by Ali Parker
“Hey,” I said, sitting down in front of him. “Look, I know that this is going to be uncomfortable for both of us, but this is a business setting, and we’re both adults here. I know you have been avoiding me because, quite frankly, I tried to avoid you, too, but we have a huge project on our plates, and this can’t go on forever.”
“It can’t,” he said, sitting up in his chair. “Amanda, I’m so …”
“You don’t have to do this,” I said, shaking my head. “The fact of the matter is, we both need our jobs, so I’ve decided that if it’s okay with you, we don’t need to talk about any of it. We can put it behind us and just move forward with this project, working as a team and making it great. There’s no reason to drag any of this out any longer or more painfully than we already have.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.” I laughed. “Let’s just move on.”
“That sounds good to me,” he said, standing up and reaching out his hand.
I shook his hand, sparks shooting into my chest as I touched his palm. I pushed them down and smiled, looking over out the door. We had wasted an entire day avoiding each other when we could have gotten this over with earlier. It was what it was, and I figured we could just pick up the next day.
“I’m going to go home,” I said. “We will get a good start on this tomorrow, okay?”
“Sounds perfect,” he said, looking over at his screen.
“Good night,” I said, walking out of the office and back to mine.
I could feel Dalton’s eyes on me the entire way back to my desk, but I ignored it, turning off my computer and picking up my stuff. He was going to want the details, but there weren’t really any to share. I would have to disappoint him. There was no need for drama, tears, screaming, fighting, or anything else like that. We were two professionals, who went through some shit, and now, we could work together peacefully and quietly.
In the front of my mind, that seemed like the perfect solution, but somewhere in the back of it, I didn’t know whether that would actually work or not. I had developed feelings for Elon after our dinner, and though I knew I shouldn’t, they really took a toll on me. Maybe this was the best solution for that, though. The last thing I needed was some office romance with my boss. If I wanted to find a way to eventually get fired, that would be it. Nothing ruined a career faster than getting involved with your bosses or even your coworkers.
“You ready?” Dalton said, standing in the doorway.
“Yeah,” I replied, switching off my desk lamp and walking out of the office with him.
“Sooo,” he said. “How did it go?”
“Not until we get in the elevators,” I whispered, glancing over at Elon walking out of his office, reading a file.
“Lord, it’s not the CIA,” Dalton laughed, pushing the button to the elevator. “You have become so dramatic in your old age.”
“Old? Look who’s talking,” I scoffed. “You’re older than I am.”
“And forever young at heart,” he said, dancing into the elevator.
“Right,” I smiled, following in after him and waiting for the doors to shut.
“Okay,” Dalton said. “Tell me everything. When’s the wedding? Are you already planning babies?”
“Lord.” I rolled my eyes. “You need to seriously tone down your expectations. I told him we didn’t have to talk about it, that we could move forward, do our jobs, keep our jobs, and just go back to being a good team. We need to treat this like business and not backtrack. The last thing either of us needs in our lives is some kind of office romance or tension that keeps us from doing our jobs.”
“What about your feelings?”
“Feelings don’t mean anything,” I scoffed. “They will go away like anything else. Jesus, it’s not like I fell in love with the guy. We had one dinner and a good day at work before it all went to shit over that job at Diamond. Nothing was written in stone, there were no proposals, and you can stop planning my wedding.”
“I did no such thing,” he said with fake shock.
“Right,” I said, giving him a sideways glance.
“Well, the plans can be used for anyone,” he said stubbornly.
“Seriously, Dalton, we are going to put everything in the past and have a really good working relationship,” I said.
I stood there looking ahead, feeling his eyes boring into my skull. I turned toward him and stared at his face, which had “yeah, right” written all over it. I pursed my lips and looked forward again.
“What? What are you looking at?” I said.
“Oh, nothing,” he said, walking out of the elevator as the doors opened. “I just know you’re upset about it.”
“I am not,” I said, still standing in the elevator. “Dalton, come back here. Wait.”
I ran to catch up with him, trying to get my thoughts together. He was testing me like he always did, and I wanted to pass the test dammit. I grabbed him by the arm and stopped him outside on the sidewalk.
“I need you to be supportive of this,” I said. “This is the way it needs to be. Nothing is going to change, and I don’t need you undermining that in my head. I have to stay focused for Mikey and for my mother. Be my best friend for a little while, please.”
“I am your best friend,” he said with a sigh. “And I do support you in it. All I was saying was—”
“I know what you were saying, and you need to stop saying it,” I said. “Please, do it for Mikey if for no one else.”
“Fine,” he said, throwing his hand in the air. “Straight people are so dramatic.”
I laughed, running to catch up with him as we went to my car. He thankfully dropped the subject as we headed home, and by the time I was walking into my apartment, I felt a lot better. The babysitter smiled as she left, giving me the rundown of that day, which was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Hey, Mom,” he said. “She fed me dinner already. I figured you were going to be late again.”
“I’m sorry, snuggle bug,” I said. “There’s a new project at work, a really big one, so I had to finish up some stuff with that. How was your day?”
“Good.” He shrugged. “There’s this girl at school, Amy, and she will not stop picking on me. I don’t even know why.”
“Probably because she likes you.” I chuckled.
“Ew,” he said. “And that is what Phillip said too. He says I should make her my girlfriend, and I told him no way.”
“Ha.” I laughed. “Well, just be nice to her. You don’t ever want to purposefully hurt a girl’s feelings. Sometimes, especially at your age, girls and boys just don’t know how to talk to each other when they like each other.”
“It gets better when you get older?”
“Well, no.” I laughed. “Just different.”
“That sounds miserable,” Mikey said, rolling his eyes. “I’ll just stay single forever.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” I laughed. “I think you’ll change your mind when you get older, though.”
“Probably,” he sighed. “You know something?”
“What?” I said, walking with Mikey into his bedroom to get him in bed. “You’re a really good mom.”
“Aw,” I said, melting. “Thank you, sweetie.”
“You’re my best friend,” he said, climbing into bed. “I can tell you anything, and you always have an answer.”
“Well, in the grand scheme, ten or almost eleven isn’t too hard to figure out when you’re older,” I said. “I don’t know if I’ll always have the answers, but I’ll always be here for you to talk to. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll figure it out.”
“Or we can figure it out together,” he said, pulling up the covers. “We’ve always made a great team.”
“We have, haven’t we?”
“Did you decide to not take that other job you were offered?”
“For now,” I said. “I like Truitt, and I’ve put a lot of work in there. People rely on me for things.”
“And w
ho do you rely on?”
“That’s a wise question,” I said, laughing. “And one that I really don’t have an answer for at the moment. Sometimes, things get complicated when you get older. Sometimes, you rely on other people, and sometimes, you only rely on yourself. I pretty much only rely on myself.”
“And Grandma,” he said, making my heart sink. “I miss Grandma.”
“I know, buddy.” I smiled.
“Do you miss talking to her like I talk to you about things?” he asked. “The two of you used to talk all the time.”
I could feel myself getting choked up, just thinking about all the times my mother and I had nighttime talks about everything going on in life. I forced a smile and nodded my head, straightening his covers. I leaned over and kissed his forehead, feeling the tears pulling at the corner of my eyes.
“You get some sleep, okay?” I said. “You have a big full day of learning tomorrow.”
“Mom,” he said before I walked away.
“Yes, bug?” I replied.
“I know Grandma makes you sad,” he said. “But I want you to know I’m here for you to talk to.”
“Thank you, bug,” I smiled. “Now, get some sleep.”
I slowly closed his door, keeping my smile until it was completely shut. I stood there leaning against the doorframe, taken back by the conversation with my son. My heart ached, wanting, needing my mother to be there to confide in. I hoped that Mikey was old with his own family by the time I died, so he would never have to be alone in the world. That was what I felt like standing there in my quiet home, the spare bedroom that my mother used to stay in, closed and silent. I felt completely alone, and the fact that I had moved on so quickly from something with Elon didn’t help the case at all. Maybe I was meant to be alone, penance for the mistakes I’d made when I was young. Either way, I had to pull myself together. Life was not stopping for me, and I couldn’t afford to be left behind.
Chapter 30
Elon
The project was underway, everyone eagerly buzzing around, working on their parts of everything, me sitting in my office going over different preliminary ideas the team had sent me. I felt like I wasn’t doing what I had with Cartier, like I needed to continue to be very hands-on with everyone, or I could see myself slipping back into my old habits. When things were overwhelming, I had a tendency to step back, which usually was a good thing, but in this case, it could be detrimental to the project. I put down my pen and stood up, leaving my suit jacket on the chair and walking out of the office. I stood watching everyone for a moment, trying to decide who to talk to first. I glanced over at Amanda but knew it wasn’t time to start giving her problems, so I wandered into Dalton’s office to check up on him.
“Hey there, boss man,” Dalton said, looking up and smiling. “What can I do for you?”
“Just coming in to check on you,” I said. “Whatcha working on?”
“Just some preliminary designs for the company,” he said. “I remember their ad campaign during the Grammys two years ago, and it caught a lot of people’s attention. It was in-house, so it wasn’t really refined, but I thought if we started there and worked our way out, we could get something really good going for them. Their sales went up like fifteen percent after that ad campaign they did. Sure, it’s still all millionaires, but what they want is what is freshest on the scene. You take an old name and make it fresh again, and they’ll be booked up with appointments for weeks.”
“Good thinking,” I said, looking over his shoulder. “It’s good to have someone in here familiar with the brand and their history.”
“It’s what I do.” He laughed.
“So how do you feel about the project as a whole? Do you think it’s a good client for Truitt to take on?”
“If we nail it, I couldn’t think of a better client,” he said. “Except maybe Versace or Gucci, but they all have in-house marketing with the best in the business working for them.”
“And if we don’t nail it?”
“Well, that would be like catching fire to the curtains in an old log cabin.” He chuckled. “But I don’t think we have to worry about that. I’m personally ecstatic about this project. It will not only get the company in a good place to pick up some really good exclusive clients in the future, but it also allows us to really understand what these super high-end companies are all about. A change of mindset for the team, it diversifies them for the future.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” I said, walking back and sitting down. “We have always been high-end, but everything we did catered to the rich and the average Joe. This only caters to the rich, nothing else. It may be snobbish and snooty, but that’s the way the world works, and I feel that if the staff can tackle this project, they can tackle any project thrown at them.”
“Precisely,” he said, typing on his computer.
“So, tell me exactly what you do? I know you do graphics, but you have your own office instead of being in the pit,” I said.
“Right,” he said, glancing over at me. “I’m the art supervisor. I take everything that comes out of that pit that’s been drawn or animated virtually, I do a once over, correct any small mistakes, or send it back to the artist to be fixed. When I am not doing that, I work on the creative side, trying out new ideas that either myself or others not on the art side have ideas for.”
“So, you’re a jack of all trades,” I said.
“Mmhm,” he said still typing.
“Well, that’s fantastic,” I said, standing up. “I won’t keep you. I just wanted to stop by get your input, and let you know if there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to come to my office.”
“Thank you,” he said with a big smile.
I walked back to my office and looked over our check sheet to figure out exactly where we were in the process. It was Tuesday, and we were already a little behind, especially since we didn’t get the contracts signed until that morning. We were behind, not crazy behind, but enough to make me nervous about giving the owner that report by Friday morning. This client was serious about deadlines, and I knew if we didn’t hit the first of many, there wouldn’t be a project for us to work on. It wasn’t like everyone wasn’t busting their butts. They had all come in about thirty minutes early, and instead of standing around talking like they usually did to start their day, the went right to work, knowing these deadlines were serious business. Still, it was obvious they were going to need some help from me to get us as far along as we could without sacrificing any kind of quality with the project. It was a delicate balance that we all had to remember every step of the way. Speed was nothing if the quality was shit.
I looked down at my clock as it blinked over to five o’clock. It was time for everyone to get going, and there was no way I was going to be able to have them stay longer. They were already working through lunch on their own accord, and I couldn’t get the board to sanction overtime until we had a firm confirmation from the client that they were happy where we were going with the project. I figured I had nothing else to do anyway, so I would stay and work until late, getting us as caught up as I could. I would start going through the finished proposals first, putting them into a booklet for the client. Once I was done with that, I would start helping them out on the floor by going through the projects not yet put into action, tossing them or sending them up the chain to be finished. At least that would save us some time on the front end, not finalizing every single idea if I knew it wouldn’t fly with the client.
I pulled up the files I needed and started to scroll through them, pretty impressed with the work everyone had put out so quickly. I was lucky to have the kind of team that I had. It wasn’t often a company could put together a group of people who worked so seamlessly with one another. Just as I was about to begin, there was a knock on the open door. I looked up to find Amanda standing there, and for a slight moment, my stomach flip-flopped.
“Hey,” she said. “You look like you aren’t going to be leaving anytime soo
n.”
“The team is doing an amazing job,” I said. “But because of the tight deadlines, we’re still behind a bit. I figured I had nothing going on at home, so I’ll stay behind and get us caught up so the team could be ahead of the game when they walk into the office tomorrow.”
“That’s a great idea,” she said, walking in. “Do you need any help? I can stay for a while and go through them with you. We could get twice the work done, so you won’t have to be here until midnight.”
“I appreciate it,” I said. “But with the amount of work there is to do, I’m going to be here for a long time, even with someone else working.”
“That’s all right,” she said. “I’m sure Dalton can go to my place with Mikey, and I can stay here and help. We’re a team after all.”
“I really appreciate the offer.” I smiled. “But your son is at home waiting on you. You’ve worked really hard today. Go home and relax. I’m the owner, and it’s my responsibility to pull the late nights when things need to get done. At least, until I can start paying extra overtime to have people stay and help.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” I smiled. “I enjoy this, anyway. It gets me back in the groove of things again. It’s really not necessary.”
“All right then,” she said. “I’ll see you in the morning. Don’t stay too late. It’s another big day tomorrow.”
“I won’t.” I chuckled. “Have a good night.”
She nodded and walked out of the office and down toward the elevators with Dalton. I sat there looking at the screen but not really paying attention to what was on it. There I was sitting all alone in the quiet office, realizing how much work I had put on myself. I wasn’t really sure why I would have turned Amanda away. With the amount of work I was hoping to get done, I figured I would be there until at least midnight or later. I hadn’t worked that late in years, not even on the Cartier ad, but this was different. This was my ticket to freedom from the board, or at least, I hoped it was. If I could make this a success, they may stop listening to Clayton and questioning my ability to lead this company forward. If I failed, though, it could mean a huge hit for the company, for its employees, and definitely for my job.
