but I just want to see you all the time. I don’t want to have to grab a dinner or a night with you when I’m rushing around on business. I want you to be here.’
She turned away from him, stalling for a moment to think. She desperately wanted to live in New York, but surely it was too early to jump into anything?
Her eyes moved from the skyline of New York back inside the house, where the drawing room glowed amber in the dark. Standing at the French windows was the silhouette of Harriet Fletch staring out onto the terrace, her hand on her hip, watching them intently.
Serena smiled over at her triumphantly before moving her head towards Michael to nuzzle his ear.
‘Move in with you?’ she whispered playfully, still looking at Harriet over his shoulder with unflinching eyes. ‘It would give me the greatest pleasure.’
‘The problem you face is this,’ said David Goldman, sticking his fork into his medium-rare steak and trying to make himself heard over the Coq D’Argent lunchtime crowd. ‘You’re trying to raise money for magazine publishing, one of the highest-risk businesses of all, and investors are frightened of it.’ Goldman paused to chew his beef and looked at Cate and Nick sitting nervously across the table from him. ‘And they’re frightened for a good reason. Did you know that out of four hundred and fifty-three new consumer magazine launches last year, three hundred and seventy of them have already folded? Not good odds, is it?’
Cate took a sip of her wine and sized up her lunch guest. A slick, mid-thirties corporate broker with a Meribel tan and an immaculately tailored Gieves & Hawkes suit, David Goldman oozed confidence. It was just a shame none of that confidence seemed directed at their magazine project.
‘All that may be true,’ said Cate, glancing to Nick for support, ‘but the magazines that do succeed can make a lot of money. We have a great product, years of experience, a strong management team –’
David wiped his lips with a linen napkin, the corners of his mouth turning into a smile. ‘Cate, you don’t have to convince me about how good your proposition is. Your track record speaks for itself. As for young Nick here –’ he hit his friend on the arm playfully with his napkin –‘I’ve known him since our first day at university together, so I know that, even though he can act like a buffoon, he can also make anything work if he puts his mind to it.’
Nick Douglas managed a weak smile. Trapped in his badly fitting suit, drinking wine he knew he could not afford should David not offer to pick up the bill, Nick had felt uncomfortable since lunch had begun and his friend’s harsh assessment of the business’s prospects hadn’t helped. ‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ he mumbled, poking dispiritedly at his moules-frites, ‘But seriously, do you think we can raise enough cash to do this thing or are we wasting our time? We have to launch in June or we’ll miss all the summer trade – not great for a travel and style mag. The only other option is to leave it for another nine months, by which point I’ll be jobless and bankrupt.’
David Goldman let his eyes wander across the restaurant to a curvy blonde in a tight short skirt wiggling across the room. ‘Well, the other problem you face, of course,’ he said, turning reluctantly back to look at Nick, ‘is the amount of money you want to raise. How much is it again?’ he asked, flipping through the pristine business plan that Nick had placed in front of him. He nodded and pursed his lips. ‘One point five million quid?’ There was something about the way he said it that made it seem an insignificant amount of money.
‘What’s wrong with that?’ asked Nick anxiously. ‘Too much? Not enough?’
David put his glass of wine down on the business plan cover sheet, leaving a claret-coloured mark. ‘Difficult amount, that’s all. A bit too much money for most individual investors, a bit too small for the venture capital companies. They usually deal in investments well over five mil. Even then, they don’t like start-up companies.’
Nick and Cate looked deflated. Since their first meeting a little over a week ago, they’d worked fifteen hours a day creating a convincing business plan. Now they were sitting in one of the City’s hottest power-broking dens, multimillion deals bouncing off the walls around them, and it was beginning to sound as if it had all been a waste of time.
‘Is there any good news?’ asked Nick grimly, his large hazel eyes searching his friend’s.
David slowly gave something that resembled a smirk.
‘Look, if it wasn’t you two sitting opposite me, I’d turn this gig down right now. It just wouldn’t be worth my while when frankly I think it’s got a fifty-fifty chance – at most – of raising the cash. But …’ He looked over at Cate and flashed her a brilliant row of straight white teeth. ‘… there is something quite sexy about investing in a glossy magazine.’ He laughed, his gaze still fixed on Cate. ‘It’s certainly a damn sight more glamorous than putting your money into widgets; although widgets are a much better investment in my opinion. However,’ he continued, running a finger up and down the stem of his glass, ‘I reckon that’s how you get your investors. By appealing to their vanity.’
He picked up the business plan and thrust it into a calfskin leather briefcase sitting on the seat beside him, snapping it shut with a click.
‘I tell you what, I’ll sound out a few of the VC firms for you – see if any of them are interested in a small media project, but I think your best bet is to get a handful of high-net-worth individuals to chuck in some cash. All you’re asking is for two hundred thousand pounds each to say they own a slice of a fancy magazine, and that’s a day at the races for some of these guys. Maybe you could even chuck in a dinner-date with your sister, Cate?’ He looked again at Cate in her fitted Alberta Ferretti black silk dress and corrected himself. ‘Actually, forget Serena, chuck in a dinner-date with you.’
Cate laughed politely, carefully moving her foot away from David’s, which seemed to have slipped next to hers under the table.
‘So we’re looking for investors with a few quid and a bit of time on their hands,’ said Nick. ‘Blokes like Cate’s old man, for example?’
David perked up, his financial radar sensing a kill. ‘That’s a point, Cate – your dad and some of his mates might want a punt at this. It would really help me get the ball rolling with other investors if I say we have some initial investment, particularly from high-profile investors.’
Cate felt some colour drain quickly from her face. ‘I don’t know about that,’ she stammered.
‘Come on, Cate, give old Daddy a ring,’ chided Nick. ‘Why not call him now? I’m going to call Tom to see if he’ll chuck in a few quid.’
‘Our family doesn’t have money coming out of its eyeballs, you know,’ she replied firmly. ‘And I don’t think he’d take it too seriously anyway. I’ll speak to Daddy if we have to, but …’
After only a week in Cate’s company, Nick had come to recognize her resistance when the name Oswald Balcon was mentioned. He flashed David a look.
‘OK, OK,’ said David, checking his watch. ‘If money from your family is not an option, do we have any other source of initial investment? Can you two bring any money to the table, for instance? Can we get a mortgage on any property?’
Nick laughed again.
