Chapter 3
Declan
“Margery, I can’t thank you enough for coming in to help today. You’re a lifesaver.”
“Declan, I gave you two months notice and hired you the perfect assistant before I left. I can’t just come in whenever you need help. I’m retired. It’s my time now,” she said with that soft smile I had become so used to.
“I know. I’m just in such a pinch. I have no idea how to get my schedule up on the computer and sync it with my phone. Plus, I’m pretty sure I had the marketing department order too many samples for the trade show.”
Margery smiled and sat down at my computer. She pulled a pad of paper out of the drawer and started to write down the answers to my questions. I was grateful she was there, but the truth was I had only asked a couple of the dozens of questions that had come up over the last few days. I couldn’t let her leave my office. She had to stay; there was no question about it.
“I’ll pay you twice what your old salary was. Please, just stay on for a few more months. We can hire someone new and train her.”
“I did that already, Declan. You were so picky about who I hired that we ended up choosing someone who wasn’t all that qualified.”
“I know. You are right. Can we call back your favorite? What was her name again, Mrs. Doubtfire or something like that.”
“No, all the good assistants got other jobs when we turned them down,” she laughed. “But I’m sure that movie character Mrs. Doubtfire is still available.”
At least I got a chuckle out of her before she denied me. But she greatly underestimated the lengths to which I was willing to go in order to get her back. I needed her expertise in order to keep my company running. There were entirely too many details that were lost without her there.
“I’ll double your salary, and you can work part-time. Basically, that’s like quadrupling your salary. Come on now; you know that money will come in handy when you’re ready to retire.”
“Declan, I love you like my own son, but I’m ready to retire right now. It’s going to be a bumpy road for the next couple of weeks, but I promise you’ll get everything figured out.”
“I’ll give you a private jet. A new house. A million dollars,” I said dramatically as I literally got down on my knees and begged her.
I knew it was no use though; Margery was a tough lady. Once she made up her mind, there was no changing it. I wasn’t ready for her to leave me though. Selfishly, I wanted her to stay working; although I knew she deserved to retire. Margery had worked her entire life dedicated to her employers. Her ability to keep me organized and on task during the years she had been with me was amazing.
“You know I can’t stay,” she said kindly. “But you can call me with questions or have your new assistant call me. I’ll try to help when I can.”
“Thank you, Margery; I’m sorry for dragging you down here for the calendar.”
“It’s alright,” she said as a dozen buzzing noises sounded from my computer. “Apparently you’ve missed a few meetings.”
Margery had a calming effect on me; normally I would have been freaking out if I saw so many meetings missed. But as I looked into her dark-brown eyes, she didn’t look worried, so I didn’t feel worried. In all the years she had worked with me, I couldn’t remember a single time when she appeared overwhelmed or worried, even when we were in the midst of big deals. Her calm demeanor centered me; it helped me stay focused.
“Are there any going on right now?” I laughed.
“Yep, the Breckenridge deal in the main conference room.”
“Well, Teddy wouldn’t start without …” I started to say as Teddy knocked and opened my office door all at the same time.
The large wooden door was a stark contrast to the glass walls all around it. It was the one thing about my office that I always wanted to change, but never got around to. The modern glass walls let me see what was going on throughout the office floor while also giving others an open view of me while I was working. It felt like we were more of a team with the glass walls although there clearly wasn’t much privacy in our office building.
“Let’s go; we’ve got a few million dollars of your money to sign away,” Teddy laughed as he made himself at home in my office.
“Sorry, Margery is helping me fix my datebook so it syncs on my phone.”
“Oh, I could have helped you with that,” he said as he scrolled through his smartphone.
“Really? You know how to do that?” I asked.
“Sure, my assistant showed me how to self-manage my calendar and share it with her. I’m a high-tech dude.”
“You know how to pay attention,” Margery said quietly. “That’s Declan’s problem. He only pays attention to the things that are interesting to him.”
“Hey, I’ve got an official ADHD diagnosis; you should both feel bad for making fun of me. And let us remember that I’m actually the boss around here,” I joked.
“Nope, I don’t feel bad; now come to the meeting so I can take a bunch of your money and we can get this damn deal going. Are you still alright with signing the contract before you get out there?”
“Yes, I think our legal team put some clauses in there if the property ends up not being buildable. Did you look it over?”
“You know I did,” Teddy said as he pulled his glasses out of his pocket. “You should look it over too. You never know when I might try to slip one past you.”
It was an inside joke between the two of us that we trusted each other so much. There was no other person on the planet that I’d throw millions of dollars into a deal with before I had even seen the property. But working with Teddy was more like working with my own father. He was an honest man, and I trusted him.
“Sure, Teddy; you know you need me just as much as I need you old man,” I joked as I pulled him out of the chair and we made our way to the meeting. “Let me give you some cash so we can keep things moving on this. I’d like to have a nice place to stay for next year's film festival.”
“You are a little glassy eyed with your visions for these projects. How about two years? Maybe let the builders actually see their families sometime this year?”
“Oh, Teddy, you’re underestimating them. If you ask for greatness, you’ll get it.”
“I think you missed your calling; you should have been one of those inspirational, late-night infomercial guys,” Teddy said as we joined the rest of the lawyers and staff for the meeting.
“Sorry I’m late, everyone. I’ll try to keep this short,” I started the meeting. “Rosa, tell me a little about your vision from the architecture side of this project.”
“We will need a nice-sized main hotel to offset the current building. In our tentative plans, the main chalet will only have four to six apartments. The main hotel will have over a hundred rooms, depending on the number of luxury suites.”
“I don’t want to overdo it with luxury. I know that it’s technically your hotel, Teddy, but our customer base can’t afford those fancy suites.”
“Understandable. I think we should make the chalet all about the luxury and have the hotel regular rooms and a basic upgrade suite. Nothing too high end. The high-end clientele can book at the chalet if it’s that important to them. How would that look, Rosa?”
I loved this part of business deals. We were all on the same side, all feeling like the deal was good for us. If I could do business like this all the time, I would. That’s why I was continuing to partner with Teddy over and over again; we worked well together. Never had I imagined my ski and snowboard business would migrate into investing in hotels and resorts. And it wouldn’t have gone that way if Teddy and I hadn’t met.
“I’ll need a minute to calculate. Come back to us in a second,” Rosa said.
“How’s the land look, Stanley?” I asked as Rosa and her team looked through their figures.
“It’s good. We will need to have some big trees shipped in to provide a good buffer between the two properties and the ski slope. I’m not too worried about it though. There is enough room, and if we plan ahead, we should be able to get the trees shipped from the Denver area in the spring just before it’s finished. That’s assuming you’re going for a year turnaround?”
“Yes, thank you, Stanley, that’s exactly what I was looking for,” I said as I looked over at Teddy.
I was good with people, and that made meetings like this perfect for me. The push and pull of deadlines were met by the people that worked on a project, and I’d learned over the years that I liked being involved with my people. When employees knew me, understood me, they could anticipate what I was going to expect from them. I wasn’t the kind of boss that wanted to catch people doing something wrong; I liked to catch them doing amazing work and reward them for that.
“I know how you think,” he joked as he wrote down some notes.
Our meeting lasted several hours as Teddy and I went through the big details and finally signed the papers for the deal. I had started to take over more and more control of the joint deals between us, just because I really enjoyed learning the process. Teddy was still the main guy, and he was the one who knew the market and where to buy our properties.
“There was one more thing I wanted to discuss before everything is finalized here,” Teddy said with a serious tone.
“Uh oh, am I in trouble?” I laughed.
“I really think you should name the hotel after you, Declan. This is going to be a huge draw to your customer base. It’s all about the young, hip snowboarders. I want you to think of a name.”
“You don’t want it to be a Shield Hotel?”
“Nope, I want something new, hip, and more in tune with the current climate. People are staying at Air BnB rentals more and more. They want unique experiences, and I think we need to incorporate that into this property. I give you full control over the design and naming. I’ll be the money man and of course answer any questions or offer help as needed.”
“So you think we should go young and hip and not have the chalet?”
“Keep the chalet, maybe, I don’t know. Go out there and see for yourself and see what kind of place you’d stay at. Maybe keep the chalet and make it into something cool and hip? I don’t know. I’m an old business man,” he laughed.
The truth was that Teddy was an old business man that really knew what he was doing. He was right that we needed something new and fresh. We needed a destination theme in each of the high-end suites, like the suites in Las Vegas where people booked them years in advance so they could stay in a room with a basketball court.
“Okay, everyone, enough with the mushiness. I think we can wrap up for the day. Thank you all for working through this, and I look forward to seeing how this project is going to turn out. Rosa, would you have time to come out to the site with me this week at all?”
“Sure, or next week; whatever works for you.”
“Can your team come up with ideas that are a little more innovative for the chalet? I’m thinking high-end destination suites with themes.”
“I’ll get them to work some ideas up for you.”
“Thanks, this is awesome. You are awesome. I can’t wait.”
“You need to hire an assistant before you go flying out to Colorado,” Margery said as she stood in the doorway.
“Hey, do you guys know where I put my wallet?” I asked I glanced around the meeting room. “I swear I had it in my back pocket.”
“You lost your wallet?” Teddy asked.
“No, I’m sure I just put it down somewhere.”
“You definitely need to hire an assistant,” Margery laughed.
“You know, my daughter is moving out here from New York. She couldn’t do the job for long, but she might be a good option while you interview others and make your decision. She has an MBA.”
“Okay, I’m going to head back home. Why don’t you take Mr. Shields up on his offer? I’m sure if she has an MBA she can manage you for a few months.”
I stretched out on the black leather of my office sofa as I tried to decide what I wanted to do about the assistant situation. Margery had presented quite a few options, but the one I picked hadn’t worked out. I didn’t really want to go back and ask the others, especially since the best already had jobs.
“Thank you, Margery, I really do appreciate you,” I said as she closed the door and hurried away before I could ask her to help with anything else. “We already mix a lot of business stuff; are you sure you want to have your daughter working here?” I asked Teddy.
“Oh, there will be contingencies if she comes to work here.”
“Like?”
“Like you can’t sleep with her!”
“Oh, Teddy, give me a little more credit than that. I’m not going to sleep with your daughter. Geeze.”
“Declan, this is a non-negotiable. I mean it. No sleeping with my daughter. No dating my daughter. No having her fall in love with you. None of it.”
I had to laugh at how serious Teddy was taking all of this. The last picture I had seen of his daughter, she was in braces and had zits all over her face. Even if she had grown out of that awkward phase, I wasn’t an animal.
“Teddy, Emmi is your family, and you are my business partner. Trust me; I’ve got plenty of other women to choose from. Plus, do you really think she’s my type? I mean, MBA? You know I never land the girls with brains,” I joked.
“I’ve met some of your girlfriends, and some have been rather intelligent. I can’t account for why they agreed to go out with you, but still, they seemed to manage very well in other aspects of their lives.”
I leaned forward on the couch and looked Teddy in the eyes. He needed to see the serious nature of my expression. I wanted him to realize I wasn’t going to chase after his daughter. Teddy knew me. He knew I enjoyed women, plenty of women; there was no way to deny that.
“I could always hire someone else, but if your daughter needs the work, I think this situation might be perfect. I need an assistant for at least the next few weeks. She can get settled in out here and look for work in her field. I promise to treat her with the utmost of respect.”
“Shake on it,” Teddy said as he stretched out his hand and continued to look me in the eyes. “Shake my hand and promise nothing with happen between the two of you. She’s been through a lot over the years with male bosses not treating her with respect. I won’t put her in that sort of situation again.”
“Teddy, I promise,” I said truthfully as I shook his hand.
“Okay, then I’ll talk to her about starting on Monday, as long as she gets out here by this weekend.”
“Deal. How much should I pay her?”
“Whatever you’d pay any other assistant. No special treatment.”
“Except the whole part about not sleeping with her,” I winked, and he pretended to punch me.
“Yeah, except that part is special.”