by Mel Walker
Jacob Evans stared at Justin for a heartbeat. “If those numbers you showed hold water over the next six months, I may very well take you up on that offer.” He extended his hand.
Justin shook it.
“Just because I like your ideas doesn’t mean I won’t send you to jail,” Jacob continued. “You’ve given me a lot to investigate. Forty-eight hours, we either have a deal or an arrest warrant for you.”
He turned and stalked out the room. His underlings followed suit.
A chill ran down Justin’s spine. The celebratory mood had been erased from his bones. He turned and spotted Barry waiting for him.
"Why didn't you bring this to me first?" Barry asked.
"Really?" Justin began to pack his materials, "since the minute you arrived you've treated me as if I had one foot out the door. You made it very clear that you were prepping Everett for the position. I saw your email in my research where you mentioned on more than one occasion that I was, what was your language? Oh, that's right, don't bother getting to know Justin, he's not long for this world." Justin snarled the words out in disgust.
"That was before. ...."
Justin cut him off, "please just stop; you are embarrassing yourself. There is nothing for you to salvage with me. If you had any sense, you would have raced out of the room with Jacob. You know when all this is over he will be looking for someone to blame. The rest of the team is currently in his office pleading their case as to why it won't be them. Within the hour one of them will direct the CEO's anger in your direction. If I were you, I’d stop worrying about my immediate future and would start to worry about my own."
The words seemed to have the desired effect as Barry's face lowered once again. He gathered his papers and exited without saying a word.
The weight of what he had just accomplished over the last twenty-four hours hit him. Justin exhaled. He plopped down hard into a conference chair and closed his eyes for a second. He thought of his wife, of Marcus and even Peter. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He typed a quick text message, "rendezvous in the conference room in fifteen minutes. I’m ordering muffins."
Chapter Thirty
One Week Later
Justin stared into his wife’s twinkling eyes as they held hands just outside Max’s Diner.
“Before we go in there, can I say one more time how proud I am of you?”
“Awww,” Leslie gushed as she pulled him into a hug, “thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me.”
“And I apologize once again for not telling you about all that was going on in the office. No matter what was going on between us, I should have found a way….”
Leslie placed her index finger on his soft lips, “shhh. Remember what we agreed. No more apologies. I had no clue how difficult it would be a transition from a stay at home mom to a business woman. We both made mistakes. Colossal mistakes in my case, but we’ve figured it out and have come out of it stronger. Right?”
Justin nodded. “Good thing because we are stuck with each other forever.”
“There is no other place I’d rather be,” Leslie chimed as they stepped to the doorway of the Diner.
The couple entered Max’s and smiled. On the left wall hung the first of Leslie’s OLED frames. It currently displayed an Ansel Adams portrait.
“You do amazing work,” Justin whispered.
“Yes, we certainly do,” she returned as they stepped past the four My Workplace smart desks. “I see everyone has made it.” Leslie nodded toward the back of the diner where the group had gathered.
Paul was the first one to spot them as he led the cheers. Hugs followed, "well done," Paul reached him first.
"My wife wants to thank you personally," it was Chris who extended his arm and pointed to his wife Amelia who was beaming.
Next up were the Levins, Marcus, and Stephanie. "The man of the hour," Marcus yelled at everyone, and he and his wife gave him a bear hug.
As he broke from that embrace a standing and smiling Peter stood offering his hand, Justin stared at it for a second and then pulled him into a hug, "I don't know how to thank you, we got the Java contract," he mumbled.
"I know, your partner told me, for some reason she tells me everything," Justin joked.
Violet rocked from one foot to the other as she approached, "wow you sure caused a firestorm back on campus. The halls are abuzz; you are becoming quite the General Modification legend."
"Nice to hear and I see you got my message." Justin said as he stepped past Violet and embraced the next person "Marie, welcome back."
"Thank you, Justin. Violet explained to me what you've done. You know you are crazy."
"But you knew that already."
Coffee flowed along with the laughs as they basked in the joy and recounted their stories.
"So when Justin showed up in Indianapolis and came through that door I thought he was going to kill me..." Peter told of his meeting with Justin and how he had to reconfigure his entire presentation on the fly not knowing whether Leslie would even be a participant.
"I couldn't believe with all that was going on back at General Modifications that Justin decided to work on my frame issue. To not only work on it but solve it in one night." Leslie radiated once again.
Justin stepped in, "now dear like I said before I didn't build that in one night. I may be good, but I’m not a genius. I had been playing with that tool for years, had an almost prototype to work from. You will be surprised by how much you can accomplish when the woman of your life is threatened." Justin smiled.
He turned his attention to Marcus next, “So Marcus, can you please for once explain to me what the hell you thought when you hacked into the General Modifications systems under your own id?"
The entire table burst into laughter.
"And you guys said I was self-destructive," it was Paul piling on.
Marcus stared in at his wife, "I admit there wasn't much thought there. Barry had put me in the middle of your mess, and I was already upset about Maria and Paul. When I challenged him, and he said he wanted to knock you off your game, I lost it. I knew I couldn't face Stephanie if you were pushed out and I was just a witness to it. Hell, I could see the late night calls from Leslie to her saying you were driving her nuts with all that free time. You know Justin you and free time don't get along well." The entire group burst into laughter.
"It was obvious to anyone not in the middle of the storm what they were up to. They were targeting employees, and I knew that there had to be evidence somewhere. I've worked in so many departments over the years, so I knew I had access to a ton of systems across the organizations. For those, I didn't have access to I knew I could figure out a way."
"And you left a digital footprint the entire way." Justin countered.
"Like I said, I wasn't exactly thinking."
"Well here's to not thinking,” Justin lifted up the coffee cup as the team matched the gesture.
"As of the end of the day, yesterday General Modification have accepted all stipulations of my proposal. We are good. We've done it."
"So what are you going to do with all that free time?" Stephanie asked.
"Well with my buy out provision I’m good for the next two years." Justin began.
"Me too." Paul chimed in.
"Me too," Maria added.
"I'm going back to what I love. I'm going to take some of that buyout money, build out our workshop, putter for a bit but there is this little company with a couple of patents pending that has offered me a position in charge of their engineering and tool development division. Is that what you guys are calling it?" Justin looked at his wife.
"I thought it was a division of miracles" she returned, "call it whatever you want dear. We just landed the contract and have to set up a real company."
"Hey, My Workplace is a real company," Peter interjected. "But yes we are expanding our partnership agreement."
"Well, it looks like we all landed pretty well," Justin summarized.
>
"Well not everyone, "Marcus added, "I saw Everett and Barry packing their things up yesterday.
Paul couldn't resist, "well incompetents always eventually gets exposed, couldn't happen to a nicer pair."
"Here, here." The team turned toward the deep voice. Justin turned and recognized the face. It was the foreman from the manufacturing floor.
Justin stood, "team this is Carl Rovell, foreman on the manufacturing floor." The team waved toward him, "pull up a chair we were just having breakfast, what brings you by?"
Carl shot a look at Marcus, "Mr. Levins told me you'd be here. I just wanted to drop by to say thanks."
"Thanks?” Justin looked baffled.
"You may not realize it, but you saved the jobs of over a thousand people worldwide. You saw their plans, after downsizing headquarters they were going to target the plants."
Justin nodded. He had almost forgotten about the scenario, forty percent cuts worldwide.
"That would have been devastating to thousands of families, families with mortgages, loans, sick parents that were being tended to, communities and entire towns in certain instances. Mr. Levins explained to me what you did. Instead of closing plants they are discussing expanding, bringing back the apprentice programs we had twenty years ago."
"That's great Carl."
"Even better sir, since you gave me the Les More device, they've promoted me, and I will be in charge of developing the program to institute the use of the device worldwide. Thank you, sir."
Justin teared up. It was one thing to play fast and loose with his small group but to see the impact his actions had on families and people he respected so much on the plant floor hit him hard. Justin embraced Carl.
"Wow, thank you, Carl. We've finally found a way to shut him up." It was Marcus as always adding a light touch to a situation.
Marcus raised the coffee cup once again.
"To our future, all of our futures."
Carl stepped away as Leslie replaced him, kissing Justin on the cheek.
"You are so special. I want to personally thank you when we get back home," she whispered.
"Really? Are we talking about ..."
She bit on his earlobe, "let's just say I stopped over at Victoria’s Secret last night."
"Breakfast is over," Justin yelled as he grabbed his wife's hand and pulled her from the table, "You guys enjoy, but my wife and I have an important meeting which just came up."
"And by came up you mean ..." Marcus chimed in.
Stephanie smacked his arm, "... dear, I think we all get it."
Justin waved, then turned back, "oh Peter... I forgot, I told Max to add this meal to your account. I hope you don't mind..."
Peter looked at the group, "No problem Justin. Go enjoy." He turned to the group, "Coffee is free refills but no more juice for you Marcus, those at two thirty-five a glass."
Justin heard the laughter from the back of the diner as he pulled his wife's hand, his mind racing to his home and spending the best of quality time with his partner in life, in business, his partner in love.
For the first time in quite some time, all parts of his life were aligned with happiness.
Work - Home - and marriage.
The married couple of twenty-five years held raced out of the Diner with their future in front of them. An undefined future that lacked only one thing – a routine.
***
THE END