Page 2 of Merging with the Billionaire

“But it’s always a down trend; there’s never an upswing. Can you explain why the orders are consistently lower?” Tiffany inquired, unsatisfied with the answer she was given.

The team of five men shifted in their seats, averting their eyes. After a few moments, Mr. Smith replied, “No, I can’t explain it.”

“Could it have to do with incentives? I’ve looked into how your sales teams are handled, and there are incentives for meeting certain quotas for initial reporting. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have their incentives based on final numbers? The way you’re doing it now leaves room for our representatives to inflate their numbers in order to receive incentives, without a care that during final confirmation the actual units drop, resulting in a steady decrease.”

“I suppose that could be happening,” Mr. Smith conceded, “but incentives are important. They encourage the teams to produce.”

“I agree, they are important. However, to ensure numbers are being reported accurately, why don’t we have a lower incentive for initial amounts, and then if their initial orders meet their final sales, they get a bigger secondary incentive, there by encouraging more accurate reporting.”

Mr. Smith folded his arms across his chest as his brows came together in a furrow, as if he was contemplating what she just suggested. A couple of moments passed, and he finally responded, “I guess that could work. When do you propose we roll out the new incentive plan?”

“I was thinking next month. We can work on the details in the meantime and have a party in each region to announce the changes.”

Tiffany spent the next hour going over her ideas and working with the group of men to come up with the best launch plan for the new incentives. She gave them each a task list, and they agreed to get back together the following week to go over their work.

“Miss Boswell, I just want you to know, I think you did an excellent job today. You made some great points and I think the changes you plan to make will be a great benefit to the company. I know the rest of the sales managers were hard on you, but you held your own like a veteran,” Harry Stine, a man with auburn hair and a warm smile, said to her.

She stopped cleaning up and turned her attention to the man. “Thank you. I’m glad at least one of you think I’m capable of doing my job.”

“The rest of the managers are just old school and firm believers in the ‘good old boys’ club.’ They don’t understand times are changing and that their chauvinistic way of doing things is outdated. They have a hard time adjusting to the new corporate landscape.”

Now that she was close to him, Tiffany noticed for the first time that Harry wasn’t much older than herself. A surprising fact since her father tended to keep men of his own age in the higher positions of the company.

“At least I have someone who sees it my way,” Tiffany admitted.

“I do, you know, see it your way. We could go over how much if you let me take you out for a drink sometime,” Harry offered.

Suddenly, Tiffany realized the reason the man had stuck around after the meeting. He didn’t want to commend her as a leader as much as he wanted to take her out on a date. It infuriated her that he thought it appropriate. She was so sick and tired of men only seeing her as a conquest in the bedroom.

The last thing she needed was to get tangled up with another man, let alone one she worked with at the company. Her ex-boyfriend, Artie Frankhurst, had ruined any faith she had in being in a relationship when she found out he had been cheating on her with multiple women. She broke things off promptly, though he didn’t seem to get the point, since he had continued to hound her with calls and texts until she blocked his number. Once she did that, he moved on to privately messaging her on social media, resulting in further blocks on her part. He even had the nerve to track her down at the club, and various other social events, trying to explain it was all a big mistake.

Tiffany didn’t want to hear it. She decided after breaking up with Artie, she was done with men, deciding to focus solely on work. She liked that with the direct amount of effort she put in, she would see tangible results, the exact opposite of the process of dating.

“Considering we’re co-workers, I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Tiffany refused gently. “I don’t want to give anyone the wrong idea.”

A look of disappointment crossed Harry’s face as he nodded. “I understand your decision, but if you change your mind, the offer stands. I’d love to take you out sometime.”

As Tiffany made her way out of the conference room, her cell phone rang. She answered the call, then lifted it up to her ear, holding back the sigh she wanted to release. “Hello, Dad. Calling to check up on how the sales manager meeting went?”

“I wanted to make sure that you and Roger went over everything we discussed.”

“I told you, Dad, Roger couldn’t make it today. He had a parent-teacher conference for Marcus.”

“Oh, yes, yes, I forgot,” her father mumbled in confusion, causing her to feel guilty for being short with him.

She reminded herself her father was handling having Alzheimer’s as best he could. She couldn’t imagine how scary it must be to have the disease aggressively take over his body and mind, leaving him defenseless against forgetting his life and what made him who he was.

After spending his whole life turning his own father’s oil business into a global multi-billion-dollar brand, it wasn’t surprising it was the last piece of him he held onto the tightest. Since he remembered she was at work, she figured he was having a good day with his memory. She wondered how many more good days he would have before her father disappeared altogether. As it was, he often forgot his family, his business, and even himself at times.

“It’s all right, Dad, I was able to handle everything on my own.”

“I know you think you can, Tiffany, but you have to remember, most of the sales team are used to dealing with men. I doubt they—”

“Actually, it went better than any of you expected,” she said with pride. “I went over the discrepancies, and the sales managers agreed with the plan to fix the issues.”

“Yes, didn’t Roger come up with that?” her father asked, but this time she was sure it wasn’t due to memory loss, but rather the inability to see her merits as Co-COO.

“No, Dad, I was the one who came up with the idea,” she reminded him. “I told Roger about it to make sure he knew what was going on with the situation, but it was all me.”

---