Chapter 12

Lorna and I carry out our morning meeting and I ask Lorna to join the girls and I for the shopping trip this afternoon and soon Mr Hammond arrives, suddenly my stomach is in knots and I am very nervous.

“Miss Robertson, I am going to cut straight to the point. I have reviewed the contract you have offered me as well as the information I have on Robertson Publishing as it stands and I would like to take you up on your offer. You will find everything signed and dated, you may start the ball rolling and release a press statement as soon as you wish.”

“Thank you Mr Hammond, I promise you won’t regret this.”

I took the paperwork and shook Mr Hammonds hand before he turned and left the office.

My phone rang almost immediately signalling that Lorna had someone on the line for me.

“Hey Lor”

“Gill, I have Ray Shero from the Penguins on the phone for you.”

“Shit, did he say what he wanted? I hope TK is ok.” I answer sounding panicked.

“He would not say Gill, sorry. Do you want to talk to him?”

“Yeah put him through.”

I heard the click on the line signalling that the call had been transferred.

“Good morning, Gill Robertson speaking, how can I help?”

“Miss Robertson, my name is Ray Shero, General Manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Do you have a moment to talk?” He asks politely.

“Yes, is everything ok? Has something happened to Tyler?” My voice still full of panic.

He laughs as he hears my worries over Tyler. “As far as I am aware TK is fine.

“I would like to discuss a different matter with you. A source of mine tells me that you are a qualified kung fu instructor and I wondered if you would be interested in doing some training with the team.”

“Can I ask how you found out about that?” I ask with a slight annoyed tone.

I have never mentioned to anyone since I came here about kung fu, not even Lorna.

“My source will remain unnamed, you will find out when the time is right. We will of course pay you for your services of course. The coaches and I were thinking that maybe you could spend 2 hours with them 3 times a week, the days changing depending on when the games are played and road trips etc. and obviously we will take your work into account too, I imagine you are a very busy woman.”

“Erm yeah you could say that…

“You have caught me off guard and lucky for you and I ‘m also in a very good mood today, I have just received some good news so I will agree to do this for you.”

We discussed details of what he wanted to do, what I would be paid and that I would not tell Tyler. For some reason it was to be kept a secret from everyone until we started our first lesson which has been scheduled for Thursday afternoon before the guys leave for Toronto.

I phoned the PR department and asked them to arrange a press conference for as quickly as possible so that I could tell the world about the takeover and they quickly called me back saying that the press would be here in half an hour to start at 1130.

I decided to phone Tyler before hand.

“Hey hunny is everything ok?” He answered slightly panicked.

“Yeah, I just wanted to tell you some news before you found out some where else.”

“What is wrong Gill, you are making me worry.”

“You have nothing to worry about. Remember I told you I had an important meeting yesterday morning?”

“Yep”

“Well the meeting was with the owner and director of Headline Publishing, they are the second biggest publishing company in the world.”

“Ok, sounds exciting.”

“It is more than exciting. The thing is Tyler I had managed to find out that he was going to sell his company so I have managed to convince him to sell everything to me including all of his current contracts, as of this morning Headline Publishing has been bought over by Robertson Publishing. This is such a big deal and will hopefully make my company the number one publishing company in the world!!”

“I am so happy for you Gill, you deserve this, you have put so much work into the company.”

We finished up our conversation and I headed down to the conference room, all of the staff was there waiting in anticipation as to what could possibly have happened.

“Good morning ladies and gentleman, thank you for attending at such short notice.

“Early this morning Mr Hammond of Headline Publishing sold his company. As of that meeting Robertson Publishing began proceedings for a take over and the 2 companies are now one with myself still being sole owner and director. All Headline Contracts will continue as before…”

The conference continued for about an hour as I fielded question after question from the press when eventually the question I had been waiting for was asked.

“Will this company takeover have an affect your relationship with Tyler Kennedy?” I hear a voice come from the back of the room.

“My personal life and work life are completely separate. Tyler and I both have very busy work schedules but because we have a strong relationship this does not get in the way. We have only been together a short period of time so we would appreciate if you all could allow us to have our privacy and work on our relationship together. I am aware that we are both prominent faces in the public but we would still like to have a private relationship.”

The press conference eventually finished about half an hour later. I quickly went up to my office and phoned TK again to tell him about what I had said about him and I at the press conference and I phoned the accounts department to ask them to fax over my personal bank details to Ray Shero to enable him to pay me for the Kung Fu training.