by Ali Parker
“You all are wrong” He laughed. “I dated a woman for six months when I was a senior in high school. I was confused, but it was a hell of a lot of fun.”
“Okay.” I laughed, listening to everyone crack up. “What is your lie?”
“Oh, you know I have never gone to Cabo, people,” he said. “This skin is too perfect to be messing up with all that sun.”
“Ha.” I laughed. “All right that was a good one. I’ll go next. My four sentences are: I grew up in Chicago. I have a fear of dogs. I own a small cottage in upstate New York for skiing. And I run in a pair of twelve-year-old Nikes every morning.”
“Ew,” Dalton said, shaking his head. “Definitely the Nikes. You could own the damn Nike factory.”
“I think it’s the cabin,” someone else yelled out.
“So, the cabin is a lie or the Nikes. Anyone else?” I asked looking around. “No? The lie is I have a fear of dogs. I actually love dogs. The cabin is for real. I wanted something rustic, quiet, and a true getaway, so I bought a 900-square-foot mountain cottage with no cable or Wi-Fi or anything else like that. The Nikes, well, that is an interesting story.”
“Tell us,” one of them shouted.
“When I was in high school, I ran track,” I said. “My grandfather, who passed away a few years ago, he bought me a brand-new pair of Nikes as a present for my first meet. I won the meet. I tried other shoes, but I just didn’t perform very well. Every time I wore those, though, I plowed through anything in my way. I actually wore those the day I opened up this office. I wore them almost every day for the first year.”
“Why not anymore?” they asked.
“The board told me I had to buy some dress shoes.” I chuckled. “They said I looked like Forrest Gump.”
“Aw,” everyone groaned. “It’s your company.”
“Yeah, but I learned real fast if I wanted it to grow, I had to give up some of that control,” I said, glancing over at Amanda. “So, who is next?”
We went through everyone except Amanda. We laughed, we joked, and we all told a story or two. When it was Amanda’s turn, she didn’t want to play, but everyone encouraged her to.
“All right,” she said, shaking her head and smiling. “My four sentences are: I have a degree in marketing. I binge watch old reruns of Mr. Ed on the weekends. I like peanut butter on my ice cream. My middle name is Helen. And Dalton, you can’t answer.”
“Hmm,” I said. “I say the Mr. Ed thing is a lie.”
“Me too,” one of them said. “You don’t ever relax, so that’s definitely a lie.”
“I relax,” she said, laughing. “Just not to Mr. Ed.”
“I knew it,” I said, high-fiving the person next to me.
We all laughed and talked for a little longer, and I sat there listening to the group really starting to welcome the idea of me. Opening up to people was always a challenge, but I knew it had to be done, and I knew it had to be something that made them feel like I was a normal person too. I looked up at the clock. It was around two in the afternoon. I pushed my chair back and stood up.
“This was a lot of fun, guys,” I said. “Thank you for humoring me. I feel like I’ve started to learn about you guys, and I hope you’ve learned something about me too. We’ll start working on the ad tomorrow. As far as today is concerned, unless you have something pressing to get done, everyone can have the rest of the day off with pay. I’ll let the human resources know to clock all of you out at the end of the day.”
Cheers erupted as I reached down and grabbed my bag, watching them start to pile out of the room. For a moment, I actually remembered what I’d wanted when I started the company to begin with. Hopefully, things would continue to move forward.
Chapter 12
Amanda
“Free day,” Dalton rang out, grabbing my arm as we walked out of the conference room. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to spend some real, quality time with Mikey,” I said. “It’s not often I can do that, and I’m going to take full advantage. You?”
“I’m going to go meet my stylist,” he said. “We’re going to get some martinis and talk about the terrible new trends coming out for the new line.”
“Sounds … fun?”
“It is for me,” he said, twirling himself around and walking into his office. “I’ll call you later.”
“You better,” I laughed, walking back to mine.
I glanced up as Elon walked past, flashing me one of his signature charming smiles. I nodded my head and packed up my bag, trying to hold back the heat that was breaching the surface of my cheeks. I left the office and went straight home, just in time to walk Mikey upstairs and let the babysitter go early. He was more than ecstatic to see me, and it made me feel good, knowing that everything, at least for that day, had ended on a really positive note.
I was in an exceptional mood, feeling better than I had in days. It looked like Elon had actually taken my advice, and from the response, I would say he did a pretty good job. He opened up to everyone, which was what they were looking for. Hopefully, he would continue to do so and keep the momentum going. For that moment, though, I was just happy to be off work with pay, which was a nice touch, and able to sit down and enjoy my life with my son for a little while. He had gone to the other room and started knocking out his homework, anxious to spend some time with me. I walked over to his open door and peeked in.
“Hey, I’m going to grab a shower,” I said. “But when you’re done with homework, I thought maybe we could go out to dinner.”
“Yes,” he said excitedly. “Can we go to that Italian restaurant down the street?”
“Duh.” I laughed. “Where else would we go?”
“Awesome,” he said excitedly. “I should be done with homework by the time you’re out. It was a really light day at school.”
“Great,” I smiled.
I walked in the back and jumped in the shower, rinsing the office off me and then putting on some comfortable clothes. I blew out my hair and then pulled it into a ponytail, just applying enough makeup to look like a human being. When I was done, so was Mikey, and we headed out to Arpeggio’s to grab some food and have a nice evening.
“Little Mikey,” the owner said with his arms out as we walked through the door.
Mikey ran over and hugged him tightly, talking to him for a few minutes. I had been bringing Mikey there since he was a little boy, but with money being tight, we hadn’t been in for about six months. The hostess showed us to our seats, and we both ordered our drinks and some garlic knots to start with. Once our orders had been placed, we sat there talking.
“So, how has school been going?”
“Good,” he said excitedly. “We finished the robot for our robotics program. It was really cool, but we didn’t place in the competition. There were some programming errors, and we couldn’t get him to pick up the box, which was the task.”
“Did you figure out what the issues were?”
“Yeah, I did, and I fixed him, but the competition is over,” he said. “Still, Mrs. Hathaway is going to keep him for next year so we can build on it and make him even more powerful. She’s going to show us how to give him a voice and everything.”
“Wow,” I said, laughing. “That sounds awesome. Listen, I wanted to say that I’m sorry I haven’t been more involved with your schoolwork. My work has been changing a lot, and unfortunately, it’s kept me away.”
“It’s all right.” He shrugged. “There hasn’t been anything that exciting. And even for the competition, parents didn’t come. It was a trial run to see who would get to participate in the state competition. Other than that, it’s been normal stuff. You didn’t even have to come to conferences because I’m doing so well.”
“Of course, you are” I laughed. “You’re the smartest and sweetest boy that I know.”
“Thanks, Mom.” He smiled. “I get it from you.”
“Ha,” I said, laughing. “Someone is trying to butter me up for desser
t.”
“Always.” He smiled. “But I’m really happy to get to spend time with you.”
“Aw,” I said. “I’m really happy to get this time with you. I miss you all the time. Sometimes, we just have to keep plowing through things, though. It will get easier, and this summer, we’ll get a lot of time together since you won’t have such early bedtimes.”
“I can’t wait,” he said, laughing. “And the new Halo is coming out, and I can teach you how to play.”
“Oh, boy,” I said with a smirk. “Sounds riveting.”
“You’ll like it, just wait,” he said, looking down at the food in front of him. “How is Grandma?”
“I actually went to see her the other day,” I said. “I read her Old Man and The Sea.”
“That’s her favorite,” he said. “I want to read that when I get to sixth grade and they let me. Does she look good?”
“She looks wonderful,” I said. “She’s doing okay.”
I felt terrible telling my son a half-truth. Sure, she looked good for a woman in a coma on life support. And the truth was, she probably wasn’t going to be okay, but there was no reason to tell him that. He was a sensitive kid. He had been his entire life, and knowing his grandma might die soon, I knew that would really hurt him. I wanted him to stay happy and a kid for as long as he could, and if that meant lying from time to time to shield him from the hard things, then that was what I had to do. I didn’t know if I was doing it right, but I was a single parent doing the absolute best I could do in the situation. Keeping the house running smoothly and keeping him happy and focused was what was most important to me. All I could do was sit back and hope it all turned out the way I wanted it to.
When dinner was done, we were going to get dessert, but they were out of his favorite, so we passed. He held my hand the entire way back to the house, and just being with him made all of the stress over the last week melt away. When we got home, he jumped into the shower to get ready for school the next day. I sat there at the counter thinking about how I wasn’t ready for the day to end.
“Screw it,” I said to myself, walking over and pulling the ice cream from the freezer.
Mikey deserved to have a little extra time, relaxing and doing the things that made memories. I scooped us both bowls of ice cream and set up the couch for a movie. When he got out of the bathroom, dressed in his pajamas, his eyes widened, and he ran over and hugged me tightly.
“Movie time?”
“On a school night?” he said. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yes.” I laughed. “I’m just having too much fun to end the night yet.”
“I’m not going to argue with that.” He laughed. “Or with the ice cream sundae you made me.”
We both sat down on the floor, and I started the movie. We laughed and talked about the movie as we devoured our ice cream. I laughed at Mikey when I looked over at him, his mouth covered in chocolate sauce. I grabbed a napkin and handed it to him.
“Did you get any in your belly?” I laughed.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, smiling and rubbing his stomach.
I took the bowls back to the kitchen and rinsed them out, coming back and sitting down on the couch. Mikey climbed up next to me and curled up with his head in my lap, stroking my knee like he used to do when he was a little baby. I rubbed his hair and relaxed, clearing my mind of everything.
“I love you, Mom,” he said.
“I love you, too, big man,” I replied.
“Thank you for this special night,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it at all. Spending time with you is my favorite thing to do, even if we don’t go anywhere at all.”
“It’s my favorite thing too,” I said. “That and the ice cream. You’re definitely neck and neck with a bowl of ice cream.”
“I wasn’t going to tell you that, but I feel the same way.” He giggled. “In the end, though, you beat the ice cream.”
“You too.” I smiled.
My heart melted right there in my chest, and I could feel the emotion bubbling up inside of me. My life had become so stressful, especially since my mom had gone into the hospital. I had to deal with her illness, not having her there with us, and the bills that kept pouring in without any light in sight. I also had to deal with work, and Elon Truitt was not making that an easy thing to accomplish these days. I wished for a life that was simple, something that provided everything we needed and made time for moments like that. These were the moments that really resonated with me. Reading to my mom, spending time with my son, those were the reasons I did everything that I did on a regular basis. These moments made the hard times a little more bearable, a little easier to get through without completely falling apart.
I didn’t have a million dollars, nor did I need it. I just needed stability for Mikey and for myself. We were simple people, something I had realized even more when I got to know Elon and the kind of people he was constantly surrounded with. Even he, though, had that simple side to him that I didn’t realize existed until he’d talked about his cabin. Maybe he wasn’t as far off from us as I thought he was. Only time would tell on that front.
When the movie was over, I tucked Mikey into bed and then cleaned up the house a bit. Before I headed off to bed, I crept back to my son’s room and cracked the door. A smile crept across my face while I watched him all curled up in his solar system comforter, far into the dream world. I wanted the best for Mikey, no matter what I had to do to get it. I wanted him to have the opportunities I never had. He was incredibly intelligent and charming, and I knew he could do anything he wanted with his life. The world was his oyster. I just needed to be able to show him that he had the avenues to choose from. My parents had been amazing, but I’d gotten pregnant young, and that had cemented my path. I would never change it for anything. Mikey was the most important person in my world.
The new client at work seemed impossible. The deadlines were crazy, the workload was daunting, and the new change in leadership was incredibly hard to swallow. However, I knew that if I helped Elon make this thing a success, there was a bonus it in for me and Mikey. That bonus would really help me move into the future and open all the doors I wanted to for him. It was all a matter of letting go and moving forward.
Chapter 13
Elon
I stopped at the coffee shop on the corner to grab a bagel and some coffee before work. I had stayed the rest of the day when everyone else went home, trying to get a head start on everything. The meeting had gone phenomenally, and by the time I’d gotten home, I was feeling better than ever. Amanda had really pushed me in the right direction, and they all seemed to be really happy when they’d left for the day. I was nervous about keeping up that pace, but I knew that with the right tactics, I would be fine.
“Thank you,” I said to the girl behind the counter. “Keep the change.”
“Thank you, Mr. Truitt,” she replied with a flirtatious smile.
I walked back out to the car, whistling to myself, and rode the rest of the five blocks to the office. I took the escalator up, listening to the employees talking excitedly around me. None of them were from my new team, but I liked to hear the good spirits inside the company. When I got to my office, Amanda was waiting outside with my secretary.
“Amanda,” I said. “Good morning.”
“Uh, good morning,” she said, slightly thrown at my good mood.
“What can I do for you?”
“I wanted to see if you had a few minutes to talk,” she said.
“Sure,” I replied, thinking. “How about I drop my stuff in the office and we go down to the coffee shop and grab a cup?”
“A cup of coffee?” she asked, looking at the one in my hand.
“Yeah,” I said, tossing the half-full cup in the trash can. “I usually have a couple cups before the day starts.”
“Okay,” she said. “Sure, we can grab some coffee.”
I smiled and walked into my office, tossing my bags on the desk and then walking back out. I put my ha
nd out motioning her to walk, and she looked sideways before walking forward. I followed along beside her, thinking about how beautiful she was when she wasn’t screaming at me.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “This isn’t about the team. They’re all gung ho this morning, ready to get going on the project. This is actually a personal matter. Well, it’s business but personal business if that makes any sense.”
“Okay,” I laughed, watching the elevator doors close.
We rode the elevator in silence down to the coffee shop. We stood in line, and I chuckled to myself watching her stand awkwardly, looking at everything but me. When we got to the counter, I ordered.
“I’ll have a large regular with soy milk and four sugars,” I said. “And whatever the lady would like.”
“Oh,” she said looking up at the board. “Just make it two.”
“Do you drink soy?”
“I try when I can afford it,” she said.
“I make my own almond milk when I have time,” he said. “It’s cheaper than the containers but doesn’t last as long.”
“Make sense,” she said, taking her coffee and following me to a table.
We sat down, and I pulled my phone out, silencing it from going off. She looked nervous, and I could tell whatever she wanted to talk about was important to her. I didn’t want to be interrupted, especially since I was trying to be more involved in my employee’s lives. I followed her eyes across the room to a picture hanging on the wall.
“That’s my father and my grandfather,” I said. “They were on my grandfather’s farm way before I was born.”
“It’s nice,” she smiled, staring at it. “My father liked visiting the farms out in rural Illinois. He used to tell me it was the way to live, simple.”
“He’s a smart man,” I said.
“Was,” she said, breathing deeply. “He died several years ago.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Thanks,” she replied. “I don’t want to keep you long. I know there’s a lot going on upstairs, and we need to get going with this project. I take care of my mother. Well, the hospital does, but she is my responsibility. She’s in a coma on life support from a brain hemorrhage. I take care of her bills, and I would love to move her to a home of sorts where she would be more comfortable, but the cost is outrageous. When my dad died, she’d moved in with us, and we were happy to have her. Anyway, that isn’t really relevant to what I’m trying to say. I want to make a better life for my son and my mother. They deserve so much more than what I’ve been able to provide for them.”