The Only Two Things

Away

Soph awoke from her deliciously warm sleep to a shrill, piercing ring. Her phone was attacking her ears with such ferocity she thought her eardrums had burst.

She lifted it to her ear. " What, Kel?"

"Soph, I've just had an email from Blake. She wants to take us to dinner tonight. They're making us an offer."

"It's Saturday!"

"I know, I know. I'm really sorry. They just... she seems really keen to tell us about it. She said she normally wouldn't ask. But she's specifically requested that you be there as well."

Soph groaned, and Ciaran pulled her closer. "What's up?" he whispered.

"I have to go back to Dublin."

"Noooooooo" he moaned. "But then I won't see you for two more days!"

"I know, baby, I'm sorry."

"You guys know I'm still here, right?" Kelly called into the phone.

"Yeah. I know. And you just ruined my fucking morning."

********

Soph and Kelly walked into the extremely nice restaurant, feeling slightly underdressed.

Soph was a little worried, actually, at just how out of her depth she was. She'd left England halfway through her last year of Uni. She didn't have a degree. She'd only done entry-level business administration courses. She could do the operations side of Kelly's business. She'd even handled all the expansion for her. Opening new stores. Sorting out logistics. But she didn't know shit about franchising, or distribution rights.

Fuck she hoped this meeting would go okay.

Should've bought another nice dress.

The host delivered them to a small booth towards the back of the restaurant, and Blake stood to greet them, directing Sophie into the corner of the booth. Blake immediately slipped in next to her, which Soph thought was a bit odd, but Kelly didn't seem to notice, and slid in to the seat opposite her. A waiter immediately bought over a bottle of wine, pouring them each a glass.

"So, ladies. Let's get right down to it. I've been running through the numbers with Carl, your accountant, and we've enlisted a third-party valuer to come up with a fair number to buy the distribution rights for Kelly's Cakes in the UK. The number they came up with is here."

She passed a document to Soph and Kelly.

Four. Million. Euros.

Holy fucking shit .

"Now. The individual wants to purchase it would like to offer you four point five million."

Kelly gasped. "Wait... why? Why would they offer more?"

Blake nodded. "Because they have a... quite specific, and rather odd request."

The girls were both silent, waiting for Blake to continue.

"The additional half a million would be a sign-on bonus. For Sophie. The deal is dependent on one condition - That Sophie moves to the UK and manages the expansion personally."

Soph's heart fell through the floor. Oh my god. That was more money than she'd ever seen in her life. Than she'd ever see.

"Why me?" She asked

Blake smiled. "You're kidding, right? You single-handedly turned Kelly's Cakes from essentially a home-operation into a chain of six bakeries with over sixty staff, and a social media following of over 3 million people in under two years, without even having a business degree."