Love In The Wild West

“I understand,” said Kurt, his tone changing immediately to seem a lot more recalcitrant. “I am not saying that I am unwilling to follow through on any agreements that we make. I am just saying that the agreement that we made is not one that I thought was legally binding. I thought that it was simply a handshake agreement, and so it slipped my mind. I will be sure to tell you if I plan on making any large scale purchases for the hotel.”

“You will not tell me,” said Donovan. “You will discuss these purchases with me, in detail.”

“Alright,” said Kurt with a sigh. “I will discuss each and every one of these purchases with you before I make them. Alright?”

“Yes,” said Donovan. “Now, I wanted to talk to you in detail about these horse riding lessons that you are conducting.”

“What about them?” asked Kurt.

“I do not think that they are a very good idea,” said Donovan. “I feel like they are going to make this place seem like a more… specialized holiday destination instead of the all purpose five star facility that we are trying to make it.”

“I understand your concern,” said Kurt, “but quite frankly your vision of turning this place into a more generic sort of location is not in line with my vision for this place. I want to make this place something that I can be proud of, something that can connect me with my roots and help me to provide an experience that cannot be found anywhere else. I want this place to attract people based on the fact that it has something that no other place can give them, it has the ability to provide an experience that is unmatched and thus unparalleled.”

“That is all very good,” said Donovan, “but we have been in this business a lot longer than you have, Kurt. We know a thing or two about how the mind of the public works, and the way the public consciousness works is that it moves towards those things that conform to a very broad market. If you want to earn a lot of money, you need to provide a hotel experience that caters to every customer out there. If you start offering riding lessons, people are going to assume that this is some kind of specialist hotel where only horse riders can come, and that will result in us losing money in the long run. Unless you want this hotel to go out of business, I suggest you do as you are told and cancel these ridiculous horse riding lessons.”

Kurt opened his mouth as if to say something and then closed it back up again. He looked as if he really wanted to say something to this man, but at the same time he looked as if he did not know where to start. Lila was familiar with this feeling. She felt it every single day when she worked at the bank. She felt it in every eye that stared at her with disapproval for pretty much no reason, she felt it whenever she was told that she was incompetent at her job by someone that was simply unaware of whatever it was that they wanted. She felt it every time she got her paycheck and marveled at how little she was paid, and how grateful she was that she was being paid this much at least.

“Cowboys are no more,” said Donovan, as he moved to the door to exit the room. “I suggest you stop living in this fantasy world of yours and start living in the real world. You are a grown up now, and you need to start acting like one. I know that you have been spoiled all your life, but if you do not listen to us we are going to have to go somewhere our values will be taken care of. We are done providing for you and giving you chances. This is your last chance. If you do not acquiesce, we are out. All of us.”

Kurt was completely silent, his hand on his hips, as Donovan placed his hand on the knob of the door.

In that moment, all of the rage that Lila had been feeling towards her employer, the bank, spilled out. She could not take it anymore. She could not take these men in their fancy suits coming in and claiming that they knew everything there was to know, when in fact they knew very little indeed, far less than they thought they knew.

As she listened to Donovan talk down to Kurt, a man that was ten times the businessman Donovan would ever be, she felt the rage build up inside of her until there was nothing else left for her to feel, and in that moment she said all of the things that she truly wanted to say.

“No,” said Lila.

Donovan turned and raised his eyebrow, saying, “Excuse me?”

“I do not think that you understand what this situation is,” said Lila. “You see, Kurt is not the one that is being done a favor here. You are the one that is being done a favor. You are, what? Fifty years old? Well past your prime. And what have you done in your career? If you had any significant enterprises that you actively involved in you wouldn’t be here right now trying to take control of something that Kurt built from the ground up. You see, Kurt is something that you will never be able to understand. He is a visionary. He is the type of person that will bring a company up and turn it into something incredible. This is something that you would never be able to understand, no matter how much you try. And he is doing you a huge favor by allowing you to invest in his business, because trust me when I say that people would line up to invest with this man.”

Donovan turned to look at Lila. He had a little smirk on his face. Kurt was still turned away. “You are very amusing, you know that?” said Donovan. “What are you, Kurt’s new squeeze? You think that because he has thrown a little money your way you matter in the long run? You are just another girl for him, he is going to be done with you before you know it and then you will be in the right place for people like you. You think you have any idea about business? You think you understand the way things work around here? You have no idea, you are just a pathetic little city girl who thinks that she can come in here and rule over us. Kurt needs us. If he wants to continue his businesses, he is going to have to do what we say.”