“Ms. Major, we have accepted Mr. Spencer’s conditions. We’ll write you a check for your pay to date,” Mr. Hamilton told Cathy, not giving her a chance to respond.
“I’m sorry,” Mr. Bennet managed to say.
“This can’t be happening!” Cathy sounded hysterical.
“But it is, my dear, it is,” I interjected.
She locked her eyes on me and then on Bennet, who couldn’t meet her gaze. Cathy was smart enough to realize that she had lost. She paused a moment to compose herself. She didn’t even look at me as she spoke to Mr. Bennet.
“I won’t go until you pay me right down to the last penny.”
“But right now…” he mumbled.
“Now, Mr. Bennet, right now.” Cathy’s voice was threatening.
Bennet looked at Hamilton, who stepped in, knowing that Cathy wouldn’t leave without her money.
“We’ll write you a check,” Hamilton suggested.
“No, no checks. I don’t trust you. You’ve already shown me what kind of men you are. You’ll pay me in cash. I’m not leaving until you pay up.”
The time had come for me to go. I had no role to play in this scene.
“Gentlemen, I’ll keep you informed.” I left the office without giving them a chance to say goodbye.
When I returned to the office at Green I asked Mary to clear out all of Cathy’s belongings.
“Ms. Major doesn’t work here anymore. Put all her things in a box. Oh yes—and I’m the boss now. So if you want to work here these are the conditions: there are no fixed working hours. You will be here until I leave. I want no complaints or objections. And I warn you that I’m short on patience. If you want to, then stay; if not then you know where the door is.”
Mary looked at me in silence and went to clear out Cathy’s office, which in reality was little more than a cubicle surrounded by a glass partition.
Cathy arrived an hour later and Mary handed her the box. I saw that she hesitated over whether to hurl some insult at me but thought better of it. Or perhaps she had too much class to make a scene for a nobody like me.
She left with a brief goodbye to Mary; as for me, she didn’t even look my way. I imagined I would miss her. I didn’t have her knowledge or her experience, both qualities that I would need to successfully bluff my way through the offer I had put on Bennet and Hamilton’s table. Why had I fired Cathy? Because I felt the urge to try my luck. I wanted to be the one who, for the first time in my life, took the reins of something, even if it was a doomed project like Green. I wanted to give the orders, to do things or not do things according to my own will, without anyone questioning me. Cathy would only be in my way.
I savored the moment. Mary watched me out of the corner of her eye. By that point she had realized that I was a scorpion who could strike at a moment’s notice. Even if she became the perfect secretary I could still fire her at any time for reasons that she wouldn’t understand and I wouldn’t bother to explain.
I don’t regret what I did, but neither do I recall the incident with satisfaction. I owed Cathy for helping me when I didn’t have the first clue what to do with my life. We could have worked together to pull off that plan to save those two social-climbing construction workers, which is what Hamilton and Bennet really were. I didn’t care about them or Green, so if I’d looked beyond the vanity of being the boss there was no reason I couldn’t have continued working with Cathy.
I’m sure I should have behaved very differently than I did:
When Mary passed me the call from Mr. Hamilton I should have told him that Cathy hadn’t arrived yet, and that as soon as she reached the office we’d come over to see them. Or maybe I could have gone ahead, but insisted that Mary tell Cathy to head immediately to Hamilton and Bennet’s office.
“Mary, try to find Ms. Major and tell her to go straight to the bosses’ office. I’m going now, but she should hurry.”
When I arrived I should have told Mr. Hamilton that Cathy and I would take charge of the matter, that we were capable of moving it forward. I could even have suggested that Cathy’s contacts in the City meant there were doors open to us that would otherwise have been out of our reach.
When Cathy rushed in late to this unexpected meeting, I should have filled her in and allowed her to be the one to take charge of the project.
“Cathy, Mr. Bennet and Mr. Hamilton have accepted our proposal with some modifications. See what you make of it. They suggest we increase the rental prices, but not by too much…”
She would have accepted, of course; it was all the same to her whether we rented the units at five hundred pounds or a thousand. All that mattered to her was keeping her job as long as possible, just like me.
“The increase isn’t important, but under these conditions it’ll be more work for us to rent out the units at Green. We’ll get straight to work and do whatever we can to make it happen. Won’t we, Spencer? Gentlemen, we’ll let you know when there’s news—hopefully good news,” Cathy would have said.
Then we would have left that showy, tacky office and hailed a cab to take us to Green. Maybe later she would even have taken me out for dinner. She was generous. Then I would have worked hard making calls, saving the important ones for her. It would be absolutely clear that she was the one in charge.
—
But none of that happened. Nothing in that scene took place. So I became the boss and the head of a failing project, knowing no one in London, only going by the list drawn up by Cathy Major. Taking advantage of her work. My conscience still didn’t waver. To be honest, it has never wavered.
What I did was get straight to work. I hadn’t a minute to lose. Hamilton was fully capable of carrying out his threats.
“Mary, find the list of potential clients and get me Mr. Bradley.”
“The multiplex guy?”
Two minutes later, Mr. Bradley’s assistant was asking the reason for my call. I explained briefly. The company that owned Green was offering the space required for a multiplex movie theater at a bargain price. The assistant asked how much this supposedly bargain price was. I told him and the line went quiet.
“Okay…This is all very interesting, but shouldn’t you send us some information about what Green actually is? How many shops are open, number of residents in the area, links with other parts of London…? I mean, a brochure, as it’s usually done?”
“Well, you see, the reason I’m calling is because I know Mr. Bradley’s reputation. I’m reaching out personally as a courtesy before our brochure is sent to other businesses in your sector. In any case, you’ll get the brochure in a couple of days. Naturally, I’d like to set up a meeting with Mr. Bradley, unless you tell me he’s not interested, in which case I won’t pursue.”
The assistant didn’t seem to know what to say, and opted to ask for the number where he could reach me.
“We’ll call you as soon as we receive the brochure,” he told me before hanging up.
I had learned my first lesson. No one would see me without a prior calling card, and that card had to be a glossy catalog with photos of Green and information about its business opportunities. Mary and I worked for the rest of the day. As soon as we finished the brochure we’d send it to the printers; then we’d find a courier company to deliver the catalogs to potential clients. I gave the operation four days to be carried out.
Mary knew of no printers capable of producing our catalogs in just a few days, so I turned to the security guard, who apparently knew how to find anything. He gave me the address of a printing business belonging to his brother-in-law’s friend.
“They’re short on work right now. You know how it is: lot of businesses closing,” he explained as he wrote down the address for me.
I was thankful that was the case, because it meant I could put pressure on the printers to work fast. And that’s what I did. Even so, things went slower than expected. To begin with, I had to redo the brochure design four or five times until I found a look that satisfied me. It had to be mod
ern, contain enough information but not so much that it overwhelmed potential clients, and, above all, convey the idea that the offer was irresistible. The problem was that I knew nothing about design. But I did the best I could, and two days later I had created the catalog.
“What do you think?” I asked Mary.
“Fine,” she replied tersely.
“So you don’t like it.”
She smiled and asked if I wanted tea, leaving me in no doubt that she didn’t like it at all. Even so, it was the best I could do and I sent it to the printers.
The catalog didn’t turn out so badly thanks to a couple of suggestions made by the printers.
Mr. Hamilton called to ask me how things were going and I promised that we would have results very soon.
“The banks won’t wait,” he warned me.
While I was waiting for the catalog to reach major potential clients, I spent my time visiting the most solvent-looking businesses in the neighborhood one by one. I convinced three of them to try their luck at Green: a sports store, a Chinese-run store that sold everything, and a bakery. It was a start, though I urgently needed more contracts. I asked the Chinese owners to put me in touch with any of their compatriots who might be interested in setting up shop at Green, but without success. So I had to turn to Mary to dig up information about the kingpins who ran the import businesses from China. If we could rent a couple of units to them, we’d be saved.
Eventually I came across Mr. Li, the owner of several supermarkets in London as well as a couple of cheap toy stores. I convinced him to visit Green and he seemed to like it, because he rented five units from me. I demanded in the contract that the shops be decorated according to Western tastes, with some restraint; no lanterns or any of those decorative elements that would remind people that these were Chinese shops and would put off customers.
In fifteen days I managed to rent out eight units. It wasn’t much, but I considered it an achievement.
Mary had suggested that we put an ad in the Times advertising the units, and especially the prices.
“Good idea, Mary. Then everyone will know that Green exists and that it’s a bargain to open a business here.”
“It’s not actually my idea. Ms. Major told me that this is what she would have done if Mr. Bennet and Mr. Hamilton accepted her plan.”
“Enough about Cathy. The whole cheap-rent idea was actually mine.”
I had been telling the truth, but Mary had looked at me skeptically. She had the lowest of opinions of me. If I was capable of getting rid of Cathy, I must also be capable of stealing Cathy’s ideas.
I sent Mary to place various ads in the Times, the Guardian, the Sunday Times, and the tabloid papers that everyone reads on the way to work.
Two days later Mr. Li surprised me by turning up at my office with a proposal.
“How many units can you rent me?” he asked, with no preamble.
“How many do you need, and for what?”
“I have some friends interested in opening shops.”
“Okay. Are these friends Chinese?”
“Yes, Chinese.”
“What kind of businesses do they want to open?”
“Oh, everything! Restaurants, supermarkets, clothing…All Chinese, only Chinese—a major Chinese shopping center,” replied Mr. Li.
“Right, but that would change the nature of Green. It’d become a big Chinese superstore.”
“Yes, and people all over London will come to buy things at the cheapest prices.”
“But some of the units are already spoken for. We’d have to compensate the people who have already rented them. They’ve made an investment and we can’t just kick them out.”
“Do not worry. You won’t have to compensate them. They will leave—they cannot compete with Chinese businesses.”
“If you want the whole building you’ll have to pay more—not much more but, still, more…You understand that renting unit by unit is different from renting the entire building. And you’d have to take on all the general costs—lighting, security, cleaning, all those things.”
“That is no problem. You tell me the total price for Green and I’ll tell you if I can pay it or not.”
“I’ll have to do the math. Can you come tomorrow? I’ll have your answer then.”
“Ah yes, tomorrow! Think about it, Mr. Spencer. It is a good deal for both of us.”
I told Mary to find Bennet and Hamilton and tell them I needed to see them immediately. They didn’t play hard to get. That same afternoon they received me at their office, where there were no employees other than the sad secretary who also had to open the door.
When I told Bennet and Hamilton what was happening they couldn’t get over their shock.
“But this Mr. Li, is he trustworthy?” asked Hamilton.
“I don’t know. I’ll need reports from the bank and at least a year’s deposit in advance. But renting the entire building means a sizable sum,” I said.
“He’ll have to pay our asking price,” Hamilton cut me off.
“Mr. Li isn’t stupid. The only reason he’s prepared to rent any units at all is because the prices are cheap,” I replied.
“But we’re not going to just give away the shopping center,” interrupted Bennet.
“That’d take the cake, if this Li gets all the benefits from our sacrifices and we don’t even get a pound in rent for Green,” insisted Hamilton.
“Gentlemen, until yesterday you had a mostly empty shopping center and were about to declare bankruptcy. Now you have the chance to make Green profitable and be accountable to the banks. You might not make huge profits, but at least it’ll get you out of this jam, and in time the shopping center will start to make you money. If Li invests in Green and business goes well, they’ll keep renting the units, and might even buy them. I don’t know that, but I do know that if you rent the building to him then you’ll at least have something in hand.”
They hesitated. Greed made them think that I had pushed them to undervalue Green. I have to admit that I was eager for them to agree to do business with Li. It was hard enough for me to have managed to rent out the fifty units so far, and even though I had rid myself of Cathy, these two would soon realize that I was not much better than her.
“What is it you’re proposing, Mr. Spencer?” Mr. Bennet asked me.
“Fix a price for the building and have Mr. Li sign a contract saying he will be responsible for all the expenses of maintaining the shopping center. All expenses means all expenses. In addition, you can profit from the parking. You can rent out the entire center to him apart from the parking garage. Customers going to Green will need somewhere to park. You’ll still manage that. If Li does well with the business you’ll get a slice of it with the parking garage.”
This was something that had occurred to me on the way over and it seemed I’d had the right idea, because a hint of a smile appeared on Mr. Hamilton’s face.
We talked for a while about the price of renting Green and in the end they gave me the authority to negotiate with Li. Taking advantage of the moment, I asked them for a commission from the amount that they were about to get.
“But you’re our employee! None of this commission nonsense. Why should we pay you a penny more?” protested Bennet.
“For the simple reason that you hired me to do publicity. No more than that. My salary doesn’t cover managing the rental or sale of your shopping center. I’m doing a job for which you have to pay me. Fifty thousand pounds in commission is a very low fee.”
“We can negotiate with Li directly,” Hamilton shot back.
“Yes, you could,” I replied defiantly, as if I were keeping something up my sleeve.
“You’re very ambitious, Mr. Spencer,” stated Mr. Bennet.
“You think so? I’d say you’re getting a pretty cheap deal. A couple of weeks ago you were about to be seized by the banks for that debt you’re struggling to pay off. I’m offering you a solution to your problems and that, as you must know, comes at
a price. My price is cheap, considering your serious financial difficulties.”
They looked at each other, a look that was enough to tell me what their decision was.
“All right,” said Hamilton, “but it’ll be forty thousand pounds. Twenty thousand on signing the agreement with Mr. Li and the other twenty within six months, once we know that this Chinese bloke can be trusted.”
“No, Mr. Hamilton. You will pay me the fifty thousand pounds the day after we sign the contract. Then I will stop working for you since my services will no longer be necessary. The three of us will all be satisfied.”
We argued for some time, but I knew that I was going to win this battle.
I thought about not calling Li for a few days, so he wouldn’t think he was our only option, but I decided against it; the sooner I called him the less likely he’d back down.
This time I went to his office, located in a run-down building near the Thames. The building that housed his office also served as his warehouse. I was amazed to see so many Chinese people entering and leaving one building.
Mr. Li’s secretary turned out to be his daughter. I was surprised by her nondescript appearance. Neither attractive nor ugly, short and very thin, with gap teeth and black hair cut in no particular style. She was well dressed in decent clothes, and spoke English with a distinct British accent.
Mr. Li offered me a cup of tea, which I declined, but from his expression I realized that my refusal had been a mistake. He signaled to his daughter and she left the office, only to return immediately with a tea service of English porcelain and several pastries, the kind sold in those enormous boxes at Harrods. Since the Chinese counterfeit everything I wondered whether these pastries were real or had been manufactured in some Chinese village. I corrected my previous mistake by saying that I had a serious sweet tooth, and that I could hardly turn down one of those exquisite Harrods pastries. This seemed to please Mr. Li.
As we had tea he sang the praises of his daughter, Tany. Apparently she was born in England and he had made every effort to ensure that she had received the best education. Tany had a degree in English from Oxford.