Page 136 of A Dead Man's B-Side
He was waspish, almost eager to call upon me before class even began.
“Did your repose from my class prove most beneficial?”
This was going to be hell. “Sorry, sir,” I said, not letting myself mumble, making my way to my chair in the back and sitting before speaking again, “If you’d like an explanation, I’d be happy to offer it after class?”
His eyes turned to slits, as if trying to find the underlying mocking in my speech, and when he found none, he nodded curtly a moment later. “See to it that you do.”
I didn’t have a reason; save the ones I wouldn’t be giving him. I only hoped he wouldn’t take the bait and agree with me to stay after class, except he did. And so, after Wolf shot me a look–brows raised, lips pursed in a ‘good luck’ kind of way–I spent the entirety of LAW 400 coming up with enough lies should any one fail to get Mr Browne off my back.
Today was an important day, and I wouldn’t let him distort my judgment over a few missed classes.
A ‘few’ being subjective.
I found that I could be quite an excellent student with the right incentive, and so I didn’t crumble assignments when professors handed them out, in contrast to my actions prior to Castle Hill. There was also nowhere for me to run if Thaddeus set his sights on any failed class work.
After Mr Browne’s lecture on carve-outs and non-complete clauses, he assigned the class the mock contract agreement. “You will break into pairs of your choice, one of you will come up and pick up the information needed for their role from this,” he held up one of two plastic boxes before placing it back on his desk, “box over here, and the other will pick up their packet from the other box. Take a few moments to read through what’s important,carefully,before beginning negotiations. The roles and scenarios are all the same for each pair. That means that I will be grading the best win-win negotiations. So don’t be so eager to squeeze more for yourself out of the deal. After all, enemies can only do you so many favors.”
Without a second thought, I turned to Wolf, who had already caught my eye. With a barely-there nod, we stood and walked to the front, slowed down by a few pairs making their way there as well.
I avoided what I was sure was Mr Browne’s gaze, burning the side of my face, and made it an in-and-out situation.
Returning to our seats, Wolf cleared his throat and straightened, reading through his short booklet with keen interest.
I opened my own and found myself impersonating oneKoda,a founder and CTO, who was selling their small but high-potential tech company toHalston. In this case, that would be Wolf, who plays a startup buyer. His priority is to protect the value of the company he’d just bought from me by preventing me from joining another firm or starting a competing one. My priority would be to acquire freedom to work while maintaining my reputation and independence.
However, the business contract wasn’t the main focus for this exercise, instead, we were meant to look into the non-compete clause.
It didn’t take long to look over the information before Wolf and I began, him speaking first, “Alright,Koda, I can offer you six months of non-compete after the sale closes. You stay out of the software market, and I get the time to lock in my customer base. I think that’s a pretty fair deal.”
He smiled, proud of himself, as I leaned my head back and scrunched my face. “That’s hardly fair. It’s a joke. I designed theentire core system–my name is on the patent. If I walk, so do my codes. Two months, that’s my offer.”
Wolf raised a brow. “Two months is barely enough time to blink. I’ll still be integrating legacy systems and if you join a competitor, you’ll tank my valuation. Five months.”
I titled my head side to side, seeing his point, but it didn’t sound like he was going to budge on the timeframe. Mr Browne did say he wanted to see a win-win. “Four months. And I want a carve-out for consulting. I can advise, I just won’t build.”
Wolf nodded with the facade of grace. “That’s fine, only if you disclose clients and I approve of them.”
I reared back at his audacity. “You’re being an idiot, and your idea is garbage. That’s surveillance, not a clause.”
Wolf opened his mouth to speak, taking a breath before pausing. “Alright, we can speak without such obscenities. This is, after all, a business meeting.”
I rolled my eyes before taking a moment. If Wolf–Halstonwants those six months, I’ll give them to him. It makes sense to lock down clients and stabilize valuations. However, I wasn’t going to be sidelined. “Alright, I’ll let you have the six months. But I still want that carve-out.”
When Wolf went to protest, I spoke over him quickly, “Within narrow restrictions–not surveillance, and strictly advising. I won’t develop or code software, I won’t provide service to competitors, and I most definitely will not use proprietary language… How does that sound?”
I smiled knowing just from his expression that I was speaking his language. When he took a few moments to answer, most likely taking his role seriously, I said, cockily, “Take it or I will start my own firm tomorrow and outbid you on your first three clients.”
He narrowed his eyes, amused, before grinning and outstretched his arm. “Deal.”
We shook on it and drafted the non-compete clause with our names signed at the top. Wolf stood to hand it in, as I was too put out to make it to the front without at least thinking about bolting out through the door.
Mr Browne stood at the front when around half the class seemed to have finished. “When you are finished, you can leave. We only have a few minutes left anyways. I’ll see youallnext week.”
I cursed under my breath at his implication and watched as Wolf sent me a pitying look before departing, August as well. Rain paused at the door and waited to catch my eye before conveying very clearly without a word,do not mess this up.
It was only Paris, who upon placing her booklet, along with her partner Ayana, Callum’s second–I didn’t know they were friends–turned to me and smiled dimly before disappearing past the threshold.
I was still worried about tonight, knowing well enough that she looked completely gone during breakfast, and had a particularly dismal air surrounding her during class.
