I raised an eyebrow at her. “Ms. Jordan, or may I call you Lexi?” I asked.
“Mr. Goldwright,” she said in response, her tone clipped and her gaze frosty. “Thank you so much for agreeing to see me today.”
Ah, so she was upset about the change of time and change of venue, then. She had to realize that my time was more valuable than hers, though. Surely!
I nodded towards a chair. “Can I get you something to drink? Water, or perhaps something stronger?” I placed my finger over the call button on my phone, ready to have Jenny bring whatever the woman wanted.
But Lexi didn't sit down like I had expected her to. Instead, she narrowed her eyes at me. “Mr. Goldwright, I'm here on business,” she said, in that same holier-than-thou tone that she'd used before. “I have a presentation for you, and I'll need a projector screen for it. So, unless your office is hiding something that I'm not seeing, I suggest that we adjourn to your nearest conference room.”
A pity: she had the frumpy attitude, even if she didn't have the looks to match it.
I probably wasn't going to be able to convince her to have a quick fuck right there in my office, as much as I'd love to bend her over the nearest surface and have my way with her, but I wondered if I could get her into bed with me regardless.
“I've read over most of the information you sent already,” I said, waving a careless hand. “I don't care much about your presentation, although I'm sure it's very informative. But I have some questions for you, and I'd like to hear you answer those rather than just read off slides for me.”
At that, she looked uncertain, and I wondered what sort of company Albright was that she was so afraid to go off-script. It didn't really matter, though. Once we bought their company, we'd have the ability to change whatever we thought needed to be changed, up to and including the fundamental structure of the company.
She shook her head, though. “Sorry, I thought I was going to be presenting to a group of Orinoco’s executives, or else I would have tailored the presentation to your specifics.” She sounded nervous and uncertain, and I couldn't help but laugh.
I stood up and went over to the mini-bar in the corner of my office. Normally, the wine inside was reserved for close friends or celebrations, but just this once, I'd make an exception. “Here,” I said, handing her a glass of wine. “You sound like you could use this.”
She sputtered, a faint blush staining her cheeks. “This is a work meeting!” she hissed.
“Of course, it is,” I agreed. “But we're not going to get any work done if you're tripping over your tongue for the entirety of it.” I smiled at her, hoping to charm her into relaxing.
She stared at me for another moment and then slowly reached out to accept the glass of wine. Equally cautiously, she folded herself into a seat.
Normally, I'd take the seat behind my desk and play up my position of power. Today, I chose to sit next to her, dragging the second chair close enough that our knees were almost brushing when we leaned in to look at the paperwork that she'd brought over.
“You were originally supposed to be meeting with some of my executives,” I told her offhandedly. “But this deal with Albright could launch both of our companies into the forefront of the industry, and I decided it was too important for me to pass it off on some of my lackeys.” I grinned over at her. “To be honest, I have a tendency to micromanage.”
“Oh,” Lexi said, looking at a loss for words.
“But there's a good reason for it,” I continued, boasting. “Under my leadership, I've taken Orinoco from being just a player in the online retail industry to being one of the forerunners in developing new technologies in said industry. Orinoco wasn't even a publicly-traded company before I came along, and now it's one of the most massive companies in the world.”
“Right,” she said.
She didn't sound impressed. In fact, if I had to gauge her, I'd say that she sounded disgusted. I suppressed a grin, wondering if she knew she was that easy to read. She probably thought I was arrogant, just another dim-witted dude whose dad had placed a bit too much trust in him. Or maybe she just wanted to go home. But what she said next surprised me.
“Orinoco has had a string of good luck,” she agreed, nodding her head. “But no one can stay on top
forever.”
I stared at her for a long moment, watching as she fixed her challenging eyes on me and took a cool sip of her wine. Suddenly, I wondered who was judging whom here.
I shook my head, feeling almost shaken, and turned towards the papers she had brought. “What I'm really concerned about, if I'm being honest, are drone crashes and liabilities,” I told her.
“I figured as much,” Lexi said, nodding sagely. “We have reports on all of the issues that we've faced over the years. They should have been included in the documents that were sent over prior to this meeting.”
“They were,” I told her. “But what I really want is some sort of projection on what Orinoco can expect if we are to put your technology to use with our company.”
Lexi leaned back, studying me for a moment. “Well, that would depend on what exactly you were planning on using our technology for,” she said, a smile playing over her lips. “To be honest, you haven't really been clear on what you're hoping for. You know what we can do, but we have no idea what Orinoco's plan is for the next year or for the next five years.”
I frowned at her. “Obviously, we're hoping to incorporate drone deliveries into what we already do,” I said.
“Obviously,” Lexi said sardonically. “On all deliveries, though? On most deliveries? Until I know numbers, I'm afraid I can't really give you any sort of estimate on what you could expect this technology to cost your company.”
“So, what you're saying is that you're unprepared for this meeting,” I said, deliberately pushing her. It wasn't really a business tactic at this point. I just wanted to see what would happen when she snapped.