SHE WORE RED. Not a dark red either. It was a blood-smeared-on-the-walls red, a fighting red, a bold, bright mockery of my recommendation to tone down the color.
Fine.
She wanted war. This was a battle to her. It was just business to me. I straightened my tie and tugged down my shirt cuffs.
Our conference room overlooked the lake, providing a calming atmosphere before the storm of each meeting. A large crystal chandelier hung above, and the brown wood mixed with glass and touches of gold on the seating gave the room a lavish look.
I witnessed Gloria align with Brey and Vick as they each presented points on Levvetor to the top people on my team. Every single person listened like lives depended on it.
And they absolutely did depend on it, but we couldn’t save everyone.
After they wrapped up the presentation, Vick stepped forward with some colorful Post-it notes because she couldn’t possibly have used plain old white ones.
“I’m hoping you can each write down a question or concern you may have in regard to backing Levvetor on the pink Post-it. On the blue, let us know a reason you think it may be a good idea. Then, let’s go through them.”
Brey passed around the pads along with pens. Gloria told the team they could work together if they wanted to. That opened up conversation.
I didn’t normally take this approach in meetings. We discussed it as adults; we didn’t write it down. Yet, here I was following their orders because Brey pointedly put the pads in front of me before she sat down at my side.
On the pink Post-it, I wrote:
SAVE LIVES
On the blue, I wrote:
BURN OUT
GLORIA COLLECTED everyone’s ideas and stuck them up on the whiteboard. And one by painstakingly one, we went through them. I put my chin in my hand and let the team duke it out. Quite frankly, I was surprised by their enthusiastic responses.
I raised my eyebrows when Jon, someone who prided himself on being monochromatic, jumped up to exclaim that he knew how to solve one of the problems.
Vick glanced at me when Bob high fived him and said he knew Jon was the man to do it after his dance-off on Saturday.
“Great.” I clapped my hands when Vick took the last Post-it and stuck it over to the resolved side of her whiteboard. She folded her crimson nails over her hands and waited for me to continue. “It seems we have a lot of great ideas on how to make the Levvetor acquisition work. So, are we all in agreement that we should invest a significant amount of our quarterly budget in this company, even knowing that the FDA may rule against it?” I pushed a finger into my temple, trying to hold in the frustration. “The CEO of their biggest competitor is on that board of advisors.”
The balloon of enthusiasm that was surely the same red as Vick’s outfit deflated.
Gloria stepped forward to take me on. She would too. She’d told me she would come in guns blazing, but Vick held up a hand.
“Do you think we can’t handle it?” Vick asked.
“I’ve never taken on a venture we were incapable of handling, Ms. Blakely.”
“And yet you’re hesitating on this one. I realize that the FDA is a very large government entity. But Stonewood Enterprises doesn’t have a limit, right?”
“While limits are made to be broken, they also serve as a reminder to evaluate the options. I’m not questioning my team’s capabilities because I want to. I’m questioning them because I have to.”
“If you’re risk averse on this, then tell the Armanellis we can’t handle it. Someone else will, and they’ll do it carelessly. Our team is methodical, dependable, and innovative enough to manage it. Without us, lives will be lost and this company will most likely not stay afloat. That’ll be on you.”
And wasn’t it always on me?
My team would go to the very brink to save a company. Our mission was to turn them into profitable enterprises. I had the greatest minds on my team, working in tandem to make the machine more than well-oiled.
Yet, at the end of each meeting, each phone conference, each day, I made the call. When to say yes and when to say no. My father had handed over the gavel because he’d had enough of the stress of playing God, of choosing whether to back massive industries or let their flame die out. That choice sometimes meant thousands of workers would lose their jobs, meant they might not be able to feed their families.
The ripple effect was astronomical every single time.
The weight, the guilt, the pressure often proved to be too much. Most people weren’t cutthroat enough to handle it.
I was. I had to be.
My team had to be also.
It didn’t mean they should shoulder the burden every time though.
“Victory, you proved a very good point this weekend when we all let off a little steam. We do better with a workload we don’t have to push ourselves to handle.” I held up my blue Post-it. “If we’re overworked, we burn out. We need time to unwind so we can come back refreshed like we did after the party. Right, everyone?”
Most of the team nodded and quietly agreed.
“My father built this tower and company only by putting together the hardest working teams he could find. We all know that my father lost his wife for a very long time because he sacrificed putting her first. The company was his love, and he mulled over every single decision he made like it was his child. Every time you go in hard, you risk everything else coming second. But”—I held up the pink Post-it and looked at Vick—“we’ll save lives.”
I moved the backing of Levvetor to a vote, and Victory Blakely beamed like she’d won an Oscar.
I lost the competition. She’d be able to dress like a damn rainbow for as long as she wanted. And Bastian got to come to our meeting right after this one and smile smugly at me when I told him we would do it.
None of it mattered though.
I was a Stonewood. The city needed me just like it had needed my father. I’d seen others put things first before their career and the career suffered. Stonewood Enterprises wouldn’t suffer. We wouldn’t falter. I knew because I’d found my weakness in plain sight.
She wore red and her smile shined brighter than the damn sun.
THE FEW WEEKS after our meeting with the Armanellis passed by in a blur as I flew in and out of town. I managed some large mergers and handled other business matters. I lasered in on my company and handling my father’s loose ends. Every call turned into one more and every conference time extended. Business boomed, and we’d passed our stretch goals halfway through the month.
Gloria waltzed into my office to celebrate the excellent news with a bottle of champagne. A rare smile formed across her face, and I took in how symmetrical the woman was. She perfectly filled out her dress and had her hair pulled back in a tight pony. It emphasized the angles of her face, the slant of her eyes. “You’re staring, Jett.”
“You look good today.” I shrugged.
She eyed my privacy button, and I hit it without her having to ask. She slumped a little and swayed her hips as she walked over to my desk. “I’m tired today.”
“I see that.” I nodded at her now relaxed posture.
She scooted her ass up onto my desk, something she would never do if the windows weren’t tinted. Without eyes on us, though, Gloria relaxed much more. “Armanellis can be bitches to handle, and Levvetor is proving to be a big ass beast.”
“You knew that going in.”
“I knew that going in.” She tapped one finger on the bottle. “You’re working harder than usual. The goals being met attest to that.”
I straightened a paper she’d knocked askew when she sat down. “If I’m running the place, I’d better provide an impeccable example, right?”
Her hands slid to her thighs. “Agreed. I’ve been working harder under the knowledge that I’m now the assistant to the sole owner of Stonewood Enterprises. Your father resigning motivated me.”
I laughed. Her blatant honesty about slacking before could have rubbed someone else the wrong way, but Gloria’s silver was most anyone else’s gold. “You ready to quit yet?”
“No. I’m tired and wound up for sure.” When her eyes grew languid, I knew the question she would ask. “Care to unwind me now?”
My dick jumped a little at the prospect of fucking her on my desk. We were familiar, I’d had her in my office before and there had never been any mention of me not having her there again. Today, I would probably make that clear.
I glanced behind her to where I knew Victory Blakely sat even though she couldn’t see us through the darkened glass. I’d avoided her for weeks now, knowing my business would always come first and she needed someone to put her first instead.
My world didn’t match hers.
I saw the light and dark of the world and focused on where the light came from, how it energized itself, and how I could produce light in the dark. I thrived on making my city whole.
She focused on the color of it all. She burst into the office day after day in greens and blues and pinks and reds and one day orange. Bright-as-a-sunset orange. She announced it was the color of the ribbon for a specific leukemia, one that Levvetor produced a treatment for. That day she handed out orange wristbands and orange frosted cupcakes too. For no specific reason.
Just to make everyone happy, she’d said.
Her outright confidence in staying positive morphed our office into a workplace of energy. Enjoyment. Enthusiasm.
She claimed it was fun. And fun, according to her, was one of the best ways to motivate people.
I, no lie, looked it up. She was right.
“I’ve lost you.” Gloria slid off my desk and straightened her dress. “I’m glad.”
“Sorry, I’m distracted.” I rolled into my canned apology only to halt at her words. “What? You’re glad?” I stood from my chair and walked around the desk. I stopped just a few feet from her and glanced at my paperweights. Her eyes followed mine.
“Blue is still my favorite,” she offered.
“It’s a mesmerizing color.”
“And yet your gaze always wanders back to the explosion of color.”
I didn’t deny it. “They’re all beautiful.”
“Yes. You’re absolutely right. But …” She sighed and shrugged. “I’ve lost you to the explosion of color. I told you once before, we work well physically, but she can offer you so much more.”
“I’m not pursuing her.” I ran my hands through my hair, denying attraction to another woman as I let this one down easy.
She gave me a sideway glance. “I’m not too mad about it, actually. Just needed an outlet right now.” She tapped the blue paperweight and then smoothed her hand over the colorful one. “Ms. Blakely, huh?”
“No one right now, Gloria. Stonewood Enterprises needs me.”
She waved away my concern and then pointed at the champagne on my desk. “Drink this and invite her to drink it with you.”
“I’m here to work, not play.”
“Glower at someone else, Jett. I’m too tired to act like I care.” She turned to walk out of my office. “Enjoy the drink. Take a load off. The team’s working like they’re on ecstasy or something. Vick’s fun vibe is working, which means you get to work less. Enjoy it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled.
She wasn’t done. “Enjoy her. Before some mediocre idiot does it instead.”
