Picking sides

Blaine caught up with the couple, even though he did not mean to, and the company staff all stepped out to smile brightly and bow as the Sullivans and Tuckers entered the lobby. 

Ethan fell in line beside him and told him that the stakeholders had been content to just sit around and chat when they arrived, turning down the offer to inspect the new car models.

“The lazy oafs,” Blaine said, and Ethan snickered beside him. “I bet they do not even care about a presentation, it’s all about the bottom line.”

That is why he was quite confident that he and Ariel could sway their decisions today. 

“Chairwoman Sullivan’s P.A. sent me a copy of her presentation slide yesterday evening, that her boss said to finish it up with me so we can be on the same page today,” Ethan said.

And Blaine could not help glancing at Ariel as they neared the elevator now.

Yesterday evening? That was after she had cursed him out at the suit store. 

That was something only a logical woman would do. 

So he had not been wrong after all. She knew what was important and could see reason. 

So why did she not want to work with him on this, or even consider the possibility that what happened between them was a misunderstanding?

He saw Sullivan standing at the front of the elevator as Ariel and both their assistants went in. 

Sullivan pressed the button, staring him directly in the eye, and as the door began to slide shut, he smiled and waved.

Blaine heard Ethan mumble a curse beside him, and he turned to him with a straight face.

Ethan bowed in apology, and Blain looked away smiling. 

He would not encourage his employees hating and cursing at their superiors, but he enjoyed seeing they hated the Sullivans as much as the Tuckers did.

They waited till the elevator was green again and then rode up. 

He stared at the slides Ethan had shared with him, and thought it was just brilliant. Ariel was brilliant and meticulous with details. 

He saw now why Sullivan trusted her with his position and rarely ever showed up to work.

“Who is presenting?” 

“Chairwoman.” Ethan responded, and hurriedly added. “She’s heading over here.”

“I was unable to get hold of you throughout yesterday evening.” She turned blank eyes to Ethan. “Your P. A said you were unavailable.” 

Ethan bowed and took several steps back.

“I was at the police station looking at the evidence from two years ago. You said I should find out who did that to you,” he said, and did not miss the shock in her eyes. 

Good! He was getting through to her. 

It was important for her to see that he was not some cold, inconsiderate bastard she thought he was. 

She sunk her hands into both pockets of her skirt, and went on with what she had been saying before.

“Do you have anything you would like to add to the presentation?” Her eyes fell on his tablet. 

His heart dropped in disappointment. She had not even asked what he found, if he had found anything.

“I trust you. You are intelligent, and we made it together,” he said, and from the way her eyes looked at him, he saw she had picked up on that. 

They were not just talking about cars.

She turned around without another word, and he took a seat as Kan opened the meeting. 

Of course, the arrogant fool went on to declare his case on why they should not delay the launch a day more, citing how this season was the best for promotion of the vehicles and how their competitors would take advantage of the delay to grab a large market share for themselves.

If you planned to win, you never stated your case first. But Sullivan was too arrogant to know that.

Ariel opened her presentation with Sullivan’s last statement.

She stated that a product as good as this would sell itself either way, while its failure would give their competitors an even larger portion of the market, and that the rippling effect that disrust would cause for consumers, no promotion would be able to eradicate.

As she progressed with the slide about how the legal actions and government sanctions they would face from all these would shrink the value of their shares, giving the nearest estimated figures, he knew they had won. 

The stakeholders here who hated it when their stock value dropped by even 0.1 percent were already frowning.

“All this is still a probability, honey,” Sullivan said from the head of the table. “There is a 90% possibility that an accident will never happen.”

And everyone turned back to Ariel, who clicked a button and the screen shifted to the next slide. 

“Good observation, chairman.” She said and proceeded to give a brief breakdown, with support numbers on the chances of an accident actually happening, and why. 

She went through the best case scenario of each accident type to the worst case scenario and how much that would cost the entire group.

“So, in conclusion, that 10% probability is worth about 65.9% of Mõshon stock value every single day someone drives any of these cars.”

She let her eyes run around the table. 

“That’s how much we gamble every time a consumer pulls up onto the road with those cars.”

Blaine did not need to look at their faces to know that it was too high a gamble for these businessmen.

She bowed and stepped away from the screen, smart enough to leave the screen on, so the 65.9%, large and bold, were staring everyone in the face.

So their minds saw how much poorer they gambled against becoming every time someone drove their cars, and when you summed it up with how many people would buy those cars, and drive it every hour of the day, he could already see the bank at their doorsteps with foreclosure signs.

“I say we vote now.” Blaine smiled at Sullivan from across the table, who was clearly red in the face, although he was sitting calmly.

“Why? It seems you are all of the same mind.” The man returned, and hostility walked into the room and sat on the table. 

Blaine saw all the others become uncomfortable, and he knew they all had the same question. 

Why would the Sullivan couple be on completely different sides, unable to reconcile their differences, and bring their disagreement all the way to the boardroom?

And more suspiciously, why were Blaine and Ariel on the same side?