Chapter 20: Max
“How bad is this?” I walked into the room with my legal team already surrounding the table.
“You’re the principal investor, so it isn’t good. You don’t technically own the company—that is probably the only good part of this.” The lead attorney for the firm, Carmen King, opened a folder and pushed it towards me. “This is the FDA report. It was recently sent to Energy Enhanced and West End Marketing.
“Why are they doing an FDA report now? This product has been on the market for years...” I sat down at the table and read it.
“It’s the new advertising campaign.” Carmen replied with a sigh. “Energy Enhanced was previously marketed as an energy drink infused with vitamins, so the testing standards were different. Once they started trying to switch the marketing to a vitamin drink, there were more in-depth tests done.”
“I thought the marketing hadn’t really started yet...” I flipped the FDA report to the second page.
“It hasn’t, but they already changed their logo and the wording on the can to match the new campaign. They’re using the name Vitamins Enhanced now. They were hoping to have it all in place by the time the campaign launched. Some soccer mom in Ohio bought it for her son and he collapsed after drinking—three cans.” She sighed again.
“Three cans?” I felt my blood boiling. “Three fucking cans? Who the fuck does that!?”
“Well nobody would do that with an energy drink—well, if they did they would expect the consequences I suppose. It’s a different story with a vitamin drink, but the damage is done.” She closed the folder. “The family has lawyered up so a lawsuit is coming.”
“Does Energy Enhanced have insurance to cover that?” I looked up from the report.
“Not this kind.” One of the other lawyers spoke. “They have product liability insurance, but there’s a clause in the contract that requires them to pull the product if they get a report like this. Failure to do so voids that policy.”
“So why didn’t they do it? They should have read the report!” My anger started to flare again.
“The company is fucked no matter what and they won’t recover from this, but I’m sure the official answer will be to put the blame on someone. That’s what West End Marketing is doing.” Carmen picked up her cell phone.
“Wait.” I held up my hand. “What do you mean West End Marketing is putting the blame on someone?”
“The team leader.” She scrolled. “Yeah, CNN just updated the article with an official statement from West End Marketing. Someone named Abby Grant. They’re saying she was responsible for reviewing the report and failed to do so.”
“Fuck. I have to go.” I ran towards the door as quickly as I could.
I had been short and rude with Abby that morning when I should have been understanding. Energy Enhanced was a small part of my portfolio and I was going to lose some money, but that would be about it. My name might make it into an article somewhere as an investor, but I had little say in the day to day operations. The account was Abby’s whole life. It was the first time she had been trusted to be a leader and the first time she had landed a major account on her own. I was sure they had fired her or sent her home, so I went there first. I found the door barely closed and Abby on the couch with her cat curled up beside her.
“Let’s go.” I reached out for her hand.
“I don’t want to go anywhere...” She pulled away.
“You can’t stay here.” I knelt beside her. “Your name is in the news. Reporters are going to be showing up soon. We need to get you out of here. Trust me, I’ve been through this sort of thing before. You don’t want to be the hottest story in town.”
“What about Sebastian?” She rubbed her cat’s head and he glared at me.
“I guess I’m adopting a cat today.” I smiled and shrugged.
Benjamin was thrilled to hear that his new best friend, Abby, would be moving in. He was even more thrilled to find out we were taking in a cat. Sebastian seemed a little leery of Benjamin at first, but after he had explored his new house and found it to his liking, he actually curled up next to Benjamin while he played with some toys. I sent Ms. Ruth out for some necessities and sat down on the bed next to Abby. I could tell she was still disheveled from the events of the day, but I tried to calm her down. No one would come looking for her at my place, so she was safe. All I wanted to do in that moment was protect her and make sure nobody could hurt her. It didn’t matter to me if she had read the report or not, I was going to be in her corner.
***
“I TALKED TO THE LAWYERS today.” A week had passed since the scandal first made the news and Abby was starting to act like herself again.
“Yeah? What did they say?” She looked out from the kitchen and I saw Benjamin sitting on the counter watching her make dinner.
“It looks like West End Marketing is going to be in the clear. The lawsuit is going to be directly against Energy Enhanced. They obviously wanted to name everyone they could, but your company never launched the advertisement campaign, so they can’t be held accountable for what happened to that boy.” I leaned over the counter.
“That’s good, I guess...” I heard her sigh.
“Well, good and bad. West End Marketing is up for sale now—or was. They’re under new management.” I smiled as I watched her.
“What?” She stopped tending to the food and looked at me. “What do you mean?”
“None of this was your fault. Yeah, you should have read the report, but there’s blame to go around. Mr. Hawthorne should have been directly involved in a campaign like this one and he shouldn’t have turned it over to someone who had never handled an account before.” I shook my head angrily.
“We had the consultant, Adam Rutherford.” She shrugged. “I guess Mr. Hawthorne thought he could pick up the slack since he had experience.”
“Yeah, like I said. There’s blame to go around. Adam Rutherford has been involved in enough advertising campaigns to know FDA reports should be reviewed. He’s worked with numerous energy drink companies.” I tapped my fingers on the counter. “Anyway, I bought West End Marketing and I let Mr. Hawthorne know I was replacing him at the end of year. That should give him plenty of time to get the company past the scandal and find a new job. I’ll bankroll the place until then.”
“You...you what?” She turned the heat off on the stove and helped Benjamin down to the floor before walking around so she we could have a face to face conversation.
“You’re going to run West End Marketing for me, but I think we’ll change the name. I’ve always liked The Martin Agency, but apparently some firm already owns that, so I guess we’ll go with the Martin-Grant Marketing Agency for now.” I shrugged and smiled at her. “We might have to change that name if you end up marrying me though.”
“Um...uh.” She swallowed hard. “Is that a proposal?”
“No.” I shook my head. “It was a hypothetical.”
“Good.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “I would have said no.”
“You’re marrying Daddy?” Benjamin came running up to her and grabbed her hand.
“Uh...not yet?” She said her words awkwardly as she looked down at Benjamin.
“Was that a yes?” I folded my arms and stared at her.
“You said it wasn’t a proposal.” She shook her head.
“Well, I didn’t propose but it sounds like Benjamin did.” I reached down and squeezed my son’s shoulder. “It also sounds like you said yes—well, not yet—but that’s basically yes.”
“We’ll talk about this tonight.” She patted my arm and went back into the kitchen with a smile on her face.
I knew what I wanted, even if it was rather sudden by most conventional terms. Nothing about our relationship had been very conventional up to that point, and she was already living with us. Abby was the first person I had really felt anything for in so long that it was clear to me that we were meant to be together. She was so good with Benjamin and he already seemed to adore her as much as I did. I knew we had a lot to learn about each other, but I couldn’t think of a better way to do it than growing old together.
***
“SO ARE WE GOING TO talk now?” I waited until Abby had put Benjamin to bed and closed the door to our bedroom.
“Yes.” She smiled and dropped down into the bed, stretching out with the side of her head resting on her palm. “Were you being serious earlier or just messing with me?”
“If I was serious, I would have given you a ring.” I smiled and reached down, rubbing her leg.
“I see.” She nodded and I saw her lip tense up. “Yeah, that makes sense. I figured you weren’t.”
“I’m still testing you out. I’m not sure I’m ready to buy the whole package yet.” I pushed on her with my finger.
“Wow, that makes me feel special.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “I was going to say no—”
While she tried to rationalize my words, I reached under the covers and pulled out the ring box I had hidden there when I came to bed. Before her sentence left her lips, the box opened and a three-carat square cut diamond set in platinum sparkled. She moved her mouth as if she was talking, but no words came out. She looked at me and then back down at the diamond.
“Now I’m asking you to marry me. If you say no, I’m going to close this box and I’ll never ask you again.” I pushed the box towards her.
“Yes!” She leapt into my arms and started kissing me. “Let’s go tell Benjamin.”
“Wait, I was hoping we could celebrate...” My cock was already pressing against the quilt.
“We should celebrate with Benjamin!” She hopped off the bed and ran towards the door.
“Not really the kind of celebration I had in mind—plus he’s in bed.” I heard him let out a cheer when she ran into his room and presumably told him the news.
I rolled out of bed and headed towards his room to celebrate with them.