“Wow…” I take in all this new information, not knowing what to say.
Bitterness shadows over Lucy’s face. “I was one of those young girlfriends for the first decade of my career, by the way. He kept me on to run his thankless factory, but he didn’t even tell me he sold it until a couple of days ago. Then he ran off with his latest twenty-year-old, leaving me to break the news to everyone this morning. So I guess I’m a little pissed off at my ex too.”
“That sucks,” I say, a wave of sympathy going through me. “I’m sorry. You and the rest of the animators at Yinz deserve better.”
She nods in complete agreement, but then she peeps over at me, the bitter set of her face lifting. “To tell you the truth, I was looking forward to having you take over. Someone who cared more about the work than collecting trophies. I guess I’ll have to tell everyone we’re a rudderless ship and try to use my connections to find our animators jobs at other houses.”
Her words give me a moment of pause. Lucy's acting as if me walking away from this deal would consign her and a bunch of other animators to joblessness.
“I'm not qualified to run a company of this scale,” I tell her with all the sorry my voice can muster. “I barely know how I'm going to take care of myself for the next few years. And if I accept this gift from Victor, believe me, it will come with all sorts of strings attached.”
Lucy considers my words. “Maybe he owns the place, but all the paperwork says that you’re our new boss full stop. So that means it’s up to you and only you to decide how we go forward. So how do you want to handle that?”
I shake my head and tell her the truth. “I don't know. That’s the problem.”
“Well, we still have the Chrysanthemum deal to fulfill,” Lucy points out. “We’re pretty late on the project, but they're not done with principal filming. Maybe you could start on that job like we planned, and we can go from there. I can help you. I’ve been running the day-to-day of this house all by myself for years. And at least you won’t parade all your new girlfriends past my office.”
Her proposal sounds…nice. Like something I could actually handle. It pulls at me, inviting me to dream again. But, “If I take this deal, that means he’s my boss. And that would be a disaster for me.”
Instead of answering, Lucy looks at something over my shoulder. I follow the direction of her gaze to see Victor coming out the Yinz Entertainment front doors.
Lucy takes a few steps back, standing down in that way people always seem to do when Victor enters a space. But before she goes, she tells me in a much-lowered voice, “I know you're scared, but I can help you. I want to help you. We can make this work. Just take a week or two to consider it.”
That’s the problem, I think, as she walks away and Victor strolls up. I was considering it, even though I should be doing the opposite of that if I truly wanted to cut all ties with Victor.
After she disappears inside, Victor asks, “Did she make you understand that this was a gift you should be happy about?”
Instead of answering that leading question, I say, “I have a feeling this so-called gift will disappear after our third date when I win the privilege of never seeing you again. And even if you let me run this place, you’ll probably be using it as an excuse to break all the terms of the contract you’re supposed to sign. I mean, how can I trust you not to keep tabs on me when you’re in control of my 401K?”
Victor flinches like I slapped him again. But then his face sets to all business as he signs, “I had planned to use this company to wash money which would’ve automatically raised its profit margins—at least on paper. But we can disguise my infusion of cash as an initial round of financing.”
I consider all of his business words, then surprise myself by countering, “How about if I don’t accept any more of your money? How about if you just sign Yinz Entertainment over to me free and clear as payment for keeping me imprisoned? Then you and your dirty ‘financing’ can stay out of it.”
He cracks his head to the side, then appears to decide at the same time that he signs, “I can accept those terms.”
Okay, whoa, that wasn’t the answer I was expecting.
“I don’t believe you,” I say, resetting. “Why would you do that? Why would you buy a whole company for me unless it was to control me?”