C - Suite

08 | Boxing

NYLA OPENED THE door and sat down in the car.

"Good morning Ms. Malhotra." Anthony greeted her with a smile.

"Morning," she replied taking a sip of her jasmine tea.

Newspaper in hand, she began scanning the document for anything interesting that was happening in the world. Reading the newspaper was important because things that happened around the world could impact the industry and thus her business. She skipped over the sports section and began diverting her attention to the stock prices instead.

Pen in hand, she began circling the companies she thought would be most profitable. When she got time, she would make a few calls and look into them. She loved investing, there was a thrill in being right and watching your money grow but there were also high stakes—and that is what made it worthwhile.

Her phone rang, and she absentmindedly pressed it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Nyla?" Marcus' voice greeted her from the other side of the line.

There was a bump on the road and Nyla almost spilled tea on her ivory blouse. She shot Anthony a look who gave her an apologetic smile.

Returning to the phone Nyla replied yes.

"I've been trying to get into contact with you for a couple of days, but your business phone wasn't working?"

Nyla wanted to throw the newspapers in frustration. Marcus wasn't the first client to complain about nobody picking up the company phone. Her intern had screwed up more than anyone else had previously but thank God Hyeon was retuning today.

"Sorry about that, we've been recently trying to get IT to update the line, but I'm guessing that it's not working?"

Marcus chuckled on the other line. "No, it's not."

Nyla set down the tea in the place holder. "So why were you calling?"

Marcus' tone became more somber. "It's about the investment. I was hoping we could talk in person."

His tone didn't give anything away, so Nyla didn't know if wanting to meet was a good thing or bad. She quickly checked her calendar to see if she had any meetings.

"I'm free for the next two hours if your available." She responded.

There was shuffling on the other line for a bit and Nyla waited for his response anxiously. Normally she was a calm and collected person but something about this innovation really pushed her. Maybe because it was the first decision she'd decided to make that really didn't follow Raymond's recipe.

"Are you able to swing by right now actually?" Marcus asked. "I'm free but I have a coffee chat with a grad student in a bit."

Nyla glanced at her watch. She had time. "Yeah, right now's fine."

"Perfect. I'll send you the address."

She hung up the call and a few seconds later her phone buzzed with the address.

"Anthony, we have a new destination." She rattled off the address.

Her driver typed the address into the GPS before swerving the car the other way. Honks filled the air around them and this time, Nyla mock-glared at him.

"You do know that if I die, you're going to be out of employment?"

"Thank God for that." Anthony muttered but Nyla heard him.

He then gave her a wink. Nyla shook her head and relaxed further into the backseat. In the next twenty minutes, she needed to know the investment like the back of her hand. Glancing once more at the watch adorning her wrist, she smiled, she had time.