Marriage by Business (Darius POV)

Nine

"Shit it's cold!"

I looked at Ivory, jumping between her feet as she rushed to the car. 

"You should have brought a jacket." I told her. We were near the ocean, there was always going to be a chilly breeze. Ivory looked over her shoulder, throwing me a scathing look.

What? Don't people generally wear jacket when they were cold?

Ivory was quiet the rest of the car ride, which was fine as I was trying to think of a plan for Jesse and I. His phone call was still playing in my head and I was bothered by what he said. 

This tender was incredibly important and I was going to do everything possible to make sure we got it. 

When we got home I went straight to the office, calling Jesse who was always on speed dial.

"Yes Darius?" He answered on the first ring.

"Continue screen sharing." I told him as I put him on speaker as I logged into my computer. I placed my jacket, folded neatly on the table next to me and took my belt off chucking it on top of it. 

A part of me was tired, and I probably should go to bed like Ivory seeing that it was late at night, but the other parts of me wanted to have a plan ready for the press conference. How were we, the Quarts enterprise group, going to substantially deliver on a price that was worthy.

The other companies may be lying about their numbers, but we would never.

"Do no matter how much we decrease our base costs, even if we negotiate better credit terms with our suppliers, we will still be having  a 25% more material cost than them."

"We aren't going to decrease our base costs because that means less quality which is dangerous. We always use the number one out there Jesse, it's the safest for everyone."

"But you could save six million by using a 75% mix product rather than a pure 100% mix."

"No." I shook my head, "Just do what I say. We keep premium quality." I said irritated. I would never consider doing anything that wasn't the number one in service and quality.

"Alright, Darius I'll give you a call back after alright." Jesse managed to get in before the line went dead. 

I looked at the time, I had been on the phone for another hour, and we still hadn't moved any further than I would like with this contract.

I still needed a plan on how to get the other 25% of dad's voting shares to agree. Jesse's idea of not having my father present was initially a great thought, but there was no way he was not going to be present at that meeting.

Jesse's second idea was to ask Ivory, but I didn't like that option. I was still waiting for his research regarding the praetorship controls, where I could avoid having Ivory in my business, I would prefer that. 

* * * 

I looked at the blob of pasta in front of me and then looked up at Ivory.

"Did you make this?" I asked. Surely not,  it looked like someone accidentally spilled pasta into tomato soup.

I took another mouthful, just to confirm that it wasn't my taste that was off. Nope, it was definitely the pasta. Perhaps I should have made something. I was just having a browse when she offered to cook but that was definitely not her strong suit.

"Yeah why?" she asked, her bowl untouched.

How do I put this. It tasted like salty tomatoes, and the pasta was raw. I rubbed the back of my head, not sure how to tell her not to eat her serve. Almost like a god send, my phone rang and I excused myself.