Page 6 of Crossing Lines

At Quincy’s comment, Nina glances at me, something like surprise flickering across her face. Eventually the conversation moves on to Elodie’s party, but Nina doesn’t join in. Instead, she’s still looking at me.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing.”

“Keep looking at me like that and people might start to think you like me.”

She rolls her eyes. “That’ll be the day.”

Yeah, it would be. A day I crave yet dread in equal measure.

“Wait, let me get this right,” I ask Will, CEO of Stonehaven Bank, the next day. “You’re pulling out as our main sponsor?”

We have many sponsors as an NFL team, but they’re our main one. And now they are pulling out? That’s unacceptable. The team, the athletes, and the fans are relying on this money. I have general stadium upgrades that need to happen before the new season starts in almost six months, and I want to implement an app that allows fans to have their food and drink orders delivered to their seat. If Stonehaven leaves, I won’t have the money to fund either.

Will nods in response to my question but doesn’t elaborate.

“Why?” I ask.

Will straightens his thick red tie and clears his throat. “The innovation you’re doing with your team is commendable, but it doesn’t fit our brand. Wethink it’s best if we take a step to the side and not renew our contract.”

“So, Stonehaven wants to keep an old-fashioned image?” I ask, my voice laced with surprise. I’m not buying his lame excuse for a single minute, especially when he can’t even look me in the eye while he talks. There’s something more going on here, but I don’t have a clue what it is. We just won the Super Bowl—why would our main sponsor drop out now?

Will shrugs as if that’s answer enough. He’s blaming the “innovation” I’m doing, but it’s not that innovative to use virtual and augmented reality to help the players train and heal from injuries. It’s also not innovative to use chips in the shoulder pads of the players to evaluate their performance during training and on game days. But apparently, we’re one of the only teams using the technology available to do such things. Andapparently, that’s too much of a step for Stonehaven to handle.

“I see,” I say, focusing outside and on the sun sinking below the skyscrapers of Skyrise City, all so different from my home in Istanbul. “Is there anything I can do to change your mind?”

“No, our decision is final.”

He could be trying to negotiate, using this hard stance to get a better deal, but my gut says he decided this months ago. It’d make sense since he’s been delaying this extension for three months to be exact. Three months of my time and energy wasted and he can’t even be honest and tell me why he’s not renewing.

If this is how Will conducts business, I no longer want his money. I should be trying to salvage the deal, find something to leverage for Stonehaven Bank to reconsider, but I can’t. Loyalty, honesty, and professionalism are of utmost importance for me in a partnership and Will is failing on all accounts.

The silence drags out and Will fidgets in his seat. I let it drag on for a few more minutes, enjoying his discomfort before standing.

“This meeting is finished,” I say, walking to the door of the conference room. “Please see yourself out.”

Some might think I’m being abrupt or rude by leaving like this, but time is my most valuable asset, and I refuse to waste even more of it on Stonehaven. I nod to Nate, my head of security, and Nate ushers Will to the elevators.

Once I close myself into my office, I sink into my chair. Taking a deep breath, I let out a string of expletives, ones that’d have my mom smacking me on the head for saying.

Stonehaven has thoroughly fucked me over. Most big companies are already engaged with other teams, and finding a sponsor now is a huge risk and complication that I don’t need on top of everything else I’m working on.

Squeezing my stress ball, I try to relax and reframe this issue as a challenge. Solving time-sensitive problems is normally what I excel at in business. It’s how I made a name for myself back in Türkiye when I took over astruggling e-commerce company and turned it into the equivalent of what Amazon is like here in the US.

But instead of feeling energized at the prospect of finding another sponsor, I’m just…tired. This is also why I gave myself a two-year limit. I’m getting too old to continue working at this pace, but this is my last chance to prove to myself I can turn around another business all on my own. And too much needs to be fixed before next year.

I squeeze the stress ball tighter in my fist and blow out a long breath. It’s okay, I’ll find a way out of this mess. I have to. After a call to the lawyers to inform them about the situation, I dive into researching new companies. I’m looking for ones that are up-and-comers and aren’t already backing a different team.

Hours later, my phone buzzes with an incoming call.

“Annem,” I answer, the Turkish word formy mom. “How are you?”

“Good and I’ll be happier once you meet Deniz tonight and tell me you hit it off.”

Deniz?

I glance at the time. Oh shit. The latest woman Mom’s convinced I’ll fall in love with and get married to. Apparently, forty-four is too old to still be single, and she’s determined to find me a match since I moved to the US. It’s become her new hobby, but it’s a hopeless cause. She doesn’t know that not one person has dated me in the last fifteen years because they really wanted me. Instead,they just wanted access to my money or my connections. If only Mom would put the same amount of energy into helping my younger brother, Zeki, get his life straightened out.

---