He decided to share with Gladys the irksome scene with Mr. Odusote before the meeting. He had done all he could to discourage the broker but the man had the obstinacy of a mule. Edward sat up on the towel pulling Gladys into his side and they looked at the breaking waves on the nearby shore. “You remember Mr. Odusote?”
“You‘ve mentioned him a couple of times, but not since last month...”
“Well he came by my office yesterday and started on another proposal he had come up with. After the last misunderstanding, I had told my secretary never to give him an appointment but the man can‘t take no for an answer. This time, he waited in the reception downstairs till I came down on my way to an outside meeting and accosted me. To avoid a confrontation, I allowed him to accompany me in the car and looked over the new proposal.” “Is it any better this time?” Gladys didn‘t hold out much hope. The last proposal Mr. Odusote had come up with was a virtually illegal scheme to sell and resell company stocks.
“You wish.” Edward sighed again. “He was still going on about the stocks and buyback issue... I don‘t know but the guy seems fixated on that. He pointed out that some of the new policies about the insurance recapitalization mean that some of the dynamics in his first proposal weren‘t so bad. In the thirty minutes it took to get to my meeting, I still wasn‘t convinced.”
“What did you tell him?” Gladys shifted; the heat was seeping through the towel.
“I wasn‘t in a position to say much. I told him that I still couldn‘t work with him, and gave him a name and number that he could call. Unfortunately, that seemed to put him in a bad mood, and he began to harangue me from the car to the entrance of the restaurant. I had to use the security personnel to get him off me.”
“That must have been trying. He should leave you after that I hope. I do wonder why some people cannot take no for an answer. His firm is still trading right?”
“I assume so. Mr. Odusote should be a case study for never-say-never.”
Gladys laughed. “Maybe we shouldn‘t have come out today then.” She was really touched that he hadn‘t called off their date which had been fixed at the beginning of the week.