Saving the Company Ch. 04

"What a day," I mumbled from the back seat of the police car. It was the first time I was ever in one. The narrow legroom, bulletproof glass and handleless doors were enough to make anyone claustrophobic. Add to that the fact that I was hung over and still a little hazy as to why I was here, and it was unpleasant to say the least.

'Can it get any worse?' I asked myself silently.

A couple days ago I was as happy as I could ever remember being. I had a damn near perfect job and reasonably good health. The best part was that I finally found a woman who I loved enough to chance getting serious with even after the fiasco of my first marriage.

She was a couple years younger than me, but older than I would have expected considering the average age of the women I dated normally. It surprised me when I first realized that I didn't care. Bethany was intelligent, attractive and definitely the best partner I ever had.

She loved me too. I knew that. Yet it turned out that her love wasn't strong enough to get past her fear of relationships. All day, as I proceeded to drink myself into a stupor, I found myself wondering why? Was it simply that she didn't feel the love as strongly as I did? Or was it because her ex-husband had hurt her worse than my ex-wife hurt me? Certainly, the fact that he had left her damn near penniless and with a child had to be part of it. Yet, that happened decades ago.

Bethany had overcome it and done well for herself. She raised a fine daughter who was now married and had a child of her own with another on the way. She was self-sufficient and nothing I could do would take that away from her. There was no reason for her to pull back from me like she was other than fear. How do you fight that?

So, all because of a woman who spurned my love, I woke up this morning, went into work and resigned from the best job of my life. It was stupid and I knew it, but I couldn't continue to work at the same place she did. I also couldn't force her to leave. She had committed a large part of her life to the company and it would just be too cruel to take that away from her no matter how mad and hurt I was feeling.

"We're here," the police officer driving the car said as he parked. I waited impatiently as his partner got out of the car and opened my door.

"Thanks," I said, feeling much better out in the cool night air. I never realized just how claustrophobic I could feel. I think it was the fact that I had no control of the doors rather than the cramped space. I looked around and frowned.

"This isn't the police station. It's a hospital," I said in surprise. The policemen nodded, but refused to comment.

"Please follow me," one of them said, leading me in. I followed numbly wondering what was really going on. I should have asked more questions when they arrived at my house, but I was too groggy to think straight.

I spent most of the elevator ride up with my thoughts split between trying to figure out what this was all about, and deciding who I should contact in order to gain the services of a good criminal attorney if need be. I knew a couple good corporate lawyers, but this was different.

"No use overreacting," I told myself. The stony faced policemen didn't comment.

"In here," one of them said as we exited the elevator. He was pointing toward a waiting room. I saw that there was another pair of policemen at the door. I walked past them and was stunned to see the room empty except for Bethany.

"What's going on?" I asked her, my tone stony. I was not ready to face her after the day I had.

"I have no idea," she replied curtly.

"I guess we wait," I shrugged. Bethany nodded in agreement. We sat there for ten minutes in silence. I couldn't think of anything to say to her. She looked worn out. I'm sure I looked worse.

The entrance of a rather small, elderly woman interrupted my thoughts. Her hair was white and her skin pale, but she was well dressed and wore some rather expensive jewelry.

"That will be all gentlemen," she said to the policemen. "Thank you." The officers nodded and left. My eyebrows rose. This lady had to have quite a lot of political power. I turned back toward Bethany and saw that she recognized the woman. Her shocked expression made that obvious.

"Cherie, what's wrong?" Bethany asked. "Is it Brad? Is he okay?"

I looked at the woman once more. So, this was Brad's wife. She was smaller than I expected, but the intenseness of her gaze made her seem bigger. She looked irate as hell.

"Why should you care?" Cherie spat back. "Either of you!"

"What do you mean?" I asked in surprise. "Is something wrong with Brad?"

"Is something wrong?" she asked sarcastically, and then added in a tone that damn near dripped with it, "No, I always stand in hospital waiting rooms for no apparent reason."

"Please," I said. "Is Brad going to be okay?"

"Cherie! Please!" Bethany added. Cherie looked at the concern on both of our faces and calmed slightly.

"Yes, no thanks to you two," she replied. "He's recovering from an operation."

"What happened?" Bethany asked.

"Well, he's not a young man you know," Cherie replied, not really answering.

"Was it his heart?" I asked, not able to believe it possible, but wanting verification. Brad was the fittest seventy-two year old I'd ever met.

"It could have been, considering that two of the people he cares most about abandoned him," she replied acidly.

"Abandoned him?" I asked. "What are you talking about?"

"What? You didn't leave a written resignation on his desk this morning?" she asked me, her voice once again dripping in sarcasm.

"Yes, but that had nothing to do with abandoning Brad," I said with a frown. "I just thought it would make it easier. I didn't want to hurt anyone."

"You didn't even have the decency to do it face to face!" Cherie snapped.

"You quit?" Bethany asked in amazement. I shrugged and she continued, "But you loved that job! I'm sure Brad planned on making you CEO eventually."

"Brad already offered him the job," Cherie said succinctly. "It was my understanding that they were just waiting for the right moment to announce it."

"Brad made you the CEO and you resigned!" Bethany cried as she stood and faced me. She was obviously angry. "How could you? Brad was willing to rely on you to take care of his company and you threw it in his face! What about the employees? Those people need you!"

"And what about you?" Cherie asked Bethany, cutting through her rant. "Wasn't your resignation also on his desk? Again, not even enough common courtesy to face him. You were his right hand for over two decades!" All the anger in Bethany melted away and she fell back into her chair.

"I can't believe you resigned," I sighed. "You love that company like it was a second child." Bethany looked at me and shrugged. I found myself wondering if she did it to be with me, but if she had, why hadn't she told me?

"What exactly is going on?" Cherie asked. "Why did both of you resign on the same day?" She waited, but neither of us answered. I tried to meet Bethany's eyes, but she refused to look at me. I sighed to myself. Bethany didn't quit to be with me, she quit to avoid me. I wondered how she rationalized it considering her whole argument to keep us apart revolved around us working together.

"Brad told me about you two, but I just didn't believe him until right now," Cherie said, interrupting my thoughts. "Don't you both think you're a little old to be letting your personal lives interfere with work?"

"Yes," I said glumly. "That's why I resigned."

"Me too," Bethany added.

"So, my husband ends up in a hospital because you two are too..." Cherie began, but then she stopped herself and shook her head.

"Cherie, what's really wrong with Brad?" I asked into the silence that followed. The woman looked at me carefully before answering.

"Well, after you left Brad had no choice but to fire Karl," she said. I frowned and then nodded slowly. It made sense in away.

"He couldn't afford to keep someone as inept as Karl on considering," I sighed. Cherie nodded.

"So, what happened afterward?" Bethany asked.

"Well, Karl refused to go quietly," Cherie continued. "From what I understand it quickly devolved into a shoving match between Brad and Karl."

"That little shit!" I growled.

"Quite," Cherie said, nodding once in agreement before continuing with what happened. "There is a disagreement on who threw the first punch that I'm sure the lawyers will have fun figuring out, but the end result was that Brad broke his hand rather badly."

"And Karl?" I asked. I found myself trying to remember where the little shit lived.

"He has a broken jaw," Cherie said with a cold smile. "That's what Brad broke his hand on."

"Wasn't security called?" Bethany asked.

"Certainly, but they arrived too late to protect my fool headed husband!" Cherie said. "Over seventy and getting in a fist fight! The three of your deserve each other."

"So, Brad will be okay?" Bethany asked, knowing it was true, but just needing to hear it again.

"Eventually," Cherie replied. "He'll have pins in his hand for a while, but the doctor says that despite his age he should regain full use of it."

"How is Brad's mood?" I asked.

"Mood?" Cherie asked in surprise. "Why, he's irate."

"At us?" Bethany asked glumly.

"Of course," Cherie replied, but then frowned and added, "Although all he keeps whining about is how this is going to affect his golf game."

I couldn't help it. Brad wasn't hurt that badly and he was going to be fine. I was so relieved that I laughed. Bethany met my gaze. She shared my relief and a moment later, my laughter. We both loved that old man.

"Can we see him?" Bethany asked once we calmed.

"I'm sorry, but no," she sighed, sounding truly sad.

"Cherie, I know you're mad at us..." Bethany began, but Cherie cut her off.

"It's not me," she said sadly. "I told you, he's mad as a hell with you two. You both really hurt him. He specifically told me that he didn't want to see either of you." Bethany and I looked at each other, not sure what to say or do.

"So, what's he going to do with the company?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Who knows?" Cherie shrugged. "He told me that tomorrow we'd be leaving for a two-week long vacation. He'll make up his mind after that."

"But who is going to run it while he's gone? Judy?" Bethany asked.

"No," Cherie replied. "Our son Bradley is going to step in for the two weeks we'll be gone."

"I thought he was at school?" I frowned.

"He is, but he's coming back at his father's request," Cherie sighed. "My son isn't happy about it, but he's willing to miss a couple of weeks of classes until we return."

"Oh," I said, trying to hide my concern. Two weeks were a very short time, but with Karl, Bethany and me gone and Brad off, I felt bad for young Bradley. The clients would hear about what was going on, not to mention the employees. That place was going to be a zoo.

"Maybe I could go back for the two weeks," Bethany began, obviously having the same concerns as me.

"I could as well," I put in. "Brad treated me very well. I probably shouldn't have resigned without giving any notice anyway. I just thought..."

"No, you didn't!" Cherie interjected. I shook my head. She was right and I deserved her condemnation.

"Cherie, I really am sorry," I sighed. "Just let me go back and put things in order. It's the least I can do for Brad."

"It's too late for that now," Cherie sighed. "Brad is so mad that I'm certain he won't accept your offer."

"Well, then," I said sadly. "What can we do to help?"

"Nothing," Cherie shrugged. "I probably shouldn't have had you two brought here, but I was just so angry at you for what you did."

"Cherie, I'm sorry," Bethany said, close to tears. "You know how I feel about Brad." The elderly woman shrugged.

"Perhaps I'll be able to convince him to talk to you in a few months. The best thing is to let it go for now," she replied. Bethany and I nodded numbly.

* * *

"Oh, this is maddening!" I snapped. It was Wednesday and I was already going stir crazy at home. The worse part was that I spent half my time thinking about my situation with Bethany and the other half remembering what I was supposed to be doing back at the office.

"I need to get out of the house for a while," I said to myself with a loud sigh.

I was tempted to stop by Bethany's house, but what would I say when I got there? I certainly wasn't going to beg her to reconsider and anything I said would sound just like that. So instead, I found myself parked in front of the office. I walked in, not really sure why I was there or if I'd even be let in.

"Hello, Joe!" Sally said in surprise. "What brings you here?"

"I have to clean out my desk," I said with a shrug.

"Sorry to hear you decided to leave us," Sally added.

"Me too," I mumbled under my breath as I made my way to my old office. At least they hadn't emptied it yet.

I looked around and sighed sadly. I left in such a state that I hadn't even bothered to take my favorite picture of my daughter's family. I started to pack up my personal belongings. It was damn near painful, which was silly considering I was only with the company less than a year.

"Joe!"

I turned at the exclamation and saw Judy standing at the doorway with a surprised look on her face.

"Hello Judy," I smiled. "How are you doing?"

"How am I doing?" she asked, her tone turning sarcastic. "Let's just say that if I were a man I'd punch you in the nose!"

"Why? What's wrong?" I asked. Judy was normally so calm, but she didn't seem so now.

"Well, for starters, I have no idea why Brian Halton is sitting in my office. He arrived ten minutes ago to say you and he had a meeting scheduled," she said.

Brian was subcontractor we used occasionally. I was interested in using him for some special projects I had in mind if he were willing to discuss a discounted rate. I was also interested in actually hiring him eventually if he did well on those projects. He was a good technician and knew it, but he wasn't a very good businessman. We'd both benefit from the relationship.

"This morning I received a call from the president of Votine. He says that you promised them a free upgrade the last time you met," Judy continued.

"I promised him a trial version of the new module," I said with a shake of my head.

"Well," Judy snapped. "He seems to think otherwise."

"No he doesn't," I sighed. "He's just trying to see what he can get with all the craziness going on around here."

"Are you serious?" she asked is disbelief. I nodded.

"I was sort of hoping he would refuse the upgrade. He's not the type of client I like doing business with," I said, but then shrugged and added, "But he is one of our bigger clients, so I hate to lose the income. That's why I promised him a free trial version."

"That bastard!" Judy snapped. I nodded in agreement.

"What else?" I asked.

"Well, I'm not sure anyone's done any real work in the last two days," she sighed. "I'm worried about deadline slippage on some of the key projects."

"Has Bradley talked to the employees?" I asked.

"He hasn't even arrived yet!" Judy nearly growled. "He couldn't get a flight until Tuesday afternoon. There was some sort of trouble and he didn't arrive in town until about six this morning."

"Where is he now?"

"Sleeping," she sighed. "It turns out that he's not particularly comfortable flying and he didn't sleep all night. He was exhausted."

I rubbed my hands through my hair and fought back a groan. I regretted my decision to come back to pick up my stuff. It was painful to see how badly things were going.

"Is there anything I can do?" I heard myself ask.

"Yes," Judy said succinctly. That surprised me. I really didn't expect her to accept any help from me.

"Name it," I said, meeting her gaze.

"Well, for starters, can you tell me what I'm supposed to do with Brian?" she asked. I started to explain, but Judy threw her hands up after five minutes and said, "Look, it will take you less time to talk directly to him then to explain it to me. Let's go." I followed her to her office and greeted Brian.

"I'm happy to see you Joe," he said. "But I heard you resigned."

"Yes," I said, fighting back a sigh. "I did, but it was for personal reasons."

"Sorry to hear about that," he replied.

"Thanks," I said, and then changed the subject. "I still think this company has a lot to offer. We also have an over abundance of work in some key area where your expertise would come in handy. Are you interested?"

Brian smiled and nodded. We spent the next half hour haggling at the details. I was able to talk him into a discount, although it was not as deep of one as I hoped. Oh well, that was Brad's problem when he returned.

"When do you want me to start?" Brian asked.

"Well, I would say immediately, but someone in upper management will need to okay the deal," I frowned and then looked to Judy and added, "Think you can get Bradley to agree to this tomorrow when he's in or should we wait for his father to return?"

"I'll deal with the in-house politics," Judy sighed. "Brian, you can start immediately. I'll have an updated contract drawn up and sent to you."

We finished up the meeting and escorted Brian to the elevator. The doors had barely closed when Judy looked at me and said, "Follow me." I smiled as I did. She looked like a woman on a mission.

We made our way back to her office. She stopped by Sally's desk and asked her to set up a staff meeting for three o'clock. I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, someone needs to talk to the staff," she sighed, sounding determined but also a bit overwhelmed. I nodded. We made our way back to her office.

"I want call the president of Votine," she said with a smile. It was not pleasant. "I think we need to clear up a few things." I nodded once again.

"Jeff won't be happy to hear my voice," I let her know. "We really didn't get along all that well."

"Good!" she snapped, causing me to laugh.

The conversation with Jeff went about as expected. It only took about fifteen minutes to back him off. I finished the conversation by letting him know that in the future I'd be available for any discussion on issues that arose while I was employed with the company.

"Thank you," Judy said once she hung up the phone. "I enjoyed that."

"Your welcome," I smiled. "Is there anything else I can do?"

"Plenty," she sighed. "But I think I've taken enough of your time and I have to prepare what I'm going to say to the employees."

"Why don't you have Sally order us in a couple of sandwiches for a late lunch and I'll go over what I would say if I were in your shoes. You can use it or not," I offered. Judy hesitated.

"Thanks," she finally said, sounding relieved. "I appreciate it. I'm not sure where this meeting is going to go."

"Oh, it won't be that bad," I grinned.

"I prefer talking to potential clients and my own staff, thank you," she sighed. "Your people are tougher. I'm never sure where their questions are going to lead."

"Some of them do have a unique viewpoint," I laughed.

Judy had Sally order the sandwiches. We were already deep in discussing the staff meeting when they arrived. We ate and continued.

"So, tell me what's going on in my old area?" I asked once we finished planning how to approach the staff meeting.

"I guess implementations is going okay," she said, not sounding all that confident.

"Who is heading up the area?" I asked.

"Well, Helen seems to be stepping forward," Judy replied. I shook my head.

"She always was one to step up when needed, but in this case it's a mistake," I sighed. "Helen is great at her job, but she's not someone I'd put in charge of people. She doesn't like doing it and isn't very good at it."