Chapter 3

We went into the meeting room and I saw they had set up a buffet for us. After the introductions I was offered a seat beside the old man Anthony. Susan sat with the women at another table. This was what I was scared of now I couldn't really keep an eye on what she was saying or count on her to watch the reaction to what I did or said.

Anthony and his two sons Adrian and Alexander made some small talk with me in acceptable although broken English then the waiter came in and served us our food.

Adrian asked me how I could be so successful buying old established companies and then making them even more successful then they were I explained that each of the companies I had purchased required different things in order to make them thrive in the ever changing business world. I smiled at him with a taunting smile letting let him know that there are some things in my business that were beyond the scope of this discussion. He kept at it asking how I had gotten my trucking company out of bankruptcy.

I felt it was time to let them know I was here to buy the business not tell them how to make it flourish. "There are things that my team and I do that we never discuss with anyone outside of our company" I told him

He looked disappointed but the old man smiled and offered me a drink.

After lunch the waiters cleared all the food out of the room and the women went to give Susan a tour of the house, Anthony thought it was the right time to get down to business.

"We have asked you here to discuss the possible sale of our family business there are some questions I will need answered before I really consider taking an offer" Anthony said

"I understand what would you like to know?"

"Ok, in your other acquisitions from what we have heard you keep the people that are already there?" He asked

"Yes, let me tell you about my business philosophy. I believe that for the most part the people that have made a company great are the ones that know the business. My job is to convince these people that they have the ability to take the company to the next level. I don't actually run the company I hire a manager either from the existing personnel or I hire an expert from elsewhere if required. Usually I find the old owner knows the perfect man for the job and I usually follow his advice. I give them a short amount of time to start turning the company around and help in what ever way I can. If they do not start making the projected numbers within this time period then we sit down and discuss why it isn't happening; usually the manager knows why but is either afraid to make big changes or there is an outside source of concern. We develop a plan to make it all happen." I explained to them Anthony was nodding from time to time.

"Would you be interested in a partnership? You would have the controlling interest and we would retain a small percentage of the company in order to keep it in our family at least a little" Alexander asked hopefully.

"I have found partnerships to be a problem for both the business and the partners. No one seems to like the direction I want to take the company. I have in the past had partners in different ventures and I ended up selling out or buying the partners out in order to maintain peace." I explained.

Adrian looked at me and asked "What if we said that one of us would be the best to manage the company, would you try to hire them?"

I laughed "If one of you was the best manager for your company you would already have the job and the company would be thriving. Now let's get something straight right out of the gate I have studied your company since you asked me to come down here and I know that it is on a downward spiral. You have enough money to keep it running for a few more months but after that it will either have to downsize or shut down. I have checked out the industry and I feel quite sure that I can make Peloponnesos Olives a world leader in the Olive oil industry like it was ten or fifteen years ago." I told them very frank and serious. I didn't have time to pussy foot around with these guys.

They looked a little stunned to hear that I knew what condition their finances were in the two boys looked shamed but the old man sat and listened impassively.

"Yes you are right that the company is in rough shape financially but I would rather shut it down now then sell it to someone that isn't going to treat it right. I was convinced by others to ask you to come and look at it now I am not sure. I need to know that you are not going to fire everyone and make this into a mechanized factory." Anthony said

I grinned at him, "If that was what I was interested in I could just start up my own company. I have looked into this company and I realize that it has the potential to be great again. One of the things this company has is the people that work for it."

"We can look at some of the changes I have made in other companies and you will see that I value the personnel that made the company what it is now but any company I own has to make money; I am not going into this with the idea of supporting all these people at my own expense."

Anthony nodded and looked weary. We had been talking for about two hours and I felt we all needed a break.

"Why don't you have someone show me around the company and the Olive fields while you think it over and discuss it with your family I am not in a big hurry and I don't want to pressure you into selling if it isn't the right way for you to go." I told him

He smiled and told me that he would have a tour arranged and maybe we could meet for supper I smiled back at him and said

"That would be nice. Susan and I are taking this as a bit of a vacation so we would like to see some sights in between business meetings."

Susan came with me when we went for the tour, as we walked through the field looking at the Olives; she grabbed my arm and leaned into me.

She whispered into my ear. "The mother doesn't want you here at all and one of the daughters was very upset she wasn't in the meeting with her dad she told her mother she should be in there She is the one that has been running the company for the last couple of years."

I nodded at her I asked her if they had asked her many questions she told me that they didn't think she would have a clue about the business so all they asked was questions about Canada and the different fashions available. They also asked a couple of questions about me but nothing to serious yet.

During the tour the manager of the company came by and told us that supper would be at 8:00pm and would be fairly formal not quite tuxedo but we definitely needed to dress up for it Susan had a glimmer in her eye when she heard that.

We finished the tour and went back to the Villa I asked the cook to make us something to eat.

"We are going out to supper don't ruin your appetite."

"We don't know what they are serving and I don't want us to look like gluttons. This way we have already eaten so we don't starve if they feed us weird stuff, and we won't eat too much if they feed us something edible." I told her with a smile.

She nodded and went to her room for a few minutes I looked at my watch we had two hours to kill before supper.

I wanted to be there 15 minutes early as that way we could mingle a little before they served supper and I could meet the girl that ran the company I had a couple of questions for her.

We had something to eat and with an hour to go Susan went to get dressed. I wandered into my room wondering what I should wear. There was a suit set out on my bed. So I changed into it. I went down and waited for Susan a few minutes later she came down wearing the dress that was my favorite she was braless and I could see the outline of her nipples.

"Too much?" She asked as she searched my face trying to gauge my reaction.

"No I think it is perfect, definitely trophy wife" I said with a smile.

"I saw the way Anthony was checking me out I think the daughters will be dressing to show me up at supper. I don't want that to happen they think they have the market cornered on fashion here." She said with a smile.

"Well that dress should knock their socks off. They may have the fashion but I didn't see any of them with the body to make a big impression." I said.

"Don't let first impressions fool you both of the girls are hot. They have bodies that don't quit they were dressing down. I believe it was at the request of their father. I saw some pictures in the house when they gave me the tour and they don't normally dress like that. I don't think Anthony can stop them from dressing for this supper and the mom she has a pretty good body as well." Susan told me.

"Oh, I guess you would know better than me, but I am sure you have a better body than any of them." I said.

She blushed and thanked me for the comment.

When she got into the car I held the door for her and got an eyeful of cleavage, she looked up catching me looking; she smiled a big smile at me.

Once we were inside the house I could see what Susan had been saying. The two girls were both in there late twenties and they were dressed in beautiful evening dresses. They were both almost identical. With their dark complexion they set off their white dresses very well neither one of them had elected to wear a bra and through the thin material you could just see a hint of darkness were their nipples should be. Both had rather small pert breasts.

I leaned down to whisper into Susan's ear "You are still a lot hotter than either of them"

She turned a bright red and grinned at me I smiled as I gave her my wolf look.

Then I went on to say good evening to Anthony, Susan stayed right by my side and took my arm from time to time playing the wife that still loves me to the hilt. I asked her to introduce me to the daughter that felt she should be in on the meetings.

She bought me over to where Angela was sitting with her boyfriend Andrew, after the introduction I made mention of all the names starting with an "A", Angela told me that her dad was not very creative when it came to naming children as she laughed.

I asked her if she could tell me a little about the type of Olives they were growing, I explained that I had thought they would be Kalamata Olives and they looked more like Konservolia Olives.

She looked surprised that I would know one Olive from another "Most of our Olives are Kalamata but the field you visited is Konservolia just like you thought, we have tried to diversify and have gone into a couple of different varieties to try and capture more market share." She said proudly

"I didn't realize you had done that, just how much of your crop is now diversified and what percentages are what?" I asked her

"We have about 75% Kalamata Olives of which about half is tagged for edible markets the rest is for oil production, the other 25% is split equally between Konservolia and Black Olives, Most of this is for the edible market, we make a small amount of oil from these varieties but mostly by special request." She explained happy to have the chance to talk to me.

"You seem very knowledgeable about the business; could you tell me why do you think it is failing?" I asked her

She frowned and said "If I knew for sure we would have corrected it, the biggest problem is the fact that Olive oil usage is down world wide and there are so many producers that it has become too competitive a market, we can't sell our product as cheap as the mechanized plants can."

Just then they called us for supper.

"Thank you for the information I hope to have time to talk to you again for awhile before we leave" I said to her

I saw her mother grab her arm on the way to the supper table and pull her into a different room, Susan sat beside me at the supper table and it was pretty evident that business was not to be discussed during supper here, the table conversation was mostly directed to the sites we had seen so far and questions about whether or not we would have time to visit other sites that they thought were worth seeing. The girls started asking about things like "what is West Edmonton Mall like?" and whether or not "Canada was snowbound all year long", we answered all the questions and it was a friendly meal.

After supper there was a bit of a cocktail party, the manager of the company came as well as a few other friends of the family, everyone seemed to create small groups so Susan and I wandered through the party talking to one group then the other, we didn't talk about business at all, I started to talk to Angela but she didn't seem as friendly this time with her Mother standing beside her, I talked to her mother and complimented her on the house and her kids, I told her the kids seemed really well behaved.

She smiled at me and loosened up as the conversation went along, I was pretty happy that she didn't seem to have a big problem talking to me, Susan was an active participant in the conversation for awhile then she and Angela got into a conversation about other things, Susan seemed to be able to draw her out by asking her how she knew so much about the company, Anthony came over and light heartily told me that I was monopolizing his wife's time. We chatted for a little while then I went off to talk with the group the manager was in, we discussed the weather and I asked if it was always this hot there, I made sure not to discuss business even if they tried to steer the conversation that way.

We left the party pretty late but everyone else seemed like they would be going for a while yet, Anthony asked if we could meet again at 1:00pm the next day. I said sure, he was leering at Susan as she bent over to fix the strap on her shoe.

On the drive home Susan filled me in on all the things she was able to find out from Angela, it seemed that she wanted to raise the price on their Olives and sell them as the best in the world, forget what everyone else was doing, Anthony and the boys had shot her ideas down and only relented on the diversification plan as a way to pacify her. She was a little upset that they were selling but she knew it was the only way to get the company back on its feet.

I told Susan that if they had of listened to her we would not be here now, she has the right idea, and she just doesn't have the backing to make it work. There will always be someone else that will give product away to try and capture the market, and then raise the prices once they have everyone locked into their product.

I commented on the fact that she seemed to have Anthony's eye all night long and she smiled, "I was keeping an eye on him, every time he was watching I would make sure he got a good view." She whispered.

We both went to bed right away.

The next morning I wake up hearing singing again, I just lay there and enjoyed it for a couple of minutes then decided I should get up and shower, I went downstairs and opened my laptop, I started typing in everything we had learned when the cook brought me my breakfast. I ate my food and then wandered out on the balcony with my laptop to get some sun, I was dressed in a pair of shorts, no top, I checked out the view and saw that there were a few more women out today; I was checking them out when Susan came down stairs.

"Any good views today?" she yelled to me through the door.

"A little better than yesterday" I said not looking up

I sat down and started typing again and didn't look up when she came out and sat down, I could hear her typing at the same time so I assumed she was doing the same thing as me. I finished typing and looked up to see how she was doing. I almost choked at the view, she had a small bikini top on that didn't quite go high enough to cover all of her nipples, and I could just make out the edges of her nipple at where the cloth met her skin. Her breasts were bouncing gently as she typed she had the laptop sitting on her knees and she had her legs spread quite a bit to stabilize it. I could see right into the crotch of her shorts they were loose shorts and I could just make out a wisp of brown hair but it was so dark that I couldn't make it out very well; she heard me gasp and looked up at me.

"Too much?" she asked.

"Yes Too much clothes" I said with a laugh.

Susan laughed and continued to type. I lay back on the chair and watched her for a few minutes.

"What are you typing?" I asked.

"Right now I am typing up a proposal to buy a different company, before that I typed up everything I know about the Olive oil acquisition." She said.

"What is the other company you want to buy?" I asked.

She picked up the laptop and handed it to me. As she picked up the laptop I noticed I could see as clear as day straight up the leg of her shorts. I could see a bit of her labia. I think she saw where I was looking and crossed her legs cutting off the view.