Imagine a salesman is making a pitch to an undecided customer. When the salesman finishes his presentation and asks for the sale, he has to stop talking and wait for an answer. If he says something before the customer does, it looks like he’s desperate for the sale, and we all know how attractive desperation is. Whereas, if the undecided customer says something first, there’s this unspoken balance of power he’s bought into and acknowledged. Psychologically, he’s given the power over to the salesman, which usually results in the customer signing on the dotted line. Whoever speaks first, loses.
In this scenario, I lost.
“You still haven’t said what’s so important about these files that you have to waste a perfectly good Friday night,” I said, if for no other reason than to get the conversation flowing again.
“Actually, I believe I did,” he grinned.
“Oh, that’s right – you’re thinking about buying the company,” I said sarcastically. “How about a real reason?”
He kept grinning. “Well… if I were Klaus, I might say something about it not being any of your business. But since we’re friends, let me put it this way instead: there are things I’m not at liberty to talk about, but you could say I’m the… advance man on a very important business deal, and I wanted to check out some things before we go through with it.”
“The LMGK buyout,” I realized.
He looked surprised. “You know about that?”
I blushed. I wasn’t supposed to know, but…
“Everybody’s been whispering about it the last few weeks. And I’ve seen a few things.”
“Such as?”
“…such as things I’m not at liberty to talk about.”
He laughed. “Touché.”
“But what I haven’t seen is you before.”
Which was true. In all the hush-hush meetings between Everton and LMGK fat cats, I had never once spied Connor. I definitely would have remembered.
He gestured to himself. “Now you have. In the flesh.”
I looked at the tan chest in the unbuttoned V of his shirt and sighed inwardly.
I wish I could see a lot more of Mr. Connor Brooks’ flesh…
We got to my desk, and I rummaged around for the keys to Klaus’s office.
“Hey – ”
I turned around. I was kind of bent over as I looked for the keys, my rear in the air, and I was half-expecting another comment about my ass.
I had mixed feelings about whether I wanted to hear it or not.
But Connor was instead peering intently at the monitor, which I hadn’t shut off when I went downstairs.
“ – are those the numbers for Teramore?”
Oh CRAP.
“Those are confidential,” I said, my chest tightening with fear.
He gave me a sideways look as he bent over and starting scrolling through the report. “Remember, both Klaus and your CEO said you should give me anything I want – oh, wait, is that an inappropriate remark?”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’ll file it under acceptable innuendos,” I said coolly.
He laughed. “Acceptable innuendoes… that’s good…” he trailed off as he paged through the document.
Then his expression grew dour, and he shook his head as he kept staring at the screen. “Bullshit.”
“Excuse me?” I asked, shocked.
He looked at me as though trying to make a decision. “Can I trust you with something, Lily?”
“Uh… I guess…?”
“Yes or no. I don’t want this getting back to Klaus,” he said, very seriously.
Ohhhh man…
I was too curious to say ‘no,’ though.
And Klaus was too big of a jackass for me to pretend I had some kind of loyalty to him.
“Yes.”
Connor ran his hand through his hair. “LMGK already did their own appraisal of Teramore. I told – uh, we convinced Teramore to let you guys make a pass at it, too, to see your numbers and compare how Everton would evaluate the situation.”
“Wait – you mean, this is a test for Everton Consulting?” I asked as I pointed at the monitor.
He nodded.
“It’s not an actual job – it’s just a test?”
“Well, Klaus thinks it’s a job, and Teramore will actually pay the bill as though it were an actual job. But yeah, it’s a test.”
“One we didn’t know we were taking.”
“We didn’t want you to go to more ‘trouble than usual.’ Like how the food critic doesn’t want the restaurant to know when he’s visiting or who he really is.”#p#分页标题#e#
“But why – ”
And then all the pieces fell into place.