by Mia Ford
“Oh,” Lisa said turning toward me. “That reminds me. I want to set you up on a blind date.”
“Okay,” I said cautiously.
“He’s a nice guy, a friend of mine,” she said shrugging. “He wants to take you to dinner on Friday.”
“Sure,” I said smiling.
“Really? I thought you would put up a fight,” she laughed.
“Nah, I need to meet people, even if it’s not a romantic match,” I said. “Everyone I know is in the business, it gets hard to have a conversation after a while. I need to get out, step out of my comfort zone.”
“That’s awesome,” she said, raising her glass. “To new beginnings.”
“Here, here,” I said clinking her glass and taking a sip.
Sure, the guy might be an immature tool like every other guy I’ve dated, but at least I would meet someone new. I had a challenging time with guys because they all wanted to play games and have fun. I had goals, a life, and a lot on my plate. I was starting to think there wasn’t a mature guy left out there.
Chapter Three
Nathan
I lived on the 51st floor of The Avalon, an apartment complex dedicated to the service of the excessively rich. There were 69 floors, maid service, concierge service, a café and roughly every amenity you could come up with. I liked it because everyone had their own little cliques, and I wasn’t part of any of them, so they left me alone. I was born into a wealthy family, so having a maid and all of that was perfect for me. I never had to worry about the little things. I stopped off at the café and grabbed a cup of coffee, saying hello to the usual barista, Gabby, who always had a sweet smile for me. I liked pleasant people, they made me want to be friendly to others as well.
As I walked toward the front door, I looked over to see George, Avalon’s doorman, standing to the side looking through some papers. He was one of my favorite people at the complex, and I was happy to see him since he had a firm grasp on things and usually gave wise advice. He was a portly man, in his mid-fifties, and always wore the standard bellhop outfit in red with gold trim. It made me think of those wind-up monkeys that slap the symbols together. It also made me appreciate my Louis Vuitton suit that was pressed and perfect on my back.
“George,” I said smiling and reaching out my hand. “You look younger by the day, sir.”
“Mr. Pope,” he said smiling back and grasping my hand tightly. “I feel younger by the day, too. How is business?”
“It’s great,” I said nodding my head up and down. “We are thinking about expanding overseas, it’s an enormous undertaking.”
“I’ve heard,” he said looking interested. “I read in Forbes, though, that companies that want to continue for decades are almost forced to expand internationally, so they don’t get left behind.”
“That is very true, all-American only works for a select few,” I replied. “My advisor has been trying to convince me to move forward with outsourcing to fund our expansion, but I’m struggling with the idea.”
“Well, as a working-class man outsourcing is not something I support,” he said. “But I have a different perspective than you. You personally need to choose what’s best for the company, but remember what’s best isn’t always what is most lucrative in nature. Sometimes you have to lose a little to gain a lot. Just my thoughts on it.”
“Your thoughts are always insightful,” I said smiling and shaking his hand again. “I’m off to work, you have a fantastic day and don’t let these richies give you a hard time.”
“You too,” he said with a wink.
One thing I always loved was the insight I garnered from George regarding the collective common man. It helped take my face out of the quarterly reports and remember that my company did have an impact on everyone else. It was hard to see that from the ivory tower at the top of the company, but George was always the man to let me know when I haven’t been thinking everything through. It was true, I had to do what was best for the company, and from the outside outsourcing seemed like the right choice, but I needed more time to figure out what my other options were.
I hopped in my town car parked out front waiting for me and headed to the office, which was only about seven blocks from The Avalon. I looked out the window at Central Park which was across the street and wondered about the people who went to the park to play with their dogs, read a book, or just walk around. What was their life like? Were they part of the system disrupted by outsourcing and corporate greed? It was a deep thought, something I usually tried to stay away from, but this one was going to have a direct impact on how I ran my company.
When I got to the office, I sat down and skimmed through my emails, answering the important ones. There were always so many damn emails that I could sit here all day, every day, and still not make a dent. I needed to hire someone just to go through my inbox every day.
“Mr. Pope,” my secretary said from the intercom. “Chris Cantu is here to see you.”
“Yes, send him in,” I said, closing out my desktop.
“Chris,” I said as he entered the office. “How are you feeling?”
“Still hungover from our Saturday debauchery,” he said plopping down in the chair in front of my desk.
“You too? I pretty much laid around the apartment reading the paper all day yesterday,” I said. “Even my normal green smoothie didn’t take away the punch.”
“Neither did my plate of fried foods,” Chris said laughing.
“You need to consider a healthier diet,” I replied, always getting on him for eating like a teenager. “One day you’re going to wake up with clogged arteries and a hundred extra pounds.”
“I don’t think it happens overnight,” he laughed.
“All the more reason to get ahead of the game now,” I said smiling. “Besides, chicks don’t like fat guys, unless they have enough money to make it worthwhile.”
“True,” he said lifting his eyebrows. “But speaking of getting ahead of the game, have you put any more thought into outsourcing?”
“Of course, it’s been on my mind,” I said with a sigh. “I’m not quite ready to make a decision. There are a lot of things to be weighed and it kind of goes against the whole reason I started this company in the first place.”
“I understand you have your way of doing things,” he said leaning forward. “But at some point, you may have to step out of your comfort zone to push the company in the next direction.”
“That’s true, but to do that I need all the facts,” I said taking a deep breath.
“Well, let me know if you want to see the numbers,” Chris replied standing up. “I have some meetings to get to, I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Sounds good,” I said standing and shaking his hand.
I watched Chris walk out of the office, shutting my door behind him. He was a good guy and had the best financial interest of the company at heart, but he was very disconnected from the rest of it. When I started the business, I knew I could grow it fast enough that it would make a significant impact on the stimulation of our economy, and it has done exactly that. Today, it was one of the largest stimulators of our country’s economy, but I could see it taking a turn. Corporate America was not what I wanted out of Pope Financials, and though I knew it was impossible to stay entirely out of the circuit once the company reached a substantial size, it bothered me that it was starting to dive in, instead of sticking its toe in the waters.
I knew from watching my father, reading, and seeing the trends of the largest corporations in the world, that once you completely submerged yourself in the politics and policies of the corporate big time, the company often lost all will to remain a morally intact organization. That was what I was afraid of, running and owning a company that was questioned by the very people that kept it afloat. I didn’t want to be the latest corporate scandal, or the company found to be working along with the big government to fill the pockets of politicians. I had made it this far without dabbling in morally questionable actions, an
d that had been difficult, especially once Pope Financials hit the top ten companies. I was publicly traded, had investors, and the whole nine yards, but I was very careful with what avenues we took to get ourselves there. It was starting to become harder and harder.
I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my chin, wondering what other companies thought about this. I knew I didn’t have to outsource to get overseas, but I also knew that financially it was a risk to expand on the back of current profits. If anything went wrong, there would be no net to catch us. With outsourcing, we could save a lot of money and put that back into expansion. At the same time though, that would turn off a lot of people, put thousands out of work, and create a stigma of morally questionable operations with the public and behind the scenes. Personally, it would create a question in my own mind.
The decision was difficult and I knew I couldn’t jump in head first.
Chapter Four
Ruby
The week had gone by so fast I didn’t even know what I was doing. It was Friday which meant the protest march was almost there. I didn’t have many spare moments to be taking personal time, but I had promised Lisa I would meet her friend, so that was what I was going to do. I had to remind myself that she didn’t force it on me, I agreed, knowing I needed to get out there and broaden my horizons a bit, it just never seemed to be the right time.
I looked in the mirror at my long dark hair, pulled up one side. My hazel eyes glimmered against the dark eye makeup I had applied, and I was satisfied with my outfit. It was a tight black dress with a black suit jacket over it, creating a serious but playful effect. This was one of my problems, I thought about everything way too much. People didn’t like intelligent people, it made them uncomfortable, but I had a hard time playing dumb, especially with so much ignorance already in the world.
That ignorance was in full force this week when the higher powers would found out about the number of people that the march and protest were going to bring. No one ever paid attention when it was under a thousand, but you could start to feel the push back when the numbers breached that mark. We had done that and more, especially with the controversy swirling around in the current administration. People were ready, they were no longer hiding behind the comfort of their front doors. They wanted change in any shape they could find it. In some ways, the political unrest happening had strengthened our ability to get the issues noticed. Three years ago, no one would have cared about a protest against outsourcing, it wasn’t one of the popular human rights issues, but now people were starting to take notice of everything.
That was good for us but also brought the opposition in our faces full force. I had seen it all through the years from death threats to financial bribes and this time was no different. You knew when people started to get nasty and show their colors, you were headed in the right direction. They were paying attention to you and perceived you as a danger to their pocketbooks. The thing you had to remember was they were people just like you, and their threats and callous words didn’t mean anything more than someone was taking notice. Still, it brought a level of discomfort and stress to my life since I had somehow become a leader in this movement.
I grabbed my bag and headed out the door, ready to go meet this guy at a restaurant in Manhattan. My sister had described him as funny and handsome, two things that were a plus but not the core of what I was looking for in a man. I just had to keep telling myself that like him or not, I was getting out there and meeting people, which I needed desperately in my life.
When I arrived, he was standing in front of the restaurant in a pair of dress pants, a button-up shirt that looked slightly too big on him, and a nervous smile. I stepped out of the car and watched his eyes grow bigger, obviously pleased with how I looked. I smiled at him and walked over, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek.
“Jack, I presume?”
“Yes,” he said smiling. “Ruby, you look beautiful.”
“Thank you,” I said, liking the smell of his cologne.
“Shall we?”
I nodded my head and walked through the door he held open for me. The hostess showed us to our seats in the back of the restaurant where we could talk more privately. You could barely tell how a date was going to go from the first twenty minutes, especially with nerves running wild between two people sizing each other up. That was the time when we decided whether we were attracted physically. He was handsome, I would give him that, but there was nothing smooth about his mannerisms. He looked like a big kid fumbling around at a fancy restaurant. I tried to ignore it and give him the benefit of the doubt.
However, after a bottle of wine and some food, I had a better idea of who this guy was. Jack was your typical spoiled middle-class male, from a family with enough money to keep their attention focused on moving up in the world, but not enough to enjoy dinners at places like we were sitting. He had been coddled to the point where he had no clue what went on in the world around him. It was like watching the news, listening to them recite the bull crap that was passed down from channel to channel until the truth was utterly unrecognizable. He lacked the capacity to make a clear, intelligent statement without replicating precisely what he read on his Facebook feed. I was trying hard to not be rude, but he was making it very difficult.
“You actually believe the CEO’s of these companies care about a few million dollars? They are making decisions on what will grow their business,” he said shaking his head.
“Of course, they care,” I scoffed. “And so do their stockholders. When you get that big, you start to lose touch with why you started in the first place. Though, some of these guys knew exactly what they wanted, without any moral or patriotic base to their decisions whatsoever. There is more than one way to accomplish a goal, Jack, it’s just that the most lucrative are almost always the easiest and quickest way around a problem.”
“You sound like a conspiracy theorist,” he laughed.
“You sound like an idiot,” I replied, not feeling sorry about it at all.
I looked down at my purse and pulled some cash out for dinner and tossed it on the table. I was done, I tried. This was the reason why I didn’t put myself out there anymore, it ended in me being pissed and storming out of whatever social situation we were in.
“Thank you for a lovely evening,” I said looking over at him.
“Oh, come on, Ruby,” he chuckled. “It was a harmless conversation. Don’t go.”
“It’s not harmless,” I said turning around. “It’s the world we live in, and I can’t sit there and even consider spending time with someone that sees things through the same mainstream goggles that led us into this mess in the first place. I’m sorry, I’m sure you are a delightful person to hang out with outside of the debate, but this is my life.”
He shook his head with a snide smile on his face as I turned and walked out of the restaurant. I was pissed, not because he was the same old unintelligent guy that I seemed to always find, but because the world was so blind to everything. I couldn’t even socialize myself for a long enough time to make friends. Maybe I was kidding myself, maybe the people I worked with and protested with were the only people that I would ever feel even minutely comfortable with.
I stopped on the sidewalk and looked around, not ready to go home yet. I was too wired to go back and sit in my apartment, and I didn’t want to go to any of the gatherings the people I knew were throwing. I needed a drink and some time to myself. I looked across the street and recognized the name, it was that club, Exposé, that Lisa wanted to go to. I was fairly positive they had a bar on the lower level. I walked over and showed my ID, smiling at the doorman as he let me through. Straight ahead was a dark room with lights moving all around and a deep drum of music. To the left was a quieter bar with red carpeted floors and marble counters. There were small candles lit on all the surfaces and a few other people sitting around lost in conversation. It was still early which was probably why the place wasn’t packed yet.
I walked over and sat down on
a bar stool, smiling up at the bartender behind the bar polishing glasses. I ordered a whiskey and diet and sighed, glancing up at the muted televisions playing the latest news channels. I looked to the side and there was one couple, pressed tightly together, and two guys, talking to each other about the local sports games and what chicks they were going to score with. I looked down at my drink as I swirled the straw around in the glass. I was thinking I needed to let the idea of a relationship go. I didn’t have time for it anyway.
Saddened by this revelation, I downed my drink and ordered another. If my date was over already, I might as well get wasted and drown my sorrows.
Chapter Five
Nathan
I had agreed to meet Chris at Exposé that evening, but when I got there, he was already upstairs on the 3rd floor. For once, I felt like socializing, though I knew that probably wouldn’t last long since most of the people that came there were so wrapped up in themselves a conversation was almost impossible. Still, I wandered down through the clubs, scoping out the place. The girls were all dressed in their sluttiest attire, some staring over at me flirtatiously, and others already having picked their victim for the night. When I got to the first floor, I stared down the hall at the dark club that most of the non-VIP’s ended up partying in. It seemed like an interesting idea, talking to some normal everyday women, but it also seemed like a huge headache. I went to take a step forward toward the room and glanced over, realizing they had a bar at the front. I had been going to Exposé for years and never realized they had a nice quiet bar there.
I shrugged my shoulders figuring it was worth a try and walked into the room. It had low lighting like the rest of the place but looked much more upscale than any of the pubs I usually frequented. I walked up to the end of the bar and nodded at the bartender. They had just about any liquor you could think of plus some that I had never heard of before. I was going to stick to what I knew, though.