Chapter 21: Offering

“So,” Abigail turned to Mark, “What about you? What was it like for you growing up?”

“Hard,” Mark said. “But not impossible. It was really only difficult for a few years, I made smart choices, and I got very lucky very early on. And everything just kind of went from there.”

Abigail pursed her lips. He wasn’t saying much about his life, and she didn’t want to press him if she was asking too much. This was the first time they were properly sitting down together, after all. Where they hadn’t just bumped into each other.

“I graduated high school with amazing results,” Mark told her. “Got a full ride to college and business school. And everything got better from there.”

Nothing had just been handed to him, then. Sometimes, Abigail still felt a little guilty about her own position. Because while she had struggled and lived a difficult life before this, it wasn’t like anything here had been acquired through her own doing.

This had just been handed to her. Maybe, she mused, that was why she so desperately wanted to prove herself. Even just to her own mind. That she could do this, that she deserved what she’d been given, and that she would work with it in a way that benefitted as many people as possible.

“Well,” Mark said after a minute of silence. “We’ve been working for a while. How about we break for lunch? I hope you like Turkish food, because I brought lots.”

For the first time, Abigail noticed the basket at Mark’s feet. She’d been so hyper focused on everything; she hadn’t seen anything else.

“You like Turkish food?” Abigail asked.

“Yeah,” Mark said excitedly. “I developed a taste for it when I went to, uhm,” he hesitated, seeming to struggle for his words. “This Turkish place, in China town.”

“A Turkish place in China town?” Abigail laughed, dismissing his almost stuttering. “I’ve been to China Town so often, how have I never seen it?”

“It’s the blue building, very obscure,” Mark explained, laughing lightly. “Between the Jade Tavern and the Tai Lung place.”

“Ah, that explains it,” Abigail laughed. “Absolutely no one goes there. Those places are like, the expensive parts of China Town.”

Mark laughed, and placed a plate down in front of her. It was ornate metal, it looked old and used. But Abigail said nothing about it. Mark then opened the various dishes and placed them on the table; he scooped some of everything onto her plate, explaining what they were as he dished them.

They ate, talking with mouths full of food, and Abigail exclaimed her delight at every dish to a beaming Mark.

When they’d finished, Mark cleared the plates and now empty dishes, putting them all back into the basket. And they simply sat back, satiated, too full to even move.

“That was,” Abigail searched for an appropriate word. “Absolutely, out of this world, amazing.”

“Thanks.” Mark smiled bashfully. “But we should probably get back to work,” Mark suggested. “We’re almost done, and you have a deadline later tonight.”

They worked, religiously, for a few more hours. They finished just as the sun started to change colour, and the sky began to redden.

“Talk about just hitting a deadline,” Mark laughed, closing the files with a flourish. “We just made it.”

“Thank you, again,” Abigail told Mark sincerely, holding the file with all the compiled information close against her chest, “I don’t know where I would have been without all your help.”

“Please,” Mark answered. “It was nothing at all.” Mark turned to go, then paused. “Oh, er, I was thinking, if you’d like, I could give you my number, if you need to maybe ask me anything else about the companies, and you can’t wait till the next time we run into each other.”

Mark laughed slightly, but even Abigail could hear the nervousness in his voice as he offered.

“That would be great,” Abigail said softly, pulling out her phone. Mark gave her his number and then waved and disappeared into the thicket of tree.

____________________________________________


Abigail knocked on her father’s study, and went in when she heard the permission being granted. Her father had given her three files, Abigail walked in carrying just one.

Adam turned from his computer the moment she walked in, and watched as she laid the files down on the table in front of him. Adam turned his full attention to the file, away from her and the computer he’d been working on.

Gently, he began turning pages, scanning quickly over everything he’d read.

“So you went with the Exo Company for Acquisition,” Adam said, reading the title of the page.

“Yes, sir,” Abigail answered. He wasn’t her dad in this moment. Right now, he was the Chief Executive Officer of one of the most powerful companies in the world. “My reasoning is there as well.”

“Hmmm,” Adam nodded, reading through everything.

Adam was quiet for a full five minutes, and Abigail sat calmly and quietly. Or at least, she gave the appearance of it. Inside, she was a nervous mess, wondering what he thought of her work. But she managed to keep herself calm and collected.

Eventually, Adam sighed, and pushed the file away from him, sitting back in his chair.

He took a deep breath before he spoke.

“This is genius,” Adam proclaimed, a slight smile creeping onto his face.

Abigail couldn’t help the wide smile that broke out.

“Acquisitions, to keep the people their jobs and the service running smoothly,” Adam read aloud Abigail’s reasoning. “And to provide another source of profits for our company. If we start with Acquiring Exo, we can easily move on to the Hunter Cooperation using the profits derived in the first few months alone from Exo, and then after another three months, acquire Wizards Incorporated as well. At the end of the year, our company will be generating and receiving profits from all three companies, and those companies will be saved from bankruptcy by implementing our ways and methods.”

“And,” Abigail pressed forward, “We would be saving all of those jobs. If we acquire, and not merge, that company can stay exactly as is, and we can oversee and fix where they’ve been going wrong.”

“After five years,” Adam said, closing his eyes like he could see charts behind his eyes. “The profits we’d gain from those companies alone will be astronomical.”

“But you knew that, didn’t you?” Abigail asked, with an arch in her brow.

“Of course,” Adam admitted. “This was a test. I had to know the right answers before I set it.”

Abigail smiled, so she’d passed then.

“Besides,” Adam answered. “More than half the board couldn’t see this solution even when I put it before them, and you managed to come up with it all on your own. I am, very impressed, and so will the half of the board that agreed with me be.”

“Oh,” Abigail said. “You’re presenting my findings to them?”

“No,” Adam shook his head. “You are, tomorrow. When you go with me to work. This is your effort, you will take the credit for it.”

Abigail almost couldn’t think of anything to say.

“It’s time you learnt the ropes, kiddo,” Adam said, turning back to his computer, frowning at the screen.

“Oh,” Abigail said remembered, “I did have some help, though. Mark, the landscaper, he helped me out with the terminology and some other stuff.”

“Uh huh,” Adam said, leaning in closer to his computer. “Be ready to leave right after breakfast tomorrow, kiddo. I’ll give you a lift to the office.”

____________________________________________

As soon as Abigail made it back to her room, she got out her phone, leaning against her closed bedroom door. She searched for Mark’s name and immediately began writing.

‘Thank you so much for all the help. He loved it. It went better than either of us expected. I don’t know how I can ever thank you.’

Abigail sent it and got a reply not even a minute later.

‘I can think of a few ways.’ It read. ‘Lunch, again, in the veranda. Moroccan, this time. Day after tomorrow?’

Abigail bit her lip, and thought for a moment, though truthfully, she had already made up her mind.

‘I’d love that.’

She then closed her phone, and prepared herself for her day of shadowing tomorrow. SO many changes were happening in her life. She was actually starting to become Adam’s daughter in more senses than just biology.

She couldn’t imagine her step-mother or half-sister being happy for her, but Abigail found she couldn’t care at that exact moment.

All of the new things of her life ran through her mind on repeat, her step-mother, father, half-sister. Even her mother, who she hadn’t spoken to for days now.

But the overarching thing, the thing she came back to each time, was a small veranda in the garden, an exotic lunch spread on the table, and her and Mark, curled beneath the blankets.