Chapter 16

Paul’s ‘Long March’ into Reinhart’s office had to have been at the insistence of Mei. He assumed the ‘water treatment’ would be next. Wait, those castles still had dungeons in them, right? Hopefully, Reinhart still had a soft spot in his black heart for him, though he knew if it would have been Diane the pain would have started already. ‘You only die once, ‘ right? Old Albert had made a point though when he said, ‘you only die once, but may wish for it many times.’ It had been shortened to fit on the screen. Those Germans sure knew what to say.

When he walked into the large conference room, there were too many people there. He was not going to die, yet. His girls were there, too, and so were Erica and Dieter. Then he saw Diane, hands together in front of her. He went and stood next to her and she reached out to hold his hand.

There was a loud crashing sound, it was almost enough to bring both to a cringe. It was Kristi.

“They have been bad, very bad. Are you going to ‘spank’ them?”

The atmosphere just went back down to sea level, they could both breath again. Kristi had not only broken the ice, she thawed everything to room temperature.

“Paul, I have some bad news and some good news, maybe. I’m not going to make, how you say, the concrete galoshes for you.”

“Concrete Overshoes” got him a punch from Diane. It hurt a little.

“Ja! those either. But I am buying you out, here is a check for all of P B & J.” He handed over an envelope. These men will witness and confirm this, sign the papers now, please.’

Well, he did say please, so Paul signed. Relief was maybe an added benefit. He would be free to start over.

“I give my daughter and soon to be daughter, each half of P B & J. As a wedding present.”

He let silence fill the room. “Of course ‘SMART II’ can no longer be its client, if she is still head.”

He looked around. Everyone was grinning now. When did we enter ‘Stepford’ I wondered.

“No, no, since P B & J will have to co-ordinate all ads for all Daimler endeavors. The bad news is we will no longer pay a fifteen percent 15% fee, right Erica?”

“Right, Papa Reinhart. 12% Twelve should be enough, maybe even ten. 10%. How much are those budgets to be?”

“Small, still, not much more than 1.3, maybe 1.4, you need to determine that. $1.4 Billion I think.”

“Diane, you may need some help. Do you know anyone with auto experience? If not maybe my father can introduce you to some interesting possibilities at Volkswagen. You’re not married, yet ... are you?”