Wives and Champions (17 page)

“
I know what you mean. Hey,
did I just see Dimitrius walk by with his briefcase?”

“
Yeah. I’m on my way to his
office. Why?”

“
Just wondering why Mr.
Prompt is late.”

“
Don’t know. He seems like
he’s in a bad mood.”

“
Then everything is
normal.” Desmond smirked. “Kurt was looking for him earlier. We
need to know the ratio of GHC bookings for fall versus summer, but
we can talk about it in the meeting. I just hope whatever is going
on with Dimitrius doesn’t affect his work. We need a resolution on
this GHC business.”

“
We do. Let me go talk to
him.”

“
Good luck,” Desmond
said.

Dante left Desmond’s office and
continued down the hall to Dimitrius’ office. He tapped on the door
and proceeded inside. “You know we got the G—”

“
I know what time the
meeting is, Dante,” Dimitrius interrupted to say.

Dante took a seat and stared at his
brother.

Dimitrius looked up annoyed. “Can I
help you?”

“
What is it,
Dimitrius?”

“
What are you talking
about?”

“
You’re on a war path first
thing in the morning, so you may as well spit it out. What’s the
deal?”

“
The deal is, I need you to
get out of my office so I can get some work done.”

“
And you’re supposed to be
able to accomplish something with that attitude?”

Dimitrius blew a sigh of frustration.
“I certainly can’t work with you sitting there.”

“
Okay.” Dante stood up.
“Just in case you didn’t know, the meeting’s at ten. Des and Kurt
were looking for you earlier. You might want to give them a
call.”

With that, Dante returned to his
office. With time to spare before the meeting, he returned a call
from a client, Victor Westwood, who was ecstatic about the success
of his new company, Service Swap – a yearly subscription web
company that allowed users to swap business services without ever
exchanging money. Desmond had put together a flawless, eight-week
marketing plan for the business while Dimitrius designed the
website and smartphone application.

As soon as he was off the line with
Victor, he dialed Emily. He gave her a few days to relax and to
forget about everything that was bothering her. He didn’t want to
do it, just like he didn’t want her traveling alone with Ezra to
Jacksonville, but she needed a break.

“
Hi, Dante,” she
answered.

“
Hi,” he said, sitting up
taller. “How are you?”

“
I’m okay…felt a little
sick when I first got up this morning, but I feel fine now. I’m in
the kitchen with mom and Ezra.”

“
Tell your mother I said,
hi.”

“
Okay.” Emily looked at her
mother and said, “Mom, Dante says, hi.”

“
Hi, Dante,” Antoinette
said.

“
Did you hear her?” Emily
asked Dante.

“
Yeah. I heard
her.”

“
How is it going at the
office?”

“
It’s fine. Besides the
first-floor coffeemaker crashing, everything is fine.”

“
Are you sure about that?
People get cranky when they haven’t had their morning
coffee.”

“
I get cranky when I
haven’t had my daily dose of you.”

Emily smiled big. “Seriously,
Dante.”

“
Yep.” After a few seconds
of silence Dante said, “Hey, when were you planning on coming
home?”

“
Saturday. My flight leaves
at six.”

“
In the
evening?”

“
Yep.”

“
Okay. So you’ll be there
for another week, basically.”

“
Yes. Why? Are you planning
a house party while I’m gone?” Emily asked with a smile on her
face. “Don’t want me to come back and catch you in the
act.”

Dante smirked. “No. I’m asking because
I miss you, I don’t like the way we parted and I don’t like the way
I feel without you here with me. You, Ezra and our little one
inside of you.”

“
Aw, Dante,” Emily said,
her eyes watering. “You’re going to make me cry.”

“
Don’t cry. I—I was so
upset with you before because I was thinking about you possibly not
wanting the baby and it hit me that maybe you would try to get rid
of my baby without telling me.”

“
You know me, Dante. I
would never do something like that.”

“
I know. My thinking was
flawed because something similar happened to Dimitrius. His ex had
an abortion and to this day, I don’t think he got over
it.”

“
Well, just believe me when
I say I will never do that to us. Part of the reason I kept the
pregnancy a secret is because I didn’t want you being extra
protective of me…wanting me to completely change my life and
routine because of the pregnancy. I know I have to do it. I guess I
was fighting it because I want to be a success at everything I do,
including being a mother and wife.”

“
I know you do, sweetheart,
and you are. I just don’t want you to work so hard because it’s not
necessary. I’m your husband. I’m the breadwinner. I work hard,
carry the load and stress for us. That’s not your responsibility.
Do you understand that?”

“
Yes, Dante. I
understand.”

“
Okay, well listen. I have
a meeting in a few minutes. Have a good time with your family. Kiss
Ezra for me and I’ll talk to you a little later on,
okay?”

“
Okay. Love
you.”

“
Love you too, sweetheart.
Bye.”

“
Bye.”

Dante smiled, felt a wave of relief
and excitement all at the same time. He couldn’t wait to see the
look in Emily’s eyes when he showed up at her parent’s home. For
now, he had to knock a few items off of his agenda.

From: Dante Champion

To: Tennyson Tillman

Cc: Dimitrius Champion; Desmond Champion

Subject: ! URGENT: Turn this around
quickly

Tennyson,

I need you to get a couple of
investigation-style background checks on the following
individuals:

Florence Ludwick

Harding Champion

Call if any questions.

Thanks,

Dante Champion | Chief Executive Officer

The Champion Corporation

_________

Chapter
Nineteen

Dimitrius stepped inside Dante’s
office with his tablet, five minutes prior to the meeting’s start
time of ten. He took a seat at the conference table, leaned back in
his chair and rubbed his eyes.

“
Did you get a chance to
talk to Des or Kurt?” Dante asked.

“
Talked to Des…gave him the
numbers.”

“
Good. Just to keep you in
the loop, I’m flying out to Jacksonville tomorrow. Won’t be back
until Saturday.”

“
Going to be with Emily and
Ezra, I take it.”

Dante smiled. “Yep. I miss my
family.”

“
They’ve only been gone a
few days.”

“
Doesn’t matter. When you
love someone, you have a right to miss them no matter how long
they’ve been away.”

Dimitrius sat up. “Let me ask you
something…if you found out Emily was texting an old boyfriend, how
would you react?”

“
Am I to assume this about
you and Melanie?”

“
You can if you want
to.”

Dante smirked.

“
Well, I guess my reaction
would depend on the nature of the text messages.”

“
Let’s say one of the
messages from was him telling her that no other man would ever have
her heart.”

Dante smirked. This was the second
time Dimitrius brought up the subject, so it must’ve really been
eating at him. “Okay, Dimitrius, who made the first
contact?”

“
He contacted her. She
doesn’t have his name or number stored in her phone. She said he
just started texting her after he saw her at the museum with
Grace.”

“
How did you find out about
the texts?”

“
I just so happened to look
at her phone when it beeped and saw a message. Right away, I knew
it was from Scott. I read the entire exchange between
them.”

“
And?”

“
And what?” Dimitrius
asked.

“
I’m sure Melanie shut him
down, so why are you so angry?”

Dimitrius hung his head. “I never knew
I would have these trust issues after everything that went down
with my ex and the baby and all. I look at Melanie and I know she
loves me and even in those text message exchanges, she told Scott
to stop texting her at least three times. And then we got into an
argument this morning about it…told her I wasn’t coming home
tonight.”

“
Whoa, Dimitrius. All
because her ex decided to send her a text. You can’t blame that on
her. I mean, I could understand if she was the one initiating
contact with him, but you’re telling me it’s not like
that.”

“
No, it’s not.” Dimitrius
sighed again. “It got so tense between us this morning, I had to
take a step back and let things cool down a bit.”

Desmond and Kurt stepped inside of the
office, both with their tablets.

“
Good morning,” Kurt said,
taking the chair next to Dimitrius.

“
Good morning,” Dante and
Dimitrius said together. They’d have to resume their conversation
later.

“
Thanks for getting me
those numbers so quickly, Dimitrius,” Kurt said. “I appreciate
that.”

“
Not a problem,” Dimitrius
said.

“
So, what did you come up
with?” Dante asked Desmond and Kurt, eager to get a resolution on
this issue before he headed out of town.

“
First, I’ll start off by
saying, this is perhaps the most stressful marketing plan I’ve ever
done,” Desmond said, “And that’s mostly due to the fact that I know
how much GHC means to you, Dante.”

Dante nodded.

“
Kurt and I were able to
work up a plan, but not sure if you’re going to like what we came
up with.”

Kurt distributed handouts while
saying, “I’m going to jump in here and say, that Grieving Hearts
Connect brings in an annual net profit of two million dollars. Most
of that two million is from the second quarter – April, May and
June – and from the third quarter – July, August and
September.”

“
When you say most, how
much does that translate to in dollars?” Dimitrius
asked.

“
Eighty percent of the two
million,” Kurt said.

“
That’s eye-opening,” Dante
acknowledged, “But don’t forget the subscription services online.
While two million may not seem like a lot, GHC remains the most
profitable business venture for The Champion Corporation, followed
by eRoll, due to its online subscription model.”

Kurt nodded. “Exactly. Now, since
reservations are extremely low in the fall and winter, coming up
with a strategy to fill those vacant rooms is a good plan of
action. But the question becomes, will opening up GHC to the masses
increase those fall and winter bookings?”

Desmond brought his hands to a
steeple.

Kurt glanced around the table to see
if anyone had feedback.

“
There’s no doubt in my
mind that opening up GHC to the general public would boost bookings
and thus, raise profits,” Dimitrius said. “What we need to discuss
is if we can do it in a way that will maintain the integrity of GHC
as a grief retreat.”

“
We can,” Desmond said,
“But only if we market it as a one size fits all retreat. As it
stands, we offer one-on-one therapy sessions, group therapy, grief
counseling, massage therapy, water fitness, pilates and health and
beauty services. We can offer these services, all year round to the
public, but only if we change the name of the resort. I don’t know
what that name would be, but it cannot be Grieving Hearts Connect
if we’re going to move forward.”

“
Why insist on a name
change?” Dante asked.

“
Let me explain it this
way,” Kurt said. “We’ve all been to KFC before, right? When you go
to KFC, you’re not going to get a hotdog. You’re not going to get
hamburgers. You’re going to get chicken, right?”

“
Right,” Dante
said.

Dimitrius nodded.

“
Exactly. The name of the
company denotes that what they do best is chicken, just like the
Grieving Hearts Connect brand denotes that they cater to grieving
hearts. Therefore, to appeal to the masses, a name change has to
occur–one that doesn’t advertise a specific purpose.”

“
Got it,” Dante said. “I’m
not opposed to a name change as long as it’s seamlessly marketed as
such. We’ll need a new website, new logo, new mission statement,
new business cards for Steven and his team, not to mention all the
legal work that needs to be done behind the scenes. Looks like I’m
going to have the legal department busy this month.”