“Would you like to have a seat?” I ask, and his eyes narrow.
“I don’t know. Is this going to take a while?”
“I guess that depends on you,” I say, and he thinks for a second before we take a seat.
He pours himself a glass of water and sits back, waiting for me to start. I guess I’m the one who called this meeting, so I might as well lay the cards on the table.
“First of all, thank you for showing up. I thought you might not,” I say, and a smile pulls at one side of his lips.
“Me too,” he admits.
“There’s a gap between us right now and I’d like to bridge it.” I open my briefcase beside me and pull out the folder. I slide it across the table to him. “I’d like to propose a business deal.”
He eyes the folder skeptically then looks at me. “Didn’t we try this once before and your firm screwed me?”
“I’ll admit that my company offered you as little as possible with the highest terms they could think of to try and squeeze you out,” I say, and he nods, unsurprised by this news. “But this isn’t an offer from my company. This is an offer from me.”
He takes the folder, pulls it to him and opens it up. He scans the first couple of pages and I watch as his face changes from suspicious to surprised.
“You want to be business partners with me?” he asks and I nod. “What about the company you work for?”
I shrug. “I want to have the freedom to work when I want and this would allow that.” I take a drink of water and give him a moment to keep reading. “As I’ve said to you before, your previous company was successful, but you needed the experience and guidance I can offer. What you’re doing now is great, but I can help you get to the next level.”
“And why should I trust you?” he says as he closes the folder and lays his hand on top of it. “What’s to keep you from screwing me over again like you did before?”
“That wasn’t me doing the screwing last time. And the more I checked into it, the more I saw you may have been right.” I lean forward and look him in the eyes. “It’s time for me to break out on my own and do what I can do best. I can help your company succeed, and you need me.”
He looks away but he doesn’t disagree with me.
“Jason, the last time when the deal was offered you didn’t have anyone in your corner telling you what to do. Let me be that person and let me help you. You needed it then and you were too damn stubborn to ask for it and you went under. Don’t make that same mistake again.”
“Why are you doing this?” He raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms over his chest. “Is this because of Gia?”
“She’s my reason for breathing,” I admit without hesitation. “Everything I do is because of her. I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you if it wasn’t for her, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in you or what you’re capable of.”
“You really do love her,” he says as if he’s just now seeing it.
“I wouldn’t be willing to risk leaving a job I worked all my life to get if I didn’t think this would be a better decision. I’ve got the money to fall back on if this goes south, but I wouldn’t put Gia—or you—at risk.”
“I never wanted to like you because she’s my baby sister,” he admits, and I nod. “But everyone seems to think that you’re good enough for her.”
“I’m not good enough for her, but I’m not willing to step aside for someone else to have her.” It’s the truth and I’m willing to admit it. “She’s too good for me, but I know I’ll do everything I can to keep her happy for the rest of her life. She deserves that and everything else she wants. I’m going to spend my life giving her those things.”
“I think I’m starting to see what you mean by that,” he says and looks away from me.
I’m wondering if Jason has found someone and maybe that’s why he’s been absent from family dinner the past couple of weeks. It would explain a lot actually and I’ll have to ask Gia what she thinks about it.
“So does that mean we’re doing this?” I stand up and hold out my hand, and Jason stands up, too.
“Yeah, I think it means we are.” He shakes my hand and we both smile. I know Gia will be relieved to know we’ve buried the hatchet.
“We can go over the details next week after I break the news to my employers,” I say as Jason grabs the files and I get my briefcase.