Business is as Business Does

I can see everything. The anticipation of the people to see the dust settle. The drive of competitors and their cumulative efforts to succeed. I can see the expectation of everyone around me as well as their dispositions that they are masking. Call it a gift; I have always been able to see into people and I always knew to use it appropriately to my favor. Some may say it is manipulative and unfair. But it is a tool at my disposal, and it would be unsporting to not use it to my advantage if it is naturally available to me, even if others may not have access to it as I do.

It is only in my best interest, and that is the only interest anyone has any business dealing with in this business, correct? To handicap oneself, to be burdened by the pride of misplaced scruples is a weakness the pragmatic easily exploit. And you only have yourself to blame for your undoing, not someone simply better and more willing to go that extra length than you.

"Take this. And be on your way." I told the woman I gave the pleasure of being in my bed as I presented her fifteen crisp 50 dollar bills.

"....Excuse me?" The look of total affront on her face. I couldn't fight the urge to laugh for very long at how foolish she looked, but I was able to show enough restraint it merely came out a sensible chuckle.

"That was fun. Take that, and go about your day with a bit of incentive." I tried to further explain to her as she disgustedly, indignantly took the money from my hands. She looked at it with a sinking guilt before looking at me.

"I'm not some kind of whore." She looked at me in pain, trying to seek some kind of validation.

"I'm not the one calling you that." I shook my head. "You're a very nice woman. And I'm a very wealthy man. Treat yourself well, and don't taint this with your guilt ridden thoughts." I told her, but the feeling wasn't going away as evident in her twisting face as I showed her the door.

"This still doesn't feel right." She really was having trouble with taking a compliment. My eyes tried to escape into the back of my head but I could not let them, as I needed to button my shirt; which cost more than that spare change I was handing her for the bus.

"Well then wrestle with that yourself, your life just got easier. Gift horses, mouths. You know the drill." I shuffled her out, only to catch my little brother of all insignificant people at my door.

"Joseph!" I pushed her past, the two gave a modest greeting as he came in. "I didn't notice the time!" I did, and it was very deliberate that I "slept in" with the whore.

"Brandi! I'm glad to see you mostly dressed." He was visibly shocked, seeing me for once consorting with someone.

"I'll just be another moment. I was a little wound up yesterday, what with the coming crucialties in the Wrestling side of things..." Which was only loosely true. I had considered it, but there was no quaking anticipation there was just a relief that we could finally move forward.

I sit in my chair pondering the imminent, ultimately inevitable success in my hands. The camera is running but I'm inclined to ignore it for a moment longer as I think of all the names. Sydney, Uchikawa, Shozo, Devan, Payton, Togo and even Black Jones. All the people I wanted to see forced to applaud my success at their apparent failings and helpless to concede to the immutable truth that my methods were undeniably superior.

"I guess we call this the moment of truth." I mused.

"What's the truth?" Little Joey asked, staring at my as he patiently waited for my to be ready like the insipid little sycophant he was.

"We're going to find out what I always knew." I stood up and fetched my coat. "I'm the only one in that god forsaken farm who has any baring on what he's doing there, Joseph." I wronged my hands readily after fitting my tailor made jacket on.

"I thought you liked wrestling in Exodus." Still so far behind. Like a child he was missing the details he should have readily know.

"No. Joseph. I like working in Exodus. I like wrestling. But this developmental deal is just too... Beneath my station. Too demeaning of my pedigree." I could feel the bitter heat in my sighing breath. More and more idiocy just endlessly rolling off his tongue. His mouth must have been switched with his asshole.

"Well... Is it a bad thing if you are new to the game?" And even MORE bile piddles out. Fabulous.

"I am better than that. Let's go, we're running late." We were going to a dinner with associates of mine. I was bringing Joeseph to make it more about myself, and I was late to be in even more in control of the situation I already engineered.

"I am a capable human being. I didn't need to be trained into the round table at every investor's meeting that matters in this state. I didn't need to train in to get my seat at the table of my boss' birthday dinners. I didn't need to train in to be a better wrestler than everyone else. This is just a mild "formality" as Jon Collins worded it. For the sake of one of their projects to get off the ground soaring." I explained as we made it to our vehicle waiting for us just out the front doors of the lobby as compliments of my driver.

"You sound bitter." Joeseph makes an unfortunately keen observation. I don't know if I like him better when he usually misses or the rare times he touches the mark.

"I'm not bitter. I'm playing the hand I was dealt. And that hand is taking me to a Heavyweight title. I think that's good enough. But I feel I could have been dealt a better one. Or should have. I can't complain with just a feeling." Though a certain feeling is all people need to believe anything.

"Yeah. But what if your hand isn't so good?" I was trying to ignore it but I could feel the pathetic puppy dog stare he was giving me. "What if your opponent just is better?" I death as I take my phone out and show him a picture of Sydney Christensen. His eyebrows raised intently.

"She's pretty, man. And she looks pretty strong too." The poor fool fawns over her? I must have been keeping the prime meals away from him longer than I thought...

"She's tough as a woman can be. That is true. But I'm as resilient as a diamond with all the time and pressure I've spent refining myself to perfect condition." A bit self aggrandizing but the point has to be made.

"She is however a very crafty and skilled. She's a smart girl. She knows I'm a whole foot taller, and she knows it. She's going to be all around me and she's not going to let me touch her..." I brought up my document on her, and took to admiring that.

"I'm crafty too. I'm also skilled, and more than that I'm willing to play with more than the hand I was dealt. I'm more than capable of playing with a few cards in my sleeve if she snakes around me too many times. Just to stamp her out." I could taste my bitter delight on my face.

"...You think you'd have to cheat to win?" He honestly looked at me.

"No. Joeseph. I can win with all of my combined athletic talent, physical capability, and my genius mind." He should know better than to pose this much stupidity in one day against me... Maybe he knows I have to play nice for the time being? For the love of god... "I will play by any means to snuff out any chance at failure. No matter how minimal, it is never negligeable." I am a business man, truly at the bottom of my heart. I have lived my whole life and beyond that even by eliminating risk.

That was the whole point of this luncheon. To eliminate risk of these god forsaken idiots from selling their shares before mine are valuable.