A Curve Ball Called Love

Chapter 2

“So, is someone going to tell me why my company is holding meetings without me or am I just supposed to make the assumption that as a majority shareholder, I’m just not as important as I should be?” Douglas asked.

Tiffany looked at her boss. Normally, Virginia Deacon was a woman in an iron armor. Nothing could get to her. Nothing. But on that day, at that moment, Tiffany saw something that she never thought she would see on her boss’ face. She saw her trying to master a brave face just so she could appease Douglas. This was a woman Tiffany had come to look up to and somehow this man-child was making her look bad in front of her colleagues.

Generally, Tiffany wasn’t one to take the wheel unless asked to but it seemed like she had no choice on this one.

“Why don’t you simmer down, sir?” she suddenly said, not caring that he was still talking.

He looked at her and Tiffany could just tell that she’d hit a nerve. It was no mistake. That was exactly what she’d meant to do. After all, it seemed like the only way to deal with the likes of Douglas Ingram. He was an entitled piece of work while she was the polar opposite. The kind of person who knew exactly what hard work meant and what it was all about.

“Just who do you think you are talking to, lady?” Douglas asked angrily.

“First of all, don’t call me lady and secondly, you found us in a closed-door meeting.” She clasped her hands together and leaned forward. “I don’t know about you but the closed door should have been signal enough that you aren’t welcome here.”

“I am the majority shareholder of the company,” Douglas said matter of factly. “That by default makes me the topmost man in this company.”

“Top most man or not, that isn’t the way we run things,” Tiffany said matter of factly.

Douglas was staring daggers at her and the tension in the board room was so loud you could have heard a pin drop. Virginia forced a smile.

“Well, this meeting is adjourned,” she announced before she stood up.

Tiffany was seated as she watched the partners and other company employees making nice with Douglas. She on the other hand didn’t have it in her to even try to cozy up to the new majority shareholder. As far as she could tell, he was a tool and she couldn’t be bothered to even be in the same room as he was. It was annoying that Douglas was officially her new assignment. As if she needed anything to be harder than it already was.

Douglas waited until everyone was gone before he finally closed the door, leaving just the two of them in the room. She looked at him, her hands crossed over chest. Even though she was really annoyed with him, she had to admit that there was something about him. Something about the way he carried himself. He might have been a spoiled rich kid but he had the looks and style to pull it off. And why wouldn’t he? She was sure that he probably had unlimited access to various top notch designers.

“So, I noticed that you’re the only one who bothered to interrupt me and the only one who didn’t bother to say hello as everyone else was doing,” he started and she shrugged.

“Maybe I should have started by introducing myself. I’m Tiffany Meyers,” she said in a soft voice. She was, however, sure that her contempt of him as well as her cynicism were as loud as ever. He nodded.

“Douglas Ingram. Pleasure.”

She forced a smile. “I’m not so sure I can say the same about you.”

“That hurts me, Miss Meyers.”

“Well, generally that’s how I deal with people who choose to treat my work like their play thing. I mean, sure, daddy’s money got you a new expensive toy but this isn’t like the yachts or ATV rides in the desert. This is a company that deals with people. People who have families… families that depend on said people keeping their jobs,” Tiffany explained.

She shrugged. “It’s just sad that I have to explain everything to you, really.”

Douglas looked at her and a smile played on his lips.

“Tiffany Meyers, right? I’m going to love working with you, that much I’m sure of.”

Tiffany took a long, deep breath. She was always excited to get a new subject to work with. She loved the challenge. At first it had been all about survival. After all, she was a woman of color working in a white dominated industry, and if that wasn’t challenge enough, she was in public relations. An office that had her working with the who’s who of society and politics. Given a choice, that was a role that would have been reserved for the men but she’d shown the world, every single doubting Thomas out there, that she could put in the work. It took a long time before she finally began enjoying her work. The Shonda Rhimes special TV show that became every black woman’s favorite show Scandal had also helped Tiffany see her work in a whole new light. She was definitely going to get her Kerry Washington on and give the people the Olivia Pope experience. So far, it was working but again, it hadn’t been easy.

After meeting Douglas, Tiffany had herself questioning every career choice she’d made over the years. As far as she was concerned, she would have probably been better off being a public accountant or something equally boring.

This is going to be terrible, she thought as she and Douglas walked out of the board room.

***

Douglas Ingram was a well-known man but not always for the right reasons. He was the kind of person people liked to hate on because he’d grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth. Born to the Ingram family, the kind of people known to go above and beyond in a bid to making sure that they got everything they wanted. Somehow, the Ingrams were always on the right side of things. Even when the stock market crashed and the real estate market failed for a lot of people, their business only seemed to soar. Even when they fell, which wasn’t very often, they always landed on their feet soon after. It was a pattern the world had grown to appreciate.

However, the world had turned sour for Douglas when his parents passed away when he was in college. It should have been the event that got him down but it turned out to do the opposite. Having grown up in his father’s footsteps Douglas had a business mind. It was however a surprise when the sole heir of the Ingram estate invested his family’s fortune only to grow his family’s portfolio to heights people never thought possible. At first, everyone thought it was just a little rich kid looking for a little fun or maybe trying to prove himself to the Ingram Corporate board. He didn’t even have the board’s support—even after his three-million-dollar investment in a start-up ended up turning into a ten-million-dollar account.

It’s nothing but beginner’s luck, people would say.

After that, he spent almost a hundred million buying run-down buildings and turning them into hotels and luxury condos. Suddenly, a building that was worth a million dollars when he bought it was worth at least fifteen million, and to think he’d acquired eleven buildings in what people would have once called ‘a bad part of town’. Somehow, he’d turned it into an affluent neighborhood that everyone wanted to be in. Buying buildings and turning them around became a hobby and soon he was doing it more and more. There were Ingram Incorporated buildings in Miami, New York, Chicago and Florida. By the time he was graduating college, he was officially living that Tony Stark lifestyle. He had money to burn and he was still making a lot of it. Once he had his fingers in Silicon Valley and the American real estate market, Douglas got into the entertainment business and that was when he got an even more terrible reputation than he already had.

He had a number of gentleman clubs and that didn’t really seem to do much for his status. It only made things worse despite the fact that he’d acquired a number of high end hotels and resorts to offset the bad press. However, it seemed like the more he tried, the more he failed in polishing his image. His acquisition of Entity wasn’t only his saving grace but also his opportunity to get back into a proper nine to five. He’d known about Entity for a long, long time. He actually had an active subscription.