Second Chance Addison

The next morning, Lola and Koty picked up Chance and took him to the office.

Chance was greeted by Fait as soon as he stepped out of the elevator while Koty just nodded to her before positioning himself outside the office door.

She looked as calm and cool as ever in her fitted white blouse and black slacks. And yet, somehow, she seemed a bit... off?

"Good morning, Fait." Chance spoke first.

"Good morning, Addison."

"Is there something?"

"The board of directors wants to meet today instead of tomorrow." She frowned in annoyance.

"I see."

"I tried to stall for more time but they claim more than half the members will be unavailable tomorrow and that this meeting has to happen before Wednesday."

The whole excuse was nothing more than just that, an excuse. The board meetings were set at the beginning of the year. How could they all suddenly have something else to do?

"When are they coming?"

"An hour."

"I got it." Chance went over to the notepad on his desk and started to jot down a few things. He tore off the sheet and handed it to Fait.

"Pick a few efficient people to prepare the things on this list. Tell them if they can get it done in thirty minutes, they'll get a bonus."

Fait took the slip of paper and skimmed his neat handwriting. Even though he had written so much so quickly, it looked as clean and clear as if it had been typed.

The the items on the list itself were relatively simple things like coffee, tea, cream, sugar, pastries, fruit, and so on.

She raised her eyebrows to question his priorities.

"They think they are going to catch us off guard and completely unprepared. How about we make them think we expected this all along?" He gestured towards the door. "Hurry along and give that to someone. I'll need your help with something else."

Fait nodded and left to pass the list on to the most capable secretaries. She returned after about five minutes.

"How can I be of assistance?"

He handed her a certain white paper shopping bag.

"I need this sent to Genevieve."

She rolled her eyes and once again wondered about the priorities of this man. Wasn't the impending meeting more important?

Not it the mood to ask questions, Fait took the bag and left to go find a courier to deliver it safely to the Griffin residence.

As soon as his door closed, Chance couldn't hold himself back anymore and burst out laughing.

So what if the board wanted to come? Let them come.

He wasn't really worried at all. He had already reviewed all of the company's stats, projects, and future plans.

Fait had also been so kind as to prepare profiles of the board members and he read over them too.

Based on her detailed information, the one leading this small rebellion was most likely the chairman of the board of directors, Adam Fischer.

Mr. Fischer was the eldest member of the board and had known Mack the longest.

He was the one who would crack the whip a keep the other members in line. Without his say so, they would never get away with moving the meeting up on such short notice.

Chance also couldn't bring himself to worry because this old man was widely know to be passionate about this publishing firm. There was a rumor that Mack had set up Lovewell Publishing just for Fischer.

From what Chance had read, Mr. Fischer had personally taken care of innumerable situations for Mack that had threatened to undermine the little company.

The only way Chance would be in danger of being ousted, was if Fischer refused to acknowledge him.

Fait reentered the office, breaking Chance's train of thought.

"Everything you asked for has been prepared and arranged in the executive conference room."

Thirty minutes had passed since she first turned over the list to her secretaries and they did not disappoint.

Chance followed Fait to the conference room to see for himself how they had done. They really were able to acquire and neatly display every item on the list.

They had even gone ahead and laid out the materials for the meeting on the long table in the center of the room.

"Excellent!" Chance clapped his hands together and smiled. "Please don't forget to reward them."

Fait nodded, still not believing that this would be enough to throw the board members off.

"We still have fifteen minutes before they will start to filter in. Is there anything you would like to review?" She was hoping he'd ask something, anything really, that would give her a clue as to how prepared he really was for this meeting.

"No need." Chance replied with confidence.

He was excited for this meeting.

Sure, he had stepped back from such meetings in the past, and had practically served his company on a silver platter to his enemies, but that was now in the past.

The situation was much different then. All of the meetings became about pandering to the board members and their personal interests. He had no one on his side at that time.

It was too tiring and distracting so he delegated the meetings to Jerome, who he had thought was doing a great job of reining them in.

Oh how wrong he had been...

Now he was in a situation more like when he first started his own company. This meeting was just about the company. It was genuinely for the checking on the state of the company and adjusting the plans for the future.

The people that would enter this room actually cared about Lovewell Publishing.