“Crap!” I hurriedly turned on my laptop and tapped my foot as I waited for it to boot up.
They want me to present the freaking report? Oh my god! Why didn’t she tell me that yesterday? I’ve never given a presentation—oh no, what if I struggle like I did during my interview?
Chapter Four
Erik
Yesterday
“Come on, bro. You can do ten more reps.” I hovered over my brother, Olsen, and motioned for him to push the barbell up towards me.
“Fuck, I shouldn’t have added those extra ten pounds.” He groaned and held the weight up when his arms were extended.
“You got this—new record. Keep going.” I smiled and held my hands under the bar to spot him in case he lost his grip.
“Okay, ten more!” Olsen grunted and started pumping the iron with a renewed vigor.
Olsen was nearly exhausted by the time he got the weight up the final time, and I had to help him position it on the bar. As soon as he was done, it was my turn. I took his place and started pressing the weight above my head as he spotted me. We spent some time on the dumbbells once we were done with our bench presses, and then finished our workout with a round of cardio. The sun wasn’t even up yet, and we were both pumped to start the day. We showered, got dressed, and took the elevator from the company gym to the upstairs penthouse where our offices were located.
“What’s first on the agenda today?” Olsen looked over at me as I scanned through my tablet.
“We’ve got that meeting with Angelina, the woman from New York.” I tapped on my calendar and let him see the screen.
“Ah yeah, that’s the chick that used to run that nightclub or whatever.” Olsen nodded and scrolled to look at the rest of his calendar.
“Club Infinite Fantasy.” I tapped the screen and pulled up the profile I put together about Angelina. “Some sort of sex club, I think. There isn’t much information about the club itself, but it closed after some pretty horrific shit went down.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if I want to get in business with someone like that.” O
lsen shook his head back and forth. “Even if she is friends with Quintin Stone.”
“If we’re going to get traction in New York and open a new office there next year, we’ll need Quintin’s help. He knows all the right people.” I shrugged and stared at the elevator as it opened.
“I guess we can hear her pitch at least.” Olsen stepped off the elevator and started walking towards his office.
My brother and I had been running Viking Developments for almost a decade. It started when we went back to the neighborhood we grew up in after college and saw nothing but run down buildings where all of our childhood memories were forged. The corner grocery store had boards over the windows. The local theater was covered in spray paint. Even our old elementary school had been shut down. Those weren’t uncommon sights in the South Side of Chicago, and we found other people who were interested in the same restoration projects we were. At the time, we didn’t call it gentrification, but once the media popularized the term, it became unanimous with what we were doing. It also proved to be quite lucrative.
It was pretty easy to buy run down buildings and flip them into something useful, but the real money was in converting entire neighborhoods. If we could make it attractive enough for people to move in, they brought new money to what was previously decay. The hipsters didn’t seem to mind being a few streets removed from a horrible crime rate, as long as they could live in our illusion of a historical neighborhood—slapped with a fresh coat of paint and a nice price tag. Once the hipsters moved in and started spending money, we were able to buy up more property and keep the renovations going.
“It’s time for your first meeting. Jessica is sending her up now.” My secretary, Claudia, poked her head into my office.
“All right, go tell Olsen and let’s meet in the conference room.” I stood up from my desk and started walking towards the door.
“Hello, Mr. Rourke—and Mr. Rourke. I’m Angelina.” A beautiful blonde in high heels and a skin-tight red dress walked into the conference room.
“Yeah, don’t call us both by the same name. It gets too confusing. I’m Erik. This is Olsen.” I stood up and extended my hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Quintin Stone said you had a proposal for us?”
“I do.” She sat down at the conference table and pulled a tablet out of her purse. “Do I need a password to connect my tablet to your projector?”
“Nah, just hop on the WiFi network. The password is Viking.” I chuckled and leaned back in my chair.
“Awesome, thank you.” Angelina typed on her tablet and then the projector lit up with an image of a club. “This is Hal’s Pub. It’s not far from where you’ve been working, and I’d like you to help me buy it.”
“I’ve looked at it a couple of times.” Olsen nodded and smirked. “But the owner isn’t really interested in selling it.”
“Leave that part to me.” Angelina flipped to the next slide on her presentation. “I also want the two buildings on either side of it.”
“Okay.” I looked at Olsen and then turned my attention to Angelina. “But that’s not going to be cheap and it doesn’t really fit our business model. We don’t like to hop around. We expand in a circle and if we can’t buy the property between the neighborhood we’re renovating and the pub, it’s pretty much useless.”