Chapter Twenty-Six
Andrew
I drummed my fingers on my desk, running through the meeting's agenda and mentally preparing myself for the questions that I knew would be coming. I sighed and pushed back my chair, making myself a quick cup of tea before I went into the conference room. Everyone was already there.
It's going to take a while before they quit expecting to be fired over every little thing, I thought, knowing that they were probably all here early because they were afraid that if they showed up after me, I'd fire them on the spot. That wasn't the plan for today, though.
“Good morning, everyone,” I greeted them, sitting at the head of the table. “Let's get started. Now, I know that many of you are wondering why we've gathered here today. Don't worry; we're not here to discuss the mid-quarter numbers, although they are looking very impressive. I can see that you are all thinking about those internal goals and about everything that we talked about in our last meeting.”
There was a murmur of assent around the table.
“As some of you may have noticed, I've been working from home a lot more lately,” I continued. “I've decided to begin changing my management strategy.” I could see looks of surprise around the table. “It's come to my attention that I've micromanaged this company for far too long. And although that has obviously yielded results, I think it's time for me to begin to take a step back from things.”
One of the men seated to my left frowned at me. His name was Tom, and he'd been with the company since my father had started it, way back when. He asked the question that I knew they were all thinking. “Are you retiring?”
I laughed. “I'm too young to retire,” I told him. “What would I do with myself? That would be a lot of time to kill. Besides, I don't have someone to take my place at the moment. Although I appreciate all that each of you does for the company, you all work in your own departments more often than not. The person who will eventually replace me will be someone who has experience bringing together the work of all those different departments.”
There were some nods around the table, and even though I knew most, if not all, of my employees feared me, there were a number of them who looked relieved. They were probably worried that if I left the company, there would be layoffs and other big changes to the company structure, more than anything else.
“The thing is, the more I micromanage you, the less you have the opportunity to show me that this company could, in fact, exist without me,” I said, folding my hands in front of me. “The reason why you've all been working in your own specific departments is because that's the way that I've forced you to work. You're all very talented, but I haven't given you the opportunities to prove yourselves.”
“You make it sound like you're going to pit us head-to-head with one another and award the company to the last man standing,” someone quipped.
I smiled as there were a few nervous chuckles around the table. “That's not the plan,” I promised. “However, I am planning to start scaling back my hours, effective immediately. I will continue to work from home some days, but there will also be days when I don't work at all.” I paused. “I don't plan to drastically cut back on how much I'm working, but I will be giving you all a lot more independence, and I'll need everyone to step up to the plate.”
There was silence around the table. Everyone looked like they were processing this news.
“And if we don't step up to the plate, we get fired?” Jack asked.
I remembered that he was the man who had almost gotten himself fired in the previous meeting, and I barely managed to suppress a smile.
“That's not what I'm saying,” I told him, looking around the table and meeting everyone's eyes so that they'd see how sincere I was. I shrugged. “We'll try this out for a little while, maybe just one quarter or maybe for a few quarters. We'll see how it affects our numbers, if at all. If things don't seem to be working, I'll step back in. But we'll discuss that, as a team, when we get to the point.”
The emphasis on “as a team” shocked them.
“So essentially, you are planning to retire soon?” Bob asked. “You just want to make sure the company will be all right without you when you do?”
“That's not it,” I said firmly.
“Then why?” someone asked, sounding absolutely baffled.
I shrugged. “As I said, I feel as though I haven't given you the chance to show me what you can really do, to achieve your full potential,” I told them. “That's all there is to it.”
That wasn't all there was to it, of course. Not by a long shot. What it really boiled down to was that I wanted to spend more time with Lexi and Emma. That was why I'd begun working from home more and more. The more I worked from home, and the more I spent my lunches with them, the less motivated I felt to go back to work for the afternoon.
And it would be nice to leave the office early once in a while so that I could go home and have dinner with the two of them, or take Lexi on dates in the evenings without making Janice stay over too late.
But of course, I wasn't about to tell that to my executive board. They would think that I was getting soft, or that I was putting my personal life ahead of my work. I couldn't have them thinking that.
Even though the more I thought about it, the more I realized that that really was the truth of it. For the first time in my life, there was something that I cared about more than my work or making more money. I wanted Orinoco to continue to thrive, but I also wanted my relationship with Lexi and Emma to thrive.
I stood up before they could ask any more questions. “I trust that you'll all let me know if you have any troubles with the new arrangement,” I told them, even though I had a hard time believing that they actually would. I had never strived to be an approachable boss, and that could come back to bite me in the ass now.
So let it, I thought. If things went bad, we'd reassess in a few quarters, just like I'd told them we would. We'd figure out where to go from there. But for now, it was time I did something for me.
I nodded at them and adjourned the meeting. I returned to my office just in time to receive a call from Katherine.
I smiled as I picked up the receiver. “Hey, sis.”
“Hey!” Katherine said, sounding surprised. “You sound happy.”
“So do you,” I countered.
“I'm in Paris; what's your excuse?” she asked. I could practically hear her rolling her eyes.
“Actually, I just told my executive board that I'm going to be working fewer hours, and that they're going to have to start managing on their own more often,” I admitted, knowing that she'd be pleased to hear that.
“Oh, wow!” Katherine said, sounding every bit as surprised as I'd expected her to. “What prompted that?”
“I just figured it was time,” I lied.
She didn't buy it for a second. “It's because of Emma, isn't it?” she asked. “Your daughter, whom I still have yet to meet.”
I sighed, even though her quick diagnosis of my real reason was amusing, more than anything. “I'll be glad to have a little more time around Emma,” I admitted. “Lexi as well.”
“Wow,” she said again. “So, things are going well between the two of you?”
“Yeah.”
She wanted details. Details that I wasn't sure I was ready to give her. It wasn't embarrassment, I told myself. But she was my little sister; she didn't need to know that I was sleeping with Lexi.
And other than sleeping with Lexi, I wasn't entirely sure how to describe what we were doing. We'd been on the one date the other night, of course, but we weren't exactly dating in the traditional sense.
I decided the best course of action was to change the subject. “So, how's Paris?” I asked.
Unfortunately, that only made Katherine burst out laughing. “Oh, no,” she said. “Paris is wonderful, but you can't just change the subject on me. Are things getting serious between you and Lexi?”
“We have a kid together,” I pointed out. “And both Lexi and our kid are currently living with me. It can't get much more serious than that.”
“Bullshit,” Katherine said succinctly. “When she first moved in, you were still with Renée. Now it sounds like you're making serious changes in your life, all for Lexi's sake.”
“They're not all for Lexi's sake,” I protested. “They're for my sake as well. The way that I've been living hasn't been very healthy. You know that. You've been telling me that for years.”
“And you never listened to me.”
I was quiet for a moment. “We're dating,” I finally admitted. “Things have been a little strange because usually when we go out, Emma's there as well. But we went on our first real, adults-only date the other night.” I ran a hand back through my hair, pushing away from my desk and spinning a little in my chair. “I don't know what it means, Kate, so don't start pressuring me to put labels on things. I don't know if we're getting more serious. But I like the way things are going.”
“That's good,” Katherine said gently. She paused. “Like I said when we got on the phone, you sound happy. I'm happy for you.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Of course, I still haven't met either of them,” Katherine said pointedly.
I laughed. “Well, funnily enough, Lexi asked recently if she could meet you. I told her she could, once you were back in town.”
“Great!” Katherine said, sounding delighted. “We can make it a girls' outing. I know this great brunch place that we could go to. I'm sure she'll love it. Unless you want to come with us?”
“I'm not sure I trust you and Lexi alone together yet,” I said.
Katherine giggled. “I'd make sure to save all the embarrassing stories for when you were there,” she said. “Otherwise, I wouldn't get to see you blush and try to talk your way out of them.”
“Like that would happen.”
“Come on; you know the kinds of stories I could dredge up about you.”
“Lies, all of them,” I said, but I smiled.
“Remember that one time when you were ten, and I dared you to—”
“All right, all right,” I interrupted, knowing what she was about to say and not wanting to hear another word of it. I shuddered. “You can take Lexi and Emma out to lunch when you're back in town.”
“Cool,” Katherine said.
“So, how is Paris anyway?” I asked.
I settled back in my chair as she began to gush about how wonderful the city was, from the architecture to the food, and how much she loved the kids she nannied for. But I couldn't tear my mind away from my thoughts about Lexi and Emma.
Yes, I was definitely happy. I couldn't remember how long it had been since I'd been able to say that.