“What Thomas and I are proposing is an option that’s worth considering. Imagine Green with all the shops up and running. Clothes, music, electronics, food. People—it’s about getting people to come, to get used to the idea that when you need something, you go to Green, but not just to buy. It’s also a place to browse, to pass the time. Because of course Green should have a cinema, a kids’ playground…Essentially, you have to turn this into the leisure hub for the neighborhood and the surrounding areas. You have to have an aggressive pricing policy. We will draw up the campaign.”
“Right. Do you know how much it cost to set up Green? You haven’t the faintest idea how much money we’ve invested here. We have to pay off a ton of loans to the banks. And you’re suggesting we give our shop rentals away? Is this the only idea you’ve had?” Mr. Bennet’s tone of voice left no doubt that he was angry.
“We can visit the retailers in the area, and explain to them individually the advantages of renting a unit at a low price. They have to invest, yes, but the investment is small if the price of the unit is,” I said firmly.
“And who will pay off our debts?” insisted Mr. Bennet.
“How are you paying them now? You’re not, are you? Or you’re having such a hard time paying them you could go bankrupt at any moment. You’ll lose Green and maybe end up in bankruptcy court. You’ll see. We could waste your money for a couple of months on an ad campaign that wouldn’t lead anywhere. If that’s what you want, great. We’ll do an ad campaign that’ll increase the shortfall you already have with the banks,” I argued.
Mr. Bennet opened his mouth to speak but Mr. Hamilton stopped him.
“This isn’t what we were expecting of you, Ms. Major. Really, you didn’t say anything about this to us when we hired you,” he said, fixing his gaze on Cathy.
“Mr. Hamilton, ever since you hired me I’ve been meticulously studying the situation at Green. I assure you that I’ve reviewed every possible solution over and over. But in the end Thomas and I arrived at the same conclusion. We are professionals, honest professionals. After all, our reputations are on the line—we can’t accept a job only to fail.” Cathy spoke with such conviction I felt like laughing at her.
“Right, we’ll think about it. Everything you’ve said to us…we have to think about it. We’ll talk and give you an answer. Or perhaps we’ll sack you, since you’re so sure that if we don’t carry out your plan, Green will be a failure. Shall we leave it there?” Mr. Hamilton looked at the two of us, knowing that he had surprised us with his response.
“Fine, very well. That’s only fair. Think about it, and when you’ve decided we’ll talk,” replied Cathy in all seriousness.
—
When we left the office Cathy turned to me furiously.
“You idiot! They’re going to sack us. How could you tell them that if they didn’t do what you said there was nothing we could do and our jobs would be useless? I don’t know about you, but I need the money those two cretins pay me. Things aren’t going great for me right now…I don’t think I could find another job so easily.”
“Don’t shout. Calm down. We’re not going to lose our jobs. They’ll agree to it. They have no other option,” I assured her.
“Oh, really? So, along with that ridiculous diploma you have from the Hard School of Advertising, you’ve also got one from a correspondence course in finance? You’ve got some nerve.”
“Some nerve for saving your job. How much longer do you think those idiots were going to pay you for twiddling your thumbs? They may be a pair of hicks, but they aren’t so stupid as to waste money they haven’t got.”
“And now what do we do?”
“Well, we make a list of potential clients and design a catalog for Green that we’ll give to all the local business owners, and send out to leisure companies, movie theaters, restaurants, playgrounds, and we’ll draw up a nice ad for the Times offering units at Green at low prices. We’ll have everything ready by the time those two call.”
“To sack us,” groaned Cathy.
“To put us in charge of everything. They don’t know how to do any of this.”
“I made a mistake in hiring you.”
“I hope you treat me to a nice dinner when Bennet and Hamilton call to tell us they’ve accepted my idea.”
“Our idea,” she corrected.
“Yes, I saw how you jumped onto everything I proposed. Such gall!”
“Hey, you came to me to ask for a job and I’m responsible for everything that comes out of my department, including all your ideas. As long as you work for me your ideas don’t belong to you. Let’s get that straight.”
“Unless they fire us.”
She didn’t reply, and I knew why. If the bosses decided to reject my proposal she would do whatever it took to fool them awhile longer. Naturally she’d offer them my head. I couldn’t trust her, just as she obviously couldn’t trust me.
We got to work. Cathy was talented. Within a couple of hours she’d drawn up the outline for a catalog for Green. I had taken on the easy task: writing the text for an ad that would go out in the Times and other papers in the event our bosses gave us the go-ahead.
We had the secretary look up the names and addresses of the major companies in the leisure industry, as well as the most prominent retailers in the local area. Mary protested the increased workload, but Cathy put her in her place, reminding her that she’d fire her if she complained again.
“You see, Mary, I don’t give a damn who my secretary is. I’m in no way tied to you. So if you’re not prepared to do the work, get out of here. If things go well you’ll have to do this and much more besides, and overtime as well. So you decide—stay or go? And if you stay you can forget about complaining, because I’ll have you out the door without thinking twice,” said Cathy without blinking.
Mary looked Cathy up and down. She had been hired a week ago and so far had done nothing but read the paper and answer phone calls from the occasional clueless person. The work had seemed a cinch and the boss easygoing, but suddenly it appeared that things were about to change. She thought before replying.
“I need the money.”
“Right, then shut up and do as you’re told. Hey, and no long faces! I like it when people smile. I want a pleasant work environment,” warned Cathy.
“Are you going to pay me to smile?” asked Mary sarcastically.
“It’s already part of the salary,” replied Cathy icily.
Mary realized that if she wanted to keep her job she had to back down.
“So when do you want this list you asked me for?”
“Now.”
We worked ten-hour days for the rest of the week, and by Friday Bennet and Hamilton still hadn’t called.
Cathy looked nervous. I was worried too, although not enough to affect my mood. Plus, I had made myself out to be the guy who was perfectly sure of himself, capable of handling any setback.
We waited by the phone all day, but none of the calls we received were from Green’s owners. At around three, Mary asked Cathy’s permission to leave.
“I doubt anyone’s going to call at this hour,” she said.
“We’ll all leave at five. And as far as I know you’ve still some work to do,” replied Cathy, happy to annoy Mary.
I said nothing. It was all the same to me if I stayed in the office till five. I had nothing to do and I was starting to get bored of watching TV every night with my landlady.
Naturally nothing happened. In fact, the telephone hadn’t rung since midday. Friday afternoons were difficult because everyone was out of their offices.
At five on the dot Mary picked up her coat and left with a blunt “See you Monday.”
“I can’t stand her,” Cathy said to me.
“Then fire her.”
“You wouldn’t care?”
“Mary means nothing to me. Neither do you,” I replied in all sincerity.
“You never hold back from saying what’s on your mind.”
?
??And why should I? I don’t owe you anything.”
“You owe me for this job.”
“No, I don’t owe you for that. You gave it to me because you knew how hard it would be to find anyone who thought it was worthwhile to work here. None of your friends from the City would even consider visiting you here.”
“What are you doing tonight?” she asked me with curiosity.
“Nothing.”
“Let’s go out for dinner, my treat. Afterward the drinks are on you.”
I accepted. I had no better plans and I was sure that we would dine well. Cathy wasn’t the type to waste her time at burger joints.
She took me to Gastronhome, a French restaurant in which there wasn’t a single table free, but on seeing Cathy the maître d’ assured us that we would be seated in minutes. While we waited we were brought a couple of glasses of champagne.
The dinner was worth the wait. A vegetable tart and sole meunière accompanied by a Chablis, and to finish, an apple tart with a glass of Calvados.
By that point the alcohol had loosened us up, and we laughed over the smallest things. We started to criticize our bosses, the far from distinguished Messrs. Bennet and Hamilton, then moved on to Mary, not forgetting about Tom the security guard and of course his sister-in-law, my landlady Mrs. Payne. We got tangled up in a discussion about whether advertising was more effective when explicit or subliminal. By the end of it we were sizing each other up, deciding if it was worth our time to jump into the sack. Cathy decided that it was.
“Let’s go to mine for a nightcap.”
I eagerly accepted. It was my lucky night. I’d had a free meal and on top of that Cathy had invited me to her place. We had a good time, but she made it clear that what happened wouldn’t change the relationship between us. She didn’t invite me to spend the night, but asked me to leave almost as soon as the sex was over.
“Don’t get any ideas. I only invited you out tonight because I had nothing better to do,” she warned me.
“Same here,” I replied.
“You’re not bad but you’re not my type. Besides, you have no future.”
“You’re wrong about that last one, and you know why? Because I’ve got nothing riding on life. The truth is, nothing matters to me.”
“What a cynic!”
I was still in time to catch the Tube back to Mrs. Payne’s house where, to my surprise, she was awake and waiting for me.
“But why didn’t you tell me you’d be back late? I’ve been worried about you.”
“Mrs. Payne, thank you for your concern, but there was nothing in our contract about me having to tell you what time I’d be back to go to bed. Sometimes things come up.”
“Yes…but…but still, it would be nice if you were kind enough to let me know. I don’t like lodgers who keep strange hours.”
“If you’re not happy with me…well, I can always find someplace else.”
Mrs. Payne was alarmed at the thought of the room going empty, so she tried to smooth over the situation.
“I hope you don’t mind me worrying about you. You know, so many things happen in big cities…Of course you can come home at whatever time suits you.”
“In that case I’ll stay. Good night, Mrs. Payne. Sorry to have inconvenienced you.”
—
At eight o’clock on Monday morning Mary answered the first phone call. Mr. Hamilton asked for me. He wanted to know if I could come by the office to have a meeting with him and his partner, Mr. Bennet. I didn’t even ask him if I should bring Cathy, who still hadn’t arrived at the office.
“Shall I tell Ms. Major to go to—” Mary started to ask me.
“No,” I interrupted, “Ms. Major is not included in this appointment. I’ll call her.”
Mr. Bennet seemed nervous and left it to his partner, Mr. Hamilton, to begin the conversation.
“We’ve been going over your proposal and we don’t like it but it looks like you’re right: it’s our only option. We’ve managed to get an extension from the bank. They’re willing to renegotiate the terms as long as we start paying back some of the money. This means a higher interest rate and, what’s worse, we won’t make a penny out of Green, but at least we’ll pay back part of the money we owe and for the time being we’ll avoid foreclosure.”
“This bloody shopping center has ruined us,” Bennet chimed in.
“It’d be worse if we ended up in court,” Hamilton reminded him. “Now it’s just about buying some time.”
“You’re too optimistic,” Bennet interrupted.
“Right, let’s focus on the subject at hand,” said Mr. Hamilton. “We can’t rent out the units for three hundred pounds—it has to be a little more than that. The fifty-meter units for five hundred pounds, the hundred-meters for nine hundred pounds, and the hundred-and-fifties for one thousand two hundred pounds. We’re also prepared to lower the price if someone rents more space, for a supermarket or cinema or whatever. Renting in Green will be a bargain. And it will be you, Mr. Spencer, who’ll be in charge of finding clients. We’re builders and we’ve never had to look for customers before. We just build and sell. That was easy.”
I gave him a list with the names, addresses, and numbers of several retailers, as well as the major business owners in the leisure sector.
“I’ve done my homework,” I said, looking at the two of them.
“Well then, get to work,” urged Mr. Bennet.
“I will, but I need you to be in agreement. Have a look at the list.”
Mr. Hamilton quickly scanned it and passed it back to me.
“We don’t know who any of these people are, and we don’t care who you call. What we want is to rent out these shops,” said Hamilton.
“Do what you have to do,” added Mr. Bennet.
“I’ll consult with you on all the steps I have to take, but I don’t want any interference.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want to do this my way. I want to be in charge. When I call the men on this list, I’ll be speaking with the executives. I want to be the project manager.”
“But Cathy…I mean, Ms. Major, she’s…” Mr. Bennet spluttered, without daring to name Cathy as my boss.
“Come on, Bennet, so far the girl’s just been twiddling her thumbs wasting our money. We both know that if we take this risk we have to let Mr. Spencer run the show.”
“It doesn’t seem very loyal…She…well, she’s very well known in advertising,” insisted Mr. Bennet.
“Put Spencer in charge, even if you do have the hots for that girl. She’ll have to get used to the new situation,” replied Hamilton.
I immediately understood that Cathy had gotten the job because of her looks. Of course Bennet would have the hots for a woman like that. He would never have dreamed he could come within ten feet of a woman like Cathy. She was out of his league, but destiny had placed her in the position of having to smile at him. Had she gone to bed with him? No, she was too smart for that, but no doubt she was leading him on. I made a decision. If I were going to be the boss of this stupid venture I’d have to rid myself of Cathy. She wouldn’t agree to us swapping roles: me the boss and her my assistant. Hamilton was on my side while Bennet was still drooling over Cathy, so I decided to play dirty to get her out of the way.
“Mr. Bennet, Ms. Major is no doubt a talented woman, but one with a bad reputation. Her departure from the City was the subject of a lot of gossip. Her affair with her boss…Well, there were personal matters that ended up embarrassing everyone involved. It seems that Ms. Major sought revenge by going public with their relationship. In the City they say that she’s capable of doing anything to get her way. If you want me to take charge you should let me choose my own assistant. I don’t think that Ms. Major is going to resign of her own accord and I don’t want to waste my time on domestic quarrels.”
“Oh yes, she’s the type who threatens to call your wife to tell her she’s slept with you if you don’t do what she says. I told you so, Bennet.” The
re was a tone of reproach in Mr. Hamilton’s words to his partner.
“I don’t think that…Well…It doesn’t seem right to fire Ms. Major,” grumbled Bennet.
“I know she has you by the balls but you heard what Mr. Spencer said. This kind of woman can ruin a man’s life. You wanted to aim high, Bennet, and we can’t afford a scandal. Remember that our wives are in this as much as we are. The last thing we want is for your wife to get jealous because of Ms. Major.”
“You two decide.” I stood up to leave.
“Sit down! Sack her, do what you want, but I’ll slice your balls off if you haven’t rented out all the units in Green within one month.” Hamilton’s tone left no doubt that he was willing to make good on his threats.
“I can promise to do my job, but I can’t promise miracles. If I haven’t rented out at least half of the units within a month, then fire me.”
“We will, in addition to slicing your balls off,” confirmed Hamilton.
Just then Hamilton and Bennet’s secretary opened the office door, followed by Cathy.
“Well now, I didn’t know that we had a meeting this morning. I suppose you have an answer to my proposal for Green…”
“Yes. Mr. Bennet and Mr. Hamilton have made a decision, and I’ve made mine too,” I said, looking at her coldly.
“Oh yes? I’m dying to hear the news,” she said, looking at Bennet with a smile full of promises.
“The first piece of news is that these gentlemen have agreed to my plan. The second is that from now on I’m in charge of the project. And the third is that I’m free to choose who I want to work with and I’ve decided to let you go. I’m sorry, Cathy, but I don’t think you’re the right person for this project. It’s too big for you. It’s not just about advertising, but about saving the business, and to do that you have to roll up your sleeves and hit the streets. You wouldn’t know how to do that.”
“You’re insane! You think you can sack me? Mr. Bennet, tell him…get him out of here. What are you thinking?” Cathy seemed on the verge of hitting me, looking at Bennet with the certain knowledge that he would defend her.