So, with my last story, I riled up the LW crowd and had a good laugh. Now, I'm going to get back to what I like best: Telling a good sexy love story. I hope you enjoy and, as always, please feel free to leave constructive criticism.
*
"Pardon me?" the young man in the brown blazer and ripped blue jeans asked the trio of suited men across the glass-top and chrome table then asked for clarification. "Could you repeat that? How much was that offer?"
"One hundred twenty-five million dollars, Mr. Edwards," the man on the right end of the trio said. Damian was sure all three men had told him their names, but the sheer enormity of the situation had given him a quick and total case of amnesia. Mr. Right-Side, a man of about sixty with thinning grey hair and a dour expression permanently planted on his face spoke again. "$125 million for signing this contract, thereby selling your company and its holdings, patents, and inventions to our clients. And don't forget about the stock options you'll receive once the company goes public. With the package we've offered you, you will most certainly be a billionaire before your 35
th
birthday."
"But," Damian countered, "the people that work for me? They're assured of keeping their jobs, right? Because I won't sell the company unless I get that guarantee." Damian's company, AeroSonik, employed about 150 men and women in the Gravel City area and he desperately wanted to keep from having that many people out of work because of him just before the holidays.
"Of course, Mr. Edwards," Right-Side said, his face never changing expression.
The man could be suffering a heart attack and no one would know,
Damian thought. "We wish to keep all our employees happy. Your people have worked admirably to design and build parts for our benefactor and we don't want to disrupt the flow." He then produced a silver metal pen from the inside breast pocket of his suit jacket and spoke to Damian again. "As a matter of fact," Right-Side said as he handed the pen to Damian, "we plan to give every AeroSonik employee a raise and an extra week of vacation, as well as stock options and retention of their previous benefits. They, and you, have nothing to worry about, Mr. Edwards."
"Sounds like a win-win for everyone," Damian said as he reached for Right-Side's pen and pretended to look over the contract. He already knew that the purchasing company was going to keep his employees on and happy. His lawyers had already gone over the purchase agreement with a fine-toothed comb and had set Damian's mind at ease. Everything was above board, and, with a flick of the silver pen, Damian Edwards would become a very rich man. Damian signed and initialed where he needed to, then handed the contract back to Right-Side. He slipped the pen into his shirt's breast pocket and smiled. "I'll keep this, if you can spare it," Damian said to his counterparts across the table, sizing them up.
"Please do, Mr. Edwards. With our compliments!" Right-Side said, the first hint of a grin creeping across his age-weathered face. Damian stood as the triumvirate across from him did and proceeded to shake hands at the conclusion of their agreement. Damian thought the three would have given him the shirts off their back and the pants to go with it for the chance to purchase his company. AeroSonik was the only company in America that produced a certain part for the next generation of rocket engines.
Damian, a gifted engineer, had come up with the design while still in high school and worked to develop and invent the part as he attended MIT. After perfecting the design, he proposed it to the government and they awarded him with a contract to begin manufacturing it, giving him enough money to build his factory and employ 150 workers that desperately needed jobs in the economic downturn. When the government contract expired, Damian's thoughts turned to keeping the business afloat and productive but was blindsided by the offer from the conglomerate that the three men shaking his hand represented. The sale of the company would mean he wouldn't have to work again but would also take care of the most important person in his young life.
++++++++++
The pink vase sailed through the air and barely missed hitting Damian in the forehead. He ducked just in time as the older woman screamed at him.
"Get out of here!" the white-haired woman hollered as she looked for something else to throw at the man standing in her kitchen. "Get out right now or I'll call the police!"
Damian knew better than to try to reason with her. He slowly backed out of the kitchen, watching for more flying objects, and let himself out the front door. Damian stood on the porch and counted to ten. He had been through this scenario more times than he cared to recall. After he finished counting, Damian rang the doorbell and waited nervously. When the door opened, the older woman that had thrown the vase that whizzed past his head looked at Damian and smiled.
"Hi, Damie!" the woman said and took the young man in a loving embrace. A tear slipped from Damian's eye as his mother hugged him. The doctor had told him that it wouldn't be long before her episodes would worsen, but it had been quicker than he thought. In the past two months, his mother's Alzheimer's had progressed to the point that she would soon need hourly attention and Damian would have to make some hard choices. But for now, mother and son walked hand-in-hand toward the kitchen where Damian's head had nearly been dented just a few moments before.
"What's new, Mr. Magoo?" Damian's mother asked, using the line she had used all through his childhood. Damian felt the tears well up again but fought his emotions back and put on a brave face for his ailing mother.
"Well, I sold the company today, Mom," he answered, not sure if she would remember he wasn't in school anymore. "Do you remember the company I own?"
"Of course, I do, Damie," his mother replied as she turned away from him. Damian was quite sure that if he were able to look in to his mother's eyes then he could tell she was lying to make herself seem better than her condition really was.
"Good," Damian said as he came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Then you remember what we talked about. About you going into assisted living if I made this deal?"
"I couldn't leave here," she responded. "What would your father do without me?"
Her question made Damian wince visibly. "Mom, Dad's been gone for six years now... Mom, I think it would be best if we... If you went somewhere that would help you cope with your... condition..."
"Oh, nonsense!" his mother retorted. "Where would you go if I wasn't here. If we gave up the house?"
"Mom, I don't live here. Haven't for twelve years now. I have my own house, remember? With the big tree out back that you always say looks like elves should live in it?"