Bad Publicity

5. The Meeting

Chapter 5

Jaxson
John, Shawn, and Milo arrive at exactly 2pm. I practically grew up with John and Shawn but Milo is new. When I hug the others as they entered I have to introduce myself to Milo.

Maybe it's my lack of knowledge on the guy but I don't like him from the moment he enters my home.

We sit around the living room looking over all the paper work that shows the sells decreasing over the last three years.

"How did all of this start?" I ask. "Lack of authority and communication. Companies started pulling out of deals. No money was being made." Milo says.

"So it's basically all my fault?" I ask and Shawn nods. "Damn, how do we fix it?" "We need to get back on the radar. Go to events, get smaller companies to sign deals, and get investments. Things like that. It's going to be hard since no one's going to want to make deals with a company not doing well." John tells me. He's a numbers guy.

"How do I get back on the radar? I mean what steps do I take?" I obviously don't know the first thing about running a company. Yeah I used to work with my father sometimes but he made  all the decisions, I just tagged along and managed files.

"We don't know. The best thing to do is ask for help from someone with the experience. None of us are qualified for this type of work ." Milo says. I'm going to have to find someone my dad was close with to help me. If I want to save my dads company I'm going to have to get my head in the game.

The rest of the meeting we go over some of the business deals we still have. Our company being close to bankrupt hasn't gotten to the media yet so we can probably seal a couple more deals before everything starts getting too bad.

The meeting lasted three hours. I made plans with Shawn and John to go out for drinks and deciding not to be a dick I invite Milo. Something about him makes me not trust him, but he's a necessity for my company.

As soon as they leave I start doing research. I have access to all my fathers files and notes. I'm determined to find someone my father was close to.

He did business with Robert Gans a lot. I remember when I was a kid we'd have dinner with his family a lot. He'd definitely want to help his friends company out. I wrote down his contact  information before look through some other options.

He did business with Hudson and Co. a lot as well. Not as much as he did with Robert but they had more meetings then him and Robert. I notice how my father scheduled more meetings than Hudson did. Notes from many of these meetings are just them repeating the same thing. The amounts of meetings they had were unnecessary. 

In every meeting Ava Elizabeth Hudson was present. Maybe she's her fathers assistant. There's still no way she does any real work. She probably sleeps with her dads clients to get them deals. I mean that's basically what she did with me.

"Wanna pway?" Her tiny voice distracts me from my work. I wonder how long she's been standing there. "Aren't you supposed to be upstairs?" I ask my daughter.

"Nelope told me to go pway" She is adorable. I chuckle "okay let's play" I tell her. She beams at me. Aw! She turns on the tv and grabs two game controllers. My daughter's a genius. She hands me a controller and sits next to me.

"Mommy says I can't play video games at night but we won't tell her" she says. I smile at the kid, she's mischievous. "I won't tell!" I say pretending to zip my mouth close. She giggles and if we're being honest my heart skips a beat at the sound of her quite laugh.

We play a few rounds of a racing game and I win every round. She pouts and I feel like I've done something wrong. "One more round!" I tell her, this time letting her win. But she isn't happy "you let me win" she says upset.

Why's she mad? I literally just gave her a free win. "You still won!" I tell her creasing my eyebrows. I thought kids like to win. "Mommy said we have to earn our success." She says with an extremely serious tone.

Damn this kid is smart. I can't help but smile at her. "Okay, I'm sorry" I tell her. She nods as if she just taught me an important lesson.

"Oh my god!" Her babysitter comes down the steps running with her phone against her ear. She has tear drops in her eyes. An emotional teenager, great. Her boyfriend probably just broke up with her.

She stands in front of the couch where me and Bella sat. "Do you happen to have Ava's dads number?" She asks me desperately. I'm sure I just wrote it down somewhere in the stacks of paper that surround me, but it's too much effort for me to look for it.

I shake my head no. "Can I leave Isabella with you? Please! My moms doctor just called me and somethings not right." She practically yells. Me? Keep a child? Hell no! "I'm no-" I stop mid sentence. Ava wouldn't like it if I was left in charge of her daughter. I smirk "of course I'll look after her" I tell the pacing girl.

She nods anxiously before walking out the door. The little girl looks up at me and her green eyes take me as her prisoner. "Can we have ice cream?" She asks, there is no way I can tell those eyes no. "Of course" I tell her picking her up and walking into the kitchen. I take the gigantic tub of ice cream out the freezer and make both of us a huge bowl.

"Jaxson?" she asks me while making a huge mess with her ice cream. "yeah?" "Why mommy say don't talk to you?" She asks me. "She's mean sometimes" I tell her. The girl shakes her head furiously. "Mommy not mean. Mommy nice"

I smile, the girl loves her mother there is no denying that. "Where's your dad?" I ask curious of what her answer will be. "Mommy said I don't have a dad" she says. Damn! That actually kind of hurt.

I feel like telling her I'm her father right now. Ava has the girl thinking I don't even exist. It doesn't matter how mad Ava has made me, it's not place to just tell Bella that.

She must of noticed my sad demeanor. "It's okay. Mommy doesn't have a mommy and she's still special." Bella says with a grin.

I can't help but feel guilty for not being in my daughters life. I'm here now but I not doing a good job. God I'm such a jerk. I have a daughter, yet I'm still acting like a child.

She's gorgeous and so smart. I have to do better for the sake of my fathers legacy and my daughter. It's time I grow up.

"Let's watch The Little Mermaid!" She says as soon as she finishes her ice cream. We go back into the living room and she starts the movie herself. A princess movie is the last thing I'd ever watch, yet here I am sitting beside my daughter, who knows every word watching a mermaid.

I have never been the type to be dumb but I don't understand anything about the movie. How come the prince can't hear anything she says but we can? Also what happened to the green women?

"Again!" Bella cheers when the movie came to an end. "Oh please god no!" I whine. She giggles then says "okay!" I notice the time and it was almost 12.

"What time does mommy come back?" I ask her. "Nine!" she says. Either the girl is lying or her mother is out partying. Just as I'm about to ask her another question the door flies open.

I just notice how professional Ava is dressed. "Mommy!" Bella shoots up from the couch and runs to her mother. Ava smiles as my daughter jumps into her arms.

"Where's Penelope?" Ava asks looking around the room. She never makes eye contact with me. "She left!" I say forcing her to look at me.

"SHE LEFT HER WITH YOU?"  Ava yells scaring my daughter a little. For one, she is being rude and two, she just scared my daughter.

I scoff "Is that such a bad thing?" She sits my daughter on the ground "Bella, let's see if you can put your pjs on all by yourself." She smiles at her. Bella runs upstairs ready to complete the challenge.

"What are you trying to do?" Ava asks me. I look at her confused. What the hell is she talking about? "What?" "Stay away from my child" "SHE'S MY CHILD TOO!" I yell. "NO SHES NOT! SHES MY CHILD. AND I WONT LET YOU HURT HER!" Why would I hurt my own kid? She storms upstairs without looking back.