I can’t believe I said those words, and they were in the middle of a fucking argument. I could punch a hole in the wall right now, I was so mad. The truth? I didn’t know what Nina was so fucking mad about! I didn’t do anything wrong. A criminal performed a criminal act and all he got was fired. I did that asshole a fucking favor.
“Colt?” A feminine voice drew my eyes away from the work on my desk, hoping it was Nina, but Chelsea stood in my doorway instead.
“Yeah?”
“Is everything alright? I heard some yelling.” She spoke timidly which frustrated me too.
“It’s fine, Chelsea. What do you need?” I hoped my impatience was palpable. I didn’t want to be in this office. I didn’t want to be around a bunch of other people. I wanted to go home.
“I finally got a hold of our auditor from accounting, who was supposed to go over Tipping Point’s financials.”
“And?”
She sighed and scratched the side of her head. “Well, there’s a few discrepancies they found and they want a second opinion. Actually, Tipping Pointandour people want an independent auditor to come in and recheck everything.”
“Poppy really wants this to hurt. She’s simply trying to bleed as many dollars out of me as possible. She thinks I’m going to spend all of this money and put in all of this work for her to scare me off? She probably hopes I’ll get her company tuned up all shiny and new for the actual buyer she wants.”
“That’s a lot of probably and hopes, Colt. We’re dealing with hard figures, here. They’re not wrong to want an independent set of eyes to go over everything.”
“Fine, get on the line and tell them to come up with three options. Of those three options, we’ll vet them, and pick a company to do the audit. I want this deal done! I’m sick of Poppy wasting my time on this. Did you handle her insane request of allowing her clients to dictate whether or not they stay with us or not?”
Chelsea nodded slowly, “Yeah. If they want our insurance and funds to get them back to black, they need to keep their assets with us and let us determine if they’re worth managing. If they want to take their business elsewhere, they get to recoup a small percentage of their losses but nowhere near what we’re offering.”
“Good, and one more thing,” I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose. I’d just had my first official fight with my girlfriend and didn’t know what to do about it. What I did know was that she was upset, and I caused that so I needed to fix it.
“Yeah, Colt?”
“Where’s a good place to take someone out on a date to say you-”
She cut me off, “To say you appreciate them and their hard work? I’d say a chic picnic with wine and maybe a view of Lake Prentiss?”
“I was going to say you’re sorry, but the lake definitely works. Thanks Chelsea. Let me know what happens with the auditor situation as soon as you can.”
“So, what should I bring on this picnic?” She asked me.
That rubbed me wrong. I kept it professional, “I’m actually planning it for Nina, thanks for the idea. See if you can get that auditor in here within a week or so.”
I dismissed her by picking up the phone to make calls. She moved her mouth to say something but decided against it as she made her way out of my office. I had too much to do and the idea of Nina never speaking to me again scared the shit out of me. I had to make this right.
Chapter 15
Nina
I sent a text to our group chat:
Drinks NOW!
Dylan replied first:
Meet me at Velvet I’m already here
Morgan’s text came next:
OMW
The Velvet Black sat in the middle of a block in downtown Broad City. The face of the building was black with an electric blue sign spelling its name down the side of the door. There wasn’t a bouncer sitting outside and there wasn’t a line stretching down the block. It was late morning and the only reason Dylan was there was because she took pride in making sure her place was in order before it opened every night.
I knocked on the door and waited as I heard her approaching and barking orders at whoever was there with her. When she opened the door, Dylan didn’t wear the typical club night getup. Now she wore jeans and a tank top with a towel tucked in her pocket. She showed me to the bar where I took a seat and she moved around behind it.
