Hmm. I can work with that. Kay needed to keep him distracted, regardless of what he thought of her, and this was a perfect opening.
"You're right, Mr. Mack!" Kay's voice was enthusiastic and childlike. "He really is a nice guy!" She gave him her most innocent look. No normal business meeting would permit a secretary to make small talk like this, but Kay was already so far beyond normal that it somehow worked.
Mack looked at Kay's innocent face and knitted his eyebrows. "You're not a call girl?"
Oh good. There was a chance for redemption. "No! Please, Mr. Mack, don't tell people I'm a call girl. If my boyfriend hears that, he'll get really mad at me." She gave him a look of fear so he'd understand how bad it could be.
"All right, fine. But I still want you." He wouldn't let it go. Well I still want you, Mr. Mack-to sign our contract. "And please, call me Jason."
Sure, why not? "Jason, then." She nodded her head to him, then went back to her notebook. Mack looked down with a bit of a frown and resumed reading. Too bad he wasn't happier at this point, but her final act was yet to come and she felt certain that it would lift his spirits.
After a few more pages, Mack got to the summary page and saw the huge closing fee. "Wait! Why are closing costs so high all of a sudden?"
Dan was ready with an answer. "It's a counterbalance to the Mexican discount, and also includes some extra legal costs." His voice was stern, but with a touch of sympathy for poor Jason Mack. "My lawyers insisted on it, damn them."
This was the critical point in the negotiation. Mack's eyes flashed, and he stood up to assert himself, his hand pointed at Dan. He was ignoring Kay for the first time and didn't see her grab the cell phone on the desk. Mack extended his arm all the way and shook his hand like an angry parent, ready to launch into something, perhaps a tiresome lecture about unnecessary costs. But before he could get out a single word, Dan's desk phone rang.
Everyone froze. Dan hissed through bared teeth. "What!" He seemed ready to kill. Obviously, nobody called Dan Avery during an important business meeting. He looked up at Kay, and she tilted her head toward the phone, flashing a tiny smile. Instantly, he inhaled and gave her the barest hint of acknowledgment. Good. He knows what to do. "Get that!" he barked at Kay. "And tell them we're busy!"