“This is Sebastian. I kidnapped him,” she said, making Sebastian bite back a smile as he said, “She really did.”
With a nod, and a curious glance his way, Mr. Blaine cleared his throat and got back to the business at hand while Sebastian sat there, listening as the board meeting continued, surprised that it wasn’t as boring as he thought it would be. They went over quarterly reports, stock updates, and…Sebastian was fascinated.
While they went over international trends that were affecting their dealings overseas, they were served a three-course meal consisting of soup and salad, followed by steak and lobster, ending with a large slice of cheesecake and a fruit plate. As they ate, Sebastian paid attention to what was going on in the meeting only to frown when the topic of conversation turned to Blaine Industries’ latest acquisition, a line of luxury hotels that employed over five thousand people, and all the things that they were going to do to immediately bring up the value of its stock.
When they started talking about layoffs, Sebastian’s stomach turned.
“We’re going to start the layoffs on the first and aim for a total of two thousand layoffs by June,” Mr. Blaine said as he reached for his glass of wine only to go still a moment later when his mother spoke for the first time since the meeting started.
“No, you won’t,” Mrs. Blaine calmly said as she gestured for her plate to be removed.
Clearing his throat, Mr. Blaine said, “Mother, we really don’t have a choice if we want to turn a quick profit on this.”
“And the reputation of those hotels will suffer in the long run, which is not something that your father would have done. He would have only purchased those hotels if he could make them better. We built Blaine Industries with the purpose of improving lives, not destroying them.”
“With all due respect, Mother,” her son said, “we don’t have a choice.”
“Not while I’m the majority stockholder you don’t,” Mrs. Blaine said, coldly. “There will be no layoffs.”
Mr. Blaine opened his mouth only to rethink that decision and after a moment, nodded. “Very well.”
With a nod and a gesture for Sebastian to roll her toward the door, Mrs. Blaine said, “I’ll expect the files by morning.”
With that, Sebastian’s first board meeting was over and he couldn’t stop smiling as he rolled Mrs. Blaine out the door.
Chapter 23
“Wait. What the hell are these?” Sebastian asked, looking up from the stack of applications that she’d printed this afternoon. “I thought we were only going to apply to Latin Scribe?”
“We need to play it safe,” Mikey said, gesturing for him to get on with it with one hand while she scratched Happy behind the ear with the other.
“Play it safe?” he asked, shaking his head in disbelief as he looked back down at the large stack of applications, half of them they were going to have to get through this week if they had any chance of making the cutoff date for applying.
Not that she actually thought that she had a chance in hell of getting into any of these schools, because there was no way that she would be able to pull this off. No, the reason that she was doing this was very simple, she was making sure that the stubborn boy who was currently glaring at her was able to go to school next year. If that meant that she had to pretend to play along and fill out applications and stumble her way through writing essays so that he would apply, then that’s exactly what she would do.
She knew Sebastian well enough to know that if she tried to push him into doing this for himself, that he would drag his feet. This way, he would be able to keep his options open and had a real chance of going to school next year. When he found out that she had no plans of joining him, well…
She’d figure that out later, because she wasn’t about to hold him back.
Not for something like this.
“You’re not going to military school,” Mikey said when he wouldn’t stop glaring at her, knowing that it was a good excuse as any to get him to do this.
“They’re not going to send me to military school,” Sebastian said, sighing heavily as he returned his attention back to the stack of applications that they had to get through.
“How do you know that? Did you talk to your parents?” Mikey asked as she shoved the other stack that she’d printed earlier out of the way.
“No,” Sebastian said, shaking his head as he reached over and helped himself to the stack that she’d set aside.
“That seems like a wise decision,” Mikey said, nodding solemnly as he sent the stack of available scholarships an approving look.
“Shut up and write,” he said with a mock glare that had her biting back a smile as she grabbed a pen and began filling out the first application.
For the next few hours, they sat on her bedroom floor, filling out applications, one right after the other until Mikey could barely see straight. One glance at the clock had her biting back a sigh and deciding that they needed a break. Decision made, she tossed her pen on the floor, reached over and grabbed Sebastian’s hand, and stood up, dragging him toward the door with Happy following after them.
“What are we doing?” Sebastian asked, sounding amused as he watched her carefully open her bedroom door and peek out, making sure the coast was clear before she pushed the door open all the way and made her way toward the stairs.
She didn’t answer him until they were safely downstairs and out of earshot of her parents’ bedroom. “We need a break,” she whispered softly as she continued to drag him toward the kitchen and once they were there…