She briefly touched Harley’s shoulders to indicate to her to stand up.

“So if there’s nothing else, we wish to conclude this meeting. When you have a more serious offer, with enough of an advance warning before the auction, you’re free to make your inquiries.”

With raised eyebrows, Harley stood and dumped all her things into her messenger bag. The other side was silent, thunderstruck.

Together, the two young women stepped back from the conference table, and spun on their heels to head to the glass doors of the conference room. The opposite side still had not said anything, remaining spellbound by Rian’s performance.

Before they got to the glass doors of the conference room, Rian turned around again. “By the way, once word gets out that you’ve failed in negotiating this purchase in advance of the auction, there are any number of serious collectors and antiquities dealers who will be calling the museum. So, if you had been banking on the lack of competition before as a strategy to low-ball this purchase, I’m afraid that backfired on you.”

It was a classic negotiating tactic, and, while Harley didn’t know the intricacies of Ancient Greek objects, she was well-versed with the negotiating side of these types of engagements.   So Harley took that as the right moment to exit and grabbed hold of Rian’s hand, since the brunette looked like she wanted to say something else.

They hustled out of the room to a chorus of shouts and threats.

They made their way quickly towards the elevators. To the sound of their heels clicking on the hard floor of the Villa, Harley said in a voice still breathless with excitement, “I don’t know what just happened, but I think we just wiped the floor with that pack of guys … Philip will be amazed. You can be sure Lewis & Associates will be on our speed dial for anything related to art … ANYTHING!”

Rian was feeling giddy from what she’d just done also, and let out an excited squeal. They grinned from ear to ear and exchanged a fist bump when they got to the elevators. “So what do we do now?”

Harley took a deep breath, and motioned to Rian that she was calming herself down.