I strode into John’s office. He leaned back in his chair; feet propped up on the desk. He was too relaxed in my opinion.
I slapped a folio onto the desk in front of him before sitting on the edge. “We’ve got a ton of shit to do for the end of year, and you’re daydreaming.”
“Not daydreaming, just imagining all the glorious schadenfreude headed my way.”
He pulled his feet down, and sat up, rolling his chair up to the desk.
“Sounds like you had an interesting holiday,” I said.
“Interesting is a word. Took Jennifer up to meet Gemma. Did you know Katherine is still there? I thought she had left years ago.”
“Your step-mom?” I shook my head. “You haven’t mentioned her in years. So, Gemma? Your sister’s back in the states?” I could barely remember the last time I saw his sister. She was a tiny little strawberry blonde thing kicking around in a pool floaty while the rest of us tried to drown each other in the name of fun.
“She’s been back since late September,” he said as if I already knew.
“How is she?” I asked.
“She ruined herself in Europe. If you ask me, she should go back. It would be for the best.” He opened the folio I had dropped and flipped through the pages. “Jennifer insisted that I take her to meet the family. I never should have told her when Gemma got back. But now that we’re engaged, she wants to do family things.”
He spun in his chair and stopped to face me. “Can you believe it, they were in pajamas when we got there. They had the nerve to invite us for dinner and they were wearing matching pants and sweatshirts. It was embarrassing. Had to rescue Jennifer before she did something truly disastrous, like invite either of them to help with wedding planning. I’ve contracted Suzanne Oliver to organize this wedding. Suzanne Oliver. You don’t even know who I’m talking about,” he chuckled.
“Not a clue, man,” I admitted.
“Suzanne Oliver is the top fucking wedding planner in the city. In the City. Very exclusive, waiting list a mile long just to have a consultation with her. Jenifer had booked a consultation with her before we even started dating. Now that’s what I call forward-thinking.”
Wishful thinking was more like it. “Sounds like she got lucky.”
“She did when I proposed. Do you ever think you’re going to take the plunge?”
“What, get married? I’m married to CP Manhattan, and right now we need to go over some of this year-end bullshit.” CP Manhattan, the company our fathers built from the ground up. I always knew I would be here someday, in the CFO office. I hadn’t planned on being in charge for the past ten years. This was a long-term relationship. I accepted that, and that’s where my focus was. It was where I needed John’s focus to be.
“I need your attention, man. We are ending the year in bad shape, and we need to get some growth strategy going so that next year isn’t a disaster. I’m headed into a week with lawyers and accountants. I need to know, at the very least, you’re on top of the fiasco that our marketing department has become.”
“Marketing has always been a lame dick department. What did they waste my money on this time?”
“You do know that they are in your pipeline? You should be able to tell me what is going on with them.”
He shrugged. “Why do we need a marketing department? The market and them both suck. They don’t seem to be able to hit a trend lately.”
“Marketing isn’t all about trends.” I shook my head. “John, when was the last time you checked in with your department heads?”
He shrugged. “Hey, you know who Theda Wu is, right?”
“Yeah, she’s a designer. Are you bringing her in to help with our marketing department issues?”
He scoffed. “Don’t be dumb.”
“Then why do I care about Theda Wu?”
“You are clueless about women’s fashion.”
“I am neither a woman nor into fashion. I should earn bonus points for knowing she’s a designer. John, I need you to be up to date on why we essentially had an entire team walk out on us.”
“I told you, they sucked. I see no harm in letting a bunch of losers seeing themselves out. HR will take care of bringing in a fresh new team.” John leaned back in his chair as if the problem was solved.
“You’re not concerned there is supposed to be a major pitch regarding this outreach initiative we’re on target to kick off at the end of the first quarter?”
“Whoever we get in will have plenty of time. So, I have got to tell you about this major surprise I have for Jennifer. She’s going to flip.”
I reached up and pinched my temples together. It was too early in the day to deal with John when he was so distracted. This was the wrong week to try and cut back on coffee.
“Tell me, so we can get back on track,” I groaned.
“I scheduled a personal luncheon and fitting for Jennifer with Theda herself. Not some person who works for her, but Theda Wu.”
“That’s terrific. Can I count on you to get marketing put back together? I need you to analyze their whole approach. This outreach program could not only turn us around, but it could also put us firmly back in the black. The marketing behind it needs to be solid. Can you handle it?”
John stopped whatever fidgeting he was doing and looked at me.
“I know my job, Chase. You don’t have to speak to me like I’m in kindergarten. I know the end of year crunch is always a mess for you, but you don’t need to spill your stress all over me. Okay?”
“Yeah man, I’m sorry. I came back from the holiday to learn we no longer have a senior marketing team, and you are heavily preoccupied with wedding planning stuff.”
“I’m not preoccupied. It’s fun, it’s different. If I do this right, I won’t have to ever do it again. It’s that important. But I hear you, Chase. I hear your concerns. I’ll see what’s happening with who is left in marketing. I will have them bring in new folks with fresh ideas. It’s not the cluster fuck you think it is.”
The tension left my brow. If John said he was on top of things, he would make sure everything was taken care of.
“You can go play with your lawyers and accountants pulling all of the numbers together for the year. You won’t have to worry about a thing. What else have you given me?” He flipped through the papers in the folio again. “Are our client numbers really down that much?”
I stared at the side of his face? Where had he been this past quarter? Right, with his head up Jennifer’s proverbial wedding dress and her thighs blocking his ears. I sighed.
“It’s going to be good to get you married,” I said. I hadn’t meant to say it out loud. I wanted his laser focus back on the books. I was stuck with ADHD John. I grew up with the man and I had never seen him so easily distracted before.
“You have no idea. Married and then kids, and I’m gonna beat your ass to the punch.”
I chuckled. “No need for a beating, I’ll hand my ass over. You can have this one.”
John flipped through the folio again. This time I think he actually read the pages in front of him as he started to repeat some of the information.
“So, with the new year we’re playing hard ball with this outreach initiative. We’ve got an increase in outside sales hiring projected… marketing rolls out their plan…Wait.” He flipped back to an earlier sheet. “Is this the timeline? I can’t work with this.”
“So, reschedule,” I said.
“You’re going to have to take it. Jennifer and I have a lot of commitments in January. You’ll have to head up the outreach program. Prioritize sales. How’s product development? Maybe what we need are some upgrades.”
“Upgrades are in the works. But they won’t do us any good if we are losing existing clients, and not bringing in new ones. John, we have a plan, I need you to—”
“When did this plan happen? Why wasn’t I involved?” He cut me off.
“It happened when you took Jennifer to Aruba to propose. I believe you said to ‘handle it.’ I’ve done that. Now, I need you on board.” I needed him back. It was like he never returned from that trip.
“I’m on board. I’m on board. January is going to be a mess. You can handle it. Marketing is easy. They do a little slide show and a song and a dance, and you say, ‘it looks great.’ And they go and make postcards. Harmond in sales is your guy. Hand over the outside sales growth to him, he’ll step up to the plate. We’re good, Chase. It’s going to take more than a bad quarter or two to topple CP Manhattan.
No, he was right. A bad quarter of two wouldn’t bring down the mighty CP Manhattan. But who knows, maybe a wedding could.
