Olivia hissed out a breath. “Yes. Honestly, Dodo should not be contacting you directly. What he’s saying on the surface isn’t what he means, he’ll trick you.” She pointed to her own chest. “Correspondence should come through me.”
Calista couldn’t agree more. “I’d love for you to handle that stuff.”
“I want in.” Vivien popped up her head. “The more I know, the better.”
How did Vivien stare at code and still follow what happened around her? Maybe Vivien could teach her that during this project. Hmm, this special class might be worthwhile after all. Not new-stand-seating-at-the-stadium valuable, but still.
Sneakers screeched on the linoleum out in the hallway, and then Artie reached his arm through the doorway. He braced himself, leaned back out to the hall, and rolled in a cart containing at least a hundred wires swirling over the sides. His project suggestion must be untangling the mess he’d made. Not fair, he got an equal say on the project. They should include him more. Calista smiled encouragingly. “We’re talking about doing stadium improvements. Would you want a voice on that type of project?”
Artie threaded his fingers into the wires and stared at the tangled mess as if it held the answer to her question, then he went through a rotation of moving each of his fingers up and down as if he were playing a piano or maneuvering a puppet. At no point did he answer her.
Calista was actually fine with going forward without him. However, Professor Terrence wouldn’t be okay with excluding others during teamwork time. She made her question easier. “Artie, do you have any thoughts?”
Artie canted his head. “How tall are you? You look about the same height as Vivien and Olivia. You’re like triplets. I’d guess, five-six?”
Ew, creeper was right.
* * *
Dodo called the meeting for the next morning. Calista, Olivia, and Dahlia sat in the conference room facing Dodo, who sat at the head of the table, along with his lawyers who were a trio of middle-aged suit-wearing men.
After the round of introductions, Dodo leapt in. “Let’s be reasonable, ladies.” Dodo’s lips morphed into an ingratiating smile, and he smoothed back his fair hair. In his early thirties, he knew his best features were his salon-streaked locks and his expensive dental work. If Artie had joined them, he could argue that Dodo was at least two percent artificial.
Dodo went on, “I was shuffling funds, a mere ten percent. Temporarily. At the same time, Warren discovered I was seeing his ex, Willow.”
TMI alert. Dodo should be the one taking a course on business communications. Calista felt her eyebrows arching but couldn’t help her expression.
Dodo darted his gaze briefly to Dahlia, who he himself had been engaged to at the time of his indiscretion. “In a temporary moment of anger, Warren dumped all his Snowers’ shares. Had I known that we were losing the controlling majority, I would never have risked my own shares. Not with the small amount we’d let go to the public already. You see my point.” He sounded very reasonable. “I never meant to have the team stolen out from under me.”
Calista had wondered how the shares had become available. Now she knew. She didn’t appreciate the term stole though. Olivia would get him for that.
Olivia shrugged one shoulder. “Our point is Calista purchased seventy percent of the Austin Snowers ice hockey team. That makes her majority owner with named shareholders Dahlia Amvehl and Piper Amvehl.”
Dodo’s primary lawyer lifted his index finger. “Seventy percent divided by three named partners. Sounds to me like Ms. Calista Amvehl owns significantly less than Mr. Donovan Applebaum’s thirty percent.”
Dodo’s second lawyer chuckled. “I was no math major, but those numbers sound right to me.”
“Hold your calculators.” Olivia yawned. “Look at how we structured her purchase, as a singular organization, one entity, seventy percent.”
Dodo lifted his palms. “I’ve explained our pickle to a family friend, a judge, so you know his opinion is sound.” He gave Olivia a pointed look, as if the shine from her new diploma was obvious. “Now, he couldn’t give me direct advice or an exact prediction, no more than if that groundhog is going to get next month’s weather right. But after talking with Judge Johnston, Jimbo, if you know him like I do, well, just so there are no surprises, what I’ve done is file the paperwork with the court to review the contract and correct the mistaken sale. I mean, if I weren’t running the show, and my GM left with me, as he would, the whole shebang would fall apart. What are the players’ opinions on all this? The league will care, and the portion of the company that’s public, well, those board members will care. What’s best for the Snowers?”
Calista flinched. She had been trying to tune out the legal wrangling, but Dodo could take the Snowers from her. Her skin chilled, forming an icy shell, and she fought off the implications. It was that or hyperventilate.
“The sale is done,” Olivia said, looking unimpressed enough to help Calista calm down. “All your filing does is prevent us from moving forward with our progressive ideas for the stadium.”
“You can’t simply assume ownership of a professional men’s team. The league must be involved.” Dodo shook his head. “You ladies need a better understanding of how the real world works.”
If Calista lost the shares, would she still get a chance to fix the plumbing as a special project? What did this mean for her season tickets? For Dahlia? Despite her desire for control, her trillion thoughts spiraled outwards from there, and she couldn’t move or articulate any of them.
Dahlia’s face turned red, and she made a strangled noise. She understood the threat of what was going on. Why were she and Dahlia the only ones flustered? How was Olivia so composed? Olivia could teach her that trick during special class. After this experience, she may need multiple remedial tutorials on workplace communication, the university was right.
Dodo turned to his former fiancée. “Here’s what we propose. Arbitration. We can work things out while the front office continues our same smooth operations. Of course, Dahlia, sweetheart, will maintain her position. She can even have her old office if she likes.”
Her old office was adjacent to his. Dahlia’s head jerked and she found her voice. “I’m fine where I am now.”
Dodo’s primary lawyer got to his feet and put his gray legal pad in his briefcase. “We’ll get the paperwork corrected, and this little lady,” he pointed to Calista, “will rake in a hefty profit. You’ll have to give me some of your savvy stock tips.” His colleagues copied his motions and murmured jovial agreements.
Calista wanted a shower.