss the opportunity to get under Sherita’s skin again? Not a chance!

“I’ll be there around six-thirty.”

“All right. See you then.”