“You two draw straws for this?” I asked, calmly setting down the drink.
“Rock, paper, scissors.”
“Ah. You always did have the shittiest luck.” I rubbed my jaw and looked away.
After a few awkward beats of silence, Jordan shifted in his chair and cleared his throat. “Have you…you know… Are you planning to…?”
A tight shrug lifted one shoulder, body stiffening. I had no desire to talk about this with him. “No offense, bro, but it’s not really any of your business.” My mild words contradicted the strange heat warming under my collar. I’d long since shucked my jacket and tie and would be changing into something more comfortable before getting on the plane.
“Yeah…so that’s why I brought up the board meeting.” He coughed into a fist.
My brows twitched. “Don’t even joke about that. It’s not going to be discussed at the board meeting.” Jordan said nothing. After a minute of silence, my eyes left my plate to look at his face. He was dead serious. “What—there’s no way in hell I’m discussing my private life and my personal finances with the board. Don’t even go there.”
Jordan grimaced. “Adam, you can’t fuck around with this stuff. This is business, and we aren’t some tiny startup anymore. We’re a publically traded company worth billions.” His voice lowered as he glanced around the lounge as if wary of any eavesdroppers. “You, yourself, are worth billions. You need a prenup.”
I scowled. “I don’t need a prenup. Those are only for people who get divorced.”
“And you know for sure you won’t? You’re prescient and your genius brain powers reach forward even into the future?” he asked drily.
“Maybe they do.” I shrugged. It was ridiculous, but I was willing to say anything to shut down this subject. The sooner, the better.
Jordan leaned forward, resting his weight on his elbows. “I’m not fucking around, okay? I give you shit because it’s fun, and I know you two have been through hell and back. I know how you feel about her and how she feels about you now. But—”
“No buts,” I growled between clenched teeth. “We aren’t getting a divorce.”
“You can’t predict something like that, and you know that goddamn well. More importantly, you know that California is a community property state. She could—”
“She won’t,” I said. “And asking her to sign a prenup means that I think that she might try.” Or worse, that I expected the marriage to fail.
“Okay, so…the thing is this. Financially speaking, it’s not just a marriage between Adam and Mia. It’s you, her, and the company. You aren’t simply making decisions for the two of you anymore. If you two divorce, half of your sizeable share of Draco becomes hers.”
I blew out a breath and rolled my eyes. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“It’s not a risk the board is willing to take.” He shook his head. “And they are calling the shots these days.”
I blinked. “I have controlling interest in this company. With the officers, we could override any board directive.”
Jordan fell silent, now eluding my gaze. I could tell by the uneasy way he shifted in his seat that he avoided pointing out the obvious. He stalled, picking up his empty glass, taking in an ice cube, and crunching it noisily. Finally, he settled back and ran a hand through his hair.
“Enough with the bullshit. You aren’t planning to back me on this, are you?” I asked in a dead voice, trying and failing to disguise my mounting irritation.
“It’s your fiduciary duty, Adam. To the company.”
“What about my duty to her?”
He sat back. “The board of directors has no say over your personal life—”
I leaned forward, placing an elbow on the table, tension filling every muscle in that arm. “Aside from the fact that they want me to force my future wife to sign papers and attest that she’s not a gold digger.”
He shifted again, clearly as annoyed by this conversation as I was. “I understand where you are coming from—”
“Do you? Do you really?” I leaned forward. “So you’re having April sign one of these things when you tie the knot?”
His hand went up. “Whoa, slow down there, buckaroo.” He gestured to himself. “No one over here is stupid enough to be tying any knots anytime soon.”
I replied by flipping him the bird, and he looked away, laughing. “Bro, listen, okay? I don’t want you to be blindsided in the BOD meeting. This will give you a chance to mull it over. They are in a position to force the issue, you know. They can remove you as CEO. Steve Jobs—”
Heat burned up my spine, flushing my face. I placed a closed fist on the table between us. “And you know goddamn well what happened to Apple when they did that. If our BOD wants to sabotage this company, then let them go right ahead.”
Jordan stiffened, making a placating gesture. “No one is threatening anything. I’m doing my duty as your friend and as your CFO to warn you about what could happen in such an event, okay? They could pressure you to do this, and if you refuse, they could claim breach of fiduciary duty.” He sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “Please. I’m begging you not to let your legendary stubbornness turn this into a clusterfuck.”
My fist tightened. “I am not going to risk my relationship with Emilia over this. She is more important to me than a hundred boards of directors. This company can go fuck itself if it comes to that.”
Jordan’s brow creased, and we were given a momentary reprieve from the awkwardness when our waiter finally showed up to refill our water glasses. I looked down at the cold food, now completely uninterested in eating.
Nevertheless, we continued our meal in silence with a thick side of tension. Then Jordan coughed into a fist without taking his eyes off his plate.
“You know, it’s really not that bad…if you think of it like an insurance policy.”
Chewing my food, I glowered at the table top without responding.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
The food almost stuck in my throat. “You have no idea what I’m thinking.”
He sighed. “Okay, fair enough. I know what I’d be thinking in your place, then.”