He pulled the car over to the side of the road and said, “Charlene, I am angry, but not at you. Cancelling lunch was so I can handle an issue that has come up at work. And giving you the afternoon off, well that was my way of making it up to you for cancelling our lunch. But if you rather go sit in that office and read more policies, I’ll be happy to bring you.”
“No. That’s fine. But under one condition,” she said.
He couldn’t even guess what that was going to be. “Not making any promises, but what is it?”
“I can’t keep interrupting Sofia and Dylan. So why don’t you come by my place and I’ll cook dinner for you. I mean with the afternoon off, I’ll need something to do. What do you say? Does a half-way decent home cooked meal sound appealing?”
He almost said no. There were a million reasons he could easily give as to why he couldn’t make it. Instead he said, “Half-way decent?”
She nodded. “Trust me, that is the best I can do. I’m no fancy chef but ketchup can fix almost anything.”
He grinned. “I’ll be late.”
“That’s fine. How about eight?” she suggested.
“I’ll be there. Now let’s get you home so we can both do what we need to this afternoon.” He turned the car around and headed to her apartment. Seth couldn’t believe he’d not just agreed, but was actually looking forward to it, even though he hated ketchup.
When he arrived back at the office, he went directly to Dylan. “We need to talk.”
“You’re telling me. Want to guess who just called me?”
“Yeah. I was going to call from the car, but I had Charlene with me. I thought it best not to discuss with her there.”
“You do know I worked on getting this far with Mr. Sheen for more than a year. One meeting with you and the entire fucking thing blows up. What the fuck happened?” Dylan snapped.
“He’s not someone we want to do business with,” Seth replied.
“I’m not sure why not. He had the money to purchase our steel and guess what, we have steel to sell. Doesn’t sound like any issues as far as I can see.”
You weren’t there.“Sheen isn’t from here. He…he…has different ideals than we do.”
“And what does that have to do with selling steel?” Dylan inquired.
He was just going to say it straight out. Then they could move past the fact that Seth just walked away from one of Dylan’s largest deals.
“I had Charlene accompany me to the meeting. To give her some exposure to another part of the business.”
“That’s a great idea. Did she talk his ear off or say something she shouldn’t?”
“Actually, she was very professional. That’s a hell of a lot more than I can say about Sheen. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.”
“She is beautiful,” Dylan replied.
“But she’s not for sale. The way he was looking at her,” Seth made a fist, “was cheap. Like you see at a strip club. I almost knocked his ass out.” Dylan didn’t say anything at first. Then leaned back in his seat and just continued staring at him. “So the deal is off. End of it. So let’s move on.”
“A multi-million-dollar deal gone because someone looked at Charlene?”
“Not just looked. Ogle, from head to toe. He…fuck! You’re right. I have no idea what came over me.”
“I do. It’s called being a man of character and not standing by while some asshole treats someone we care about like shit,” Dylan stated.
“Yeah. She works for us and deserves respect,” he said.
“I said care for. Not that we don’t care for our employees, but I have a feeling this is different.”
Seth didn’t want Dylan making this into more than it was. “You were right the first time. I couldn’t deal with anyone who treats a woman like an object.”
“And we don’t want their business either. Mr. Sheen can find someone else,” Dylan stated. “How is Charlene by the way?”