***
Lisa Foley checked her watch. It was twelve o’clock on a Friday afternoon. She had a manicure appointment at twelve-thirty, and most likely, she would just go home from there. Janet could hold down the fort for her. There were much more important things on Lisa’s mind than work. This whole thing was a sham anyway. Tom Wyman handled all the matters of substance, and he never bothered to include Lisa in any of them, which was just as well with her. And once Lisa would finally become Mrs. Paul Bostoff, she would put in her resignation. Being Mrs. Bostoff would be a full-time job. Lisa bit her lip; the wedding was still ten months away, almost a year. If it were up to her, she would elope with Paul tomorrow, but Jon had insisted that they plan a big ceremony, and one could not have a big ceremony on the fly. No doubt Jon wanted to use the wedding as another opportunity for business promotion. He had already given Lisa a list of guests: most of them were corporate executives, with a few low-level politicians rounding off the list. Oh, well, on the bright side, Lisa would have that many more guests to admire her wedding dress, and she would make sure that Jon Bostoff paid for his guests. That reminded her: she still had not heard from Janet about the rest of the wedding party. Lisa hoped that snob Katie would say yes, and she was fairly certain that Joe O’Connor’s girlfriend, Daphne, would agree as well. The two should consider themselves lucky to be in her wedding party.
There was a knock on the door of her office. “Yes?” Lisa shifted in her chair with annoyance; she did not want to be disturbed.
“Ms. Foley?” Lisa’s paralegal, Meredith Crooner, poked her head through the door.
“Hi, Meredith,” Lisa suppressed impatience in her voice. What did her paralegal want now? It was not as if she had very complicated tasks to perform.
“Ms. Foley, I thought you might want to see this.” Meredith placed a copy of the New York Post on Lisa’s desk.
Lisa resisted the urge to grimace. It was just like Meredith to read the New York Post. She was about to ask what Meredith’s point was when the headline hit her: “Company CEO Sues Bostoff Securities for Stock Manipulation.” Lisa frowned, her eyes glued to the text:
“Andrew Foley, founder and CEO of Date Magic dot com, Inc., is suing Bostoff Securities for market manipulation of the company stock. Date Magic was initially a private company, but had recently gone public. Subsequent to the IPO, shares of Date Magic experienced a steady decline in price, which Foley attributes to manipulative trading tactics of Bostoff Securities. Date Magic’s attorneys filed the lawsuit this morning. Bostoff Securities were served with the summons, but no comment had been made by the defendant.”
Lisa looked up at Meredith, who was nervously hovering over her desk. “Thank you, Meredith; I’ll get right on it.”
Despite Lisa’s tone making it clear that Meredith’s presence was no longer required, Meredith remained by her desk. “Am I going to lose my job?” Meredith asked, wringing her hands. “I’ve got two kids going to college next year. I can’t afford to be unemployed.”
Lisa pursed her lips. If the article’s allegations were even remotely true, Bostoff’s employees would all be facing much bigger problems than being unemployed. For now, saving face was the name of the game; she must not let the others see her panic.
“Meredith, that’s utter nonsense. You are smarter than that. Bostoff Securities is a reputable firm with stellar track record in the financial industry. Its standing will not be affected by baseless accusations and frivolous lawsuits.” Lisa’s voice sounded so convincing that for a moment, she almost believed her own words.
“Thank you, Ms. Foley. I was really worried there for a while. Well, I’ll leave you to it; let me know if you need any help.”
Once the door of her office was closed again, Lisa succumbed to her panic, staring at the newspaper in terrified incomprehension. How could a disaster like that have happened? And worst of all, what on earth was she going to do if the article’s accusations were indeed true? The fact that the plaintiff was her own cousin did not make matters any easier. Now, she felt like twice the fool: not only did she have no idea about the affairs of Bostoff, she was clueless about her own family members.
Janet had been right. Lisa’s cousin, Andrew, was a scumbag. The least he could have done was to warn Lisa that he was going to sue the company she worked for, the company she happened to be the general counsel of, for manipulating his lame stock. The nerve of the guy – just because the price of his pathetic stock could not hold up did not mean that it was being manipulated, but simply meant that it was a good-for-nothing company.
Oh, this was exactly what Lisa needed smack in the middle of her wedding plans. She wanted to be picking out flower arrangements and deciding on catering venues, not refuting a lawsuit summons. Not that she could effectively do the latter even if she tried: Tom Wyman would have to step in. Lisa wondered if Paul and Jon knew about this already. They had to. The article said that Bostoff Securities had been served with the summons, but if this were the case, then why hadn’t Lisa heard anything about it? She needed to speak to Paul pronto.
“Lisa?” Paul stood in the doorway of her office.
Her fiancé’s timing made Lisa jump in her chair. Normally, Paul avoided seeing her during business hours. On several occasions, she had tried to get him to have sex with her on his desk, but Paul had rejected the idea as inappropriate. He was a stickler for propriety, which was one of the reasons why Lisa thought him to be great husband material – or at least had thought him to be such until a few minutes ago.
“Honey, did you see this nonsense?” Lisa pointed to the newspaper on her desk. “I’m so embarrassed. The company CEO is my cousin. He dropped the bomb on me. I swear I’m going to do everything I can to convince him to abandon this frivolous lawsuit.”
“It’s all right. I’m afraid it’s much bigger than this. Jon just called me. He wants us to come over to his place. There are some things that he needs to explain to us.”