27.
Levi
Isla and I left Bel Air on Tuesday night. A part of me felt as a little sad that we were leaving, which was strange because who would’ve thought you’d ever feel that way about some place like Maryland? But I was glad she was coming back to New York with me, though I could tell she also felt a little strange about it, even though she hadn’t said anything.
I set my alarm and got up early so I could be down at BCM by nine o’clock. Sure, that wasn’t the six o’clock time or whenever it was Cal had said that my father usually showed up, but considering there were many days that I was just going to bed at nine o’clock in the morning, I thought I was doing pretty good.
Isla got up when I did, and she was in the kitchen, making coffee. I could hear my phone ringing, but I ignored it and tried to focus on getting this fucking tie tied correctly without having to go look it up on YouTube again.
After what felt like three thousand hours, I finally got it. It felt a little too tight again, but I’d just deal; I wasn’t going to take it off and have to start that whole process again. I left the bedroom, following my nose toward the kitchen and the heavenly smell of coffee, which I’d need copious amounts of to get through the day.
“I’m already looking forward to getting home and seeing you,” I said to Isla.
“Your phone was going crazy,” she said. “Someone keeps calling you.”
She was trying to keep her voice light, but her tone was strained, and I knew she’d at least looked at the screen to see who the caller had been. I picked the phone up and looked at the call log. Ella.
I slipped the phone into my pocket. “That was Ella,” I said.
Isla stiffened. “Oh?”
“Yeah. She’s been trying to get in touch with me. I should probably give her a
call back so she stops calling me like this.”
“Yes,” Isla said. “You probably should call her.”
“Hey.” I pulled her toward me, feeling her resist for a second but then give in as her body contoured itself to mine. “We’re just friends, me and Ella. There’s nothing going on there.”
Which was true. Ella and I hadn’t slept together in a while, and who knew if we would again or not. I tilted Isla’s chin back and waited until she looked me in the eye. “There’s nothing going on between Ella and me,” I said. “I want you to know that.”
“There was, though.”
“Yeah, there was. But
there’s not anymore. We can still be friends, can’t we? We’ve known each other
a long time. It would be weird to just suddenly no longer be her friend
anymore.”
Isla took a deep breath and then nodded. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not trying
to turn into the jealous girlfriend, I’m really not.”
I smiled. “So you’re my girlfriend now?”
“Uh . . . did I just say that? I guess I meant lover.”
“You can be my girlfriend.” Had I ever uttered those words before? I’d never really had a girlfriend in the traditional sense. There were just too many girls, too many possibilities, for that to ever make sense. But now it felt like that did make sense, because I wanted to be with Isla. Not just that; I wanted her to want to be with me.
“That’s not why I said
it,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean to say it at all, actually.”
“So you don’t want to be my girlfriend. You’re hurting me.”
She laughed. “Yeah, right. Stop it.”
“I’m being honest! I’d
like nothing more than to call you my girlfriend. Seeing as you just called
yourself that. And no, I might not have all that much experience being a
boyfriend, per se, but I’ve never really wanted to take on the role. Until now,
that is.”
“You really mean that?”
“I do. I’ve had a really
good time with you these past weeks. And I know your mom’s not my biggest fan,
and Sophie certainly isn’t going to be sending me any friendship bracelets
anytime soon, but I don’t care about that. I like being with you, and I’d like
to keep being with you. How does that sound?”
She brought her hand up to my tie and pulled on it, until I leaned my head down
toward hers. She brushed her lips across mine, a tiny smile across her face.
“I think that sounds wonderful.”
Cal wasn’t looking too thrilled to see me when I finally made it down to BCM.
“So you graced us with your presence once and it’s been almost a week now and we haven’t heard a thing,” Cal said.
“I know, I’m sorry. I
left the city for a few days. I didn’t think you’d mind much, though, Cal,
considering the last time I saw you—how did you put it? That I should just stay
out of the way and let you people do your job, since I was clueless about
everything?”
“That’s not what I said, Levi. And if you’d like to learn anything about
this—anything at all—then you actually need to be here. Participating. Learning. Asking questions. Not off
gallivanting, though I must say, I was surprised to hear you say you were in
Maryland. I would’ve figured somewhere a little more exotic.”
“You ever been to
Maryland?”
It was a joke, of course, but Cal didn’t laugh.
“Has Frank Carlisle been in touch with you recently?” he asked.
“Frank Carlisle? Ella’s
father?”
“Yes.”
“No. Why?”
“As you know—or maybe don’t—the Carlisles are one of BCM’s biggest clients.”
“I am actually aware of
that little bit of trivia.”
“It’s more than trivia. While some of our clients are more than happy to just
let us do what we do best, Frank is a little more . . . proactive in his
approach. He wants to buy Westport Investment Managers. I’m telling you this so
you can start to familiarize yourself with the organization.”
“Okay,” I said. “And Frank is going to be calling me about this directly?”
“Frank was fond of talking to your father about these matters, yes. So I
wouldn’t be surprised if you get a call from him at some point. I myself don’t
think it’s wise to hand over eight billion dollars in stock and cash for this
purchase.”
“Eight billion? That’s a
hefty price tag. So why don’t you just tell him that?”
“Because he doesn’t want to hear it from me,” Cal said. “Frank and I haven’t
always seen eye to eye on things, and that has . . . complicated our
relationship. We try to keep things professional, but, as I mentioned, it was
your father that he dealt with mostly. So that role is going to fall onto you,
now. I don’t think Frank would have it any other way. He’ll be here shortly,
and he’s going to want to talk with you. I’m giving you forewarning. I’ll be in
my office, but Erin will notify me when he gets here.”
“Great,” I said. “Looking forward to it.”
Cal left, closing the door behind him. I sat down on the couch that was over by
the window and looked out past the skyscrapers, to the sky. I could see a plane
in the distance, just a tiny little speck in the sky, and I wondered where
those people were headed.
My cell phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. Alfie.
“Oi, mate,” he said when
I picked up. “When can I be expecting you back around these parts?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “I’m back in New York to do some stuff here. Then maybe
we’ll come out that way.”
“Great. Because the way things are shaping up out here, I’m going to need some more money. I don’t need to get into the details of it now, but remember how I told you about that guy from Rotterdam—”
“Hold up,” I said. “I
remember the conversation, but do you remember the conversation we had after that? The one where I’m not
involved anymore?”
There was a pause. “You were serious? You still feel that way?”
“Yeah, I didn’t just change my mind about it.”
“Oh. I thought you were just on a rant and you’d come to your senses. Listen, mate, now is not the time to bail. It’s really not. We’re going to lose our hold on the market.”
“What are you even talking about?” I said. “Don’t you have enough money?”
“I’m not going to get into the details over the phone,” he said. “We can talk in person, though. I think it’d be good if you got out here as soon as you can. The sooner the better, really.”
“Well, I totally agree with you on that point, Alfie, but it’s not going to be to talk about our business interests, anymore.”
“Okay, mate. Let’s just plan to talk when you’re out here. Give me a call, okay? Or I’ll just swing by. Whatever’s easiest.”
“Sure, Alfie,” I said. Clearly he needed the whole thing to be reiterated to him again, maybe several more times. “I’m not changing my mind about this, though. I’m literally sitting on the couch in my dad’s office right now. My office now. I’ve got bigger things to do now. So if you’re waiting for me to make any decisions or move forward with anything, you should just go on ahead and do what you want. Really, it’s good news for you.”
“Well what I want is for things to stay the way they’ve been. We need money, more money than I’ve got. I’ll talk to you when you get out here.”
The line went dead.
Only for a few minutes, though. It started ringing again, and I looked at the screen, hoping it was Isla but knowing it was probably Alfie calling back with something else to say that I didn’t want to hear. It wasn’t though: It was Ella. I hesitated, picked up the phone, but then didn’t answer. It went to voicemail, and then a text came through.
Hey you, she wrote. I miss u! We need to make a plan to do a getaway somewhere. I’ve been super busy with work but I’m more than ready for some relaxing time with u. What’s ur sched like? Call me. Let’s set something up.
I tossed the phone down. It was tempting to just throw the thing into the toilet; no one that I wanted to talk to was calling.
There was a knock at the door, but the door was opening as the knock was happening. It was Frank Carlisle, followed by Erin, who looked a little flustered.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I tried to get him to wait—”
“I wait for no man! Levi!” Frank Carlisle boomed, striding over to me. He was a tall, imposing man, and when we shook hands, he grasped my palm so tightly I thought he was trying to break it.
“Good to see you again, Frank,” I said. The extent of my relationship with Frank Carlisle, had, up until this point, been one of mild deference, because I was fucking his daughter. I think we would’ve gotten along even if that hadn’t been the case, but I had never tried to flex on him, and Frank, for the most part, had never tried to flex on me, either. I had a feeling, though, that was all about to change.
Frank and I had talked briefly at my father’s funeral, but this was before he knew that I was now the head of BCM. I could tell that he was looking at me in a different light now.
“You talk to Ella lately? She was saying she hasn’t seen you around much. Give her a call.”
“Sure,” I said. “I will.”
“Great. Obviously, though, I’m not here to talk about you and my daughter.” Frank looked over my shoulder. “Oh, great, here he comes.”
I turned and saw Cal walking over to us.
“Hi there, Frank,” Cal said, a tight smile on his face. “Why don’t we all go into my office.”
“I’d rather stay right here in Alex’s. Or Levi’s. Whoever it belongs to now.”
“That would be me,” I said.
“Right, sure.” Cal rubbed his hands together and looked toward the open door, as if he was hoping no one was close enough to hear the exchange that was currently taking place.
“It must’ve been quite a shock to find out that Alex had left this all to you,” Frank said, clapping me on the shoulder. “Quite a shock! Boy, I would’ve liked to have been there to see the look on your face when you found out!”
“It was something like this,” I said, widening my eyes and opening my mouth.
“Alex always did have a sense of humor,” Cal said as we stepped into my office.
Frank ignored him. “Place looks the same,” he said. “Now, I assume Cal has gone over the details of this with you. I know you weren’t involved much while your father was alive, Levi, but I can tell you for a fact that he’d be all about this deal. He’d be more than willing to move forward with it.” Frank shot Cal a sideways glance before looking back at me. “I hope you’ll feel the same way.”
I went over and sat down at my father’s desk, as if that might somehow provide me with the sort of answers that Frank was looking for.
“Uh . . .” I rifled through some of the papers that were on the desk to buy more time. The papers had nothing to do with anything, as far as I could tell, but at least it gave me something to look at.
Cal cleared his throat. The dislike these two had for each other was clearly mutual and very apparent.
“Frank,” Cal said. “The
amount of money we’d have to hand over to buy Westport just isn’t worth the
risk.”
“We’ve taken risks before that have worked out quite nicely, if I’m remembering
correctly,” Frank said. He looked back at me. “I don’t think I ever once heard
your father talk like this, Levi. I’m hoping your approach is going to be more
like his. Otherwise, I might have to start looking into transferring my assets
to another company that is more
aligned with my way of thinking.”
I might not have known much about BCM, but I knew enough to know that it would not be good news if the Carlisles went elsewhere.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” I said. “How long have you been working with my father, Frank?”
“You tell me.”
Shit. “Um . . . well, I don’t know exactly, but it’s been a really long time. And I would hate to see anything happen to that relationship. We value you, we appreciate you, and—”
“Oh, cut the shit,” Frank said, waving his hand. “Do you know how ridiculous you sound? We value you. Come on, Levi. Don’t bullshit me.”
“I’m not bullshitting you. We absolutely value you. And you know that, too, otherwise you wouldn’t be making these threats to go elsewhere if we don’t do what you want.”
“You’re making me sound like a tyrant. Which I’m not. This is something your father understood. I can’t say the same about this one,” he said, gesturing to Cal.
I felt as though I were a parent, lording over two toddlers who were fighting over a toy. The whole thing was giving me a headache. Did my father really deal with this shit? How? It seemed like the only thing Frank was interested in hearing was that we were going to do exactly what he wanted.
“Let me talk with Cal,” I said. “I think it’s safe to say that we all want to do the right thing here; no one wants to lose money if we don’t have to. We don’t want to take any unnecessary risks.”
“Unnecessary, no, of course not,” Frank said. “But risks—yes. Do you think I’d have the amount of money I have if I never took a risk? Do you think I’d have the money I’d never branched out from real estate investment trusts? I’ll answer that for you: No, I wouldn’t. If you need to talk to Cal about this to get him to understand, then so be it, but I think we should move on this.” Frank looked at me and shook his head. “Look at you, sitting there,” he said. “Quite a sight. Anyway. The wife and I are flying out to Napa today; we’ll be back in town at the end of the month. I’ll come around for another meeting then, and I hope you’ll have good news for me. I’ll bring back some good wine.”
He left, barely giving Cal a glance.
“Well,” Cal said once he was gone. “That went better than I was expecting.”
“Has he always been like
that?”
“Always. He really respected your father, though. And if your father told him
this Westport deal was a bad idea, he’d believe it. I don’t have the same
credibility with him. Which I’m sure is obvious.”
Cal sounded a little
chagrined, which made me almost feel bad for him. “It’s not just Frank’s money,
is it?” I asked. “I mean, he doesn’t have eight billion dollars, does he?”
“No, it’s not just Frank’s money. Frank has about three billion dollars.”
I nodded. “That’s quite a bit.”
“It is.”
“You’d think a person would be content with that sort of money.”
“It’s got nothing to do with being content. It has to do with growth. Frank doesn’t want things to stagnate. I don’t either, of course, but I also don’t want to take foolish risks.”
I nodded. I knew I wasn’t Cal’s favorite person, and we certainly had our differences, but I had to agree with him on that point.