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with themselves for investing in a company that was about to bring them a big win. The one who’d been defending Annamaria against the attacks of my relatives took me aside for a little private talk.
“Your mother-in-law is a pain in the ass,” he said, “but she’s right. Ultimately, the girl will have to go, no matter how much business she’s bringing in right now. We could never do a public offering with her as the senior marketing person. She’s too junior, too pretty, and has too little experience. No track record, either, and for an IPO we need someone with a track record. She’d just be a liability and we can’t afford the baggage.” He stopped and looked very serious. “I don’t give a rat’s ass whether or not you’re sleeping with her, although I think it would be a very stupid thing if you were. My only concern is that we all get our money out.”
Although I didn’t respond to him, the truth was that I was not sleeping with her. The night she asked to become marketing manager, I pulled myself apologetically out of her arms, and explained that we really couldn’t become involved that way, not if we were going to go on working together. It wasn’t easy because my life with Medusa and her family was becoming nearly intolerable. She’d been sleeping as far away from me as possible in our king sized bed, and we hadn’t made love in months. At best, she’d never had much of a libido and had generally treated sex as more of an accommodation for me than a pleasure for her. Now, with the prodding of her family, she had no interest at all in pleasing me.
But, regardless of my own frustration level and the temptations Annamaria offered, there was no way I wanted anything other than a business relationship with her. |
