The Game (7 page)

She quietly entered the office and printed off what she needed to.  Their room was starting to fill with the casualties of the previous night, which apparently had been awesome.  A part of her felt that she should have gone.  The words of her ex-boyfriend still hung over her at times, particularly when she
made the sensible choice.

When she had answered the most pressing emails, it was time for her to go.  She stood up and placed the documents she needed into a folder.  She walked out as inconspicuously as she could, but she could feel
Damon’s eyes on her as she walked through the room. 

Damon
swore under his breath as Jane left the office to go off to negotiate with the bank.  He knew full well that there were other efforts back home, but if Carmichael’s deal was more attractive, he would be roped into taking on Clarion as a partner.  While it wouldn’t be the end of the world, he hated being railroaded into it.

He hadn’t intended to have a little chat with her this morning, the opportunity just presented itself, but he was glad that they weren’t pussyfooting around her true purpose.  He was also glad that she was ho
nest, he respected that.  Others may have chosen to lie at that moment, but she hadn’t. He would use her honesty to his advantage, perhaps that way he could use her as a channel to influence Carmichael as much as the other way around.

She was a bit timid
, although he wasn’t sure that timidity described entirely the right characteristic.  She certainly didn’t seek his attention like many others would; in fact, he suspected that she might actually be avoiding him.  She wasn’t going to work well as a channel if she avoided him like the plague.

She might be honest, but she wasn’t volunteering information
either, he had to ask her.  Which meant that he had to know the signs that there was something he needed to ask.  He suspected that if he knew her well, he would be able to read her quite easily.  He would bet his right arm that she wouldn’t make the most accomplished poker player, her emotions showed on her face too clearly.

This would prove
a little bit of a challenge.  The women he normally dealt with were experts at hiding their real feelings or portraying ones they didn’t have.  They tried their absolute best to manipulate him and their efforts belied their true intent without fail.  He didn’t succumb to their attempts, but he didn’t strictly mind them trying either.  That way he knew exactly what they wanted, and he knew what to expect.  He also got the choice of deciding how much he put into the relationship, which typically was very little.

No, waiting around for Jane
Burrows to try to use him to her ends would not work.  The problem was that he didn’t entirely understand what her ends were.   He didn’t know what it was she was hungry for, but he would find out. 

In the meantime, he had much to do.  It was crunch time for getting the design together, and the proposal document in shape.  He would have to worry about
Burrows and Carmichael later.

Jane returned to the hotel close to five o’clock.  The bank had taken longer than anticipated, so she didn’t end up eating lunch at all.  She was really hungry and found a small food court hidden away in a shopping centre nearby.  The food was lovely, although she was so hungry, sawdust would probably have been appetizing. 

She’d arrived late to the meeting with Clarion
, but they had been gracious about it.  Luckily they understood that financial negotiations were sometimes hard to predict. 

Clarion wanted confirmation that
Damon D’Arth was on board with the proposal, which just added another layer of stress to a situation that felt unmanageable.  She could not blow this deal by indicating that there was discord within their team.  That would be unforgiveable.  She managed to impart some sentiment that there was natural conservatism due to the certainty of financial structure.  She wasn’t entirely sure she pulled it off, but technically it was true and it would be understandable and defensible.

She left the meeting
with a good understanding of the terms that Clarion wanted.  They had also settled on the terms that were negotiable and the ones that weren’t.  She would now have to go back to do the negotiation with her own team, with Edmund.  Although she wasn’t sure what she should do about Damon.  These were conversations he should be a part of; maybe there could be some way to get Edmund and Damon on the same page.

It was too late to discuss it with Edmund when she got back to the hotel, the time difference would make it too late in the evening.  She would have to get up early to
call him.

She had just taken her heels off
and stretched her aching feet when her phone rang.  She picked it up and saw that it was Damon.  She wondered if she could ignore it, but decided it would be cowardly.  She just needed to harden up.

“There is a restaurant up in one of the high
rises; it has views covering the whole island.  We are going tonight.  Be downstairs at seven,” he said when she answered the phone.  It annoyed her that he just ordered her around, she might have had plans.  Not that she did.

“Fine,” she said.

“Have you spoken to Carmichael?”

“Not since this morning,” she said.  Why did she feel like she was walking
into a trap with that statement?

“I’ll see you at seven,” he said and hung up.  She lay down on the bed and relaxed for a bit, she would take a few minutes before she sorted through her emails.  It was a bit strange that he sorted the dinner
plans; normally it was the others as Damon was too busy wining and dining the clients.  Maybe he had the night off.   She wondered if he normally sorted out dinner arrangements so bluntly.  She could well imagine that he did, or maybe he even had Sarah do it for him.  It must be disconcerting to get asked out to dinner by someone’s PA.

There was nothing urgent amongst her email, so she
went for another ice-cream before dressing for dinner.  A restaurant high in a sky scraper with fantastic views was probably going to have a more formal dress standard.  She didn’t have anything suitable, but she had a gray dress she normally wore under a jacket.  It would have to do.

She was a bit early when she reached the lobby so she waited outside where it was nice and warm.  She could also see into the lobby when the others started to gather.  It was just nice to
soak up the heat after a long day in air conditioned spaces.  It was nice to hear birds chirping rather than the constant drone of air handling units.

“Let’s go,” she heard behind her.  It was the deep smooth tones of
Damon’s voice.

“Where are the others?” she asked.

“They’re not coming,” he said and hailed a taxi over to them.  He opened the door for her to get in and followed after she’d slid along the seat.

She hadn’t
realized that they would be dining alone.  Her suspicion rose immediately.  Why were they dining alone?  Was she in for a bloodbath he didn’t want anyone else to see?   Although she should be grateful that he had the courtesy to do it in private, she guessed.  She thought of a way to get out of it, but the taxi was speeding along to their destination.  She just had to resign herself to whatever was to come.

“It’s a clear night, the view should be good,” he said.  “On a clear night you can even see Indonesia and Malaysia.”

“It must be pretty high,” she said.

“
Are you afraid of heights?”

“No, not
that I’ve noticed,” she said.  Luckily there wasn’t that level of terror added to make this evening even more uncomfortable.

They arrived at the lobby of another hotel.  He knew exactly where he was going and he gently urged her along to a set of elevators
.  After he announced them to a woman checking reservations at a podium, they were let through to elevators which sped them up high fast enough that she had to balance her ears.

Jane felt her nerves almost overwhelm her as they were confined in the small elevator.  She was just going to
dinner; she didn’t need to feel like she was going in for slaughter.  She looked over at the man standing next to her, he looked completely calm.  He looked over at her as the elevator started to slow down.

“It
’s quite high, isn’t it?” she said.  She knew it would be, he’d already said so, but she just felt like she needed to say something.

She stepped out into an amazing space, the type of space she only really saw in magazines.  The floor to ceiling windows went over two stories and the views were spectacular.

“How far up are we?” she asked.

“
Over seventy floors,” he said and followed a maître’d led them to their table.  Jane almost bumped into a wall as she was preoccupied looking out the view over the harbor.  There were at least a hundred ships out there heading into port.

The table was beautiful with a stiff white table cloth.  It was right next to the window and if she put her face close to the glass she could see all the way down to the street where the cars looked like toys.

“This is a beautiful restaurant,” she said.

“It is spectacular,” he said and picked up the menu that was placed on the table.
  “It’s not the most basic restaurant in town, but it’s worth it.”

Jane couldn’t take her gaze away from the
view; there was so much to take in.

“How did it go today?” he said finally and it jarred her attention back to her company.

“It went well,” she said.  “There are terms that need to be hammered out, but in general they seemed willing to provide finance for us.”

“And what about Clarion?”

“Same thing,” she said.

“And how does Carmichael intend
to present this?”

“I don’t know,” she said honestly.  Edmund didn’t always share such things with her. 

Damon seemed to be considering her for a while and Jane didn’t exactly know where to put her hands. 

“What do you drink?” he asked.

“Uh, maybe a gin and tonic.”

He ordered drinks for both of them when the drinks waiter came.  The drinks came quickly and hers was served in a heavy crystal tumbler.

“When are you seeing them again?”

“I’m not sure.
I guess it depends on what the Board decides,” she said.  “What is your issue with Clarion?”

“I have some concerns.  Mostly I don’t like being dictated to.”

“Mr. Carmichael seems to think they make a good partner,” she said.

“I know he does,”
Damon said and played with the silver knife on the table.  “Doesn’t make it true.”

“And what makes it false?”
she challenged.  He didn’t answer, but instead pinned her with a gaze that both challenged and unnerved her.  Like having tea with a tiger, she thought to herself.  His eyes had the intensity of a predator even though his body language was relaxed as it had been before.  The setting sun cast golden light into the restaurant and it seemed to pick up the gold in his hair and maybe even eyes.  She couldn’t quite figure out what color his eyes were, whether they were gray or blue, maybe even green. 

“Where do you see your future, Jane?” he asked.  She hadn’t anticipated the question and had a feeling that her answer counted for more than just small talk.  This was not really a conversation she wanted to have because she didn’t quite have a clear answer, and she certainly didn’t want to own up to the
uncertainties she’d entertained in her head about her current work.

“I enjoy the performance evaluation work. 
It’s fascinating.  I don’t have any immediate plans on moving on.”  It was a sufficiently vague answer that also conveyed that she was dedicated to her current job.  She quietly congratulated herself.

“So not planning to go back to more sedate work at the council?” he asked.  She was actually
surprised that he remembered that she’d mentioned that the other night.

“No, not for me,” she said decisively.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”  It was a really personal question and she flushed a little bit.

“Not at the moment,” she said quietly. 
She absolutely didn’t want to discuss her disastrous love life, or how she’d been dumped for being too boring.  Although she kind of wished she could take a photo right now and send it to her ex to say, look what I traded you up for.  It was a completely petty thought and it made her smile.  Not that she ever would, knowing her luck it would get out that she was claiming that Damon D’Arth was her boyfriend, which would be mortifyingly embarrassing

“Something funny?”

“No, nothing,” she said.  “Do you?”

“Do I what?”

“Have a girlfriend?”

“I really don’t prescribe to definitions.”

“There’s a no if I ever heard one,” she said with a snort.  That made him raise his eyebrows.

“What exactly is it that you doubt about me?” he said with curiosity and a bit of disbelief.