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His presence is every bit as intimidating as it was when we first met, the force of it pressing down on me along with his overpowering scent. Where Xavier’s helped me calm down some earlier, Dominic’s scent just makes me more nervous than I already was.
He stalks off without saying anything, leaving me staring after him with a pit in my stomach.
That encounter more than anything else that’s happened this morning leaves me wondering all over again if I’m going to be able to hack it at this job. Xavier might like me enough to give me a chance, but it’s clear Dominic is keeping score of every time I do something stupid, just waiting for me to mess up.
Chapter 5
Dominic
I slap my hand on the table, irritation burning through me as I stare down the other two from across the table.
“We arenotdoing that,” I growl, narrowing my eyes.
“Dominic, will you just listen?” Xavier asks. “I know it seems like taking a step backward?—”
“Because it is taking a step fucking backward. If we give in to this, they’ll expect us to bend over backward for every stupid request they have for the rest of this contract. I’m not letting them run all over us.”
“That’s not what this is,” Tristan puts in, his voice quiet and even as usual.
“Then what the fuck is it?” I demand.
Xavier shrugs. “It’s giving a little to get a lot more. We get their faith in us for adhering to a couple stupid requests, and it means they’ll be more likely to take our advice later on. There’s something to be said for keeping your clients happy, Dom.”
“Don’t call me that. All this is going to do is make them think we’ll do every stupid thing they want going forward. I’m not setting that precedent.”
“Compromise,” Tristan cuts in. “You’re going to have to do it sometimes.”
“Thank you,” Xavier says, nodding. “Did you really never give a little to your clients before the merger?”
I haven’t been thinking in terms of ‘before the merger’ and ‘after the merger’ before this, but every time I get into a fight with the other two thirds of this company, something in me really misses the way things used to be.
It was easier then. I could lay down the law as I wanted it to be, and most people fell in line. Or were able to be convinced to listen to me eventually. Some people couldn’t handle it, and those people didn’t last long with the company. We were better for it.
Now with the three of us doing this together, there’s more of a check and balances sort of system in place. No one of us can make decisions for the whole without running it past the others, but too often Xavier and Tristan seem to align on what they want, while I’m the one on the other side of the table, arguing for using good sense.
From a business standpoint, the merger was a smart move. No other tech firm in the country is as all-encompassing as Vantage Digital Systems is right now. We brought our strengths together to form something that no one else can even touch.
Xavier brought his cyber security knowledge and clients, Tristan brought his knowledge of the cloud and setting up those systems for our clients, and I brought my innovation and efficiency in providing software and solutions to this venture. It’s been advantageous for the three of us, making us more money and bringing in more clients than we ever could have alone, but at the same time, it’s been a struggle.
It’s been just this back and forth almost constantly. All three of us are used to being in charge, so it makes us butt heads. There’s no laying down the law, saying this is how it’s going to be, because that’s not how this works anymore.
It grates on me sometimes. Like now.
“I didn’t have to,” I fire back to Xavier. “When I told a client how it was going to be, they listened and thanked me for my input.”
Tristan and Xavier share a look, and I grit my teeth, irritation prickling under my skin.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?” Xavier asks.
“Look at each other like I’m being unreasonable. Before this merger, my business ran just fine. If I lost clients, it was a good thing because I probably didn’t want to deal with them anyway. You don’t gain anything by keeping on clients who aren’t going to listen. They can go somewhere else where they’ll be catered to the way they want and ultimately end up disappointed with the work.”
Xavier sighs, rubbing at his face. “That’s not the point though, Dominic. We don’t want to get a reputation for being unwilling to hear our clients out. They want to feel like they’re a part of the process.”
“If they want to be a part of the process, then they should learn to do what we do themselves. They can be a part of whatever they want then.”
“This is going nowhere,” Tristan says, standing up. “I’ll delay the client for now, but we will have to make a decision.”