‘I cannot believe this,’ I groaned, sinking back into my desk chair and rubbing my temples.
‘It’s not that bad,’ Yoshido rolled his eyes, picking up the stock report I’d just tossed onto my desk. He frowned as he skimmed it, pushing back his thick-rimmed glasses. ‘Oh, my mistake. Those numbers are terrible.’
‘You truly are my guiding light,’ I said, dryly.
‘Look, we can fix this,’ he said, rolling the paper up into a tube and tapping it against his palm as he paced my carpeted office floor.
‘How? I have a meeting with the shareholders tomorrow.’
‘Maybe you’re too sick to go? Buy us some time?’
‘That might be fraud.’
‘Then we’ll tour you through a hospital and wait for someone to cough on you,’ he rolled his eyes.
He paused and looked down at the carpet.
‘Is this new?’
‘What?’
‘The carpet.’
‘Oh,’ I grumbled. ‘Yeah, just got installed recently. Part of some new interior design to make offices more comfortable. Melbourne branch organised it.’
‘You don’t say…’ Yoshido stroked his chin.
‘Why do you look like you’re getting an idea?’
‘You don’t want me getting ideas?’
‘No, your ideas just tend to scare me, is all.’
He did another lap of my carpet, stroking away. Suddenly he snapped his fingers.
‘We expand!’ he exclaimed.
‘What?’
‘We expand!’ he repeated. ‘We embrace a new corner of the market, give the shareholders something to talk about that isn’t… y’know.’
He threw the abysmal stock report back onto my desk.
‘What are you thinking?’ I asked, curious.
‘Picture this,’ he said with a grin. ‘Office fitouts. Melbourne will need to be told, obviously, or they’ll want a cut.’
I sat back in my seat, steepling my fingers.
‘That could work,’ I whispered. ‘What’s the market look like? Is there anyone who can be trusted to do a good job?’
‘I know the perfect company,’ Yoshido said with a smile. ‘Just leave all the details to me.’