“Because I want to apologize. Because you deserve an apology. This contract is meaningless if you hate me.”
“Well I don’t…hate you. I never said that,” she said, and I felt relief spread through my whole body.
“In that case, I will see you in the office tomorrow?” I was clutching the phone very close to my ears. “You are out of vacation days, you know. The other tellers might think I’m playing favorites.”
She giggled, to my surprise. “Well, you are.”
“They don’t need to know that. Anyway, I would really like to see you tomorrow at the office and we can discuss the contract and how to proceed in a manner that pleases you. How does that sound?”
She simply said “okay,” which was still better than a “no.” I could work with “okay.”
“Have a good night Aria, I will see you tomorrow.”
“You too,” she said and then hung up.
Tomorrow I would have to employ all the skills I had accumulated as a businessman in negotiation, so that when the conversation was over, Aria would think it was her idea to continue with the contract.
For now I was just relieved and fell into my bed, finally relaxed after a very difficult few weeks.
End of Book 2