The Desire Variable | Rewrite

⸻ THIRTEEN ⸻

As soon as my blouse is tucked into my high-waisted jeans, I fasten them again, fluff the silky fabric around, and say, "All good."

Very slowly, he spins around, his expression closed off and stony. His gaze drops for the briefest instant to my now-covered chest, and then back to my face.

"We need to talk," he says gravely, after an awkwardly tense moment.

Those four dreaded words chill me to the bones. But at the same time, I just exposed myself to my boss, which is bound to have some repercussions. "I'm sorry. I promise it won't happen again."

"No, not that. I mean--Yes, don't undress in here again. But I wanted to talk with you about the sale."

"Oh? Is everything okay?"

He comes closer to me, his tall frame dominating and imposing, and then speaks with a lowered voice.

"As I told you before, I'm the one who determined the worth of your work. I estimated three hundred thousand dollars, which is still too little, in my opinion. They will start the offer much lower, probably under one hundred thousand. Do not go for any less than two hundred and fifty, no matter what the first offer is. It's their job to make us save money, but they have been instructed to accept two hundred and fifty. Alright?"

I nod, confused by how strange this is. "Can't you just decide the price and be done with it?" I ask, trying to make sense of his cryptic behavior.

"Kevin is the one in charge of finances and investments. I can advise him, but he's the one who makes the final decisions. And he wouldn't understand."

"Understand what?"

He frowns slightly, as if I caught him off-guard. After a brief moment of reflection, he speaks again. "Kev isn't into computers. Coding might as well be Chinese to him. He wouldn't get the extent of your work and what it's worth."

My heart beats a little faster. Is it adrenaline? Or is it because he's standing so close to me? I take a few steps back, trying to clear my head. I peer at Lex, wondering if he's genuine. It's a ridiculous amount of money for them, so scamming me over it is pointless. But him being so considerate weirds me out.

"Is it all clear to you?" he asks. I nod again. "Good." He turns around, walks to the door, and is abruptly reminded of something. "Don't...speak of this."

"Yeah no, for sure."

After one last hesitant glance toward me, he turns the handle and disappears into the hallway. Two hundred and fifty is so much money. A quarter of a million in my bank account. I stay for a couple of minutes, processing the information.

Someone knocks on the door, startling me. When I go open, I find Kate's petulant self. "There you are! They just told me they're ready to start if we are." Then she notices I'm a little shaken. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, sorry. I was just thinking." I join her in the hallway, closing the door behind me. We walk to the meeting room in silence until I feel compelled to warn her. "Kate?"

"Hmm?"

"I can't really explain why, but you have to trust me for the negotiations, ok?"

She nods, intrigued, but doesn't argue.

I could explain. I could tell her Lex is looking out for me, somehow. But I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone, and I don't want her to read into things. It isn't like that. He isn't doing it for me in particular, but because of his personal code of conduct.

We all take our seats and start right away. They pull out a bunch of documents, explain how the afternoon will unfold and so on. After barely ten minutes, I thank the gods Kate is here. It's the first time I'm seeing her practicing, and I'm impressed to see how serious and professional she is. This side of her is a novelty to me.