Billion Dollar Chance - Linnea May Page 0,26
his hand out, beckoning me to follow him. I want to ignore his gesture, but decide not to be a bitch for once and gently lay my hand in his as I raise from my chair. He guides me to the dance floor, his tall figure meandering through the hall with wide and confident steps, showing no sign of nervousness whatsoever—while my heart is racing just as wildly as my head is spinning. I’m struggling to walk straight, especially in these goddamn heels, and the world around me seems to move too fast for me to keep up.
“Hope you know how to waltz,” Gabe says as we reach the floor. He doesn’t wait for my response but takes my right hand with his left, palm to palm in a gentle upper-hand clasp while his right wanders to the small of my back, adding a little push to force me closer.
“Isn’t that a bit low,” I remark, as I place my left hand on his shoulder. “Seems like you’re just looking for an excuse to grab my ass.”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he retorts, without moving his hand even the slightest bit.
I haven’t done standard dancing since high school, but apparently a waltz is easy enough to remember the movements without thinking about it, even for a clutz like me. I only blunder once during the first few beats before Gabe and I float across the dance floor with a poise similar to those around us. He holds me close—a bit too close—and leads with effortless prowess, showing that dancing like this has long become second nature to him.
“Okay, let me hear it,” he says without skipping a beat. “I’m all ears.”
I take a deep breath, trying to calm my frenzied pulse and dizzy head while I fight for the strength to muster a coherent sentence. What did I want to say again? Why can’t I remember? I have prepared for this, I knew exactly how to start this conversation and where I wanted to go with it. I had it all laid out, but now that he finally gives me the chance to talk, there’s nothing but a discouraging void between my ears.
“You rejected our proposal,” I force myself to speak. “And we don’t see why, bec—”
“I think I made my decision perfectly clear,” he interrupts. “In fact, I put a lot of work in my comments, pointing out every single thing that’s wrong with it. There were too many economical impracticalities, misguided measures, and—frankly—an array of implementations that would hurt businesses to a degree that is neither bearable nor sensible, especially that tax hike you’re dreaming of.”
“Bearable for who?” I ask. “You don’t think big corporations should do their bit to save the planet?”
“I didn’t say that,” he replies. “They should and they are. What you’re proposing is basically an additional tax, on top of everything else they’re already paying. And believe me, they already pay a shitload—”
“Not enough,” I interject. “If the financial punishment for wasteful use of resources and filthy emissions was higher, they’d be forced to act more responsible and—”
“It’s not that easy, Ella,” he cuts me off once again—underlining his words with the tightening of his grip around me. I’m pushed against his strong chest with such force that I can almost feel his heartbeat beneath the thick fabric of his suit jacket.
“I agree with you that there’s more to be done, maybe even a slight increase in emission tax, but not like this, not to this level and under the conditions you propose. You’re still falling victim to the same fallacy that obscured your thinking back in college,” he adds.
I have been watching my feet for the most part since we started dancing, but his accusing words bring my gaze up to his now, querying for an explanation. “Which would be?”
He looks at me with an ominous smile as if to say “Do you really want to hear this?” before he encourages me to do a little spin turn. The move catches me by surprise and I almost trip over my own feet as I follow his lead in an embarrassingly clumsy fashion. It doesn’t get better by the fact that he literally catches me in his arms, slowing our pace for just a moment so I can find my bearings again.
I gloss over my sloppy dancing with a frown, reminding him that we’re in the middle of a conversation.
“You think of businesses as your enemy or gigantic monsters that dominate the world and need to