the silver lining playbook// a. irwin

chapter three

"So, what are we looking at?" Ashton chewed his food and patted his mouth as if to clean the surroundings of it. Calum had pulled out a pen that was probably worth my college tuition and a black-leather bound, white-paged notebook.

We had been sitting at this restaurant for a while now, and the guys discussed budgets and cuts that were to be made. However, I just sat quietly and ate my pasta, as if I wasn't even there. Sometimes I would catch people looking at us and taking pictures, but I suppose that's what happens when you own the local football team.

I was sitting across from Ashton and to my left, was Calum, in all his glory. Calum hissed and scrunched his nose up as he tried to do complicated mathematics in his head. "We have around 9.5 million-10 at most."

"Okay, so, where does that leave us?" Ashton replied and Calum was quick to check his printed-out stats.

"Well," He looked over the chart and saw the team'a name highlighted in bright yellow, then he answered,"Miami is above us, but we're pretty high up, either way,"

"Who are we competing with?" Ashton was losing his patience as he began to look at the numbers. I had a solution that might help us in mind, I always did, but I kept quiet. It's not like he would listen to me either way.

"The Jaguars are at 26.6 million," Calum whispered, but it seemed as if all of us had heard it. The restaurant went dead silent. Ashton ran his hands through his hair and let out a loud sigh.

The Jaguars have been our rivals for a while, besides the Steelers. So, as soon as they find out that we're falling behind, they'll most likely swoop in and take any good players we had. It was bad. And we had to keep this under wraps or else our chances at the Super Bowl, were totally ruined.

"Mother of God," Ashton muttered, running his hand up and down his hair and face. "So, what do you suggest we do?"

The place was quiet and I supposed that Calum was thinking. But I was dead wrong. Quietly, I looked up to see what was the set back. However, I was only met by Ashton's dead stare and Calum's considerate one.

"Um," I muttered. This had never happened before. He had never asked for my opinion. "are you asking me, Mr. Irwin?"

"Yes, Layla," Ashton nodded, not phased by my confusion.

I sat up straight in my seat and straightened out my hair before I took the business perspective of the whole thing. "Well, due to previous mistakes, I believe that the solution is not in cutting the fitness section employees, yet the corporate side."

"Are you insane?" Ashton scoffed,"you'd rather cut the employees that keep us running?"

Calum tried to speak, but I interrupted him, not really caring about the fact that he probably knew more about this than me. "Good job, you have good hearing," He seemed offended by this comment, but I didn't mind,"unless we cut the corporate side, we will have to split up the best team that we've had since 2000,"

"She's right," Calum interrupted,"if we have any chance of winning the Super Bowl this next season, we can't mess around with the team we have,"

"You're only saying that because you're hung up on her," Ashton waved Calum off and Calum widened his eyes and chuckled at this idiotic remark.

"You're the boss, but I suggest you listen to the guy that has budgeted this team for two years," Calum snapped and shook his head.

Ashton rolled his eyes and sat back on his chair,"I've been head for three,"

"Then you're smart enough to listen to your budgeter," I rolled my eyes, and Ashton seemed appalled by the fact that I had this. This would have been the ideal time to fire me. But he never did. Instead, he gave me a minuscule smile and nodded his head.