“Team, I have the most exciting news in Media Resolutions history to announce to you today, and I’m just going to come right out with it. We have been fortunate enough to have been acquired by Castle Electronics!”
Murmurs. Dropped jaws. Glances back and forth between coworkers. Shock rippled through the room. He continued.
“Now I know that you have many questions, and these folks beside me are prepared to answer them, so if you will be patient, we’ll get to all of your questions. Let me introduce them to you.
“First, Castle Electronics CEO and founder Brant Woodson.” Brant was a slender, tall, slightly prematurely balding man with an earnest look wearing horn-rimmed glasses. I had seen his face many times in the news, usually in conjunction with announcements like those today since Castle was known for corporate acquisitions.
“Next, a person you’ll be wanting to talk to quite a bit in the transition phase, HR director Raditha Singh.” She was stunning with waist-length black hair and eyes that flashed when she smiled.
“The VP of Marketing and Sales, Ava Landry.” The redhead that we had seen in our halls so often recently. Of course, she had to meet with Kenneth if she was going to transition our marketing and sales plan. But what did she have to do with … oh.
“And a fellow you’ve seen around here for a while, although you know him in a different light, Cameron Grayson. He’s the new VP of Operations at Castle, but Castle had him here for a while to map out how our IT operations work.”
I caught his eye and stared at him, and this time he was the one to drop the gaze. I remembered the times that he had to dash out of dinner when he got a phone call. Those must have been related to his duties for Castle. Oh, and when he said, “There wasn’t anything in the contract that forbids a dating relationship,” this was the contract he was talking about.
And the conversation outside the conference room with him, Ava, and Kenneth about joining them at “the castle.”
I finally understood many things that had puzzled me for the past few months. I shook my head.
Elliott jabbed me with his elbow. “What’s up with you? You are a million miles away,” he whispered.
I pushed his elbow away and gestured to the screen, to which our new CEO pointed as he was describing Castle Electronics, its history and growth.
Somehow I managed to make it through the entire presentation focusing on the screen and avoiding Cam’s eyes. I was just hoping to get out of the room without having to speak to him.
“Uh-oh. No one saw THIS coming,” whispered Elliott.
Ava was in front of the room now, smiling her 1,000- watt smile and pointing to an org chart on the screen. Her org chart of sales and marketing. Based in Phoenix. With my name on it, along with the rest of the Denver marketing crew.
“So what we’re proposing,” she was saying, “is complete absorption of the current marketing staff into our group. Kenneth was particularly adamant about that, and the best way to do it is to pick you folks up and bring you right to Phoenix to corporate HQ. With paid relocation, of course.” She smiled even more broadly, if that was possible.
Phoenix? Who on earth would want to move to Phoenix? Certainly not me. I’m not the kind of girl who likes to live in the desert. All that sand and no beach?
The room began to rustle with murmurs. Kenneth stepped back to the podium.
“I know this is a lot to take in all at once. What I’d like to do is take a short break and let you folks have the opportunity to look at some of the Castle materials that we’re distributing, meet in your divisions, and regroup here in about forty-five minutes. The Castle folks will roam around to answer any questions. Felicia, you keep your folks here on the left of this room, Jason you take the right. …” Kenneth assigned the rest of the company to other areas in the building.
We moved to our side of the room like robots, stunned at the information. I could see Cam moving toward me, but I ducked behind Elliott. I just didn’t want to talk to him at the moment. In any case, Kenneth grabbed him by the elbow to take him out of the room, and I was spared any discussion.
“What do you suppose Natalie is going to think about this?” asked Elliott as he handed me a Castle folder bursting with information.
“I don’t know,” I said as I pulled my phone from my pocket. “But I’m pretty sure this qualifies as something worth breaking our ‘emergency only’ phone call rule, don’t you?”
I left Natalie as vague a message as I could to call me back. After all, I couldn’t just say, “Hey girl, hope your honeymoon is fun. By the way when you get back, you’ll be working for another company and possibly in another city.” Not exactly the message you need to pick up on a sunny beach in Mexico. Although, she would be getting the news from me when we actually did speak. Well, better to hear it over the phone from me now than next Monday.
Elliott and I sat morosely, munching pastry, as Felicia attempted to be as upbeat as possible.
“Now, gang, I know this sounds scary, but in the long run, it will be fantastic!”
“Really, Felicia? What is so fantastic about Phoenix?” asked Elliott.
“The fact that you still have a job,” she snapped, then returned back to her sunny self. “Look, I know it’s not ideal, but Castle is a great company. They have a great reputation for treating their employees well and are well-respected in the industry. Think of how much more we can do with so many more resources.”
“I guess so, Felicia, but to pick up and move. Admit it, you’re not happy about this either,” Elliott said.
“Wellll … no. But the room for growth is tremendous. Look at their marketing division.” Felicia pointed to the org chart and explained how it worked and how it meshed with the sales and product management areas.
Elliott and I looked at each other. Our happy little group would be split apart. He would move into the graphics division, Natalie would move to product management, and me? I would be one of a crew of faceless marketers.
“Felicia, you have to give us some time to absorb this,” said Elliott.
“What do you think, Alexandria? It’s not like you to be so quiet.” Felicia looked at me.
“Um. Well, it’s like Elliott said, you just have to give us some time to absorb this.” I hedged.
“Well, kiddos, you don’t have much time. The marketing move is the most imminent. You guys will need to pick up and go within the next few weeks so that you can begin preparations for Castle’s—I mean OUR—next trade show.”
“What!” I exclaimed. “What about houses, apartments, families?”
“You’ll be staying in corporate housing down there, but you’ll have help closing up your lives here.”
Closing up our lives? As easy as all that?
“Something bothering you, Ms. D’Agostino?” Oh, I hated when Felicia got that tone. It reminded me of Sister Frances in seventh grade.
I sighed. “No, I guess not. But wait—I have a visit to my family already scheduled at the end of this week. You’re not having me cancel that, are you?”
“Of course not.”
I thought for a moment. If I was going to be starting a new position, my next vacation would be far in the future.
“Um, one favor. I was going to leave Wednesday. Do you have a problem if I go tomorrow?”
She opened her mouth as if to say no, but Elliott jumped in.
“Come on, Felicia, you know as well as I do that it was probably all the last-minute work that this group did that pushed this purchase through. Give Alex a break and give her an extra day.”
“Fine,” Felicia breathed. “But don’t be a minute late in returning.”
Of course not. I would have to stock up on sunscreen and get ready to hightail it to Phoenix.
I saw Natalie’s name flash on my phone screen and answered right away. “Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, Natalie. You’re not going to believe this,” I started.
“Ali, before, you go down the path you’re going, I already know.”
>
“What! How do you know?”
She sighed on the other end of the line. “Felicia called me early this morning to tell me the news. When I saw her number pop up, I wasn’t going to answer it, but I had a feeling I’d be glad I did.”
“Well, what do you think of all this?” I jumped up to sit on the table in the conference room to settle in to talk. I had gone in there and closed the door so that I could speak freely. Facing the windows into the hallway, I watched my coworkers move up and down the hall in varying modes of reaction to the news.
“It’s big, there’s no doubt about that,” she said.
“But we still have jobs, so I guess that’s a plus, right?”
“Well, yes, Natalie, but Phoenix? Are you telling me that you honestly want to move there?”
“No. Truthfully, at first this morning, I was hopping mad when I got off the phone. But Sam and I have had awhile to talk about it, and I gotta tell you, it’s not going to be so bad for us.”
I was stunned. Of anyone, I would have expected Natalie to be cussing and spitting about this.
“Look, Alexandria,” she continued, “Sam doesn’t have any family in Denver, so he’s pretty much happy to go where I go. And you know as well as I do that I’d like a little breathing room between me and my overbearing mom.”
“No, Natalie, you guys were just having a mother-daughter wedding thing. Everything will settle down when you get back.”
I could sense her shaking her head. “Alexandria, not everyone has as tight a relationship with their mothers as you do.” True. “I think a little space will be fine.”
“But Sam’s job?”
“What about it? He is an awesome car salesman. His management can recommend him to someone in the Phoenix area, and he’ll be top sales guy down there in no time.”
“I guess so.” Well, at least Natalie and Elliott and I could be in the same company in the same town. That would be a consolation for moving. But moving away from my best friend Keira! We had been inseparable since we were seventeen!
“Look, Alex, I hate to cut you off, but I AM on my honeymoon, after all. Can you people let me have some time alone with my new hubby?” she laughed.
“Oh right!” We said our good-byes, and I remained on the table staring out the conference room window. Just that moment, I could see Cam walking down the hall. I tried to jump up before he could look in and see me.
Too late. He entered the room and closed the door behind him, leaning backward on it. I moved to the other side of the table, subconsciously placing a barrier between us.
“Look, Alexandria, I feel like we need to clear things up here.”
“No, nothing to clear up. Everything’s fine.” I looked down at my feet.
“You know that’s not the truth. I think I owe you a bit of an explanation.”
“Really? Do you now?” Suddenly I was no longer uncomfortable, but rather more peeved. No, actually, angry!
“What would you explain, Cam? How you were here under false pretenses?”
“That’s not fair! I wasn’t here to purposely deceive anyone!”
“I thought you were here temporarily to take over for Jim while he was taking care of family business? After a downsizing at Interactive Applications, remember? All the time, you were here as a spy for Castle. You don’t call that false pretenses?”
“Well, yes, I was part of the Interactive Applications downsize. I was transferred to Castle as part of that downsize. The timing of Bill’s call looking for help was the perfect opportunity during the negotiations for this purchase. I couldn’t say anything to anyone about the entire situation. You know how nondisclosures work, Alexandria.”
“Really? Then how about how you wormed your way into my circle of friends? If you were just here to ‘do your job,’ why couldn’t you just do it and not try to weasel your way into our friendship?”
“What!” He leaned his fists on the table. “‘Worm’ into your circle? ‘Weasel’ into your friendship? Is that what you think I did?”
I crossed my arms. “What do you call it?”
“I call it ‘getting to know the people I work with’ or ‘just being sociable.’” He paced and ran his hand through his hair. “Sheesh, Ali, you have a high opinion of yourself. Did you honestly think that because I accepted invitations from Elliott, someone who happened to be a friend of yours, and became friends with him, I was … was … stalking YOU?”
“I don’t know. It just seemed like you showed up around me a lot, including an evening out with my brother!”
“May I remind you that I didn’t even know your brother would be out with the group at the time I accepted the invitation?”
I squinted at him. “Well how about when you showed up at that jazz bar, when I was on A DATE!”
“Again,” he began with exaggerated patience, “I was there to visit MY FRIEND who OWNS the place. How was I supposed to know that you’d be there test-driving one of your SUITORS?”
“Test-driving? My SUITORS? What is that supposed to mean?”
He stopped pacing. “Nothing.”
I marched around the table and stood directly in front of him.
“Are you implying something?”
He rolled his eyes. “Not implying. Stating a fact. Since I have been here, you have spent more effort trying to win over more guys—guys I might add that aren’t even worth your time.”
“Well, I suppose you know better the type of man that I should be with. Or is that what that fake seduction scene was after Natalie’s wedding—an attempt to teach me a lesson?”
“Fake? FAKE? Is that how it felt to you the other evening?”
He stared at me for a moment, then grabbed me by my shoulders and reached down, pulled me toward him, and kissed me. I pulled back, then put my hands to my mouth.
“I … I …” I backed away just as the conference room door opened and Elliott stuck his head in.
“Um, you guys are generating an audience.” He gestured to the hallway.
I looked outside the window, then back at Cam.
“Ali …” He moved toward me. “Alexandria!”
“No!” I dashed out and ran to my desk. Grabbing my bag, I ran out of the building.
Tears streamed down my face as I hurriedly began to pack my bags for my trip home.
I was able to change my flight plans, but I hadn’t yet called my parents to let them know that I was coming in earlier. I knew that if I spoke to them while I was so emotional, I would end up sobbing uncontrollably. No, better to call them when I reached the airport before my flight left.
I had everything packed when someone pounded fiercely on my door. No, I was not dealing with anyone here in Denver before I left in the morning! I peered through the peephole.
“I know you are in there, Ali!” came Elliott’s voice.
“Go away!”
“Not going to do it. You have to open this door eventually. I know you have a plane to catch. If I have to sit here for the next few days, I will!”
I dropped my shoulders and unlocked the door. I recognized that tenacious tone. He meant it.
“You know, Elliott, you can be awfully dramatic,” I sniffed as I dragged my sleeve across my nose.
“Ha! I learned it from you, Drama Queen,” he said.
“And stop wiping your nose on that sweater. I was in Anthropologie with you when you bought it, and I know how much it cost!”
I took the tissue he handed me and plopped on the sofa. “It just doesn’t matter. Nothing matters!”
Elliott plopped down beside me and hugged me to him. “Come on, Alex. Nothing can be as bad as all that.”
“Really? Do I need to remind you that we just underwent a major buyout at the company? And as a result of that, we have to move—to Phoenix?”
“We don’t have to move, you know.”
“What? Finding marketing jobs in this city in this economy is a near impossibility. I only found this one—as a contractor—minutes before I was ready to t
ake a job selling shoes at Nordstrom.”
“Yes, but think of the discount you would have gotten.”
“I’m serious here, you dope. If I don’t take them up on the relocation, I’ll be back where I was a couple of years ago—Loserville!”
“Alex, you are anything but a loser, and you know that. Besides, you have a few more years of experience on your resume now.”
“Fat lot of good that does me if I’m out on the street competing with millions of other marketing rats.”
“I don’t think things are as bad as they seem.”
I turned to look at Elliott. He seemed awfully calm for someone who was basically in the same position as I was.
“Say, you seem pretty chipper for someone who once told me that he’d rather be stabbed in the eye than move to the desert.”
He took his arm from around my shoulder, put his two hands on his knees, and gave me a sheepish look.
“Well …”
“Omigosh! You have another job here in Denver! You’re not going!”
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“But did you know about this buyout? How? Why?”
“Calm down.”
“Calm down! How could you have not told me about this if you knew? I can’t believe this!” I jumped up and began pacing back and forth in front of the sofa.
“Alexandria, stop!” He pulled me back down.
“First, I didn’t know about the buyout. Do you honestly believe Kenneth and the board would take ME into their confidence?”
True, Elliott was not what you would call in tight with the board.
“Plus, do you honestly believe that I could have kept something like that from you and Natalie?”
Well, that is even more to the point. We always joke that there are three methods of broadcasting: television, telephone, and “tell-iott.”
“Anyway. I met someone recently who was looking for a senior graphic designer at his software company, and at the time I didn’t have any real reason to move. But now, given the events of today … well, I called him to see if he still had the opening and he did, and I accepted the position—at a pay bump I might add.”
Love on the Back Burner Page 15
