Chapter Seventeen
Justin – Monday
I didn’t even bother going home when I arrived back in Portland, choosing to go right into the office instead. I wanted to trust Garrett enough to assume that he was there working, rather than passed out on the couch at home. Plus if the house was a shit hole again, I wouldn’t be able to focus, and I really didn’t want that…not again.
Luckily, my trust paid off, and I quickly found him standing at a desk with a serious expression on his face. “Hey,” I patted him proudly on the back. “It’s good to see you there. How are you getting on?”
“Oh, Justin, glad to see you. I have so many questions for you.” He looked so somber that I was actually stunned. He was here, still, and actually taking his job seriously. I’d never thought that I would see this side of him; it really was a huge change. “Can I go over some of the accounts with you in your office?”
“Sure, sure,” I told him happily, indicating towards my office door. “Come on, catch me up. Let me know what I’ve missed out on while I’ve been away.”
As we walked, he slipped into another conversation entirely, talking about one of the women that he found attractive in the office. As soon as he insisted that he wasn’t interested in screwing up his job for her, I half turned him out. I didn’t need to listen to any of this. I needed to get my head back in the game. His attraction to some chick wouldn’t help me do that.
“So,” he said the moment the door shut behind him. “How was the trip? What were you going to see, a coffee shop or something?”
This was the first time he’d ever asked me anything about what I was doing, so I couldn’t help myself from wanting to tell him everything…maybe a little too much. “It’s Boffees, books and coffee. I know it sounds pretty small, and it might not make me a huge return, but I really want to invest.”
“Yeah? How come?” he asked curiously.
“Honestly, I think the owner, Annie, has the determination to drive it forwards—”
“You like her,” he jumped in, hitting the nail right on the head. “I thought this whole thing sounded a little weird. You’re a shrewd businessman with his head firmly in the game. That’s how you make so much money. I knew there had to be some deep reason for your interest in some small shop in Florence…a small town in the middle of nowhere.”
“It isn’t just that…” I tried, but it was written across my face. Garrett’s raised eyebrows proved that he could see right through me. “Okay, okay, I admit it. I do have feelings for Annie that maybe I shouldn’t, but I do want to invest in her for other reasons, too.”
“So, what does she look like?” I couldn’t help myself as he asked this. This was the closest thing that we’d had to a brotherly conversation in years. Over time, as Garrett’s behavior deteriorated, I had felt like I was more of a parent to a reckless teen than anything else, so this was a really welcome change. “Is she mega hot?”
“She’s gorgeous,” I admitted, smiling to myself. “A natural beauty.”
“So, the sort you’d want for a wife rather than a screw?” he said callously, turning my feelings into something a lot more distasteful.
“Sure,” I shrugged, not wanting to rock the boat. “She’s lovely.”
“You need to be careful,” he told me seriously. “You don’t want to start falling for clients – that can lead to trouble.”
I wanted to scold him for acting like he knew something about business when he’d only just started working for me, but I didn’t because there really wasn’t any point. “Okay, so ask me all these questions you have for me?”
“Yeah, so I was looking at this…”
***
“Hi, Harry,” I said to my advisor as he sat opposite me. “So, what do you have for me?”
“I actually really wanted to see you to discuss your trip to Florence.” He didn’t look happy, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me. I’d made my choice, and I wanted to go with it now. I had my reasons, and even if no one else understood it, I did. “Did anything progress with the Boffees deal?”
“Well, Annie didn’t agree to anything yet,” I replied honestly, folding my hands on the table in front of me. This was what I did to make myself look more serious, more businesslike. I’d started it when I was just beginning, in the hope that it would cause people to take me more seriously, and now it was a habit I couldn’t get out of. “But she’s coming up this weekend to see the company.”
I might have had a big, beaming smile on my face, but Harry was definitely not looking impressed. “And, did you explain all of the details to her?”
“She read over the contract,” I nodded slowly. “And, she certainly seemed to understand it all. This isn’t some small town girl we’re dealing with here; she’s an astute businesswoman.” I wanted him to understand that this wasn’t just me being starry-eyed here; Annie knew what she was talking about. Without meeting her, people just couldn’t seem to get that.
“Okay, because she will be losing a lot of the business with this deal. You will effectively have creative control, so you’ll be able to change everything…or the person in charge of her account will, anyway. I just want her to understand that.”
I gulped at that, my head and heart in total conflict with one another. Realistically, this was the only way I could invest in Boffees; I had to make it profitable for me and the business, but it didn’t feel right to take so much of what Annie had worked so hard for.
Then again, any investor would do the same…so better that it was me, right? At least if my company was in control, I could keep an eye on what was going on. I might not have done it for every other investment because I couldn’t be everywhere at once, but with this one, I would have to make sure that I did. Even if it did seem like favoritism…
“Right, okay,” I drawled slowly. “Can you just explain everything to me, so I understand when I see her on Friday?” I had read through all of the information before I handed it to her, but only really briefly because I’d been in a hurry at the time. Now, though, I needed to know it all because a big part of me thought it might be advisable to tell Annie beforehand.
Maybe this whole investment plan was a bad idea. I wanted to help Annie. I wanted to expand her business in a big way. I just wasn’t sure that this was going to achieve that. The last thing I wanted was to make things harder for them both.
While he went through it all, my brain zipped back and forth with indecision. I had no idea what I was going to do on Friday when Annie came up, but I hoped that I would be able to make that choice before she arrived. I didn’t want to screw things up.
God, this would be so much easier if we were just dating. I made a bit of a bad move bringing business into things between us, but then again, we wouldn’t have met at all if that hadn’t been the case. If Roy hadn’t called me, nothing would have taken me down to Florence.
“Anyway,” Harry jumped in before I could get too lost in my thoughts. “How is Garrett getting on? Is he working well?”
“He is, actually,” I smiled at him proudly. “Now that he’s started working here, he’s doing amazingly. Better than I actually expected him to. He’s taken on a very creative role in the marketing department, and he’s taking it very seriously.”
“Well that’s good.” Harry didn’t look convinced, but that didn’t matter. It would take some time for Garrett to prove himself, and now that I’d seen what he could do, I would be behind him all the way. “Let’s just hope it stays that way. Anyway, I have to go, just…keep me updated with Garrett and Boffees, too.”
“I will,” I grinned and shook his hand. “Thanks again, Harry. See you later.”
After he left, I glanced down at that family picture on my desk again, wondering if Dad would have been proud of how far I’d come with regards to Garrett. This was what he wanted on his death bed after all, for me to do what he never could.
Garrett didn’t turn into a nightmare until he hit his mid-teens, when his hormones properly kicked in, and he seemed to make it his life’s mission to make Dad’s life hell. He would stay out late, drink too much, vandalize, and generally act out. He was brought home by the cops on more than one occasion, driving my dad to distraction.
I’d expected him to start behaving himself when Dad got sick, which he did a little bit, but not enough. Most of the responsibility of looking after Dad fell on my shoulders, which was okay. More than a little exhausting, but at least he wasn’t throwing his idiotic behavior in Dad’s face anymore. For a long time, I thought he had some sort of grudge against our father, and that it was all about that. But once Dad passed and Garrett carried on acting like an idiot, I had to assume that it was just the way he was.
But not anymore – now things were starting to look up.
Well, Dad, I thought smilingly in my mind. I’ve done it. I’ve got Garrett working. He finally seems to be putting his past behind him and growing up. I hope I’ve done you proud! I hope this is what you wanted for him because he really seems to be blossoming. And Mom… I didn’t want to leave my mom out, but I wasn’t really sure how to communicate with her when I didn’t really know her. I…I hope that you are proud of me, too.
It was horrible to not really remember the woman that gave birth to me, but that was my life. She got sick and died…there wasn’t anything that could be done about it; it was just one of those things.
If my parents were still here, I imagined that I would be talking to Dad about the company, discussing Garrett’s change with him, and Annie with Mom.
I liked to picture her as the sort of woman who would know what to do in a heartbeat. She would be able to tell me whether or not I should even consider investing in Annie’s company with the terms on offer. If I thought about it properly, I imagined her telling me that it was time to worry about settling down, rather than worrying about making more money, and that Annie was the perfect girl to do it with. She would probably be angling for grandkids, and she’d assume that this was the closest I’d ever gotten. She would probably adore Rae, too…
Of course, this was all in my head. Mom could have been totally different in reality, but since I would never get the chance to know for sure, the imaginary picture that I had of her in my mind was all I knew.
Anyway, I eventually shook my head and snapped back into action, while carefully placing the picture back down on my desk. It was time to get back to work. I still had a lot to do.