by Joey Bush
“You look great,” she said. “Very professional.”
“Thanks.” My tie felt too tight. I’d had to watch a video on YouTube to get it right.
“Are you nervous?”
“Not at all,” I lied. I gave myself one last look in the mirror and then turned away. “Here goes nothing.”
I got off the elevator and walked through the etched-glass double doors, where the receptionist sat behind a tall, L-shaped desk. She was young, probably in her early or mid-twenties, attractive, with blonde hair pulled back in a clip and a smart-looking business jacket with a pink collared shirt and black skirt. She held her hand out, smiling.
“Nice to meet you again, Mr. Bassett,” she said. I must’ve looked confused because she added, “We met at your father’s funeral. Briefly, though. My name’s Erin.”
“Oh, right,” I said, though I couldn’t recall meeting her. There had been a different receptionist here the day I’d come when Isla had to meet up with Cal. “Hi there. Nice to see you again. I’m here to see Cal.”
“He’s in his office. I’ll notify him that you’re here.”
“Great. Thanks.”
Past the receptionist’s desk was essentially a big room with partition board and dozens of desks, all of which were occupied by people that I sort of recognized, but couldn’t actually think of any of their names. Some were on the phone, others were typing on keyboards. I gave a little wave but hurried through, not wanting to stop and have a conversation yet.
“Hello,” I said. I continued past the glass-walled conference room, which was just a huge, oblong-shaped table with many tall-backed leather office chairs around it. It reminded me of a terrarium. My dad’s office was to the right; Cal’s was to the left. I went to the left and was about to knock on the door when it opened.
“Levi,” Cal said. He made a show of looking at his watch, a large gold Rolex. “It’s ten-thirty. Nice of you to decide to show up.”
The way he said it, it was as if I were late, though I was pretty sure we hadn’t specified a certain time. “Was I supposed to be here earlier?” I asked. “I don’t remember telling you what time I’d be arriving.”
He stepped back and gestured with his hand. “Let’s go into my office.” I stepped in and he closed the door. “Have a seat.”
Both he and my father had corner offices, though from what I could remember, Dad’s office was bigger, had the better view. Cal’s was still nice, nonetheless, and I sat down on the couch. Cal took a seat opposite me in a white leather wingback chair.
“You’re right,” he said, “we didn’t agree on a time.”
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“But would you like to know what your father’s schedule was like? Would you like to know what an average day for him looked like?”
I was about to say that I knew what an average day for my father looked like, but then I realized, I didn’t have any clue at all. “Sure,” I said.
“Your father woke up every morning around five-thirty. He arrived here about forty-five minutes later, had his coffee while he read the Wall Street Journal, and then he had appointments and client calls for the rest of the day. Often ending with a business dinner.”
“Dad was very busy.”
“Our situation right now is a bit delicate,” Cal said. He rubbed his hands together and exhaled loudly. “I’ll be very honest with you, Levi: I find it rather troubling that your father has left his interest in the company to you, someone who has no experience with finance, other than freely spending money that isn’t his.”
“Ouch,” I said. “That’s a little harsh.”
“But not entirely untrue, is it?”
“You’re making it sound worse than it really is. I think everything is going to be okay.” “We have a management team,” Cal said. “These are people who are very passionate, very dedicated to their work. They’ve gone through the CFA program, they have MBAs, they’ve worked incredibly hard to get where they are. They take their job seriously. We have 3.1 trillion dollars under asset management. I know you might think that you have some clue about large sums of money, but I can assure you, this is more money than you could ever possibly conceive of. Do you even understand what we do here?” Cal asked. “What your father did here?”
“Manage people’s money?” I said weakly.
He gave me a stern look. “Yes, but it’s so much more than that. We leverage our clients’ assets and provide them with diversification and investment opportunities. And when it came to market forecasting, your father had a gift, which unfortunately isn’t something that can be taught.”
“He was always asking me to come into the office so he could show me what he did,” I said. “So he must’ve thought that some of it was teachable.”
“Some of it is. Most of it is, actually. But in every line of work, there’s always going to be a few that have an innate talent for it, something that simply can’t be taught. Can’t really even be put into words. So I’m not even going to try.”
“Fair enough. And trust me, Cal, I’m not coming in here thinking that I know what to do, because it’s probably pretty obvious that I don’t. I would like to learn though.”
“Well,” Cal said, “seeing as you have no experience in finance whatsoever, I expect that you’ll be willing to step back and let the people who have been doing this for a while continue to do what they’re doing, with little interference.”
“Yeah, of course,” I said. “But I do own the majority of shares in this company, so I am technically the owner. Right?”
Cal nodded grudgingly. “That is correct. Your father worked hard, Levi, which is something I hope you don’t overlook. It’s also something I hope you don’t try to undo, either through ignorance or maliciousness. There’s no reason for either.”
“I’m not trying to undo anything. And I don’t feel the least bit malicious about this whole thing. Ignorant, yeah, maybe a little, but I’m here to learn. I want to learn. Dad tried to have this talk to me right before he died and I pretty much blew him off, which I regret now. He wanted me to take a more active role here, and at the time, I didn’t want to.”
“I know,” Cal said. “It was always a hope of your father’s that you show an interest in business. It’s too bad it’s happening now, when he’s not here to see it. What I think might be best is if you let us do what we’re continuing to do. You do what you’ve always done. If you start meddling in stuff that you don’t understand, our clients are going to get scared, and they might decide to go elsewhere. We don’t want that. Your father wouldn’t want that. He’s worked so hard, Levi; we don’t want that to be for nothing.”
“No, of course not,” I said. “But I would like to be a part of it.” It was tempting to just go back to what I’d always been doing, pretend that Dad was really still around, but I didn’t want to not do this just because it was a little intimidating. Okay, a lot intimidating. Did BCM really handle trillions of dollars? That seemed like an absurd amount of money.
“Why don’t you go down to your office,” Cal said. He stood up, so I did too, and we left his office and he walked me down to my dad’s. Mine now. “I’ll give you some time to just think things over,” he said.
I stepped into Dad’s office and pushed the door closed behind me. The office was immaculate. The carpet was a square pattern, cream-colored; the walls, where they weren’t glass, were white, except for the wall behind his desk, which was painted a deep red. I went over to the desk and sat in his black leather executive chair. The chair was comfortable and could rock back and forth. There was nothing on his desk except a black leather desk pad and atop that, a laptop, which was closed. I knew that Dad had spent more time in this office probably than he had at home, more time here than he ever did with me. And now I was supposed to take this over, I was supposed to know what to do. The thing was, Cal was right—I had no idea, no clue, no experience whatsoever.
24.
Isla
I cou
ld tell that going into BCM hadn’t gone exactly as Levi had been imagining it. He’d come back and seemed rattled, though he was trying to hide it.
“Are you going back to the office tomorrow?” I asked as he wrestled with his neck tie, trying to yank it off.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I mean, I probably should. Why?”
“Well, I’m going to go back to Bel Air tomorrow.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. I need to. I’ve got some things I need to deal with. So . . .” I paused.
He gave the tie another yank. “And you’re going to be afraid that you’re just going to miss me too much? Are you asking me to go with you?”
“No,” I said. “I’m just letting you know that—”
“I’d be more than happy to go with you to Maryland. It can be a little road trip.”
“Are you sure? Don’t you think you should stay here?”
“Uh, no. Well, maybe, but I don’t know if I can deal with wearing a tie for another day. How long are you planning to go back for?”
“Well, I mean, I do live there and everything. I’ve got this whole gym fiasco to take care of. I need to see my mom, too.”
“It’s been a long time since I last saw your mom. But yeah, I wouldn’t mind a little distraction. I kind of need to think about what it is I want to do with the company and everything.”
“I thought you’d already decided.”
“I know, I did, but today, Isla . . . I don’t know. It was a lot. I really had no idea what my dad did, how hard he worked, which I realize sounds pretty shitty. Luckily, I don’t need to make any decisions right now. So yeah, I wouldn’t mind going, keeping you company. Fuck! Can you please help me with this goddamn tie?”
I laughed and went over and helped him get the tie off. I pulled his shirt out of the waist of his pants. “There,” I said. “Now you look a little more relaxed.”
“I’m not going to be able to relax until I get out of this outfit,” he said. “Do people really wear this shit all the time?”
He went and changed and came back wearing a t-shirt that read Viva Ibiza! and a pair of plaid lounge pants.
“Much better,” he said. “I’m fuckin beat, though. I swear, I didn’t do much more than sit there at the desk and look through some folders and I’m exhausted.”
“It’s a different environment than you’re used to. It’ll take time to adjust.”
“Yeah.” He came over to me and I put my arms around him. “I’m having second thoughts now as to whether or not I actually want to adjust.”
The next morning, we were up and out of the city early. Instead of driving straight to Bel Air, though, we stopped on the way so I could buy a few things for my mother.
“She’s not really into presents,” I said, “but I don’t just want to show up there empty-handed.” We were in a department store, not as fancy as Saks, but it still had plenty of nice stuff.
“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like presents,” Levi said. “Though parents seem to appreciate functional presents. Does she need anything?”
I pictured my mom’s little house; really, everything in it could be upgraded or replaced. Not that we were going to show up there with a new couch or refrigerator or something. I put a few throw pillows, and a nice duvet cover and a comforter, along with some bath towels and a case of new drinking glasses, in the shopping cart.
“See?” Levi said, as we were checking out. The cashier kept looking at him and then blushing every time he looked her direction. “You can totally handle this shopping thing.”
“This was different,” I said. “This is not a store where a tiny little wallet costs five thousand dollars.”
Levi put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me toward him. “Guess what,” he whispered into my ear, “you can afford it.”
The cashier was watching us, and I felt both a little uncomfortable and a little pleased. I recognized that look—she was envious of me. I’d certainly looked at other women like that, when I’d been younger and overweight, when I’d been at the gym and seen some woman with a totally strong, sleek body. I’d never thought that I would be the one who would be getting the looks. I knew Levi had a lot to do with it, though.
“It’s still going to take some time to get used to,” I said, ducking out from under his arm.
We went out to the car and I had to stuff all the bags into the trunk to get them to fit. “Am I even going to be able to close the trunk? This looks like a lot more stuff than it actually is.”
It did shut, though just barely. When we were back on the road, I decided to call Sophie and give her the head’s up.
“Hey,” I said when Sophie picked up. “It’s me.”
“Hey! I was just thinking about you. We must be operating on the same wave length or something. How’s it going?”
“Pretty good. Listen, we’re driving down there now, so I was hoping we could go out to eat at some point. I didn’t know what your schedule would be like, though, and I’m not sure how long we’re going to be in Bel Air for.”
“We?” she asked.
I glanced over at Levi. “Um, yeah. We.”
“Ew, you’re bringing him back here? Jesus, Isla. You’re really dedicated to Project Revenge! Good for you. Well, it’d be nice to get together with you without him, but if that’s not possible I suppose I can stand to be around him for an evening. Or lunch, or whatever. Just let me know.”
“Okay, I will,” I said.
After I got off the phone with Sophie, I called Mom.“Hi, Mom,” I said. “Are you home right now? Are you busy?”
“I’m here,” she said. “I’m just puttering around the house. Straightening things up. Why?”
“I was thinking of stopping by for a visit. I’ve got a surprise for you! A couple, actually.”
“Oh boy,” she said. “I’m not sure I like the sounds of this.”
“Stop it, Mom,” I said. “It’s nothing bad, I promise. I’m not coming by with a new puppy for you or anything.”
“You better not.”
“I won’t. But we’re in the car right now, actually—so if it’s a good time, we’ll be by in five minutes or so.”
“We?” she asked.
“That’s part of the surprise. Don’t worry, Mom, we’ll see you soon!”
“She sounds less than thrilled,” Levi said when I hung up. “I can’t remember the last time I saw your mother. How is Sharon?”
“She’s been good.”
“Are you sure it’s a good idea if we go over there? If I go over there?”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” I said. “There’s no reason she wouldn’t want to see you.”
“Other than my father ended up being too busy with his business to actually spend time with her?”
I glanced over at him. “We don’t need to bring that up. But I think part of her understands. It’s not like she didn’t know what he did before she married him. It was sort of a whirlwind, fairy-tale romance for her. Something she hadn’t been expecting, at all.”
“She always did seem like a very pragmatic person.”
“She still is. And I know for a fact she wasn’t planning on falling in love with anyone, but that’s what happened, and she allowed herself to give in to that. She and my father were never in love. She doesn’t talk about it, but I know it.”
“Yeah?” Levi said. “I don’t think I ever asked you about your dad.”
“You didn’t. I don’t really know him; he’s out there somewhere, but he never wanted to have anything to do with a family.”
My mother had never talked about it, but I knew she hated being a single mother. I knew she wished that my father hadn’t just left the way he had, but there was nothing she could do about it.
“I always liked your mom,” Levi said. “She was cool. Think she’d like to go out to lunch or something? Where is there good to eat around here? I’m starving.”
“There’s some places downtown,” I said. “She’ll proba
bly just say she’d rather eat whatever it was she had in the refrigerator, though.”
When we got to Mom’s, I parked in the driveway and Levi helped me get all the stuff out of the trunk. We were walking up the faded brick walkway when Mom came to the door, a surprised look on her face.
“Isla!” she said, as though she hadn’t been expecting to see me.
“Hi, Mom.”
She squinted. “Levi?”
He was bear hugging the bags with the pillows and the comforter in them. “Hey, Sharon,” he said. “Long time no see.”
“You can say that again.” Mom stepped back, holding the door open. “Come on in, the two of you. What, are you moving in? What is all this stuff?”
“Just some presents for you,” I said. “I thought I’d bring you by some things you needed.” We went into the living room and put the bags down.
She peered into one of the bags. “A bed spread?”
“It’s a duvet cover. It’s really pretty, don’t you think? You’ve had the same comforter on your bed for years now; I thought you might like this one. There’s a new down comforter in this bag, here, and you just put the cover over it.”
My mother looked less than thrilled. “I don’t recall telling you that I needed my bedroom redecorated. Not that I want to sound ungrateful, but this is a lot of stuff.” She looked at Levi. “I was sorry to hear about Alex, Levi. I hope you’re doing all right.”
He nodded. “Yeah. It was definitely a surprise. But I’m doing okay. Do you mind if I use the bathroom? I had one too many coffees on the way down.”
“Sure,” Mom said. She pointed to her left. “Just go down that hallway and it’s the first door on the right.”
“Great, thanks,” he said.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?” Mom asked once he was out of earshot. “Why are you here with Levi?”