Chapter Four
1581 Words
Riley's POV
Exactly one week after my meeting with my with all my employees, the interns Andy Potter and Matt submitted his research on the Ad company he talked about.
“Nice work guys, I'm really impressed” I said commending their work work.
“Thank you very much sir”
“You don't have to thank me, I should be thanking you guys for this amazing work, the research is so detailed, believe me when I saw that some of the staff that has being working here for decades cannot make a proper research report without it being corrected over a hundred time, I'm really impressed with this.”
“Thank you sir”
“Will you guys be too busy to go with me to go see check out the Ad company”
“To London?” Matt asked sounding so excited.
“Yes, as far as you are not busy and you have a valid international passport”
“I don't think I have any appointment that can't be canceled” Andy said.
“What about you?” I turned to Matt and asked.
“I'm not busy sir”
“That's great”
“How long will we staying there?”
“Probably a week or there about.”
“Okay sir, I think we should email the current owner of the company and inform him that we are coming over”
“I'll definitely do that, I hope his email address is here?”
“Yes sir, It is in the first page”
“Okay, I think that's all for now, I'll ask my secretary to get in touch with you guys on how we are leaving”
“Okay sir”
“You can get back to work now”
“Okay sir.”
Monday morning, I, Andy, Matt and a few others walked into this huge company, seeing how nice and big the company looked made me wonder what the owner could have done wrong that resulted to almost crashing this big establishment.
“Good morning gentlemen” A guy who looked like he was in his mid twenties greeted.
“Good morning” We greeted.
“You must be Riley Ford”
“Yes and you are?”
“I'm Ricardo Simmons, the current owner of the company”
“Now I see why this company is at the verge of crashing” I heard one of my employees say. I turned to see if I would know the person that said that but it wasn't possible.
“I'm really sorry about that” I apologized to the young man.
“It's alright, I hear that a lot so I'm kind of used to hearing it”
“I'm sorry”
“You don't have to be, this way please” He said leading us into their large conference hall.
“This is nice” I said as we got inside.
I noticed something strange, the lady that walked out immediately we entered looked so much like my late fiancee. The resemblance was so uncanny, like how can someone look so much like a dead person. “I'm probably seeing things” I said to myself trying to convince myself that the person I just saw is not Beverly Newman.
“Sir Is everything alright?” Matt asked.
“Yes, do I not look okay?”
“You do sir, it's just that I think I heard you talk to yourself”
“No, I wasn't talking to myself”
“Okay sir, I guess it was my head, I'm sorry sir"
“It's alright.”
A staff here was giving us this very long and boring presentation, I looked around, everyone already looked tired, some were already nodding their head in sleep.
“If the company is that great, why then are you selling it?” I asked obviously throwing them off balance. I got no reply for the question. “And if you couldn't save the company when it was yours, how then do you intend to save it when it's no longer yours?”
“Well, let's just say that I didn't really value what I had and I wasn't really in charge”
“Who was in charge?”
“I had someone doing the job of the CEO when everything started falling apart”
“And you didn't notice that things were no longer moving well?”
“I did but I thought it was on of those times when business have problems but they eventually get back on their feet.”
“So for you to be selling your company, it means that you have given up on it or you don't think that it will ever get back on its feet?”
“If I had given up on the company, I wouldn't be trying to sell it off”
“Yes you would, if you haven't given up on it, what you should be doing is trying to save your company, employ a top business guru to try save your company”
“I did, but no one wants to work with us”
“Hmm, so I'm your last chance of becoming a millionaire again?”
“It's not about the money”
“What then is it about?”
“We have close to five hundred people working for us here and eighty percent of them are bread winners of their home, so all am doing I'm doing for them, instead of just allowing the company go down the drain, I believe that if I sell the company that at least some of the workers if not all get to keep their job.”
“This is all I've been wanting to hear. But you do know that if I'm to buy this company that you won't continue working here?”
“I thought you would actually let me retain my position.”
“Even I let you work here, you would be a regular staff and not the Managing director”
“I was actually hoping that you’d let me keep managing the company”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you”
“It’s alright, I totally understand”
“If you don’t mind we’d like a little tour round the building”
“Sure, that won’t be a problem”
“Okay, thanks”
We follow him round the building and got to his office and couldn’t help but notice that the same lady I saw before the meeting started was seated a desk close to his office but I couldn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure of the lady’s identity.
“I think we’ve seen enough for today”
“Okay, hope you like what you saw?”
“Yes, I’m quite impressed”
“That’s good to hear. Can I speak with you privately?” He company owner asked.
“Yes” I replied “You guys can go without me, we are done for the day” I said to my employees dismissing them.
After they left I follow Ricardo into his, I still couldn’t stop staring the Beverly’s look alike,
“Don’t bother she’s married with kids.” Ricardo said
“Huh?”
“I see the way you’ve been staring at her”
“Oh, that, I’m only looking at her because she looks so much like my late fiancée”
“Really?”
“Yeah. What’s her name?”
“Tracey Brown, she’s been working here for close to seven years If not more”
“Oh, my late fiancée died Five years ago and her name was Beverly Newman not Tracey Brown”
“Oh, sorry about that”
“It’s cool. So what did you want to speak to me about?”
“Mr Riley, when I saw you walk into this building I immediately made up my mind that you’re the perfect person to hand over this company to, I’ve made my research and seen that you are capable of bringing back this company to life. On that note I want to ask you for two things”
“What could they be?”
“Can you not lay off my employees”
“Why would I do that? They are literally of no use to me. They couldn’t even help the company in this kind of situation, what could they possibly do for me?”
“These people are the best employees any business owner could possibly have. They tried their best to stop this from happening. But I let all their effort go in vain. I was terrible CEO that only wants money and does not care what comes after. It took me loosing this company to realize how stupid and childish I’ve been”
“I’ll think about that. So what’s the second favor?”
“Can you Not change the name of the company?”
“I’m sorry but I can’t promise you that”
“Why?”
“It’s my company so I don’t see why it should be in someone else’s name”
“This is a family business, the least you can do for me is keep the original name.”
“I’ll put that into consideration”
“Okay, thank you very much for sharing a few minutes of your time with me.”
“That’s not a problem. I look forward to hearing from you, I said and left the building.”
- Writer
