Page 12 of The Spare
“Van Der Baun is here and asking about it.” She finally looked up from her file, making my concerns about possibly aiding and abetting mercenaries disappear. “Hightower Energy, I mean.” She adjusted her sleek black hair and nervously ran her hands over her pencil skirt.
Lars Van Der Baun was the managing partner at the London office and led the entire mergers and acquisitions team. Our firm did the most M&A work globally, with our team responsible for making some of the biggest deals in the world.
Adrenaline poured into my veins. He was the partner who explicitly asked that I join the team to expand the M&A department in London. I was responsible for almost half of the largest deals struck in the past three years. I knew I could take it on. I just wanted to make sure it was worth my time.
I wanted to be a partner at the firm, and then I wanted to be managing partner.
It wasn’t more than a couple of minutes after Penelope’s warning that Reese Atkinson, managing partner at the U.S. office, and Lars Van Der Baun knocked on the doorframe of the office. “We hope we aren’t interrupting.” Reese looked at the two of us, and I nodded.
“Not at all.” I gestured for them to enter. They didn’t sit. Instead, they stood there menacingly. It was a scare tactic. They would continue to walk around the rest of the offices and probably make a few associates cry.
“You’ve met Amari and Astor, our best junior partners,” Reese said with enormous pride. Getting him to respect me had been a herculean task, but now that he did, he quickly became a mentor.
“Yes, quite the duo.” Lars’s German accent was surprisingly endearing. His demeanor was the exact opposite. He was a tall, towering man and middle-aged, with short salt and pepper hair. He had whatever the male equivalent of resting bitch face was. “Ms. Astor has agreed to join the London project, but we wait with bated breath for Ms. Amari.”
I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed, rude, or trying to be charming.
“Won’t be much longer, I assure you.”
“Good. Take care of the U.S. regulations for the Burton merger before you go. You’ll handle the UK side once you’re there,” Reese reminded me, not that he had to. If I was successful, I would be the youngest senior partner in the firm's century-long history.
Not bad for the spare.
“Well, I look forward to seeing both of you in London.” Lars gestured to Reese, and they made their way out of my office.
Penelope had a confused expression when the door clicked closed, and she looked over at me. “I thought you already accepted.”
“I will.” Managing partner was the goal, and this was the next logical step. “I was going to tell the family this weekend at Thanksgiving. It's always a perfect time for a fight, so why not pile on?”
“Ooh, an American Thanksgiving.” Penelope often waxed poetic about American holidays, as if experiencing each one in a truly ‘American’ way was on her bucket list. Born in Singapore to the wealthy Chen-Astor family, she spent most of her childhood there. Her high school and college years were spent in the United Kingdom. She had never experienced a proper American Thanksgiving.
Not that ours was ever proper.
My mother was English, so the entire holiday was foreign to her. My dad, born and raised in Manhattan, insisted on a traditional American Thanksgiving every year. But it often devolved into a screaming match.
“You’re welcome to join ours.” I offered.
“How fun. I cannot wait.” She accepted gleefully.
“Wait for what?” Xander’s voice pulled our attention to the door opening. He leaned casually at the doorframe of my office at noon on a Friday, his laptop tucked underneath his arm.
“I’ll be joining the Amari family on Thanksgiving,” Penelope said excitedly as she clocked the time. “How is it that you hardly work? Are all bankers so highly suspect?”
“Nothing suspicious about it.” He casually strolled into my office, took a seat next to Penelope, and put his feet up on my desk. “I happen to be good at most things.” He winked.
She laughed.
“Besides, that’s big talk coming from a Chen-Astor,” he continued.
The Chen-Astors were the Kennedys of Singapore, a well-known political family with a wealth that was hard to calculate. Although, like the Kennedys, there were many of them by this point, and their wealth was well distributed between them.
Watching Xander and Penelope spar over the years made me question whether they liked, hated, or wanted to have sex with each other. I was leaning toward ‘like’ since Xander never took very long to close the deal.
She rolled her eyes. “I would love to continue the sparring, but I have work to do.”
“Always a pleasure, Astor,” he mocked.
“Is that how people see our interactions?” Grimacing at what I just witnessed, I turned to Xander.
