Post by doe on Jul 21, 2009 4:14:56 GMT -5
Shannon
Work was not going well. The GFC had slowed the transaction volume to a trickle. Great for leaving the office at a decent time, but not so great to keep motivated and pass the time. It also gave Shannon plenty of time for her mind to wander and think about ...stuff. Shannon's thoughts during these down times went from the deep to the not so deep, from questions about her own life and what she wanted out of it to questions about how she would meet up with her friends after work.
Today has been a particularly slow day, no calls from clients, no last minute deadlines, no deal flow. Shannon's thoughts naturally meandered to thinking about relationships, more particularly a relationship with a special guy, that someone who could engage Shannon's feelings and be her other half.
Shannon thoughts on this particular topic always started at the same place. He would have dark hair and gorgeous eyes - not blue - that was so cliche, but perhaps green or a warm brown. He would be in business, maybe work for a merchant bank or in real estate or asset management and look the part in delicious suits. He would have a cute smile and a sense of humor, be confident, but not a true alpha - someone who got the job done without too much hype. Someone who could work well in a team and who didn't suck the oxygen out of a room. He would be focused, but could just chill when appropriate. He would be toned and have a strong upper body and...... he would be in a wheelchair.....
Ashley
The project was not going well.... the yields were not stacking and he had to make this work somehow. No matter which way he ran the numbers, he couldn't make it work. Greg, his boss, was not going to be pleased. The company needed this deal, reporting season was coming up and it just had to work.
Ashley ran his hands through his dark brown hair in frustration. Maybe he could sleep on the problem overnight, think of a way through. He shut off his computer and leaned back to work the kinks out in his shoulders. Time to go home.
Ashley was not one for self-reflection, but something made him think about where he was at with life. Life was good....considering. Since the accident 4 years ago, he'd come back and made his mark in his department, had brought in some incredible deals and had made them work. But he was restless. As ambitious as he was, he needed something other than work in his life, something or someone to come home to at night. Someone warm and giving.
Snapping out of his pensive mood, Ashley packed his things and wheeled out of his office. Ashley hadn't gone out much with girls since he'd been in the chair, in fact had avoided it. Life was easier that way, but now he wondered how he was going to manage it. How could he meet a girl who would be interested in him?
***********
Ashley awoke the next morning tired, but excited. He had spent most of the night thinking about the project, playing with the assumptions that formed the basis of the numbers for the deal - anything to make that yield work. By 3am he had his answer, by 4am he was asleep and by 6am his alarm clock woke him to the sound of that morning's traffic report.
Rubbing his face to wake himself up a bit more, Ashley sat up and transferred to his chair to make his way to the bathroom and got down to business. Getting the rest of his morning routine underway, Ashley sat in front of the basin in nothing more than the boxers he wore to bed and critically assessed himself in the mirror. He wasn't too shabby considering the night he had had, although another 5 hours sleep wouldn't be a bad thing. He wandered what other people saw when they looked at him. He hoped it was the capable, intelligent business man that he was who just happened to have a different method of locomotion, but sometimes the reality was different. Sometimes people looked at him and assumed he was helpless, or that he was stupid or even worse that he needed to be pitied. That made Ashley feel vulnerable and it was at those times when he needed it most, that his confidence left him. But in business, around the negotiation table, he could mix it up with the best of them - he loved a good stoush.
Giving himself a mental kick, he shook off the melancholy thoughts. He had his work-out to do, a job to get to and a deal to put together. Ashley left the bathroom, adrenalin starting to pump....
Arriving at work, Ashley went straight for his computer eager to try the new model he had come up with the night before and to crunch the numbers. After an hour, he had his answer, the deal looked like it was going to stick..... if they could get the seller to agree to a few things.
"Hey Greg" Ashley called as he entered Greg's office, checking that Greg was not in a meeting with someone else. "I think I can make this thing work, if you have a moment, come take a look at the latest model". "Ok Ash, let's see what you've got" Greg said as he followed Ashley back to his computer.
"See, this is where we got stuck yesterday" Ashley said as he pointed to the open spreadsheet on his screen. "I've been a bit more aggressive in the assumptions on which the model is based from our end, but have also assumed we can get Smithers to agree to underpin the net income for at least two years to this value. He should do it in this market if we can offer him a quick closing. After all, we are taking a fair amount of his dud assets off his hands, letting him reducing his gearing."
"Greg squinted at the computer screen and said "Mate, this looks like it may well fly with the Investment Committee, let me have a closer look at the detail in the next half hour or so. If it works, I'll talk to Smithers and see if he'll come to the table. In the meantime, why don't you get started on the business case recommendation to the Investment Committee. We've got to be in a position to move quickly on this one, otherwise we will lose our leverage.
Ashley sat back and watched Greg leave with some satisfaction, knowing he had played a pivotal role in formulating the deal. After another 5 minutes of musing, Ashley put fingers to keyboard and got working on the draft recommendation.
Just after lunchtime, Greg popped his head into Ashley's office and said "I talked to Smithers about an hour ago, he's on board, but closing has to happen in two weeks! Hope you're not planning to have a social life for that period as things are going to get intense."
Ashley didn't have much of a social life outside of a few after hours drinks with his work mates on a Friday night, so he knew that was not going to be an issue. "No problem, I'll be around," Ashley answered.
Greg went on "Go ahead and finalise the recommendation and call the valuers to get the value on the portfolio fine tuned. I'll call the legal team - we've got to get the legals started if we have any chance to meet this deadline. "You'll also need to make yourself available for the lawyers meetings, I will need you to know what's going on so you can handle the document negotiations with Smithers' legal team.'
"Ok let's get this show on the road" Ashley said with a smile.
Shannon
Things weren't looking up and it was only Wednesday. "Still two more days to the weekend" thought Shannon glumly, once again gazing at the web site, Shannon had been looking at on her work computer for the last hour. Suddenly, Shannon's colleague, Gina entered her office and called out "Shannon, Mike's called a team meeting, apparently there's a big urgent deal that's just come in the door, it's going to be all hands on deck, room 9 in 5 minutes. I'll go round up the others."
Entering the meeting room, Shannon saw that there were already quite a few team members assembled for the meeting. The guys from tax were there and corporate as well as environment and planning. Shannon and Gina would round out the real estate team as as well assist Mike with the overall management and implementation of the transaction.
Shannon had just sat down at the boardroom table, when Mike strode into the room "OK guys, thanks for making it at such short notice. I just got off the phone from Greg Bittman at Investco and they are looking to buy the Smithers portfolio and they need to close the deal in two weeks, otherwise Smithers is going to talk to other parties. We need the due diligence teams ready to go tonight after Shannon, Gina and I meet with Greg to talk about the scope and logistics. All teams need to ensure that they have the resources available to do this one - it's big, 10 commercial and retail properties spread across 4 states and it will be an indirect purchase through the vehicles, so we need corporate in on this as well". There were nods around the table and mummers passed between some team members. Mike continued: " I can't emphasise enough that we really need to look after Investco on this one, we almost lost them with that incident on Project Nickel. We need to make sure there are no missed deadlines and nothing falls between the cracks. Shannon, you'll be heading the legal documentation team and Gina you'll be coordinating and managing the due diligence and the inputs from the other states. Please, also make sure you keep communicating with each other so that we make the project delivery seamless. Any questions? No team members had questions,it had all been straightforward and fairly general to that point.
"Good, no questions, OK, once, we have the meeting with Greg's team this evening, Gina will let you how you can access the due diligence material, the questions and answer process and the timeline." Thanks everybody".
As the team members exited the room, Mike had a quick chat to both Gina and Shannon about the meeting with the Investco team that was going to start in an hour. Shannon was looking forward to being involved on this high profile deal which would surely bring with it several doses of much needed mental stimulation.
********************
The Investco meeting had begun 10 minutes ago and Shannon was running late. A last minute call had come in from a client which took longer to resolve that anticipated, so Shannon had missed the start of the Investco meeting. Getting up from her desk, Shannon checked her appearance in the small cupboard mirror in her office and checked she had business cards in her portfolio and headed upstairs to the meeting room. When she reached the door, she give a quick sharp knock and proceeded to make her way to the one empty chair left around the table.
She quickly glanced around the room, hoping she had not interrupted the focus of the meeting which was on Greg, who was speaking at the front of the room near the white board about the structure of the transaction and why it needed to be closed so quickly, Greg explained the background of the negotiations with Smithers and how they had reached this point. He then said, "Folks, I'm now going to hand you over to Ash Reardon here who is going to take you through the modeling and assumptions from Investco's perspective so you can get a feel for the must haves from our point of view" "Ash?" Greg said looking at Ashley and then taking his seat at the table.
Shannon didn't know Ash, he hadn't been on the Investco team on the last deal she had worked on before leaving for the London office and returning to Australia. She looked at the pile of business cards before her and read "Ashley Reardon, National Business Development Manager - Commercial and Retail". Shannon knew that Ash must be fairly high up in his organisation for Greg to be involving him in this presentation. Shannon sat back and waited for as Ash to stand up and walk to the front of the room. Curiously, he did not proceed to stand up to take Greg's place and Shannon was left wondering why as most guys in her experience couldn't wait to take the floor and be the centre of attention. She was pondering this, when she saw that Ash had finished shuffling his papers and had pushed back from the table to make his way in a wheelchair to the front of the room to address the meeting. When he got to the front, he turned his chair and smiled at his audience.
Ash began the presentation "Thanks Greg, well everyone, let's start with the assumptions behind the yield analysis............."
At this point, Shannon's world stopped turning as Ash's words faded away and she took the opportunity to just savor looking at him. From the tip of the footrests of his chair to the top of his hair, this man was the living embodiment of Shannon's fantasies. He had dark brown hair cut in a fashionable style which curled just past the collar of his charcoal grey tailored suit, gorgeous brown eyes and an animated face. The jacket of his suit fit him to perfection over strong shoulders and arms and over a wide expanse of chest. As Shannon's eyes drifted lower, she could see Ash's hands, sometimes pointing to the white board, sometimes resting on the papers in his lap, but more often than not, resting on the black wheels of his chair. Shannon's eyes continued the journey downward to Ash's legs encased in the loose fitting slacks of his suit and finally to Ash's feet resting on the footrests at slightly odd angels encased in black boots. A ripple of heat suffused Shannon's body as she thought about the picture that was Ashley Reardon and she was sure that everyone at the meeting could see the red blush which now covered her face. Quickly she looked around and confirmed that everyone was still listening intently to Ash's presentation so she focused her attention back to the front of the room. Looking at Ash again, she experienced a second but still intense wave of heat and thought nervously how she was going to maintain her professionalism in the presence of her living and breathing fantasy. It was at this point, that Shannon dropped her pen to the desk with a loud "clang" interrupting Ash's presentation and making all heads turn towards her. "Err, sorry.." she said in a small voice. Ash gave her a long, slightly pointed look and proceeded to wind up his presentation.
The meeting continued for another 15 minutes during which Mike explained how the transaction would be managed from his end. As the meeting was breaking up, Mike called to Shannon, "Can you take Ash to the next meeting room and work out the due diligence reporting requirements and timetable. Gina and I are going to stay here with Greg to work out the structuring. Once Gina is finished here, I'll send her in to you."
Shannon nodded weakly to Mike and managed a passable smile at Ash, trying to avoid looking directly into his eyes and said "Ash, please go into room 10 and I'll be with you shortly. I just have to go down to my office and get the due diligence folders".
With that, Shannon bolted from the room and headed directly for the bathroom. Once there she looked at her self in the mirror and took several deep breaths to slow her rapidly beating pulse. Turning on the cold tap, she splashed some water on her hot face and tried to calm down. "Shannon, remain professional, keep calm, relax....he's just another client, just another guy"....she told herself over and over. She almost believed it until the words "who just happens to be the living embodiment of your fantasy" popped into her head.
"Shit, Shit, Shit!" she yelled.
Now that that was out of her system, Shannon dried her face and took one last deep breath and headed to her office to collect the folders. She would remain professional, she would be the calm, cool business woman she knew she was, it was just another transaction, just another deal and, yeah....... pigs might fly.....
Five minutes later Shannon entered room 10 carrying four heavy ring binders containing documents. Her plan was to go through them generally with Ash and determine how he wanted the due diligence results presented and with what frequency. All, well and good Shannon thought to herself, I've done this a thousand times before, no sweat. Shannon almost made it to the table when suddenly she ran into the side of Ash's chair. She didn't see him directly in front of her because of the folders she was carrying. Feeling herself pitch forward, there really was only one place on which she could catch herself - the fact that it was a strong shoulder clad in a smart charcoal grey suit, didn't occur to Shannon at that moment. After she managed to steady herself on Ash's shoulder, two of the folders she was carrying land on the floor, another landed in Ash's lap and the last clipped his face, eventually also landing in his lap.
Mortified, Shannon said" I'm so very sorry... are you OK? I'll just get you a tissue so you can wipe your face, Oh God!"
Turning to get the tissue, she heard a deep chuckle "I'm fine, it's OK and don't worry about the tissue, I'll wipe it with this" .
Turning back to Ash, Shannon saw that Ash had put the folders on the floor and had fished out a clean handkerchief from his suit pocket and was wiping his face. "And... you should probably check out your leg, I think I see some blood." Looking down Shannon indeed saw that she must have kicked Ash's wheel and that the hub of it had ripped her stockings and some of the skin on her right shin.
"Thanks, I'll just go clean myself up, sorry to keep you waiting".
"No problem, I'll just continue checking my emails on my Blackberry whilst you're gone"
With that, Shannon took herself off for her second trip to the bathroom in 20 minutes. Disaster!
As she re-entered the meeting room 15 minutes later, Shannon was cleaned up and had put on a fresh pair of stockings (after all what professional woman does not keep a spare pair in her bottom desk drawer) and her most professional demeanor.
"OK, now that we've got that out of the way, let's get started on this due diligence material." Shannon called from the doorway
With that Shannon sat down across from Ash at the table and proceeded to open the first of the folders.
********************************************************************
Ash watched as Shannon Mason sat down and flipped open the first of the folders. Tuning out what she was saying, he let his gaze wonder over her. She had recovered from their earlier impact and was now in full professional mode. She was pointing to the pages, flipping them over every now and again. Shannon looked to be in her early thirties, was about 5 foot 8 and had light brown hair and brown eyes. He couldn't see her legs now, but from what he remembered from the crash, they were long and shapely and encased in filmy black stockings and she wore some killer heels. Looking at her upper body, which he could see above the table, he saw that Shannon had some nice curves, and was well proportioned.
Well it's certainly not going to be any real hardship working intensely with Ms Shannon Mason over the next couple of weeks on this transaction Ashley thought. In fact he sensed that it was going to be an absolute pleasure if.....she didn't kill or maim him first!
[TBC]
Work was not going well. The GFC had slowed the transaction volume to a trickle. Great for leaving the office at a decent time, but not so great to keep motivated and pass the time. It also gave Shannon plenty of time for her mind to wander and think about ...stuff. Shannon's thoughts during these down times went from the deep to the not so deep, from questions about her own life and what she wanted out of it to questions about how she would meet up with her friends after work.
Today has been a particularly slow day, no calls from clients, no last minute deadlines, no deal flow. Shannon's thoughts naturally meandered to thinking about relationships, more particularly a relationship with a special guy, that someone who could engage Shannon's feelings and be her other half.
Shannon thoughts on this particular topic always started at the same place. He would have dark hair and gorgeous eyes - not blue - that was so cliche, but perhaps green or a warm brown. He would be in business, maybe work for a merchant bank or in real estate or asset management and look the part in delicious suits. He would have a cute smile and a sense of humor, be confident, but not a true alpha - someone who got the job done without too much hype. Someone who could work well in a team and who didn't suck the oxygen out of a room. He would be focused, but could just chill when appropriate. He would be toned and have a strong upper body and...... he would be in a wheelchair.....
Ashley
The project was not going well.... the yields were not stacking and he had to make this work somehow. No matter which way he ran the numbers, he couldn't make it work. Greg, his boss, was not going to be pleased. The company needed this deal, reporting season was coming up and it just had to work.
Ashley ran his hands through his dark brown hair in frustration. Maybe he could sleep on the problem overnight, think of a way through. He shut off his computer and leaned back to work the kinks out in his shoulders. Time to go home.
Ashley was not one for self-reflection, but something made him think about where he was at with life. Life was good....considering. Since the accident 4 years ago, he'd come back and made his mark in his department, had brought in some incredible deals and had made them work. But he was restless. As ambitious as he was, he needed something other than work in his life, something or someone to come home to at night. Someone warm and giving.
Snapping out of his pensive mood, Ashley packed his things and wheeled out of his office. Ashley hadn't gone out much with girls since he'd been in the chair, in fact had avoided it. Life was easier that way, but now he wondered how he was going to manage it. How could he meet a girl who would be interested in him?
***********
Ashley awoke the next morning tired, but excited. He had spent most of the night thinking about the project, playing with the assumptions that formed the basis of the numbers for the deal - anything to make that yield work. By 3am he had his answer, by 4am he was asleep and by 6am his alarm clock woke him to the sound of that morning's traffic report.
Rubbing his face to wake himself up a bit more, Ashley sat up and transferred to his chair to make his way to the bathroom and got down to business. Getting the rest of his morning routine underway, Ashley sat in front of the basin in nothing more than the boxers he wore to bed and critically assessed himself in the mirror. He wasn't too shabby considering the night he had had, although another 5 hours sleep wouldn't be a bad thing. He wandered what other people saw when they looked at him. He hoped it was the capable, intelligent business man that he was who just happened to have a different method of locomotion, but sometimes the reality was different. Sometimes people looked at him and assumed he was helpless, or that he was stupid or even worse that he needed to be pitied. That made Ashley feel vulnerable and it was at those times when he needed it most, that his confidence left him. But in business, around the negotiation table, he could mix it up with the best of them - he loved a good stoush.
Giving himself a mental kick, he shook off the melancholy thoughts. He had his work-out to do, a job to get to and a deal to put together. Ashley left the bathroom, adrenalin starting to pump....
Arriving at work, Ashley went straight for his computer eager to try the new model he had come up with the night before and to crunch the numbers. After an hour, he had his answer, the deal looked like it was going to stick..... if they could get the seller to agree to a few things.
"Hey Greg" Ashley called as he entered Greg's office, checking that Greg was not in a meeting with someone else. "I think I can make this thing work, if you have a moment, come take a look at the latest model". "Ok Ash, let's see what you've got" Greg said as he followed Ashley back to his computer.
"See, this is where we got stuck yesterday" Ashley said as he pointed to the open spreadsheet on his screen. "I've been a bit more aggressive in the assumptions on which the model is based from our end, but have also assumed we can get Smithers to agree to underpin the net income for at least two years to this value. He should do it in this market if we can offer him a quick closing. After all, we are taking a fair amount of his dud assets off his hands, letting him reducing his gearing."
"Greg squinted at the computer screen and said "Mate, this looks like it may well fly with the Investment Committee, let me have a closer look at the detail in the next half hour or so. If it works, I'll talk to Smithers and see if he'll come to the table. In the meantime, why don't you get started on the business case recommendation to the Investment Committee. We've got to be in a position to move quickly on this one, otherwise we will lose our leverage.
Ashley sat back and watched Greg leave with some satisfaction, knowing he had played a pivotal role in formulating the deal. After another 5 minutes of musing, Ashley put fingers to keyboard and got working on the draft recommendation.
Just after lunchtime, Greg popped his head into Ashley's office and said "I talked to Smithers about an hour ago, he's on board, but closing has to happen in two weeks! Hope you're not planning to have a social life for that period as things are going to get intense."
Ashley didn't have much of a social life outside of a few after hours drinks with his work mates on a Friday night, so he knew that was not going to be an issue. "No problem, I'll be around," Ashley answered.
Greg went on "Go ahead and finalise the recommendation and call the valuers to get the value on the portfolio fine tuned. I'll call the legal team - we've got to get the legals started if we have any chance to meet this deadline. "You'll also need to make yourself available for the lawyers meetings, I will need you to know what's going on so you can handle the document negotiations with Smithers' legal team.'
"Ok let's get this show on the road" Ashley said with a smile.
Shannon
Things weren't looking up and it was only Wednesday. "Still two more days to the weekend" thought Shannon glumly, once again gazing at the web site, Shannon had been looking at on her work computer for the last hour. Suddenly, Shannon's colleague, Gina entered her office and called out "Shannon, Mike's called a team meeting, apparently there's a big urgent deal that's just come in the door, it's going to be all hands on deck, room 9 in 5 minutes. I'll go round up the others."
Entering the meeting room, Shannon saw that there were already quite a few team members assembled for the meeting. The guys from tax were there and corporate as well as environment and planning. Shannon and Gina would round out the real estate team as as well assist Mike with the overall management and implementation of the transaction.
Shannon had just sat down at the boardroom table, when Mike strode into the room "OK guys, thanks for making it at such short notice. I just got off the phone from Greg Bittman at Investco and they are looking to buy the Smithers portfolio and they need to close the deal in two weeks, otherwise Smithers is going to talk to other parties. We need the due diligence teams ready to go tonight after Shannon, Gina and I meet with Greg to talk about the scope and logistics. All teams need to ensure that they have the resources available to do this one - it's big, 10 commercial and retail properties spread across 4 states and it will be an indirect purchase through the vehicles, so we need corporate in on this as well". There were nods around the table and mummers passed between some team members. Mike continued: " I can't emphasise enough that we really need to look after Investco on this one, we almost lost them with that incident on Project Nickel. We need to make sure there are no missed deadlines and nothing falls between the cracks. Shannon, you'll be heading the legal documentation team and Gina you'll be coordinating and managing the due diligence and the inputs from the other states. Please, also make sure you keep communicating with each other so that we make the project delivery seamless. Any questions? No team members had questions,it had all been straightforward and fairly general to that point.
"Good, no questions, OK, once, we have the meeting with Greg's team this evening, Gina will let you how you can access the due diligence material, the questions and answer process and the timeline." Thanks everybody".
As the team members exited the room, Mike had a quick chat to both Gina and Shannon about the meeting with the Investco team that was going to start in an hour. Shannon was looking forward to being involved on this high profile deal which would surely bring with it several doses of much needed mental stimulation.
********************
The Investco meeting had begun 10 minutes ago and Shannon was running late. A last minute call had come in from a client which took longer to resolve that anticipated, so Shannon had missed the start of the Investco meeting. Getting up from her desk, Shannon checked her appearance in the small cupboard mirror in her office and checked she had business cards in her portfolio and headed upstairs to the meeting room. When she reached the door, she give a quick sharp knock and proceeded to make her way to the one empty chair left around the table.
She quickly glanced around the room, hoping she had not interrupted the focus of the meeting which was on Greg, who was speaking at the front of the room near the white board about the structure of the transaction and why it needed to be closed so quickly, Greg explained the background of the negotiations with Smithers and how they had reached this point. He then said, "Folks, I'm now going to hand you over to Ash Reardon here who is going to take you through the modeling and assumptions from Investco's perspective so you can get a feel for the must haves from our point of view" "Ash?" Greg said looking at Ashley and then taking his seat at the table.
Shannon didn't know Ash, he hadn't been on the Investco team on the last deal she had worked on before leaving for the London office and returning to Australia. She looked at the pile of business cards before her and read "Ashley Reardon, National Business Development Manager - Commercial and Retail". Shannon knew that Ash must be fairly high up in his organisation for Greg to be involving him in this presentation. Shannon sat back and waited for as Ash to stand up and walk to the front of the room. Curiously, he did not proceed to stand up to take Greg's place and Shannon was left wondering why as most guys in her experience couldn't wait to take the floor and be the centre of attention. She was pondering this, when she saw that Ash had finished shuffling his papers and had pushed back from the table to make his way in a wheelchair to the front of the room to address the meeting. When he got to the front, he turned his chair and smiled at his audience.
Ash began the presentation "Thanks Greg, well everyone, let's start with the assumptions behind the yield analysis............."
At this point, Shannon's world stopped turning as Ash's words faded away and she took the opportunity to just savor looking at him. From the tip of the footrests of his chair to the top of his hair, this man was the living embodiment of Shannon's fantasies. He had dark brown hair cut in a fashionable style which curled just past the collar of his charcoal grey tailored suit, gorgeous brown eyes and an animated face. The jacket of his suit fit him to perfection over strong shoulders and arms and over a wide expanse of chest. As Shannon's eyes drifted lower, she could see Ash's hands, sometimes pointing to the white board, sometimes resting on the papers in his lap, but more often than not, resting on the black wheels of his chair. Shannon's eyes continued the journey downward to Ash's legs encased in the loose fitting slacks of his suit and finally to Ash's feet resting on the footrests at slightly odd angels encased in black boots. A ripple of heat suffused Shannon's body as she thought about the picture that was Ashley Reardon and she was sure that everyone at the meeting could see the red blush which now covered her face. Quickly she looked around and confirmed that everyone was still listening intently to Ash's presentation so she focused her attention back to the front of the room. Looking at Ash again, she experienced a second but still intense wave of heat and thought nervously how she was going to maintain her professionalism in the presence of her living and breathing fantasy. It was at this point, that Shannon dropped her pen to the desk with a loud "clang" interrupting Ash's presentation and making all heads turn towards her. "Err, sorry.." she said in a small voice. Ash gave her a long, slightly pointed look and proceeded to wind up his presentation.
The meeting continued for another 15 minutes during which Mike explained how the transaction would be managed from his end. As the meeting was breaking up, Mike called to Shannon, "Can you take Ash to the next meeting room and work out the due diligence reporting requirements and timetable. Gina and I are going to stay here with Greg to work out the structuring. Once Gina is finished here, I'll send her in to you."
Shannon nodded weakly to Mike and managed a passable smile at Ash, trying to avoid looking directly into his eyes and said "Ash, please go into room 10 and I'll be with you shortly. I just have to go down to my office and get the due diligence folders".
With that, Shannon bolted from the room and headed directly for the bathroom. Once there she looked at her self in the mirror and took several deep breaths to slow her rapidly beating pulse. Turning on the cold tap, she splashed some water on her hot face and tried to calm down. "Shannon, remain professional, keep calm, relax....he's just another client, just another guy"....she told herself over and over. She almost believed it until the words "who just happens to be the living embodiment of your fantasy" popped into her head.
"Shit, Shit, Shit!" she yelled.
Now that that was out of her system, Shannon dried her face and took one last deep breath and headed to her office to collect the folders. She would remain professional, she would be the calm, cool business woman she knew she was, it was just another transaction, just another deal and, yeah....... pigs might fly.....
Five minutes later Shannon entered room 10 carrying four heavy ring binders containing documents. Her plan was to go through them generally with Ash and determine how he wanted the due diligence results presented and with what frequency. All, well and good Shannon thought to herself, I've done this a thousand times before, no sweat. Shannon almost made it to the table when suddenly she ran into the side of Ash's chair. She didn't see him directly in front of her because of the folders she was carrying. Feeling herself pitch forward, there really was only one place on which she could catch herself - the fact that it was a strong shoulder clad in a smart charcoal grey suit, didn't occur to Shannon at that moment. After she managed to steady herself on Ash's shoulder, two of the folders she was carrying land on the floor, another landed in Ash's lap and the last clipped his face, eventually also landing in his lap.
Mortified, Shannon said" I'm so very sorry... are you OK? I'll just get you a tissue so you can wipe your face, Oh God!"
Turning to get the tissue, she heard a deep chuckle "I'm fine, it's OK and don't worry about the tissue, I'll wipe it with this" .
Turning back to Ash, Shannon saw that Ash had put the folders on the floor and had fished out a clean handkerchief from his suit pocket and was wiping his face. "And... you should probably check out your leg, I think I see some blood." Looking down Shannon indeed saw that she must have kicked Ash's wheel and that the hub of it had ripped her stockings and some of the skin on her right shin.
"Thanks, I'll just go clean myself up, sorry to keep you waiting".
"No problem, I'll just continue checking my emails on my Blackberry whilst you're gone"
With that, Shannon took herself off for her second trip to the bathroom in 20 minutes. Disaster!
As she re-entered the meeting room 15 minutes later, Shannon was cleaned up and had put on a fresh pair of stockings (after all what professional woman does not keep a spare pair in her bottom desk drawer) and her most professional demeanor.
"OK, now that we've got that out of the way, let's get started on this due diligence material." Shannon called from the doorway
With that Shannon sat down across from Ash at the table and proceeded to open the first of the folders.
********************************************************************
Ash watched as Shannon Mason sat down and flipped open the first of the folders. Tuning out what she was saying, he let his gaze wonder over her. She had recovered from their earlier impact and was now in full professional mode. She was pointing to the pages, flipping them over every now and again. Shannon looked to be in her early thirties, was about 5 foot 8 and had light brown hair and brown eyes. He couldn't see her legs now, but from what he remembered from the crash, they were long and shapely and encased in filmy black stockings and she wore some killer heels. Looking at her upper body, which he could see above the table, he saw that Shannon had some nice curves, and was well proportioned.
Well it's certainly not going to be any real hardship working intensely with Ms Shannon Mason over the next couple of weeks on this transaction Ashley thought. In fact he sensed that it was going to be an absolute pleasure if.....she didn't kill or maim him first!
[TBC]
. Although my love is somewhat belated, as I hadn´t seen your post. But as Phil and I agree upon, better late than never ... 
.
