Page 76 of Open To Negotiation

“That is way more work than you contracted us for,” I countered firmly. “I doubt you can make a call like that on your own. Don’t you need board approval or something?” I was grasping for straws really. The man owned the damn company.

“Conveniently, the board is all here,” Asher stated. I narrowed my eyes at him quickly trying to communicate that he should, respectfully, shut the hell up.

“We wanted to make ourselves known in this market. This does that and goes over the top, it will also help us move the members club along faster. We can use it to increase interest and membership before the thing is even open,” Theo summarized. “All in favor of taking on all these approaches, say aye.”

“Wait!” I called but all five men said ‘aye’ before I could talk them out of this.

“Oh my god,” Lisa muttered, likely thinking of the cost breakdown of each scenario. The final amount would be massive when it was all done and the men hadn’t even asked for the total.

“I’ll draw up the paperwork,” Will said with a smile.

“I don’t have a big enough team for this,” I sputtered.

“I’ll call Richard, let him know who you want.” Theo stood up, I guess our time was over. “Great work today.” He nodded at my team as we started filing out. “Miss West.” I turned before I could follow James out, the rest of the guys still sitting. “A word.”

“I was going to head back in a car with them."

“Arthur is already waiting downstairs.”

I rolled my eyes at his smug smirk. “James,” I called down the hallway, he looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Head back to the office without me.” He nodded and went down the stairs as I closed the door and sat back down. Everyone else was instantly more relaxed, their cool masks gone.

“That was fuckin’ great, Q,” Noah said through a yawn as he took a chug of his coffee.

“I really didn’t think you would do all of them. I just wanted you to have choices,” I said sheepishly.

“The benefit will be huge, this is what we wanted,” Asher confirmed with a nod. I knew he wouldn’t say that if he didn’t believe it.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, shifting focus away from me. “Why does Shelly need my passport number?” I asked looking at Theo, at least if he didn’t tell me someone else would.

“We need it for the flight manifest,” Jaxson was the one to answer, his tone made it seem like it was obvious.

“But why?”

“We leave tonight,” Theo confirmed.

“Leave?” I looked at him confused. “I thought we were going to a charity event tomorrow?”

I’d been stressing about what to wear. Aubrey and I were supposed to be going shopping tomorrow morning for a dress.

“We are. The event is in London,” Theo said casually. “Richard knows you’re taking Monday off.”

I sat there blinking at him.

“You didn’t tell her?” Oli asked with a smile on his face, like it was funny I didn’t know I was flying internationally in the morning. Theo just shrugged.

“What?” I gasped. “We’re going somewhere international?”

“We do it all the time.” Theo waved me off and I realized why he didn’t think this was a big deal. For him, it wasn’t.

“I don’t have a dress! I need to go shopping…” I spluttered. “I was supposed to go in the morning.” My brain going in overdrive. “And you really should not have called my boss for me! I have time off, I could’ve taken the day, no problem. How could you not tell me we were flying to the charity event?!”

“Don’t worry about a dress, I have it covered.” Theo ignored my comment on calling Richard.

“What does that mean?”

Will and Jaxson laughed but I just sat there confused.

“Arthur will pick you up after work, pack what you need from home and then he’ll bring you to my place. We’ll go for a few drinks at the club and then head straight to the flight, we take off at about eight fifteen.”