by Ali Parker
“Good night,” I whispered. “Have beautiful dreams about Daddy and tell him hi for me.”
I lingered there for a moment, trying to collect myself before standing up and grabbing my purse. I walked from the room, glancing back momentarily and then pulling the door closed. The walk out of the hospital felt different that time. It felt lonelier than it ever had before. I just wanted to be back home, back with my son and Dalton, trying to soothe my aching heart.
Chapter 17
Elon
It was another day on the books, another day that I drove to work, excited to be there. Everything was coming along so well, and I had approved overtime for anyone who wanted to work on the project during the weekend. From what I was told, almost the entire team had come in to work on it, and I was more than excited to see the progress they had made. It had been a really long time since my motivation and excitement for my company had reached that level, and it was a really good feeling. There was no way I could go back to the position I’d had before, not after having a taste of the marketing arena once again. The final project reveal was always the best, but this was almost as good, seeing my ideas come to life on the board at the hands of some of the most skilled artists and editors in the business. I hadn’t seen that kind of quality work since I had interned in college at one of the top marketing firms in New York. They were impeccable with their taste and accuracy, and I loved it.
When I got to the office, the team was already there, buzzing excitedly around. I waved at everyone, and they waved back with smiles. I was actually starting to feel like I was part of the team, something I didn’t think I would ever see from that group. I was proud of them and proud of Amanda, too, for leading them to that point. I hadn’t given her due credit for making that department what it was for the last couple of years. As soon as I sat down in my chair, as if she knew I was thinking about her, Amanda walked in.
“Hey there,” I said with a smile. “Come in, and sit down.”
“Hey,” she said, gripping her hands together and taking a seat. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Did you know that everyone came in this weekend to work on the project while we were gone?” I asked excitedly.
“I heard.” She smiled. “It is a really huge deal. They were all impressed that you sanctioned overtime for them for, like, the first time in I don’t know how long. Longer than I’ve been here. But I wanted to talk to you about something else.”
“Of course,” I said, looking down at my phone as it rang. “Dang, hold on one sec. Elon Truitt.”
“Elon, how are you?”
“You have perfect timing,” I said. “I was just sitting down with my marketing manager to talk about the project.”
“We are so excited. We got the preliminary ideas from you guys, and they are amazing,” he said.
“Good, I’m glad you liked them,” I replied, giving Amanda a thumbs-up.
“Are you okay with the timelines?”
“We are more than okay,” I said. “We are actually ahead of schedule. We have one killer team here. I gave them the go-ahead on overtime, and they all came in this weekend to work on it for you.”
“That is impressive,” he said. “And overtime. You’re pulling out the big guns to make me happy.”
“That’s just what we do here.” I smiled. “We’ll be ready to meet with you and do the presentation on Friday. Is that a good day for you?”
“This Friday?”
“Yes, sir,” I said proudly.
“Truitt, if your ad is as good as your timeline, we will never go with another marketing company.” He laughed. “Even Dior’s in-house marketing isn’t that fast, and they’re marketing for themselves.”
“I know,” I said, smiling. “I told you we’d take care of you and we’d get this done on your deadlines. Of course, if choose to go with us long-term, I will ask that we extend those a bit for the next project.”
“Of course,” he said. “We were at our wit’s end on this one when I called you up. It was a one-time deal for the timeline. I’ll make sure we have plenty of time next time. Friday sounds perfect for me. What time should I come in?”
“We’ll send a car for you, sir,” I said. “Does ten in the morning sound okay to you?”
“That’s perfect, son,” he said.
“We’ll have some breakfast foods out for you and your advisors and make sure there’s some good hot coffee,” I said.
“That sounds wonderful, Elon,” he said. “I look forward to seeing you Friday.”
“You, too, sir,” I said, hanging up the phone and clapping my hands together.
“That good?” she asked, smiling.
“You have no idea,” I said, standing up. “This is unbelievable. They couldn’t be more impressed if I delivered the damn thing covered in their jewelry. This project is so important, and you guys have really knocked it out of the park. With Cartier under our belt, all kinds of clients will be knocking on our doors. This project has the ability to completely change the company but in a good way. We can get you guys better pay, better hours, and expand on something I had been trying to expand on for years. The company could see a huge boost in the stock market, too, making our shareholders, and thus the board, very happy with this team. Man, never did I think I was going to see this day, not after the year I’ve had. We are having him here on Friday at ten, so we have to make sure everything is perfect by Thursday night.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem at all,” she said, squeezing her hands together. “The project is pretty much finished as it is, minus a few little tweaks that we’ll probably do. I’ll make sure to brief the heads of each area on what to expect in the meeting so they’re aware of what kind of questions that might be asked.”
“That sounds great,” I said, sitting back down. “We’re really going to do this, aren’t we? We’re really going to blow them away with this campaign.”
“We sure are.” She laughed. “But you might want to take a few deep breaths. You look like you’re going to fall out.”
“Nah,” I said, laughing. “I haven’t been this excited since I got my very first client when the company first opened. And man, I owe it all to you and your amazing advice.”
“Oh,” she said, looking down. “No, you had it in you the whole time. And it’s the team who deserves the credit. This has been pretty easy on me with you here.”
“Oh, wait, you wanted to talk to me about something?”
“It can wait if you’re busy,” she said, looking uncomfortable.
“No, not at all. What’s on your mind?”
“I just wanted to say I was sorry,” she said. “For not going to dinn–”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Grey said, sticking his head in the door. “Do the two of you have a moment?”
“Sure, Grey, our fearless technical designer, what can we do for you?”
“I’ve had a really good time working on this project with you guys, but I’ve been offered a really good job out in Tampa working with Disney,” he said. “They offered me a really great salary, moving expenses, and my wife is from there, so I’ll be accepting the position with them.”
“Well, that’s disappointing,” I said, my mood shifting. “Is there anything we can do to entice you to stay? How much more are they offering you?”
“Double,” he said.
“Wow, well, you deserve it, that’s for sure,” I said. “I wish I was in a position to match their offer.”
“It’s all right. I understand,” he said, chuckling. “My wife wants to go back to Florida anyway. She wasn’t really built for these Chicago winters.”
“Well, at least you get to see your last ad here at Truitt make it to the top of the charts.” I smiled.
“That’s the thing,” he said. “In order for me to take the position, I have to start immediately. They already set us up a house and scheduled the movers. I just found all of this out over the weekend. This would be my last day with Truitt.”
“I already tried,” he said. “They have a big project and need me to get rolling on it by Thursday of this week. I’ll be leaving my wife to unpack everything and heading straight to the office to get checked in on Wednesday. There was nothing I could do.”
“We were so close to the end of this ad,” I groaned, leaning back.
“I know, and I really am sorry about this,” he said. “But I can’t pass this opportunity up. I’ll stay today and do any of the changes that need to be done to the preliminary. I’m going to head down to HR, so I can do my exit interview and give them all my information for transferring.”
“All right,” I said, sighing. “Thanks for all the hard work you put in, Grey.”
He nodded and looked over at Amanda before walking away. I leaned back against the chair and swiveled back and forth, not believing what just happened. I had been so close to the end of this ad, and I had gone out of my way to make sure all the i’s were dotted and the t’s were crossed, and then I get blindsided.
“Did you know about that?”
“Nope,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s the first I’m hearing about it too.”
“Do you have any experience in what he does?”
“No,” she shook her head again. “I didn’t dive into the technical in college, and even if I had, the software in their world changes, like, every six months. It would be like putting my son on Linux and telling him to rewrite the system. It would not come out good in the end at all. There really isn’t anyone in the whole department who can do what Grey can do. He’s expensive because he’s so specific in his abilities, so we could only afford one of that position on the payroll.”
“Dammit,” I said, slamming my fist down on the desk. “I really thought I was going to make it through this without any bumps in the road.”
“What if we freelance someone?” she said.
“We can’t trust them, and to test them and know they can really do their job would take weeks, even if I ordered it expedited. When he leaves, his capability walks out the door with him,” I said.
“Since when did marketing get so damn technical?” I asked. “It used to be a bunch of people with pens, paper, and a graphic artist with Photoshop. Now, it’s like putting together a full feature film.”
I sat there, stewing in my own disbelief, not sure where to go from there. I couldn’t ask the board for advice. They would take this as me not being able to handle the job. I didn’t have anyone I could call with contacts in that field either. Just as the thought ran through my mind, a lightbulb went off. I slowly leaned forward in my chair and looked over at Amanda.
“What?” she said.
“Get your purse,” I said. “We have to go meet a friend of mine. It might just be the last option of saving this whole thing.”
Chapter 18
Amanda
My eyes were fixed on the computer screen, but the monitor wasn’t even on. We’d just lost one of the most important parts of our team and at a time that was crucial to the success of our project. Part of me wanted to be livid with Grey, but the other part of me completely understood. It was a great opportunity, one that I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have seriously considered if offered to me. Still, the rest of us were left there to clean up the mess and try to figure it all out. I looked up and watched as the team assembled in the conference room. I had called a meeting to tell them the news. They needed to know what was going on. That was how I did things with my team so there wouldn’t be any surprises in the end.
Elon was taking care of something else, so I told him I would handle the meeting. He said there was a chance we could fix the problem, but I wasn’t going to get my hopes up. I walked into the conference room and stood at the head of the table as everyone quieted down.
“I’m sorry to pull you guys off of your tasks for the day, but I have some news,” I said. “Grey has been offered another position, and unfortunately, today is his last day. He will not be here to finish out the project.”
“But Grey is the only one who can do what he does,” someone shouted out.
“Yeah, how are we supposed to finish this? What are we supposed to do now?”
The team was disheartened, and I didn’t blame them. They had all busted their asses to make this happen, and it was looking like we might have just failed. No one on my team liked to fail, even if the blame wasn’t on them. We all took an amazing amount of pride in our work, and this project had been especially exciting for us.
“I know you guys have questions,” I said, putting my hands up. “What I need you to do now is go back to work, keep going as far as you can possibly go without him. He will be here the rest of today. In the meantime, I am going to step out of the office with Elon for a little while and go meet with someone who might be able to fix this problem. I didn’t tell you the news to worry you. I’m just keeping you in the loop like I always do.”
“We’ll keep our ears out too,” Dalton said looking at the others and nodding his head. “Let us know what you come up with, and good luck.”
“Thanks, guys, I’ll let you know as soon as I have anything new to report,” I said. “So, let’s get back to work.”
The last thing I had wanted to do that day when I came in was deliver bad news to the group. We were so close to finishing only to be knocked on our asses by this. The mood was somber with the crew as they filed out of the conference room and back to their desks. We all knew this was one of the biggest clients we’d had in years. On top of that, we had gotten pumped up having the owner of the company working right beside us the entire way. It was a blow I didn’t know if we could come back from if Elon’s plan didn’t work.
“Everything will be okay,” Dalton said, rubbing my shoulder as he walked past. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thanks,” I said with a half-smile.
I did need something, a fucking miracle, but those seemed to be in short demand these days. I gathered my things and went back to my office to wait for Elon. I sat there looking out the window knowing I couldn’t give up, not yet. Part of my job was dealing with hard circumstances like that. Luckily, though, I didn’t have to deal with it on my own this time. Elon knew people. He had friends all over the place, and I was really hoping that whoever we were going to see was going to offer us up a solution.
“How did they react?” Elon said from the doorway.
I turned my chair toward him and stared for a minute before responding. “Like you would think they would.”
“It’s not hopeless,” he said. “You ready to go? My contact is waiting for us.”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I said, standing up and grabbing my suit jacket. “Do you really think we have a chance to make this right?”
“If I know the person we’re going to see like I think I do, we’ll be okay,” he said. “It will just take a bit of begging on my part.”
“This should be interesting to watch,” I said with a smirk.
We headed downstairs and got into one of Elon’s cars. I listened as he gave the address to the driver and then sat back staring out the window. We didn’t go far, but the entire ride was silent, and I could feel the tension building in the air. Usually, I would go to work ready for anything, not knocked off-kilter with news like that, but that day was different. I was so focused on apologizing for not going to dinner that my mind wasn’t on anything else. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to talk to him about it, and that moment was not the right one at all. We pulled up in front of a nice restaurant and went inside. I followed Elon back to a table where a handsome man was standing with a concerned look on his face.
“Elon,” he said, hugging him. “I was surprised to get your 911 call.”
&nb
sp; “I know, and I’m sorry to pull you away from work,” he said. “Marcus, this is my head ad manager, Amanda.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said, shaking his hand.
“Marcus and I have known each other for a long time,” he said. “He’s very talented in the marketing field but is pursuing his own path in technology.”
“Smart man,” I chuckled, watching the other two laugh.
“So, what is all of this about?” Marcus asked, sitting down at the table.
“My technical graphics guy quit at the last second and that big Cartier deal I told you about will come crashing down if I don’t get someone in to help us,” Elon said. “You know what the board said. If we fail on this project, I’ll lose my position and will no longer be the head of the company.”
I sat back in my chair, completely stunned by what Elon just said. He glanced over at me and then back at Marcus. It was the first time I had heard anything about this, but it was all making perfect sense now. He’d had to be part of this project, and he didn’t have a choice. He was trying to save the company that he had built from the ground up. I wish he had told me that from the beginning. It would have made me understand his position a lot easier at the start of everything. Still, I understood why he didn’t. I could see that knowledge causing even more panic among the group, and I was sure he was told to keep that information to himself. I could barely wrap my head around it, though. It was some serious business for a board to remove the CEO, especially when that CEO was also the primary owner, creator, and shareholder in the business. I completely understood Elon’s desperation to get the team on his side, and I was starting to feel really bad for him.
“There’s no one in your department who can pick up his pieces?” Marcus asked.
“No,” I said. “That position is highly specialized, and we could only afford one of him on our salary. He was the only one, and he came to us this morning having been offered a job somewhere else. He had to leave almost immediately for it.”
