Baby on Board

Smile and Wave

Only Charlotte Delaney would end up trying to start a business when she's supposed to be off work because she had a baby three and a half weeks ago. The damn woman had major abdominal surgery and should be taking it easy but what does she end up doing? Metaphorically getting into bed with an enemy. Of all the people to go into business with, she decides to do it with that American wank stain? 

I tried to tell her that she was taking on too much. She wouldn't listen. 

I tried to tell her that she would regret working with Clark Reiss. She wouldn't listen. 

I tried to tell her... and then she told me that if I kept telling her what to do, she'd move out. 

Now I have to keep my mouth shut and smile like those stupid penguins from Madagascar whenever Lottie starts talking about her new business venture. I want to be excited for her but at the same time, I genuinely think she's going to burn out. Give it a few weeks, a few months tops, but it'll happen. 

In the meantime, it's all smile and wave, boys, smile and wave. 

"Let me get this right," Mick says slowly as he processes what I've relayed to him. We're sitting in his office while Sera sleeps in her pram; Lottie decided that I could have some Daddy-Daughter time seeing as it's my day off but all I wanted was a second opinion, someone to tell me that I wasn't being overly dramatic when it comes to Lottie's new venture. Mick was the man for the job, as always. "Charlotte is going into business with Clark Reiss? Well, fuck me. That man is number one on Forbes' Forty Under Forty list and he's stinking rich. With their new project, I assume they'll be looking for premises."

I frown. "Michael Andrew Taylor, you're supposed to be trash talking the man, not fishing for a new client. Strewth, it's almost like you're in love with him as well."

"Charlotte isn't in love with him, though," Mick quickly corrects me, pointing a finger in my direction. "She dropped her standards and ended up with you, now you have a kid, so she's tied with you for life. Deal with it. The woman loves you. Clark, on the other hand, is a man I can admire. Seriously, though, do you think they need an architect? Or an interior designer? We do both here at Saunders-Taylor."

I shrug my shoulders and tell him that I haven't been paying that much attention to the finer details of Lottie and Clark's plans. All I could say with certainty is that they were going to be equal partners and that the business is geared around mothers and babies. I'm not blind, of course, because I can see the benefit in their idea. My issue is mainly that I'm protective of what's mine and Charlotte Delaney is mine. No one else's. 

Mine.

After a little bit of coaxing, I give in to Mick's suggestion that I give Lottie his business card. I knew that Mick was in need of a big name client just so he could one-up Lyanna Saunders who reeled in a multi-million-pound contract. The two were ridiculously competitive when it came to who managed to wangle the biggest profit for the company, if only because they were due a promotion to junior partner but it would come down to who got it first. Oh, the woes of working in a family business. I'm so glad I went into medicine; even separating conjoined twins seemed easier than being in this environment.