Annoyance made her body go rigid. She had just assumed that Simon had followed right behind her, but she turned around to find no one there. With narrowed eyes she scanned the room until she spied her boss, standing exactly where she’d left him, with a scowl on his face.
“He’s over there,” she said, titling her head in Simon’s direction.
It was totally rude on their part to want a meeting with Mattis and keep him waiting. When this networking session ended she was going to have to gently remind her boss about protocol.
“Well, lead the way,” Mattis said. “I’m looking forward to having a discussion with him. It’s a bit of a long walk, though, don’t you think?”
She groaned inwardly. Prompting Mattis to walk across the conference room was beyond rude. Now she looked like she didn’t know what she was doing, and Simon looked like he was too arrogant to meet an investor. Which, truth be told, he was. Sure, he hated small talk, but who didn’t? It wasn’t right for them to come all this way for him to back out of his obligation.
Heather was fuming on the inside, but she plastered a giant smile on her face and guided Mattis across the room to where Simon was standing. Quickly, she made introductions.
“Would you mind if my assistant took some notes of our discussion?” Simon asked. “Or would you prefer something more private?”
“I’m fine having your assistant with us. My assistant is dealing with a minor emergency while she’s making some video conference calls, so she’ll be indisposed. It will be good to have someone take notes as we talk,” Mattis replied. “How about we head over to the dining room for a chat?”
“We’ve already eaten,” Simon said flatly.
Heather cast her boss a meaningful glance, resisting the urge to shake him for his rudeness. “I think Mr. Diesel means that we’d be delighted to go to the dining room.”
Simon scowled again but said nothing as they all walked to the hotel dining room for a private meeting.
While they sat together at a table, Heather started typing up notes. The discussion was mostly one-sided, though Mattis didn’t seem to notice that he was the only one speaking. Simon usually responded with a serious of grunts and nothing more. Heather was the one who spent most of her time pressing Mattis for information and ideas.
Finally, the meeting wound down, and since it had run for so long they didn’t have to spend much more time at the networking session. Heather did make sure to target other personal assistants for business contacts and, with that information gathered, she and Simon made their way back to their hotel room.
“That went well, didn’t it?” Simon started taking off his jacket.
She crossed her arms and stared at him. “You’re joking.”
“No.” He frowned. “What’s the problem?”
“You practically blew off Mattis,” she said, huffing out an annoyed breath. “You barely said a word to him and you didn’t acknowledge the other people in the conference room.”
He shrugged. “You know I hate these things.”
“Everyone hates these things,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t make the effort. You didn’t even try to get to know Mr. Mattis. It would have helped you figure out what he wanted. What motivates him.”
“He wants what they all want,” he said. “Money. That’s all people care about.”
“Must be nice,” she muttered softly.
“What was that?”
She sighed. Might as well just get it out in the open. “I said it must be nice. To have so much money that you can’t fathom why anyone would want money of their own.”
“Mattis isn’t exactly poor.” Simon crossed to the living room and tossed his jacket onto the sofa. “He’s a well-off man.”
“So what? He wants to be more well-off; having a good relationship with him will be good for Dover,” she said.
“We don’t need him.” Simon sank down onto the sofa. “We don’t need anybody.”
“That’s just your problem, isn’t it?” she snapped, unable to hide her frustration. “You’re so very good at pushing people away. Closing yourself off from them. Believing the worst about them so you can walk away and act like you’re the injured party.”