Modern Romance Collection February 2025, #5-8

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

B Y THE TIME Mari Peterson’s so-called express train finally pulled into Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station forty minutes late, she was fuming. She hated being late any day, but especially on a day as important as this one. Forget about grabbing a coffee on the way to the office, she’d barely have time to collect her papers let alone her thoughts before this morning’s nine-thirty meeting with the bankers. Cooper Industries desperately needed this loan to fund its expansion onto the world stage. What kind of impression would it make if the company’s own finance manager turned up late?

To be fair, Mari hadn’t been in the best of moods when she’d boarded the train, but lack of sleep coupled with caffeine deprivation could do that to you. She’d woken after a fractured night, her mind still grappling with the fallout of yesterday’s bombshell phone call from her sister’s carer that she couldn’t afford to stay on without a substantial pay increase and that she needed to find a new job. Where was Mari going to find another Valerie? Housekeeper, cook and faithful companion all rolled into one, the woman was a godsend. More to the point, Suzanne loved her. Valerie’s departure would break her heart.

Not that Mari could blame the woman. Nobody was exempt from the cost of living crisis and Valerie hadn’t had a pay rise in two years—because Mari hadn’t been in a position to give it to her.

What the hell was she going to do?

Outside the station her tram was pulled up at the stop. She powered down the steps to catch the crossing, only to have the lights turn red and the traffic cop send her smartly back to the kerb.

‘Good grief,’ she muttered, her spirits taking another hit as the tram took off. Another delay. This day was shaping up to be a disaster.

Breathe.

Through the turmoil of her hammering heart and the constant roar of traffic filtered the calming voice of her grandmother. The steady voice she’d employed whenever a teenage Marianne had worked herself up over some real or imagined injustice, whether it be despair over their parents’ tragic deaths in a country road crash, some despot in a land far away terrorising and holding hostage a civilian population, or even because her little sister was driving her crazy. Suzanne had always had a knack for driving her big sister crazy.

‘Breathe,’ her grandmother would say . ‘Take a moment. Focus on what you can control, not on what you can’t.’

Mari took a deep breath and turned her face away from the impatient crowds jostling around her and up to the blue sky above, blocking out the ding of trams and rush of cars, instead focusing on her breathing, drinking in the autumn air. She was a long way from that excitable and passionate teenager she’d been more than half a lifetime ago, but her gran’s advice was still just as sound now as it had been then. More than that, it was apt.

Because just like that impulsive teenager she’d been, she was working herself into a frazzle. Sure, she was late for work and missing her coffee fix and she’d have to sort a new carer for Suzanne and soon. But when all was said and done, Mari was already late and there was nothing she could do about that other than text the CEO with an updated arrival time and pass on her apologies. Likewise, while it might elicit a grimace, it probably wouldn’t kill her to make use of the instant coffee in the office kitchen for once instead of the barista-made coffee she preferred. Finding a new carer for her sister would no doubt prove more of a challenge, but she would make that happen too.

Mari found a smile of thanks and sent it heavenwards. She’d needed that moment to calm the tangled mess of her thoughts and steady her racing heart. Any ideas that the day was ruined were overblown. Any sense of foreboding was entirely down to lack of sleep. A strong coffee—however sourced—would soon fix that.

She texted a quick update to the CEO.

Train finally arrived. Waiting on tram. Be there in ten.

An answer pinged back almost immediately.

No rush. Meeting cancelled. Fill you in when you get here.

Cancelled? What was that about? The bank had demanded this meeting as part of their deliberations as to whether they approved the loan. Forget that the statements had been audited, they wanted to quiz Mari and go through the financial statements line by line.

Unless the bank had already approved the loan? She refused to entertain the prospect that they might have knocked Cooper Industries back. The financial statements had been audited and together with the extensive reports Mari had provided proved that the company’s fundamentals were rock-solid. Any banker worth their salt could see that.

She stared at the message on her phone. Eric Cooper would be ecstatic if the loan had been approved, but it was impossible to read anything into his brief text. Unless he was wanting to share the good news in person? Yes, that was something Eric would do.

She exhaled as the walk lights turned green, feeling her spirits lighten as she headed to the tram stop. Because suddenly it didn’t feel as if everything in her life was turning to custard. Even better, she actually had time to get herself a decent coffee. This day was getting better already.

Ten minutes later, aromatic coffee in hand, Mari pulled shut the cage on the ancient lift in the old red-brick warehouse and pressed the button for the third floor. The lift rattled its way upwards, past the ground floor that had been given over to delivery van parking, through the two levels of screened-off laboratories and up to the small mezzanine office level she liked to refer to as the penthouse suite. It was hardly anything as salubrious. But between the flash new apartment blocks and hotels that now populated the Docklands area, a slim window in her office offered the tiniest sliver of Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay.

She sipped her coffee as she stepped from the lift, ready with a greeting for Carol, but there was no one manning Reception, the space unusually hushed. She stepped into her office without encountering a soul. Today the sun turned the tiny glimpse of sea to dazzling, sparkles of light dancing as the surface of the sea shifted. She watched it for a moment, enjoying the play of light. Oh, yes, Mari loved working here.

‘You’re here. Good,’ she heard behind her.

‘Eric,’ she said, smiling as she turned to greet the CEO. ‘I’m hoping it’s good new—’ But something in her colleague’s face stopped her in her tracks. Eric looked ten years older than he had yesterday, the lines around his nose and mouth turned to crevices, his eyes bloodshot, the corners of his eyes recessed, resembling black pits either side of his nose. He looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. She swallowed. ‘They turned the loan down.’ It wasn’t a question. What else could affect Eric this way?

He shook his head. ‘No.’

‘Then what…?’

He sighed as he sat down on the edge of her desk, before looking up at her sadly. Almost apologetically. ‘I withdrew the application.’

‘But why? We were so confident.’

The older man gestured with his eyes towards her chair. ‘You might want to sit down. This is going to come as a shock.’

Mari swallowed as she numbly complied. She felt as if she’d been strapped into an emotional rollercoaster ride that had started last night with Valerie’s phone call and that clearly wasn’t about to end any time soon. ‘What’s going on?’

Eric sucked in air, as if he needed the fortification. ‘There’s no need for a bank loan anymore.’

‘But the expansion—’

‘Will be handled by someone else.’

‘I don’t understand. Who? You founded this company, it is your baby, your pride and joy. It was your dream to take Cooper Industries to the world.’

‘ Was being the operative word.’

She shook her head. ‘But what’s changed?’

‘I’m sorry, Mari, but I’ve sold the business. As of nine this morning, I no longer own Cooper Industries.’

‘What? I don’t understand.’ There’d been no hint of a sale in the offing. No whispers. As far as Mari was aware, the expansion plans were only waiting for a decision from the bank before they proceeded full steam ahead.

Eric shrugged, his body seeming to sag in on itself. ‘I’m afraid there’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll say it straight. I’ve been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.’

‘No!’ It was unthinkable. Unbelievable. Eric had been a father figure and mentor combined since she’d joined this company ten years ago. And Eric might be well into his seventies, but he was still running regular half marathons. ‘You’re the fittest man I know.’

He shook his head. ‘I wish, but I went looking for a reason for these pains in my back I’ve been having, and I found it.’ He gave a self-deprecating chuckle. ‘So much for my powers of self-diagnosis. Turns out it wasn’t the wrong running shoes after all.’

For all his attempt at humour, Mari knew that such a diagnosis might be a death sentence. She licked her lips, trying to form the words for her next question.

But Eric was one step ahead of where her thoughts were heading. ‘Three months, maybe six if I’m lucky.’ He attempted a chuckle, but it died in his throat. He blinked. ‘Of course, Helen is hoping for at least six. She’s been wanting me to cut back my hours and focus on home and family for years. She’s got a list of things longer than my arm to get done. I have a horrible feeling I’ll be busier in the next few months than I ever have been.’ He gave up trying to smile and pulled out a handkerchief to bat at his eyes and swipe at his sniffly nose. ‘Maybe I should have thought about winding back before now.’

Mari was fighting back tears too but losing the battle. ‘Oh, Eric,’ she said, blinking tears from her eyes, ‘that’s such dreadful news. I don’t know what to say.’

He shook his head. ‘There’s nothing anyone can say. But I wanted you to know why I had to make the difficult decision to sell.’

She sniffed. ‘I understand.’ Wanting to spend whatever time he had left with his wife and family made perfect sense. Perfect, ghastly sense.

‘Thank you, Mari, for not making me feel worse than I do. You’ve put so much of yourself into this company, and you put so much work into the loan applications and the reports. I feel like I’m letting you down.’

‘No, you mustn’t think that! You have to put yourself and your family first. I’m sure whoever is taking over Cooper Industries will see the potential it has. I’m equally sure it will go on to great things with whoever is at the helm.’

He leaned over and squeezed her hand. ‘That would be something. Apparently, he’s been watching Cooper Industries for the last twelve months but only showed his hand in the last few weeks, trying to convince me to sell.’

Her head snapped up. ‘You never told me that. You never hinted—’

He shrugged. ‘There was no point bothering you. There was no way I was going to sell. I was too invested—we all were—in securing that loan. That was my focus.’ He paused. ‘At least, that was my focus before my diagnosis.’

Mari nodded, even as he looked away from her and shook his head.

‘Unfortunately, you think you’re doing something for the best and then you discover that things might not work out like you planned.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I thought I was selling the business lock stock and barrel, simply a change of ownership, all of the staff assured of keeping their jobs, but it turns out the new owner has a different vision.’

‘Oh?’

‘He wants to keep the lab staff on, at least for now.’

She swallowed, not really wanting to know the answer to her next question. ‘And the admin staff?’

‘He’s bringing in his own team. When I found that out, I couldn’t leave it to everyone getting a blanket email that their services were no longer required. I’ve been saying goodbye to all the staff as they’ve come in.’

Mari’s throat tightened. She thought of Carol and all the admin staff he’d had to share the grim news with, staff who’d probably packed their belongings and left the premises in tears. That explained why it had been so quiet when she’d arrived. But Mari was admin too. Was that what this chat was about? That she was gently being let go too?

Please God, no.

Twenty-four-hour care didn’t come cheaply, and she had no idea how much any new arrangement for her sister would cost. She couldn’t afford to lose her job now. She blinked rapidly and stared blankly into her barely touched coffee, the very same coffee she’d been so desperate for not thirty minutes ago. Now a caffeine hit felt as enticing as a road accident. Now she felt sick. Because Eric Cooper—her mentor, her friend—was dying.

And the icing on that dreadful cake was that Mari was about to lose her job. What was she going to do? How was she going to pay for Suzanne’s care now?

Eric’s voice filtered through her troubled thoughts, thoughts that were suddenly more focused on her own situation. Guiltily, she turned her attention back to Eric in time to hear him add, ‘He wants a meeting with you. Eleven this morning, at his hotel. He has a suite at the Langham.’

Her mind scrambled to catch up. All the admin staff were being let go. She was admin staff. What had she missed?

‘Who are we talking about?’

‘The buyer.’

‘He wants to meet me?’ she scoffed. ‘Why, so he can sack me personally?’

‘He wants you to walk him through the financial statements.’

‘What? Mr Hotshot Takeover Merchant takes over a business but can’t read for himself a set of financial statements?’ Mari didn’t have a lot of sympathy or time for someone who had swooped in and taken over the company, resulting in half the staff being let go without notice. Especially when her neck was next on the chopping block. ‘I don’t know that I care to meet him.’

Eric shrugged. ‘I know where you’re coming from and I don’t blame you. By all accounts, he has quite the reputation. Ruthless is one word I’ve heard to describe him. Arrogant too; I’ve found that myself. But once he made his intentions about the administration staff clear, I asked him—well, actually, I insisted—that he make an exception in your case.’ He held up his hands, almost apologetically, before his voice softened. ‘I know how much you need this job, but that’s not why I recommended you. I told him what I’ve always told you, that other people make excuses, whereas you make things happen. I told him he’d be mad to let you go.’

‘Eric…’ She had no words. The man had just learned that he had a terminal illness, and he was thinking of her? ‘You shouldn’t be worrying about me at this time.’

‘Why not? You’ve always made things happen for this company. You’ve been far more than a finance manager. You’ve been my wingman—’ he managed a chuckle this time ‘—wing person , I probably should have said. But yes, you’ve been there helping steer this company through the last ten years and setting up the finances for a global expansion. So, this could be an opportunity for you. If— when —the company goes global, who knows where it might take you?’

It was generous of Eric to go into bat for her, but Mari wasn’t as confident. From what she’d seen and experienced during her time in corporate life, companies that were taken over and subsumed into larger conglomerates were always the losers, their systems and staff devalued and changed, if not dispensed with, to fit the larger corporation. It was no surprise the buyer wanted to keep on the laboratory staff—at least until his own scientists were up to speed with the technology—but admin staff? They were a dime a dozen, even good ones. She liked to think she was one of the good ones, but she wasn’t so egotistical as to think she was any kind of world-beating talent, no matter the praises Eric heaped on her.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, wondering how much the buyer really wanted to meet with her. He’d probably just been humouring the older man. ‘Maybe I should just pack my personal belongings and call it quits. Jump before I get pushed.’

‘No, no, no,’ said Eric. ‘Please don’t be too hasty. Finding a new job in this market is going to take time. Surely, it’s at least worth meeting him?’

Well, there was that. Eric was the only one in the company who knew where the bulk of her salary went. And he was right that finding a new job was going to take time. Precious time when she should be sourcing another carer for Suzanne without worrying about the means to pay for her. And Eric had been good enough to recommend her. Given everything he had on his plate, it was generous of him to give anyone else a second thought. The last thing she wanted to do was add another crease to his already furrowed brow.

‘All right,’ she said, adding a smile just for Eric’s sake, ‘I’ll meet him.’

‘Excellent! I’ll drop Estefan a note that you’ll be there.’

The name was like a whiplash to her senses, adrenaline propelling her from her chair. ‘Wait. What?’ She stared unseeingly out of her sliver of window. ‘Who did you say?’ Her words sounded reedy and thin, as if all the volume in her body had been directed to her thumping heart, leaving only the thinnest filament for her voice.

Because she couldn’t have heard that name. She must be mistaken. She must have misheard. Misinterpreted. Even with the way her luck had been running today, life couldn’t be that cruel.

Could it?

‘Estefan,’ Eric repeated. ‘Dominico Estefan. He’s a Spanish businessman—a billionaire, by all accounts—looking to diversify into pharmaceuticals. Have you heard of him?’

Mari’s blood ran with ice. Oh, yes, she’d heard of him.

She’d slept with him.

‘You could say that,’ she muttered, shaking her head as she turned around.

A long time ago.

‘Are you all right?’ Eric asked, on his feet now. ‘You look like you could do with something stronger than coffee.’

‘I’m fine,’ she lied, pasting on what she hoped would pass as a reassuring smile. Eric was the one who’d received the devastating diagnosis. He should be the focus of her concern, not the other way around. ‘I just…wasn’t expecting to hear his name. I…um… We were at university together. For a few months.’

Eric’s frown converted instantly into a beaming smile. ‘Oh, so you’re old friends, then. I dare say that will make things easier. He’ll be sure to want to keep you on in that case. I’ll text him now to let him know you’re coming.’ He pulled out his phone from a pocket. ‘Shall I let him know you two know each other?’

‘No, don’t!’ she said, putting voice to her first panicked thought. ‘Please don’t. I’d like it to be…a surprise.’

Eric chortled. ‘A surprise. I like it,’ he said, beaming as he put his phone away. ‘Right, I’ve told him you’ll be there at eleven. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall when you walk in. You will let me know how you get on, won’t you? If you can keep your job, it will be one bright thing coming from this deal.’

Her body was vibrating at the thought of meeting Dominico in person. ‘There are no guarantees he’ll offer me a job,’ she protested. And once he knew who she was, there was no chance he’d offer her one.

Not to mention there was not a snowball’s chance in hell that she’d accept it even if he did.

‘I know, I know,’ he said. ‘But I have a good feeling about this.’ He tilted his head to one side and smiled softly. ‘Let me hold onto that.’

‘I will,’ she promised, even if she had to massage the truth a little. Because it was worth it just to see Eric smile.

‘Okay,’ he said, glancing at his watch. ‘I’ve got an appointment with my oncologist in thirty minutes, I’d better run. Apparently, this is my life for the next however long. That is—’ he smiled at her over his reading glasses ‘—whenever Helen isn’t running me ragged.’

The pair hugged, Mari squeezing her friend and mentor tight as tears once more welled in her eyes. ‘I will see you again?’ she asked as they drew apart. Whatever nightmarish treatments the coming months held for him, she couldn’t bear to think that this might be the last time they’d meet.

Eric’s lopsided smile confirmed her fears. He reached a hand to her shoulder and squeezed it gently. ‘Let’s keep in touch,’ he said, making no more commitment than that. ‘And let me know how you get on with Estefan.’

The mere mention of his name sent another bolt of electricity down her spine. Oh, yes, that undisputed pleasure was still to come.