Gold Diggers

‘Hardly minor. Karenza is now an international brand.’

‘Not before time,’ she said, raising her glass to his.

She swilled the contents of her glass around before she put it back on the table and looked at Adam intently. ‘I met Victor Chen in St Tropez. He wants to buy the company.’

Adam put his knife and fork down. ‘A serious offer?’

‘As serious as these things are. He wants to take the company mass prestige, move production out to the Far East, bring down prices, increase stock. Basically he’s proposing to have Karenza in every department store from Manchester to Manila.’

‘Well, that’s one business model for the company,’ replied Adam.

‘Although I suspect you may have other ideas?’

A waiter came to fuss around them, refilling Adam’s glass with the restaurant cellar’s best white wine, and filling Karin’s with still water.

Karin paused again. ‘He also tried to sleep with me,’ she said.

‘What?’ snapped Adam, prompting a nearby waiter to lift his head to see what was going on. ‘Where? At the shop?’

‘No. He invited me to his villa for dinner.’

Adam glared at Karin, his face a mixture of anger and jealousy, which was exactly the response Karin had been hoping for.

‘And you went? I turn my back for a moment and you’re running off to some guy’s fucking villa to talk.’

‘Adam. It was to talk business. You know how it works.’

‘Of course I know how it works,’ he spat. ‘He wanted to screw you and he tried to seduce you with promises of a global business.’

Karin flashed him a wry smile. ‘And you know how it works so well because …?’

Adam looked at her, fuming. Then he shook his head and snorted with laughter. ‘Touché, Karin Cavendish,’ he said.

Karin leaned over and touched his sleeve. ‘Adam, I didn’t sleep with him. And I don’t want him to buy the business. But what I do want is fast expansion: roll out the lingerie, add another dozen shops within two years. I want to keep the company high-end, but sell on a much larger scale – do that and the private equity companie

s will be falling over each other for a buyout.’

Adam was mulling this all over quietly. ‘You’ll need external investment,’ he said.

Karin nodded. ‘But I’d rather not go back to Victor Chen.’

Adam looked at her critically. ‘I’ve offered once. I believe the response was that you wanted complete control.’

‘I still do,’ said Karin honestly.

‘Honey, that’s not the way it works,’ he said, trying hard not to sound patronizing.

‘Look, Adam, Victor was good for one thing,’ said Karin, ignoring his curtness. ‘He’s made me think about cutting my costs.’

Adam smiled. ‘Ah, I sense a plan coming on.’

Karin leaned forward conspiratorially. ‘As you know, the lingerie range launches before Christmas. The designs are done, but they haven’t gone into production.’

‘You’re thinking about moving it out to the Far East, aren’t you?’ nodded Adam.

Karin shrugged. ‘Maybe I’ve been too much of a snob.’

Adam repressed a snort and Karin smiled at him. ‘I’ve been looking at samples and there really is very little difference between product made in Italy and China. Knickers are made to come off, so does anybody really care where they come from? I’m going to cancel the order with the Italian factory and go elsewhere.’