“I’m going to be honest with you.” Finn stands tall. “You already know the advantages to the deal. And the many, many commas in the price. But you will be expected to serve Hughes Financial Services, and even Hughes Industries as a whole. Don’t take the deal unless you’re ready to take orders.”
I can’t imagine Mr. Leblanc taking orders. Not from anybody. Even someone like Finn Hughes. The air around us simmers with male challenge. There are two alpha wolves, each one clad in fine wool and bespoke shoes. There’s a silent battle happening. A vicious one. And it won’t be over until one of them wins.
14
BRISTOL
After Finn leaves,the four of us linger for a few more minutes. Then we walk outside together. More handshakes. More smiles. More promises to talk very, very soon. Then Mitchell and Greg climb into waiting cars, and they’re whisked away into the night.
Mr. Leblanc’s driver pulls up next, but he takes a step back. His brow furrows. He obviously doesn’t want to get into the SUV.
“Mr. Leblanc?”
“Let’s walk.”
“Home?”
“Around the block.” His voice brims with tension and energy. It buzzes off him like we had coffee instead of wine at dinner. It’s almost the way he sounded when he saidStay. For a minute, Bristol. Just a minute.Except now he’s practically bristling. Is it excitement or anger? Probably both, from that appearance by Finn Hughes.
“That sounds good.”
He offers me his arm, and as soon as I take it he’s moving. Mr. Leblanc waves off his driver and leaves the restaurant behind. After a few paces, he takes his phone out of his pocket, taps out a text, and pushes it back out of sight.
My cheap high heels aren’t made for walking. My dress isn’t quite enough for the chill of the evening. But I’d walk ten blocks if he asked. I hardly feel the cold. I’m warm. Happy. Full. Maybe it’s the wine and the food, or maybe…
Maybe it’s that I got to see a different side of Mr. Leblanc tonight. He’s not the cold CEO or the dominating sex partner, but a man who can think and laugh and dream.
I steal a glance at him out of the corner of my eye. I might be using him for balance more than I strictly need to. It’s not my fault that two glasses of wine went to my head.
Two, or was it three? It was great wine. Smooth and expensive. Nothing I’d ever buy for myself.
Mr. Leblanc looks straight ahead, scanning the sidewalk and the street. He doesn’t glance back. He doesn’t look like a man whose dreams have just come true.
Is this Mr. Leblanc’s dream? Merging with another company and sailing away on a yacht, returning only for meetings with people like Finn Hughes? Vacation properties in Europe, far away from everything he knows?
It must be. Someone like Mr. Leblanc can do lots of things.
He could do anything, really.
The other men at the table, Mitchell and Greg, liked him. Not in a fake way, either. They wanted to hear his opinion on their vacation houses and their plans for the winter. By the end of the meal, they were trying to one-up each other on who could impress Mr. Leblanc with the better vacation story.
That, and Greg was flirting with me. He tried a few more times to invite me to a beach, maybe in France, and eventually I resorted to big smiles instead of turning him down.
Mr. Leblanc was the real star of the show, anyway. He was smart and funny and sometimes even kind.
And then Finn Hughes showed up.
The one thing I’m not sure of is whether Mr. Leblanc cantake orders,like Finn wanted. I held my breath waiting for Mr. Leblanc’s reaction. But he only nodded. Smiled. Shook Finn’s hand.
We pass by a bar. The neon sign casts a pink glow onto the sidewalk, and we cross through it as a pair of shadows.
“I think that went well,” I offer. Mr. Leblanc’s been too quiet to be happy, but he should be. Those guys are thrilled about the merger.
He grunts. I wonder if it’s tiring for him to be so charming. I wonder if all he wants right now is to walk far enough to settle his mind so he can climb into bed.
I wonder if he wants more.
“I’m serious. I think they really liked you. They especially liked your ideas about intellectual property. What you said about valuation. I didn’t really understand the whole thing, but Mitchell said it was revolutionary.”That’s exactly the kind of thinking we need at our company, he added.