"Ah. You're taken," Maryann said, giving him a strained smile. "Of course you are. I should have guessed." Flustered, she swept a lock of hair behind her ear.
"That isn't really a problem for me, though," she said impulsively. Then she blinked, surprised she had said that out loud.
Even Alex was taken by surprise, and he felt himself blush.
"I just fired the heads of my marketing and research and development departments," she said, her face reddening. "There's going to be a lot of fallout—reputations are on the line, and our stock price could take a hit. And I did it because you saw them for what they really were." She moved closer to him. "Clearly we work well together, so why not see what else we do well together?"
Maryann had never met a man that had impressed her much before, but there was something different about Alex. He was so self-assured that everything he said or did was fascinating to her. She reached up to caress his cheek.
Alex noticed she smelled like orchids, and he could see how easy it would be to become overwhelmed by her, but he very gently caught her wrist and pushed her away. "If I'd been in your shoes, I would have gone with the oil baron," he said, trying to break the sudden tension. "Why work yourself to death if you don't have to? What you make in a year, he makes in six hours. You'd be surprised how rarely chances like that come my way."
"If I have to get married, it won't be to him," she said. "You'd be a much better partner to help me take down the Murdochs."
Alex sipped his wine and looked away. Luckily, he was saved from having to reply by the arrival of Maryann's chief operating officer.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Maryann, but we have a problem," said Maggie as she hurried toward them. "When Elaine and Derek left, they took a lot of their teams with them. Three marketing directors and four leads from R&D have already resigned. They're all looking to sign on with the Blue Bottle Winery. They're also telling anyone who'll listen that we're going to shut down and lay everyone off. It's starting to cause a panic."
"Let them go," Maryann said, squaring her shoulders and taking control of the situation. "Let them all go. Tomorrow, start recruiting replacements at twice the salary we were paying. And make sure the Murdochs know that hiring Elaine means we'll take legal action against them."
More than anything, Maryann hated a bully, so she wasn't going to let Elaine threaten her or her company.
"On it," Maggie said, nodding. Her phone buzzed with an alert, and her face fell. "More bad news. Elaine's leaked the formula for Revive, and it's already showing up online." She scrolled through her phone intently. "Now the entire industry knows how to make our flagship wellness wine before it's even launched. There are already a couple of posts here about small vintners starting to make it."
Maryann closed her eyes and sighed. She had known Elaine was capable of some pretty nasty tactics, but this was low, even for her.
Alex was stunned. A leak like this was an extreme reaction. Elaine might make trouble for Maryann and the winery, but by doing this, she had also ended her own career out of spite. I guess some people think that winning means your opponent has to lose, even if you lose everything too, he thought.
"It's on every forum and social media platform," Maggie said. She was scrolling and swiping on her phone at a dizzying speed, her eyes never leaving the screen. "We only listed thirty-three ingredients for the wine, but she's posted thirty-six. She's also made enough minor changes to the quantities and ingredients that we'll have a tough time proving to a judge that it was originally ours if we take her to court. And even if we get an injunction, it won't stop other companies from making it."
Maggie's phone buzzed again, and her frown deepened. "Clients are already canceling orders," she said. She was starting to sound worried. "This is bad, Maryann. The Robinson Winery's got a target on its back. Again."
Maryann scowled. "I almost want to hire her back so I can fire her again."
"We need to get started on damage control," Maggie said. "What's the next step? With the Revive recipe out there, we've got nothing." She let out a long breath. "I don't know how we're going to get through this. Revive was going to blow the competition out of the water—the closest thing to it currently on the market is only half as good."
"The rest of our inventory won't make up for the loss, even if we sold every drop we have in reserve," Maryann said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "The only thing that could save us would be a new wellness wine that's better than Revive, and we don't have time for what's left of the R&D team to even start working on one. We couldn't even buy a new formula—and even if we could, who'd sell it?" She closed her eyes again and forced herself to take a breath.
"Tell all the department heads to get started on an enhanced version of Revive," she said, her eyes still closed. She had been close to giving up, but she had never backed down from a fight, and she wasn't about to start tonight. "Bonuses, profit share, offer them whatever they ask for. I want an upgraded recipe in a month." I'm not giving up, she thought fiercely. If I go down, I'm going down swinging.
Maggie's eyes widened. "I'll get started," she said and turned to leave.
"Hang on a minute," Alex said. "Why don't we forget about Revive?"
Maggie and Maryann stared at him in surprise. "What are you talking about?" Maryann asked.
"An enhanced version is our last resort," Maggie added. "We're dead in the water without it. How can we just forget about it?"
"Revive might be the best wellness wine, but it's not that different from a handful of others already out there," he said. "Even if it's successfully upgraded, it won't sweep the market, and it'll still be vulnerable to imitations."
"This is our only play," Maryann said. "Unless you've got something else in mind."
He smiled. "I can give you an ancient recipe for a wellness wine that is not only ten times better than Revive but will also wipe out the rest of the market."
"What ancient recipe?" she asked, mystified.
"Idun's Apple," he said with a twinkle in his eye.
Maryann shivered and nearly dropped her wine glass. "Idun? Isn't that some old myth? Norse mythology? Something about golden apples that kept the gods young."
Maggie looked stunned. She had been working with and studying wine for most of her life, so she knew what Alex was talking about.
"There are stories about it going back thousands of years from cultures all over the planet," she said. "If it ever existed, it was lost in the Middle Ages. There was something calling itself Idun's Apple that made the rounds among private collectors thirty or forty years ago, and it did corner the market like you said. But the vintners who made it had disappeared, and no new batches were ever released. I haven't even heard of any bottles being held by collectors."
She shook her head. "There are lots of stories about Idun's Apple, but they're just that. Stories. No one knows how to make it."
"I do," Alex said. "And I will."
Maggie and Maryann stared at him in silence for what felt like ten minutes.
Finally, Maggie said, "Bullshit."