Mr Mullins

By MD Blossom

 

Leda finally has her own clothing boutique in New York City. Business is booming and she's at the start of a huge fashion career. As long as big-time real estate mogul Spencer Mullins doesn't ruin all her dreams. Spencer is a no-nonsense CEO with a reputation for destroying small businesses as he capitalizes on the real estate boom. He's ruthless and only focused on making the deals until he meets Leda. She's managed to catch his eye and that spark might even save her business. Their sexual chemistry can't save this business deal though. These two enemies will have to work together if Leda wants to save her business and if Mr. Mullins wants to avoid any further bad press.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MD Blossom
• Release date: Mar 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393766902

Book preview

Chapter One

Spencer

H ow are we coming with the sixtieth street project? I said, landing in my chair at the end of the long table.

Most of the owners have signed the offer agreements. A few were thinking about it but still appeared happy with the offers and will likely accept shortly. There’s only one owner that has not responded to any of our letters.

Did you offer the best we could offer? I asked.

Yes, I went with our normal strategy and the second offer was twenty-five percent higher than the first and still no response, Ted, my deals guy, replied.

Then start phase two. I don’t have time for this. This is our shot at going big with the mall. Everyone’s saying malls can’t make money and we are going to prove them wrong with this project. I’m telling you guys, this is our moneymaker. This is our over-the-top news coverage, out-of-this-world social media coverage. Nothing is going to get in our way. Do you understand? I yelled as I stood up so quickly my chair jet out behind me and hit the wall.

Spencer, we don’t want bad publicity though. Your image really can’t handle any more, Edward said.

We don’t have bad publicity.

Yes. Yes, you do Spencer. You’re known as a shark around here. No one looks at The Mullins Corporation and thinks we are the good guys.

Fine, then that’s how it is. People should know better than to cross us then. Find this holdout and get him on our side. He runs a dry cleaning business, right? Make his customers better offers at other businesses and do it quickly.

Man, I don’t… Edward started to argue with me and then stopped mid-sentence. He knew better than to continue this conversation in front of everyone else. I’ll work with Ted and the rest of the team and we will get the results, he finally added.

Thank you. Now let’s move onto the new land bid project.

The rest of the meeting went smoothly. Probably because no one wanted to argue with me and could tell I was wound up pretty tightly after that first conversation. Every project had one or two holdouts and we had a plan for them. I wasn’t sure why Edward was so against this plan all of a sudden. It had worked for years and when something works there is no need to change it.

As the meeting wrapped up I grabbed Edward and we went to my office to talk about what had happened. Although my first inclination was to bash him for speaking up to me like that in the middle of the meeting, Edward was my friend and a softer touch was more appropriate.

Dude, you can’t come at me like that in meetings, I shook my head and sat down in the sitting area of my office.

Spencer, if you want to be the biggest name in real estate in New York City then you can’t be hated. Other businesses will avoid you because of the bad press. I know this project is important but one rough business could really draw a lot of social media attention and make things really messy for us very quickly. I think we have to be softer in the approach, but that’s just my opinion.

I understand where you’re coming from Ed, but we need this deal. The turnover numbers are insane. Plus, this is a state-of-the-art project. You know how crazy it’s going to be. The first mall to actually draw people in instead of turning them away. We are revolutionizing the industry with this project. Showing everyone that malls aren’t outdated but they have to be modernized.

I hear ya, but strong-arm tactics aren’t the best way and I’m standing by that. I’m your marketing guy and I know what’s going to sell. It won’t help the mall if people know you took advantage of old businesses to get what you wanted.

Wait a minute, Ed! I was not onboard with him now. I’m not taking advantage of anyone! We offer good money for their businesses.

Edward shook his head in disagreement.

For over ten years Edward and I had worked together in one way or another. He was by far my biggest confidant in the company. Recently divorced though and parenting his twin 8-year-old daughters was wearing on him. He’d gone soft recently. Soft for the hardcore business that we were in and I needed the pit bull back.

It’s not about money for these businesses, Spencer. You are taking away their memories, their livelihood, their future. Yes, some of them have been struggling and easily accept your offer. Some look at the offer and are willing to take it to start fresh at a new location. But some of the businesses are thriving and the idea of moving is terrifying to them. You have to be willing to slow down for them.

No, I’m not slowing down. On this project, it’s just one old man and his dry cleaning business. He literally could move half a mile down the road and buy himself all new equipment with the money we are offering.

Fine, what do you suggest? I finally caved a little. What do you think would work better?

First of all, I think going down there personally would work better for the holdouts. Stop in and visit with them. You can negotiate in person much better than through letters.

The letters work for the others, I shrugged.

The last thing I wanted to do was show up at a business and have some old man yelling at me that I was ruining his life. The idea here was to pay them off and get them to take the deal as quickly as possible and without me having to deal directly with the businesses. No, I absolutely was not about to walk into one of the businesses and play friendly with them. I’d rather just give them the money they were asking for.

This business has been there for generations. I think a visit would do well, Edward held his ground.

It’s not going to happen right now. Send the package if you don’t want to drive the business away.

No, I absolutely don’t want to drive the business away from this guy. He’s been there for years and I’m not sure his customers would even go anywhere else.

Fine, then send one more large offer. After that send the annoyingly large package. Then we are going to start driving their business away. We can’t afford to lose money on this. The plans are drawn up and we need to break ground before our funding partners start getting spooked.

Okay, can I offer the biggest amount? The seven-figure offer? Edward looked at me hopefully.

The last thing I wanted to do was offer this small dry cleaner a million dollars, but with the building and the business, it would still be worth it. A holdout could delay the project for years and we certainly couldn’t afford that.

It was the final offer that we usually saved for much larger buildings. This particular building was a run-down two-story without any livable space. It looked like the owner had abandoned the upstairs apartment, or at least it did from the property photos we had that were a few years old.

Yes, give them the million so we can get this done. What sort of businessman wouldn’t take this deal? I shook my head.

Edward made some notes on his phone while I moved to my desk to check off some work items too. We worked in silence for about a half hour before Edward got up to head back to his own office. It was amazing how lost in work we could get and not even notice.

This week had been an exhausting one for the both of us. At work by seven and not leaving until well after six at night. This was how the business worked when we got close to deadlines.

Free for drinks tonight? I don’t have the girls this weekend.

I could go for a drink. How about The Manhattan Club?

Spencer, the girls there don’t go for me. They like guys like you, not guys like me.

What are you talking about? I laughed. There are literally hundreds of women there. No way you can’t find one to take home.

I’m not good with the ladies like you are.

They just want me for the money. I’d like to find a woman who doesn’t know me and isn’t trying to vie for a hook into the next big page-six story. For once I’d like to meet a woman who just thought I was funny and a little handsome and didn’t care about the money.

Sounds like a plan. How about ten tonight? I need to finish some stuff and call the girls before their bedtime, Edward said like the good dad that he was.

Okay, I’ll get a car and swing by your place later. Don’t fall asleep again Ed. I’m not coming up there to wake your old butt up again. You’re only two years older than me. Thirty-four is not old enough to be falling asleep before ten on a Friday.

Man, I’ll try, he laughed as he made his way out of my office and back to his.

It wasn’t that I was any better with the ladies than Edward was. In fact, he clearly had a better record than I did. He’d been married and had children with the woman he considered the love of his life.

When I finally found the woman I thought I could settle down with I never even locked her down. Instead, we dated for five years and she ended up passing away in a car accident. I always felt like I would know when it was time to propose to her and there always seemed to be something holding me back. Since she died, relationships have not been my thing. One-night stands were about all I could manage with the occasional week-long fling.

It was harder than ever to meet someone that I could connect with now. My face was plastered all over the newspapers and magazines. There were constant stories on social media about my company and our latest projects. Business-wise, things were going fantastically. Personally, it made it pretty hard to know what a woman’s true intentions were.

It wasn’t as if I was actually famous. Outside of New York City, no one would likely know who I was. But I lived and worked in New York. My proverbial pool of women all came from New York. Even girls that might not have known me at first would very quickly figure out who I was and their whole demeanor would change. They became what I liked to call ‘yes girls’ never having their own opinions, never wanting to rock the boat, it was no fun at all.

When you think of dating and getting to know a woman or falling in love, the last thing any guy wants is a woman who doesn’t have a mind of her own. Even the strong and independent women that I’ve gone on dates with tended to wither down into puddles when they figured out who I am and how much I’m worth.

So, for the time being, it was fun nights and club girls. No strings fun was still fun! Plus, I had to find a lady for Edward. That poor guy had been divorced for over a year and still barely managed to date. Logistically he was much better than I on paper. He was already house trained and I still needed to be broken in quite a bit.

The two of us hanging out at the club on a Friday night was just the release that I needed. Maybe I’d even run into the mysterious girl that didn’t know who I was.

Chapter Two

Leda

A nother letter from that company?