by Kaci Hart
“Wow Ryder, finally. That’s all I can say. Listen man, I don’t know why you didn’t answer your phone and right now I don’t even care. This whole situation is crazy. Bottom line, you and I are going to have to get this fixed as soon as possible otherwise it’s not going to be good.”
Ryder growled back into the phone.
“Fix what?”
“Hold on. Are you telling me that you haven’t even listened to your voicemails yet? Unbelievable. You are slipping bad man. If you had answered you phone or even taken the time to listen to any of my voicemails, you would know that they called from Tokyo and wanted to move forward with the contract but only with you since you have been their contact throughout all the negotiations. You know Mr. Moronobu better than I do so you know how he is about personal attention. When you didn’t get back to him in time, he took it to mean that you didn’t value his business and put his company as your top priority. Now it seems like he is strongly considering going with the other bid. To add insult to injury, it got back to your father and when you didn’t call back, there was nothing I could tell him. You know….”
Trent continued on for a few minutes about how upset his father was and Ryder drifted off, his emotions taking a one hundred and eighty degree turn for the worst. He was dreading the conversation that he was going to have with his father. He had no idea what he was going to tell him. It was probably the first time in his life that he wished that he could change places with his little brother Royce right then and be on an island somewhere sipping champagne. He looked at the clock on the wall. Tomorrow was going to get there sooner than he wanted.
***
Ryder sat in the large chair looking at his father’s back who was staring without a word through the large glass window to the streets of the city down below. He had just sat through a scathing diatribe of himself and his actions but it finally seemed that the old man was settling down. That was when he spoke again, then his voice had much less venom but he was still very angry. His father was controlled and direct which was the best time to deal with him.
“I don’t know what to say son. I’ve been watching you lately and to say that you have been off would be an understatement. I used to be able to give you a task and know that it would be done quickly and to perfection. Now I don’t know if I can trust you with a deal for a hundred grand, let alone one like this for a hundred million.”
Silence and tension lingered in the air between them. His father was acting as if Ryder hadn’t done a thing for the company--but he had. He’d put in his time and worked to make this company greater than it was when he started his current role. He was sure of that but it didn’t matter when the elder Chatham was on the warpath like now.
Ryder had been down this road with his father before with smaller issues of how they wanted to run the company but he had never had an issue that could cost the company money, and lots of it. Mr. Chatham retook his seat for what Ryder figured was the fourth or fifth time in the conversation. Every time he would get revved up, he would stand and then, as if forcing himself to calm like a Zen master, he would sit back down and watch Ryder again, as if refueling his ire one more.
“Ryder, I needed you on your A game for this and you knew that. The stunt you pulled was completely and totally unacceptable at this level. We are closing an important deal that will expand our operations overseas by five percent in the next twenty-four months. You, son, are the figurehead of the company as far as Moronobu is concerned and you know the culture demands respect in business. Yet you are off gallivanting with the waitress for goodness sakes. I get that you were at a wedding and you didn’t want to be rude. I really do get it, but you should have at least checked your phone. And you see I am not upset with her. I don’t blame her at all really. I blame you. You can be in love and be successful the same time. Your mother never made me ignore my responsibilities. You made that decision.”
His father looked across the large oak desk at him with disappointment painted on his face. Ryder was upset with himself as well. He really had been the most dependable employee when it came to building the business. That was, of course, until he had met Chelsea. He’d started to become someone a lot different and not answering his phone for what he knew was business was the most horrible, glaring example of that. Not that he would tell his father any of that but he was going to have to re-evaluate some of the decisions in his life. Either way, he knew that he needed to let the old man vent so he waited for the next round of verbal assault. It arrived immediately.
“I don’t know that I can trust you with this deal or the company right now. In the short term, I can let Trent handle this deal but I can guarantee I won’t retire and let anyone or anything run this company into the ground. Not with my name on it. So you tell me...right now… should I let you handle this or give it to Trent while you go prancing about with your girlfriend?”
After he mentioned her again, he could see that his father thought more about how much she was affecting him than he wanted to say. He knew his father didn’t mean to speak ill of Chelsea. He’d actually made it pretty clear that he liked her, going so far as to tell Ryder to make sure and bring her to the next family gathering, which was a seal of approval that he’d never given to any woman Ryder had ever introduced to him. Now Ryder wondered if he and his father had it wrong. If a few months could do that to him, how messed up would he be if he stayed with her longer.
His father spoke sternly to him.
“I asked you a question son.”
Ryder cleared his throat before talking.
“No sir. As I said to you before, I had a temporary lapse in judgement and it won’t happen again. I can guarantee you that I have the same passion you have for Chatham Holdings and I’ll fix this. I’ll fix...everything.”
Before he had said it, he knew what he meant. He was going to have to take a break from Chelsea and evaluate things. He didn’t have the time necessary for her with the level of commitment that he had to give the business. The business needed him more than he needed her. At least that was how he felt in that moment, and if there was one thing that Chelsea had taught him it was to embrace the moment. He looked his father squarely in the eye. No blinking. No fear.
“Good then. That’s the Chatham confidence I was looking for. I don’t know what just happened but you have that look in your eye again and it’s right in time. You are going to have to fly right back over there right now and smooth this out.”
Ryder knew that before he had even met with his father and had already begun preparations for he and Trent to fly back to Tokyo later that day.
“Definitely. I was already considering that. I need to take care of a few things really quickly. I’ve already had the jet fueled so I’ll be leaving before evening.”
“Good job son. Now go finish what you started.”
He stood up, turned, and walked out of his father’s office. He only had one thing he really needed to take care of himself but he had a feeling it would be harder than the meeting he just had with his father. He called Chelsea to see if she could talk.
Chapter 9
Chelsea was happier about her relationship with Ryder than she had been in a while and it was all because of the decision he’d made the day before. She was on cloud nine when he called her and said he was coming to pick her up. Two days in a row with him was a new thing. Maybe he was taking what she had told him to heart. Regardless, she was just happy to have a chance at more time with him. She looked out of the window and saw his car appear downstairs. Seconds later her phone rang.
“Yup. I see you. I’m on my way down now.”
She hung up the phone and took the elevator to the ground floor. She was so excited she practically ran outside and the driver opened the back door for her. She stuck her head inside and smiled at him before jumping in and sitting next to him.
“Hi Ryder.”
“Hi Chelsea.”
She kissed him, looking at him with anticipation before talking. She was bubbling ove
r with good news for him.
“So before we go to lunch, I have something I want to talk with you about but since you asked me to meet with you. I’ll let you go first.”
“Alright. Well, Chelsea, I think I have to be as straight forward and honest as possible.”
Chelsea straightened in her seat, alerts going off in her head. She hadn’t noticed it when she first got in, but Ryder had the most serious look on his face that she had ever seen him with. Well except when he was around his father. She watched as he looked in her direction and then closed the partition, apparently wanting to keep what he was about to say as private as possible.
“What’s . . . what’s going on Ryder? Why do you sound like someone just dropped the world on you?”
“Chelsea, I don’t know if I can keep seeing you right now. I care about you so much but…”
He’d said it. He’d said exactly what she was afraid he would and it hurt. A lot.
“Oh no. You’re breaking up with me, aren’t you?”
She felt her body go weak. This was the exact opposite of what she was hoping for today.
“No. Goodness no Chelsea. Just listen to me for a second before you start making assumptions. So you know I have this big client that I have been working with for the past few weeks? The one I had to go overseas for last week,”
She nodded her head slowly in recognition.
“Well, the other night they were trying to call me but I didn’t answer my phone.”
She was hoping when he said the other night, he didn’t mean Saturday.
“Oh no. Did you lose them? Was it Saturday? It was my fault because of the wedding, wasn’t it?”
“First of all, no I didn’t lose them, but it came close. They were really upset that I didn’t return their call. To your next question, yes it was Saturday but it wasn’t your fault. I should have known better than to not have a plan in place just in case of anything. I tried to handle it all myself and it got me into a situation where I almost lost a client. An important one at that. The good news is that they still are considering working with us.”
“Well that’s a load off. I would have felt terrible if it caused you to lose a client that you’d invested so much time in just because I was acting childish at a wedding.”
“That’s the thing Chelsea. You weren’t acting childish. I was still wrong in my actions towards you and the other guests at the wedding that day. I was a horrible date.”
“Well yeah, that is true too. I’m glad that it worked out then.”
“But it hasn’t. At least not yet. I actually am going to be flying back out again.”
“I guess I can understand that.”
She looked at his face before asking the next question.
“When are you going?”
“As soon as we’re done here.”
He was so matter of fact in the way that he said it that she didn’t know if she should respond. But she couldn’t help herself. This whole thing was getting out of hand. She remembered the first time she had met him and how he was so busy working then. Something had told her that this was who he was but she didn’t care back then. She liked him. If she knew she would have fallen in love, maybe she would have made another decision because what she was dealing with now was bordering on torture.
“Wow. So then still the same thing. You are going off again after just being here for three days. What was the point in even coming back? And you better not say that you came back just for me and the wedding. I would have rather gone alone than deal with whatever guilt trip you are about to throw my way.”
Chelsea turned away from him and looked out of the window again, that time not turning back to him again.
“I don’t want to guilt you. What I was thinking before you got in the car was that we need to maybe slow things down. Take a break. Just until I am able to get things in order with this job.”
“Fine.”
“Huh?”
“I said fine.” Chelsea twisted her head and looked at him. “It’s what you do. I don’t even want to get upset about it. You can call it a break. I’m sure there will be another break and another break. You don’t have time for anything but Chatham Holdings. I could tell that from the first time I met you. Every warning bell in my mind told me that you were too busy to have a real life. To be in a real relationship. I was stupid enough to ignore them. Well those same warning bells are telling me to stop playing the fool.”
Now it was his turn to be offended.
“And see, that is where we differ Chelsea, because I feel like I am living. So what if I work hard? I find value in what I do every day and I am very good at it because of that same dedication. And if you want to be honest, I actually wish I could say the same for you. I mean here I’ve known you for months. We’ve been dating for almost half a year and in all that time you haven’t been able to make the first decision on what you really want to do. At least it seems like you are sticking with dancing but who knows what you are going to want to do tomorrow.”
“I see. So now you have decided that I’m just some flighty woman or that I don’t fit into your perfectly structured world? Well maybe I don’t want to fit into your world. Maybe I like being me, and not answering to other people. Not having to do what other people tell me to do all the time, but just enjoying who it is that I want to be. I’m sorry if you feel like who I am is someone that you don’t want to be with anymore.”
Their conversation had gotten out of control now but Chelsea didn’t care. He was mean, and disrespectful and acted like he wasn’t really in a relationship. She valued herself more than letting any man treat her that way.
“Chelsea, that’s not what I said or what I was trying to say at all. I do care about you. A lot. Everything is just so hectic right now that I, well to be honest I just need to pull back for a second. I’ve been trying to split my time between you and the business because that’s what you need from me but I’m just finding it so hard t--“
Her look turned to ice. She could see that he was trying to backtrack on what he had said but he only made it worse. She interrupted him.
“Excuse me. Did you just say that you have been trying to split your time between me and the business? Well let me tell you something Ryder, you didn’t split your time. You gave all of your time to that company.”
She crossed her arms, rolled her eyes, before looking out the window and then turning to face him directly with the intensity and glare of a bull.
“You know what. Thank you for today. I just figured out what I’m fighting against and I realize what your real problem is, or mine I guess in this . . . this relationship, if it can really be called that. How can you be with someone and have to split your time with the business? I’m sorry but I can’t come second place or even tie with your company for that matter. I thought we were growing a lot closer but if you don’t know whether you want to be with me or spend your days running about like an errand boy for your father then maybe we need to do more than take a break.”
She would have never thought that she would be the one ending their relationship but now she knew it was inevitable. Tears started to roll down her cheeks. She knew the end was coming and she was surprisingly ready for it.
***
This whole situation had taken a turn for the worst and he didn’t know how he’d let it spin so far out of control but ending things with her was the last thing he wanted. For one of the few times in his life, he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t like it.
“Chelsea I know you are upset but acting like this really isn’t going to solve anything. You know it’s not that easy. It’s like you just don’t understand where I am coming from, or you just don’t want to.”
Chelsea wiped the few tears from her eyes and smiled at him before speaking again. When he looked at her, he knew he’d done something that he never wanted to. He’d hurt her. Whether or not he agreed with why she felt that way, there was no debating that he was the one that had caused it.
“
No Ryder. Actually I understand exactly where you’re coming from very well. Ultimately this has been fun. At least it has been for me and I hope the same for you but the truth is exactly that. It has been fun but it really isn’t either of our future. You and I are polar opposites. I know that they say that two different people come together and fill in the parts that the other person lacks but we are a glaring example that it isn’t true. Maybe you are better off with someone like Phaedra. She’s more like you than I am and she probably wouldn’t care if you were never there as long as your money was.”
Ryder was in utter disbelief at what he was hearing. Sure they had their differences, but which couple hadn’t? When he’d asked her to lunch, his whole plan was to just take the time needed to get things in order with Moronobu. Then he could take the time to explore what they had and how he could make it work. Now it seemed like she was tired of trying to figure them out at all. Of course her Phaedra comment wasn’t necessary either but she was upset.