“Christian! Congratulations on the company, man,” Greyson said as he held out his hand for Christian to shake. “It’s about time someone younger stepped up and ran this thing.”
“With a team like Stella and I, things can only go up from here,” Christian said.
“Listen, I’m proud of you stepping up and taking control when your stepfather asked you to. Don’t let little Stella here try to take that from you,” Greyson said.
I threw my gaze over to him, my eyes wide with horror. Did he say what I think he just said? How the hell did he know what I was trying to do?
“Well, my first order of business was hiring Stella to be the senior vice president of the company. She’s got way too much knowledge to throw away on this business. Intimate knowledge of how her father ran things that will become very useful to me,” Christian said.
“Spoken like a true owner,” Greyson said, smiling. “At any rate, I was rooting for you the entire time. Sometimes men are just better at this kind of thing, eh, Christian?”
“Actually, as of 2015, women CEOs rake in more than $1.5 trillion dollars of the United States’ overall GDP. Over 9.4 million businesses are owned by women, and of those companies, a whopping 31% of them have created close to 8 million jobs over the past eight years,” Christian said.
“Whopping, huh?” Greyson said, grinning. “Well, we’re all rooting for you,” Greyson said.
“And I’m rooting for us both,” Christian said.
The two of them looked at one another for a little while, and I couldn’t help but grin. I had no idea why in the world Christian had just stood up for me in front of Greyson, but I was honestly thankful for it. It was nice to think someone was in my corner.
You know, before it came back to me that my father had given him the family business.
“Let me know if you need any help, alright?” Greyson asked. “We all want to see this place succeed after the passing of your stepfather.”
“This place will succeed. I hired my secret weapon as my VP,” Christian said, grinning.
I watched Greyson leave before Christian turned his smile toward me. I was at a complete loss to what had just happened. Not only had Greyson come in and blatantly insulted me in my own damn office, he hadn’t even acknowledged the fact that I was in the room.
“You alright?” Christian asked.
“Why would you stand up for me like that?” I asked, turning my surprised look to him.
“He’s a dick, Stella. We all know that. No one on this planet knows why you’re dating him,” he said.
“He really isn’t such a bad guy,” I said. “He’s just set in his ways.”
“And those ways just happen to think you aren’t capable of running this company,” he said.
“Well, he’s not the only man in my life who thinks that,” I said.
“Remember what I promised you?” he asked.
“What?”
“That we would figure out why your father did this the way he did?”
“Oh, yeah, yeah,” I said. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Together. That’s what people do during tough times. They band together and get out of it side by side. They don’t put each other down to make the other feel superior,” he said.
“Are we still talking about my father?” I asked.
“Does that sound anything remotely like your father?” Christian asked, grinning.
I couldn’t help but smile at him, but my phone ringing in my bag interrupted the conversation.
“I’m heading on back to the store. The contractor will be out here within the next hour to take a look at the dimensions,” he said.
I felt myself bristle at that statement. It was just another reminder of why I was doing this. Of why I was taking the company back and putting it in the hands of who needed to control it.