The Mistake
Two hours would have been sufficient time, but fifteen minutes? There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell she could brief him in fifteen minutes.
She heard his voice outside the office door and raced out. “Tyler, where have you been?” Panic caused an unsteady pitch in her voice. “I said seven o’ clock. This is not seven o’clock. You say this is an important business venture and then you don’t show up!”
He walked past her to his desk and sat down. He was too casual, too relaxed given the circumstances.
“Are you on drugs?” she asked. “There is no other reason why you would be acting this way right now. You are in no way prepared for this meeting.”
“I don’t need to be prepared for this meeting,” he said with a nonchalant shrug. “You’re making the pitch.”
“Oh, my God! You are! You are on drugs.”
Matthew entered the office then.
“Matthew, your friend needs help. We need to book him into rehab immediately, but before then you need to get Timothy Coldwell on the phone and cancel this meeting right now.”
“Why is she freaking out?” Matthew asked Tyler as he sat down on the opposite side of the desk.
“I just told her she’s making the pitch.”
“Wow! Genius! She’s the secret weapon?”
“She’s the secret weapon,” Tyler conceded.
“Brilliant. Why didn’t we ever think of it before?”
“I know, right? They’re not gonna know what hit ’em.”
“Missile launched.”
Annoying little things like that is what stopped him from being crush material. The two men high-fived as Jordan stormed towards the table. “Can the two of you stop talking like you’re secret agents for five seconds and tell me what the hell is going on?”
“Jordan,” Matthew explained, “for a high-profile deal such as this, one needs a secret weapon. They ask for two-hundred and fifty million, we try to talk them down. Now they will try to argue every counter-offer we put on the table, but they will not be expecting the likes of you. Tyler and I have been in the industry so long, we’re predictable.
They probably already know what we could throw at them.
They gave us those projections late on purpose.
They tried to drown us in numbers and paperwork, but they didn’t know we had you. You’re our curve ball.”
“There is no curve ball!” she bellowed and immediately took a deep breath to calm herself down. “Need I remind you that neither of you…neither of you…have read through my presentation. The missile you think you’ve launched is a dud. You can’t rely on a secret weapon when you don’t know what it is!”
“We know you,” Tyler said.
Matthew nodded in agreement. “And that’s all we need to know.”
Breathing suddenly became a laborious exercise and she was exhaling quick puffs. “I can’t do this,” she said, feeling sick to her stomach.
“Sure, you can,” Tyler said.
“Besides,” Matthew added, “Tyler and I will look like fools if we go in there without you and then there goes our reputation we’ve spent years trying to build.”
“Oh, great, Matt. Pull the guilt trip, why don’t you?”
“Jordan, we trust you.” Tyler took her by the elbow and turned her to face him. “I trust you.”
The sincerity in his voice almost knocked her off her feet, but she was too angry and too anxious to be distracted by those soft brown eyes right now. He tightened his grip on her elbow and he began ushering her to the boardroom.
Tyler sat down at the head of the table and Jordan sat down on the chair to his left, Matthew taking a seat on the chair beside her.
She was trying to breathe normally, however, being panic-stricken prevented that from happening.
So instead she hunched over on the chair, blowing out air like she was in Lamaze class.
Short. Short. Loooong. Short. Short. Loooong.
“Good morning,” Timothy Coldwell greeted as he entered the boardroom and she immediately sat up straighter, probably looking very much like a deer in headlights.
Short. Short. Long. But somehow it was faster now. Short. Short. Long.
His right-hand man, Alex Partridge, entered behind him.
“Gentlemen,” Tyler greeted, “I don’t believe you’ve met our group financial manager, Jordan Shepard.”
Her handshake with Alex was brief, but when she moved to Timothy, it was more of a caress than a handshake. He clasped her hand with both of his. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jordan Shepard.”
She noticed the slightest, most unreadable twitch on Tyler’s face before she awkwardly pulled her hand out of his grasp.
They sat down on the opposite side of the table and Timothy did not waste any time getting straight down to business.
“So you’ve reviewed the contract?” he asked easily and Jordan became very aware of how alluring his confidence was.
His jet-black hair was sleek and brushed back.
His light blue eyes were probing, his jawbone defined and strong.
Everything about him was raw, unconcealed arrogance.
Power suit. Power tie. Power-hungry. He was appealing and intimidating at the same time.
“We have,” Tyler answered. “We accept the terms and conditions, barring a few minor changes, which I have already sent to your legal department but let’s get to the reason we’re all here…Negotiating the price.”
“There’s nothing to negotiate,” Alex clipped. “We own the most lucrative properties in Washington. Two hundred and fifty million is a steal.”
“I have to disagree with you on that one, Alex,” Tyler replied firmly.
“What are you proposing?” Timothy asked.
Tyler looked over at her. “Jordan will take us through it.”
Short. Short. Long.
Timothy seemed surprised that she would be doing the presentation, which was already a sign that he’d underestimated her. He’d probably expected her to sit there and take minutes.
“Missile,” Matthew whispered as she stood up.
And a missile she would be. This was a male-dominated board room and she needed to show them she could hold her own like one of the big boys. She switched on the projector and her presentation appeared on the screen behind her.
Short. Short. Long. “Good morning, gentlemen,” she said.
Now what? What was she supposed to say next? She had never been to one of these meetings before. Should she do a brief introduction, or get straight to the point? Charm them a bit, or be brutal with the cold, hard facts?
“So…after extensive analysis…” That was a dumb thing to say considering she only had two days to review the projections and they knew that. “I believe…that…the numbers are a little bit…exaggerated.”
Alex sneered as a sarcastic smirk curved on his lips. “Oh, really. And how did you figure that, Miss Shepard?”
She saw Matthew give Tyler a worried look and with the slightest movement of his hand, Tyler settled his friend. He then turned to Jordan and gave her an almost imperceptible nod of encouragement.
Jordan pushed her glasses up her nose and continued despite the nervous rock dropping deeper into the pit of her stomach.
“Mister Partridge, per Hampton Homes’ annual report last year, you disclosed that rental properties are at about ninety percent occupancy.
These projections are assuming a hundred percent occupancy and that—”
“Those projections were based on the assumption that Diamond Properties acquires Hampton Homes. Upon acquisition, doors open and synergies arise. Based on Diamond Properties’ excellent marketing strategies and expertise in the industry, we assume to fill the remaining ten percent with tenants.
Are you suggesting that it’s an invalid assumption? ”
That was, in fact, a very valid assumption and Jordan was at a loss for words. “Um…no…but…” She was making a royal mess of this. Alex Partridge was going to eat her alive and spit out her bones if she didn’t pull herself together.
“Miss Shepard,” he said with an arrogant, condescending tone, “you are in way over your head. This is an important deal. We are professional businessmen and it’s clear that what you have to say holds no value. Playtime is over. Can we get serious, gentlemen?”
She’d had about enough of this asshole. For a second she could have sworn she saw a flicker of a smile on Matthew’s face, but she was too annoyed to pay much attention.
“Okay, Mister Partridge. You want serious, here’s serious.
” She switched off the projector and walked to the boardroom table.
“Were you serious when you projected that revenues would increase by fifteen percent per year when in the last ten years, rentals have never increased by more than eight percent? Even tenants in the upmarket apartments would not accept annual increases of that magnitude. Those growth margins are not only unsustainable, they are unattainable because the first time we introduce an increase of fifteen percent, our occupancy ratio will drop to less than ninety.” She noticed that his face had drained of color but this dickhead had brought this on himself.
“In addition, Mister Partridge, discounting those projected cash flows with a weighted average cost of capital of seven point five percent was also a very serious mistake. It’s too low and hasn’t been adjusted for the risk profile of each individual building.
What could also seriously affect the price are the understated maintenance costs, which are in no way a proper reflection of actual costs incurred.
Then there are the buildings in the Downtown area, where location has been completely disregarded because buildings in that region will never be able to fetch the price stated in the proposal.
It is blatantly unrealistic. Now…” She leaned on the table, looking at Alex and him alone.
“…Mister Partridge, taking into account everything I have said so far, do you seriously expect us to pay two hundred and fifty million for your overpriced properties?”