I gave a bitter smile and told them what had happened between me and Toby.
Madge stayed silent through the whole thing. Maxine, though, was furious, waving her little fist in the air.
“Toby is scum. If it weren't for you, he wouldn't have any of this.”
Then she turned to her sister. “Madge, we don't owe Toby anything. Since little Allie's out of the picture now, let's just cancel the partnership. What do you think?”
Madge said nothing. I signaled the server to bring the food.
A few glasses of red wine in, a faint flush rose on Madge's face, and she looked at me, serious now.
“The partnership doesn't matter. But I want to know—how do you plan to deal with Toby?”
“Business is a battlefield. Company partnerships can't be mixed up with personal feelings.”
Maxine got a little anxious, but Madge raised a hand to stop her. “But for you, I can make an exception this once.”
The two sisters were three years ahead of me in school. We'd been in the same computer club, so we'd always gotten along well enough.
One year, their family's company hit a crisis, and the sisters couldn't even afford to eat.
When I heard, I took out what little living money I had, and the three of us scraped through that whole year together.
“It was because of you that we brought Toby's company into our partnerships in the first place.”
Talking about it stirred something in Madge too. “So we can set all that aside. Tell me—what are your plans now?”
I said it plainly: I was going to take back everything I'd lost.
Maxine clapped in agreement, and Madge said she'd help me.
“Just canceling the partnership is the biggest help you could give me. Anything more wouldn't be right coming from you.”
Madge moved fast.
Three days later, a termination agreement landed on Toby's desk.
Marianne, cheeks flushed and voice all sweetness, brought me up.
“Mr. Gilbert, is there any chance this has something to do with Allie? I mean, the Floyd sisters……”
She was good at this kind of thing—say half of it, and leave the rest for Toby to decide.
Whether or not Toby pinned it on me, Marianne lost nothing either way.
“You're right. This has to be Alison's doing.”
I was in the middle of signing a property contract with a buyer when Toby called, seething.
“Alison, how can you be so shameless?”
I asked back, what was wrong?
Toby skipped the lead-up and went straight to Floyd Group.
“Our partnership with Floyd Group has always gone smoothly. If you hadn't been stirring things up behind the scenes, why would they terminate?”
I set the phone aside and finished signing with the buyer, smiling.
After the buyer left, Toby was still going on in my ear.
“You think staying quiet means I don't know you're the one causing trouble behind my back?”
“Do you have any idea—on this alone, I could take you to court. Do you know how much damage this is doing to the company?”
When he'd worn himself out and was breathing hard, I could still hear Marianne soothing him in that soft, gentle voice.
Once it had gone completely quiet, I asked him with a light laugh.
“What does any of this have to do with me?”
