Chapter Twenty-Five - High Five!
His agent wiped his forehead with a pristine white handkerchief and, with studied gestures, folded it and put it back into his pocket as if he was trying to buy more time. Heathcliff tapped the desk with his fingers, knowing well that the small rhythmic sound was getting on Harry's nerves.
"Why now, Heathcliff?" Harry asked him in a sugary voice like he felt the need to appease his client.
Heathcliff shrugged. "I believe I proved myself and my influence well enough. It's time for me to receive some praises for all my hard work directly, and for them to offer the said praises on a silver platter, accompanied, preferably, by some Evian served in crystal flutes. You know I don't often indulge in alcoholic beverages, except when I'm enjoying the company. In this case, I know I won't."
"But the contract is so -"
"Harry," Heathcliff put one hand up, "let me ask you directly. Is the head honcho at The Healthy Shakers secretly a homophobe?"
Harry stood there, his jaw slack, for a while, and then pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket again. "No! I mean, not that I know of."
Heathcliff sighed. "Then does he have something against me, in particular? Why doesn't he want to meet me?"
"Maybe he is just busy," Harry offered half-heartedly.
"Nobody is that busy."
Harry shifted from one foot to another. It appeared that he could not stay still, no matter how much Heathcliff had insisted. It felt like Harry was paying a visit to Heathcliff's office and not the other way around.
"I asked Aidan to tell him directly. He returned empty-handed. What am I supposed to make of that?" Heathcliff insisted.
He had hated to see Aidan so dejected over not being able to secure a meeting with his boss. It wasn't Aidan's fault. That had been just another thing that proved to him who he was dealing with. The boss at The Healthy Shakers would get a bit of shaking if he still wanted Heathcliff's collaboration. Of course, he needed to do that and suggest the blackmail in the subtlest way possible, to avoid hurting Aidan in the process.
The young man had stubbornly refused his offer to help him find employment somewhere else, so that was one fragile egg Heathcliff needed to juggle while putting some assholes in their rightful place.
"That, um ... Heathcliff, look," Harry begged both with his eyes and his voice, "you know how they insisted on a family-friendly image and all that -"
"Which I promptly delivered," Heathcliff interrupted his agent. "Or do they need to see me doing the horizontal cha-cha with the one I choose to spend my free time with, just to be convinced?"
Harry shot him another nervous look. "I thought it was a sham."
Heathcliff had entrusted Harry with half the truth, as his agent was practically like a lawyer and confidante to him.
He hurried to appease Harry's suspicions. There was no point in leading the man toward the real matter that he needed to keep hidden. "Of course. But they don't know that, and I trust you not the let them know the truth."
The fact that Aidan had talked about the so-called sham with his boss was not a piece of information Harry needed to know. Appearances were paramount for his scheme to work.
"You can count on me, Heathcliff," Harry said. "I just think that we should treat them a bit with velvet gloves. They may not be the most accommodating business partners, but they are good clients for our current situation."
"Harry," Heathcliff stood up and placed one hand on his agent's shoulder, "you're a good man, but you tend to worry too much. I won't allow them to walk all over me just because I'm happy and gay, and they're sour and miserable. Fix up a meeting. I know you can, or I would not have depended on you for so long."
Harry nodded, and his face lit up. "I will arrange it. Do you know what are we going to talk about? If you need my help -"
"Trust me. I have everything figured out. You just need to be there as moral support. And stop worrying so much. At the end of that meeting, you'll be proud of me."
"I'm proud of you anyway," Harry said. "You're one of my very few clients who actually offer a return on investment."
"This new economic landscape has its ups and downs," Heathcliff admitted. "Just make things happen, and I will be forever grateful. I'll send you a few details over e-mail."
Heathcliff bid his goodbyes to Harry and went out the door. He needed very little to be convincing during the meeting that his agent would hopefully obtain.
***
"I am glad to finally meet you," Heathcliff said affably, although he didn't allow the plastic smile plastered all over his face to reach his eyes.
"As I am," Aidan's boss offered him a strong hand and shook his more than it was necessary.
The head honcho at The Healthy Shakers behaved like he needed to prove something. For a second, Heathcliff squeezed the man's hand hard, enjoying seeing him wince a little.
Along with the boss, two other characters were present, but Heathcliff paid them no mind. It wasn't like him to behave like that toward strangers, but these were no ordinary people. They were there to support their boss, and they were eyeing Heathcliff with unease as if he wanted to stab their unescapable leader under their very eyes. Or, who knows, do something else that wasn't comme il faut.
Harry was sitting behind him, pretending to be busy with his laptop, and he wasn't part of the conversation, either.
Heathcliff pulled the folder he had brought along and opened it in front of the other. The man looked at him through his thick-rimmed glasses as if he wanted to understand, without words, what was going on. Heathcliff had no intention to help him out.
Eventually, after a short staring contest, the man decided to look at the folder.
"What am I looking at, Mr. Stone?"
"Numbers," Heathcliff said laconically. "Please, look closer."
He placed his hands flat on the lacquered table. They were doing this on neutral ground, so the place of their meeting was rented by the hour. Sort of like for a sleazy affair, but he could not care less about how the others in the room felt. Some things needed to be set right.
"Social media numbers," Aidan's boss said slowly as if he could not comprehend why Heathcliff showed him that.
"Yes," Heathcliff said smoothly. "Now, please tell me, who has the biggest follower base?"
The two sycophants leaned toward their boss, crowding his space, to stare at the papers.
"There is no need for a demonstration," Aidan's boss waved. "We know very well where you stand, Mr. Stone."
"Do you?" Heathcliff asked directly.
"We wouldn't have worked with you otherwise. You were our first and only choice."
"Funny. That's not what I heard," Heathcliff said in an icy tone.
"People love to gossip. I assure you that what I say it's true."
"I have no reason to distrust you. Still, how come we've never met?" Heathcliff asked casually and leaned back into his chair.
"I believe our representative -"
"A low entry employee," Heathcliff interrupted the other right away.
"Has our employee inconvenienced you in any way?"
Heathcliff smiled, showing a bit of teeth. "Not at all. Quite the contrary. But his exemplary behavior had me thinking. If that's how smart and prepared such an employee is, how the rest of The Healthy Shakers truly is? Especially the boss."
The man across the table stared at him and remained silent. Most probably, he was wondering what this was all about.
"You see, Aidan tells me that the numbers are looking up for the company. I do bring in significant sales."
"That is correct," the other admitted.
"So why won't you accept to meet me and present me with well-deserved thanks for all my hard work?"
By how the two acolytes on the other side of the table were busy picking up their jaws off the floor, Heathcliff knew he had just struck a nerve.
"I thought Spark had offered plenty of thanks on behalf of our company."
Hmm, Heathcliff pondered. The big kahuna at The Healthy Shakers believed himself smart, and also lucky enough to get away with that. He was wrong on both accounts. Heathcliff had been true to Harry in one respect. He would not allow anyone to walk all over him.
"Are you trying to say that he became my lover for the sake of his employer?"
Now a collective gasp was the answer. How much the others knew about the so-called arrangement, Heathcliff didn't know, but one thing was sure - no one wanted to hear about that.
"By no means," the other dodged a direct answer. "That was completely his choice."
"I see. By your attitude toward me, I would have thought that had been arranged by your marketing department, too."
"What is it that you want, Mr. Stone?"
Aidan's boss was irritated, and irritation was a good thing.
"Nothing else but proper respect," he answered right away.
"How are we supposed to give you that? We might have different views on what respect means."
"Of course. I would not dream of avoiding to put all my cards on the table. I believe a small adjustment to the contract should be in order. Harry," Heathcliff called for his agent to spring into action.
He allowed Harry to explain the others what the new contract would entail. Heathcliff could tell Aidan's boss was far from being pleased, but he wasn't asking for too much. They might have thought him some brain dead celebrity, but he always did his homework, and he knew what he was worth, given the sales coming in, thanks to his endorsement.
