I sit up wiping the hushed tears that fell as I took a needed moment of silence.
My wall clock ticks over the fridge. I need to get to work.
* * *
“You look ridiculous today.” Emily barges into my office. She is the only one who manages to find me tucked away in Legal.
“What?” I laugh, pushing away from my desk. My black checkered dress has short sleeves, a square neckline, and is fitted at the waist with a thin black belt and silver buckle. It isn’t my heels that are any different, plain and black with a strap across the ankle.
“Nothing.” She smiles, looking nice herself in a blue blazer and skirt combo. Her dark hair is in a bun. I hate buns, so I always wear my hair down and pinned on the side.
“What’s up?” I ask her, marking something down on my calendar for today.
Emily drags the chair by my window on over to my desk and sits next to me.
“Nothing. Bored.” She sighs, avoiding my gaze. I roll the chair and face her.
“You’re never bored.”
“Not true. What is going on with you? I haven’t seen you since before the holiday.”
I shrug. “I’m fine.”
She nudges me with the skin of her calf. “Yeah right. Oh, your legs are so soft.” She distracts herself.
I laugh. “Recent wax.”
“Mine don’t do that.” She makes a face. I laugh through the fog that’s been over my head since the phone call this morning.
“I’ll take you with me next time. How was the trip?” I ask her.
“Great, Carson’s niece and nephew are so cute. So, it was really fun. But everyone was so sad since Grayson wasn’t there, especially their mom.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s too bad.”
“Dylan was great too, unusually happy.”
I scoff. “I didn’t ask.” I roll my eyes, and it isn’t as easy as it usually is.
“Whatever.”
We go back and forth for a while, mostly talking about her trip. It’s nice that she has so much fun with them. I was never one for group activities, but it was probably because I wasn’t even in school long enough to make friends most of the time.
“You seem like you have a lot on your mind.” Emily pauses the conversation.
“Huh? No, I don’t.” I laugh once, clicking my pen. She leans forward and looks at me, her stare is immensely convincing.
“I have to pay some medical bills off from my transplant.”
“I thought your dad’s life insurance would take care of that.”
“It would have, most of it.” I twist my hair in my fingers and watch her eyes soften at me.
“My lawyer is trying to figure it out, but I might have to pay for it… somehow. But I’m sure it will be fine.” I smile, even though I’m not even all that sure myself.
“I’m sorry you have to deal with that. I can help, you know.”
I laugh. “With two hundred grand? Okay, Emily.”
She gapes. “Oh, wow. Maybe not that much. A shoulder to cry on?”
“Sure, I’ll take it. Though I think I might have overstayed that welcome.” I laugh.
She joins me. “Oh man, remember when you kept crying in the hospital after you woke up?”
“I thought I would have a scar forever. It was all the pain meds.” I giggle.
“Yeah, well it’s pretty much gone now.” She points at my chest. I nod, I got lucky with impeccable sutures.
“Don’t worry, it will be fine. I’m sure of it.” Emily pats my knee.
“I hope.”
We change the conversation to a better tone which is the shopping trip we barely planned out. It’s funny because neither of us even like shopping all that much. We usually end up going to the mall and checking out the food court, sitting there talking all day. Either way, I’m down for it.
Anything to remind me of a simpler time when that was all I worried about.
“Oh, we have that meeting today.” My computer dings with the calendar reminder.
“Oh, right.” Emily clears her throat, looking sketchy as hell when she scratches at her neck.
“What?” I crane my neck, getting her to look at me from the chair.
She presses her lips together and swallows, then she stands and paces around the desk like she has to get away from me.
“I know what the meeting is about.”
“What’s with the guilty face? Are they closing the Legal Department?” I snort like the company could stand without legal for all the messes they get themselves in.
“Uh, no. More like all the departments.” She leans over the desk, her eyes casting down.
This day keeps getting better.
“What? How do you know?”
“I uh… overheard.” She shrugs. “Right place at the right time.”
“Oh… shit.” My hands slam on the desk.
“It sucks. But you’ll find another job soon after, so it shouldn’t be that bad.”
“That bad? Are you kidding?” I shriek.
She stands, holding her hands out in defense. “Sorry, that wasn’t the right thing to say. We’re in this together. It will be fine.”
“Yeah right, you can lose your job and be first in line to the next opportunity because your boyfriend happens to run an empire. But me, I’ll be stuck on LinkedIn for months,” I groan, falling back in my chair.
It’s a slew of failure after failure today.
“It’s a merger, there’s a possibility you can be placed with the buying company.”
“I don’t even know who they are. I can’t place all my eggs in that basket.” I sigh, opening my eyes to face her again. “Sorry about the boyfriend thing.”
She laughs. “That’s fine. It’s true. It’s how I got the job here. Well, technically it was Holden.” She shrugs.
“I hate you.” I laugh, and she does too.
I divert the conversation away from yet another problem I have to deal with. All the talk of mergers and people losing their jobs in the meeting, layoffs and such, it hits too close to home.
My head drifts off to the early days of Dad losing his job with Wilde Enterprises. I didn’t know for a long time and only came home months after, shocked at what I saw. Dad was in turmoil, not himself at all. He was always reserved and quiet. As I grew, I knew it came from him missing Mom a lot.
This was different. I didn’t want to leave him, but I had to when I needed to go back to school. At the same time, my heart defect got even worse. I had been on the list with UNOS for years already, not expecting anything good to come from it.
Dad had all that to deal with too, and I don’t know how he managed it all.
Until one day he didn’t.
After my graduation, he waited a few months before ending his life. Right after that, a new heart became available—a direct donation. Like I said, the ultimate sacrifice. Now I might get laid off too just like he did.
This day really does suck.
13
Dylan
“You all need to do some serious damage control.”
“Obviously, that’s your job,” I snap, not looking up from the next slew of emails. I had no idea the people who worked for us had such colorful language and strong prose when they’re angry.
“Okay, as I was saying…” Elizabeth continues, and I don’t hear much of it. This honestly doesn’t affect me directly. Carson and Holden are the holders of this place, morale and all.
Elizabeth Bathory is our PR Director. She has worked for us for about a year. Since she has worked here, things had been looking up until we decided to go about this merger and effectively push some jobs out, an unavoidable consequence. She’s very stern and savvy and has the powerful black-woman-in-business persona going on.
I stop reading the emails I was copied on and look up at the presentation she put together for the first time. Her words are going in one ear and out the other. I don’t hear much of it. I haven’t heard much of anything since I’ve gotten back from the holiday t
rip three days ago. The middle of the week is supposed to be easy. This is the worst Wednesday I’ve had in years.
“Are you saying we should offer a better severance package or what?” Carson asks. I look between him and Evan, who is doing the same as me, focusing on his computer. Holden is at the head of the conference table as always. I notice his eyes training on Elizabeth in a more than ‘I’m paying attention’ way.
In my head, I laugh. Holden is no hypocrite, and it must drive him crazy to work with someone he wants but can’t have. Elizabeth sits down, answering Carson, and I watch Holden train his eyes on her as she does. He must notice when he eventually glances over at me. I flinch a wink, and his guilty expression flashes before he clears his throat coming back to.
“How can severance be too high? We’re offering more than the standard,” Holden asks her. Five weeks pay for every year worked, the standard is usually three or four weeks, but we knew this would be sudden to everyone. More workers from Arnold will lose their jobs than with us, but people are still being laid off. We can’t keep all of them. We created two new departments to try, but one hundred and twelve people isn’t bad considering we employ thousands of people.
“Because you look guilty. When you high-ball people, they have more reason to believe you have something to hide.”
“We don’t. This was a business arrangement and couldn’t be avoided no matter how hard we tried,” Carson says.
“I know, and we did well with the departmental transfers and the additions in account management and marketing. But people are still being laid off, and that’s what they care about.”
Holden groans rubbing at his temples. He has loosened his tie and cufflinks signaling he is about done for the day. We all are. Carson looks haggard, and Evan is diligently furrowing his brow. I came into my office greeted by my assistant with ten people waiting to see me. I’m not sure how they even got on this floor, the four of us are hard to get ahold of. I assumed they would bother the Board, but they must know they are figureheads anyway. When they were informed of the merger last week, they didn’t have much to say. This benefits them too.
After I dealt with those who insisted on seeing me, which was me directing them to send me an email, they did. The four of us were copied in the emails. Holden then decided the best thing would be to consult with Elizabeth again, so we don’t make any mistakes. An image is hard to build and easy to break. We have to think hard and careful here.
“Okay. So, what do we do here? Take back the offer? Pay more unemployment?” Holden asks.
Elizabeth sighs. She stands and tosses her brown hair over her shoulder as she takes down the reports she tacked onto the board. Her plain black skirt suit matches the somber mood we all have. I don’t think we have any regrets, but I’m sure we can all agree that we wish we had done more, maybe tried a little harder to keep jobs. Or maybe even expand within the office here instead of focusing on the international office planned to open in London. There is still a lot of headway to get through. I take care of all the shit we’ll have to buy—land, licensing, tax rights—but it will happen soon enough. Holden and I had a talk about it, and neither of us is excited for the proposal we’ll have to make to the others.
“No.” Elizabeth turns back around, packing her papers into the black padfolio she has.
“Honestly, I’m not sure why you called me in here. This is beyond band-aid patching that PR can do for you. I suggest you move forward, use nice words, and answer the emails with non-generic responses. It might take a while, but, whatever keeps them happy. Disgruntled employees are a huge liability. You’re the only company I’ve worked for that has had only one incident, and you can keep it that way. From what I can tell, the people like you, so do something nice. I bet it will all work out.” She sighs when her phone rings. “I have to get to another meeting.”
“Thanks, we’ll call if we need you.” Holden stands and shakes her hand before she rushes out. He lets out a groan, shucking his jacket off in the process, cursing to himself. Elizabeth is only on retainer with us. We don’t have an independent PR department, but she does work for us, and other people too. She runs campaigns, did the last publicity campaign for a celebrity publishing deal in New York and some political campaigns too. But we’re not allowed to ask about this, party privacy and all.
“What do you think we should do?” Evan asks, resurfacing.
“I don’t know.” Carson chuckles. “This might blow over if you ask me. Won’t be like the last one. It sucks that Dad wasn’t even around.” He sighs.
Evan nods as does Holden. I wonder why I don’t even remember what they’re talking about.
That time after Dad was a blur. The same crackling feeling in my spine I got when I saw that name, Adrian Walters, and I can’t place where it is coming from. If I could think hard enough, get past the fog I put myself in for weeks after Dad passed, maybe I could find out what it is. But I don’t have the time to before I’m needed in the conversation.
“Dylan, any ideas?” Evan tosses a pen at me. He’s too far for me to kick his knee or something. I take the pen and shrug.
I tug at the collar of my suit as I shut my laptop, the screen is giving me a headache. Holden is already typing out emails with Carson helping. They have to reference some employee profiles to finish them. I figure they might be able to come up with something. I think of something I read earlier. It was complete fiction, some novel I picked up, but it might work.
“Check those profiles,” I tell them. They stop and pull them up on the desktop attached to the screen across from the desk.
“Uh, cross reference with how many dependents they have if they listed any.” We have all the new hires do these profiles for legal reasons and the whole family-oriented thing Dad always used to talk about.
“What for?” Carson gripes.
“Just do it,” I snap back.
Holden shrugs and types in search, and about fifty come up.
“Check how old,” I say.
We find at least twenty with kids over eighteen and in college, which we find out from the alumnus profiles and public record. Not much is kept private in today’s digital world, or when some information is surrendered, and everything else is easily accessible. Most of the employees are in the higher income bracket, more associates lost their jobs than juniors or assistants. That stings, I’m sure.
“Email those twenty, offer to cover tuition for their kids in college. If they say no, whatever.”
Holden nods. “Okay.” He types and blind copies them. I see on the split screen on the monitor.
“The rest don’t have any kids. If they do, they’re a lot younger,” Carson says after they finish.
I nod. “That’s fine. Give the rest one hundred shares of stock. Maybe that will stop the hate mail.”
Evan chuckles.
“Okay. If they say no?” Carson asks. Holden and I chuckle. Carson and Evan aren’t that versed in the specifics.
“Who the hell would say no to thirty thousand dollars’ worth of stock?” I make a face. And our stock only goes up. We haven’t seen a dip in weeks. They can sell immediately if they want.
“No one, I guess. But we can’t go into the business anymore, everything with expanding globally will become redundant,” Holden says. I count the amount in my head, one hundred twelve people, thirty grand each… fuck me for morality.
“I’ll pay it out of my personal account. It’s short of four million.” I exhale a moist breath. Our good fortune never ceases to surprise me.
We were only trying to take the company to the next level, being punished for it was never in the plan. But hey, it’s happening.
“Oh. Well, we can split it then,” Carson suggests. I shake my head.
“It’s fine. I don’t have the energy to do all that split work. That should take care of everything. Send the emails, and I’ll attach my account to it.” I open my laptop back up. We all get back to work and don’t stop until it’s finished this time.
&nbs
p; It doesn’t take that long, the personalization in the emails is what does. We will probably get more, but we’ll do the same thing over again.
Asking an assistant to do it would create a middleman I don’t feel like dealing with. I didn’t offer myself up for some abstract feeling of retribution, reparation for whatever it is I did and can’t remember, like I hit my head and only just woke up when Forbes walked into my life spewing hate. With all that’s happened, she just reminded me of consequences, ones that I forgot existed. Horris emailed me yesterday. He has everything I need. But I haven’t asked for it yet. It’s not like I can push the boundaries and show up at her place unannounced or call her by getting her number.
All I can do is picture her in my mind, pretend to see her face and not hear her voice. No one has ever been that pissed with me. I’m guessing disdain is not a proponent of her natural voice.
“Crisis averted, for now.” Holden stands and stretches out. Carson does the same. They both pour drinks and bring one to Evan and me. I take a sip, cold bourbon, Holden’s favorite.
I stand up and shake my jacket out. I scratch at my beard rubbing it down. All things considered, it could have been worse. I feel like we negotiated, but it must be good because both sides have to feel they got screwed. But these people who worked for us, they’re the best of the crop, and they will be able to find another job soon.
“The office is in London. We can consider that. They can take a huge vacation until it opens,” I add to them. Holden and I suspect it will be by the end of the year. There is already a vacant office building. Just a bunch of paperwork to go through.
“That’s true. We’ll see.” He shrugs making a note to himself. We discuss another application process as well, so it can be fair.
“This calls for a serious sinker. Bar?” Evan stands up, yawning dramatically as he puts his classic gray blazer back on.
We’ve been in this office all day. I’m not opposed to going out for once.
“Sure,” I agree, watching Carson when he takes his phone out and calls Emily.
Wilde About Dylon: The Brothers Wilde Series — Book Four Page 9