Chapter 5 #2
It was in this moment that the words of Edwin Hunt came to mind.
“If you take the first offer, you’re the last person to ever succeed in business.
” There was nothing I hated more, as a human being, that instead of being a father, I was like an employee of Edwin’s—and not even a direct one, as those words had not been spoken to me, but to Morgan.
I just happened to be in the same room and hear it.
But… well, I wasn’t about to say no to taking advice from Edwin Hunt when it could help me.
“You’re saying with that offer that you think your company is worth, roughly let’s say, $120 million,” I said.
“But in looking at your revenue and market share, we only had it pegged at $105 million. Now, obviously, $15 million is a bit of a gap, so why don’t we see if we can reach a middle ground? ”
I had to fight so damn hard to keep my eyes on Craig. It was not fair for him to bring Layla in for how stunningly beautiful she was.
It almost made me wonder, honestly, if Craig knew how distracting his daughter was and thus used her for that purpose. She hadn’t said anything beyond saying hi to me, but if she opened her mouth at any point, I’d have to be on guard for her killing my negotiation tactics.
As Mr. Hunt always said, business has no boundaries when it comes to competition. And, I noticed, he would use that rule to the fullest.
“Well, that’s interesting you got that number, Chance, because I came to a very different number,” Craig said. “I noticed that our revenue was $15 million this past year, and since most businesses sell at 10x typical revenue, I would say that you are getting yourself quite the deal.”
This went back and forth for a little bit. I have to say, I believe I held my own ground quite well. Edwin had done a marvelous job.
But I had to struggle to do so. I kept swearing that Layla, bless those curves and those seductive eyes, kept trying to draw me in.
Whether for the purposes of helping her father or just because of her attraction to me, I could not say.
I knew I was handsome, and I knew that she found me attractive.
Well, OK, maybe that was a bit of the cockiness and arrogance speaking at the moment. But I was rarely wrong in my gut feelings about things, and this was such an example.
An hour later, Mr. Burnson had still not shown up.
I almost morbidly wondered if he had suffered a heart attack on the golf course, so focused on hitting the fifteenth hole for par that he strained too hard and burst a blood vessel.
But it did not matter, because somehow, I had managed to get 9.
5 percent of the deal for a $10 million investment.
Maybe 1.5 percent did not sound like much, but 1.
5 percent of a company that looked to grow to the billions within the next few years would prove incredibly lucrative to the company.
And we still had the original eight percent on top of that—suffice to say, for an intern, I had done awfully damn well for myself.
Maybe I was trying to impress Layla. Maybe I just wanted it for myself. Maybe all of that was true.
But as I escorted Craig and Layla out, I knew I would have my answer to the question of if I had done well for the business.
Because finally, John Burnson showed up.
“Well howdy, folks, how are you?” he said, aggressively shaking hands with them. It took an awful lot for me not to roll my eyes at the fake good-natured air that Mr. Burnson put on. “My apologies, emergencies came up.”
“It is just as well, Mr. Burnson,” Craig said. “Your employee Chance here negotiated a mighty fine deal.”
“Is that so?” Mr. Burnson said. He smiled, but I could see those teeth looking for blood behind the the smile. “We’ll have to discuss this lovely deal. What is the final number?”
“$10 million from you, nine and a half percent in us.”
It was almost like someone had gifted Mr. Burnson with a thousand women, because the smile went from fake to real in half a second. His eyes went wide. I had rarely seen him betray his poker face, but boy did he do so terribly.
“I see, very good,” Mr. Burnson said. “You all have a nice rest of your day. Chance, walk with me, would you?”
I shook hands with Craig and Layla one last time. Craig turned quickly, but I caught Layla looking back at me.
For someone who had not said more than two words the whole time, she had sure captivated my attention.
“I’d say you’re out of your fucking mind, boy, but you just pulled off a deal I would not have pegged you capable of doing,” Mr. Burnson said, snapping me out of my thoughts with a laugh. “I guess being in that Hunt household did teach you a thing or two.”
Yeah, it did. Quite a few things.
“I’ll make a deal with you right now, Chance. This might be suicide for the finality of the deal, since nothing is final until its signed, but you clearly have a rapport with the nice Taylors. I was hoping to get nine, but nine and half, why, that might just end up being a bonus for you.”
I knew I would never see a dime, at least until the middle of August when I was up for either a promotion to a regular job or dismissal as an intern. But then again, Mr. Burnson had never said anything like this.
If anything else, it was a resume point I could use if I did, in fact, get let go.
“I will let you take over this case. I swear to sweet Jesus, though, if you fuck this up, you will be gone so fast you’ll be back in your mother’s basement. And I don’t mean dear Mrs. Hunt.”
I fucking hated Mr. Burnson when he spoke like this. Obviously, he knew my secret, but he was not afraid to poke and prod into said secret to get what he wanted. Someday, I thought I’d explode on him in frustration.
For now, though, I just nodded in agreement.
“I understand, sir,” I said.
“Good,” he said. “Keep at it. And hey, at least you’ve got a pretty lady to work with as well.”
Oh, that I do.
That I very much do.