Chapter 35 A Coup for Cole
A COUP FOR COLE
Something you’re grateful for?
Bridget: My job.
Cole: Bridget.
brIDGET
Although it was the week of Christmas, most of the executive staff were still working, and it seemed like a normal Tuesday through lunch.
I facilitated the staff meeting. Cole gave feedback on the culture committee’s proposal, by which I mean he grilled them, but that was normal too.
I reviewed the operations report and signed off on a few capital expenditures for next year.
Cole and I had lunch together in the employee cafeteria, as we’d started to do on Tuesdays to demonstrate our collegial relationship, and a few junior employees were brave enough to join us at our table.
I encouraged one of our female programmers to apply for a newly available manager position.
Her eyes shining, she said she’d consider it.
Normal ended when we returned to our office to two people waiting in our club chairs.
Anita was the first to rise, shaking her medium-length graying hair off her shoulders. Two lines creased her forehead between her eyebrows. “Bridget. Cole.” She shook our hands.
Ned straightened his glasses, didn’t shake anyone’s hand, and didn’t meet my eyes. He mumbled something I didn’t catch. Cole stared at him like he could read the board member’s mind. They must have come for a midterm check-in. Though a phone call would’ve been more efficient.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Bridget, could you come with us to the boardroom, please?” Anita’s voice was tight. So was my stomach. Maybe the cafeteria’s chicken dal hadn’t been the smartest choice.
“Don’t you want both of us?” Cole asked.
“No, we’ll speak with you separately,” Ned said. “Bridget first.”
“We’re co-CEOs,” Cole said. “You should speak with both of us.”
“I’ll talk with you later, Cole.” Ned wouldn’t meet my gaze, but he sure as hell stared daggers at Cole.
Cole’s normally tan face paled. “Could you give us a minute? I want to be sure Bridget’s prepared.”
What’s going on? Was there some bro-coded-ESP I didn’t understand?
“No preparation is necessary,” Ned said.
A drop of sweat glistened at Cole’s temple. “Remember what we talked about.” He seemed to be trying the bro-ESP on me.
He shouldn’t have worried. I knew better than to confess to anything.
I was grateful we’d agreed to keep our relationship secret and was ninety-eight percent certain the board couldn’t have found out.
On Sunday, we’d started on our talking points about our achievements during the trial and the benefits of continuing to share the role after January, so I was prepared.
I even had slides. “Let me grab my laptop.”
“You won’t need it,” Anita said.
“Just in case.” I unplugged it from its dock and hugged it to my chest like a teddy bear. “Ready.”
I led the way to the boardroom, which was our most elegant conference room.
It had a long, polished walnut table surrounded by tan leather chairs.
Through the wall of windows, the bay sparkled in the distance.
The interior wall was also glass, but the middle of it was frosted so passersby could see only vague shapes of the occupants of the boardroom.
Stan sat at the head of the table. Having our vice president of human resources sit in on our meeting was odd, especially since I hadn’t used profanity in the office for weeks.
I greeted him, then sat on the side facing the windows.
Anita sat across from me, and after closing the door, Ned eased into the chair beside her.
Backlit by the windows with her face in shadow, Anita clasped her hands on the table. “Bridget, after much deliberation, the board has made a decision about Apex’s leadership.”
Oh, shit. Cole warned me not to let the board decide without presenting our proposal.
Thankful I’d brought my laptop, I opened it.
“Hang on a minute. I’d like to share something first.” I navigated through the file system until I found the presentation we’d drafted on Cole’s laptop on Sunday and clicked to launch it.
“I thought we had more time, so this isn’t as polished as I’d like it to be, but I’d like to propose that—”
“Bridget,” she said, “we’ve already—”
“—that Cole and I continue to share the role as co-CEOs. I’ve listed the benefits on this slide here, and if you’ll give me a couple of minutes, I’ll run through them quickly.” I turned the laptop to face them.
They didn’t so much as glance at the screen.
“Bridget.” Ned spoke up. “We’re letting you go.”
My stomach became impossibly heavy. “You’re…what?” I gazed around the table. “Is this a joke?”
“No.” Anita’s voice trembled, and she cleared her throat. “After careful consideration and spirited debate, we voted. It wasn’t unanimous, but according to the bylaws, a simple majority suffices.”
“But…but why?” There had to be a way to change their minds.
“I successfully implemented my thirty-day plan. Stan can attest that the executive team has been more cohesive since our retreat. Our staff meetings run like a dream. We’re about to execute the call center deal I brokered with Morpho.
Cole projects that we’ll save five million dollars annually. ”
“That deal was a coup for Cole,” Ned said. “That type of decisive leadership is exactly what we’re looking for. It’s why we’ve decided to give him the CEO position.”
My gut churned. “But…but that was my idea. One Cole and I executed together.”
“Cole presented it.” Anita frowned.
“Because he’s the stronger presenter,” I said. “We agreed he should bring it forward.”
“Regardless,” Ned said, “we need only one CEO, and Cole is the more dynamic executive. We need someone youthful with innovative ideas.”
“I didn’t get it because I’m old? I’m only forty-three!”
“It’s not your age. It’s your lack of creativity and adventure,” Ned said.
“I took the executives to Costa Rica for a goddamn adventure!” I slapped my hand on the table. It stung. “Stan, you were there. We were inspired. Connected. Fucking energized!”
“Language, Bridget,” Stan said. “I gave the board a full report on the retreat.”
“Fun and games don’t push a company to the top.” Ned glanced at his watch. “Inspiring leadership does.”
“I’m inspiring!” I argued. “I had lunch with some associates today, and they love me.” Yet, one look at their stony expressions confirmed Ned, Stan, and even Anita didn’t feel the same as those young programmers.
I switched tactics. “If…if I’m not g-good enough for CEO, can’t I go back to COO? I did excellent work there.”
“We have a COO,” Anita said. “You hired Gina yourself.”
Goddamn my efficiency. “Is there anything I can do to change your minds?”
“The decision is final,” Ned said. “Stan has some papers we need you to sign.”
Stan anchored a folder to the table with two fingers. As he stood and walked toward me, he towed the folder beside him across the wood grain of the table. He stopped and slid the folder in front of me, then shut the lid of my laptop and picked it up.
I didn’t open the folder. I’d been party to too many of these conversations over my fifteen years in management. Stan’s job was to get me to sign away my rights, and my job was not to sign anything. “My lawyer will review these.”
His mouth tightened. But since he’d sat in most of those meetings with me, he knew what I’d say. “All right. We’ll need them back, signed, in three days.”
The first rule in these situations was to instill a sense of urgency. I wouldn’t fall for it. “I’ll see what I can do. Anything else?”
“We’d like you to leave right away to avoid any unpleasantness,” Anita said. “We’ll have your personal effects packed up and delivered to your home.”
I’d been holding strong through this excruciating conversation, but my control slipped.
My lip trembled. They were walking me out as if I’d done something wrong.
Like I’d make a scene or destroy something on my way out.
After twenty years at this company, they were treating me like a criminal.
I sniffed back the tears into their burning ducts.
The worst thing I could do was show weakness.
Standing, I scooped up the folder. “Thank you,” I murmured, opening the door. What was I thanking them for? They’d stripped me of my job, my income, and my dignity, all in less than fifteen minutes.
With my head down, I almost ran into Cole’s broad chest just outside the conference room. He grasped my biceps. “What happened?”
“F-fired.” It was the only word I could gasp out through my paralyzed lungs.
“What? What happened? Ned, what the hell?”
“Lower your voice,” Ned hissed, emerging from the room.
“I won’t,” Cole continued at full volume, “until someone tells me what the hell is going on.”
A sob was working its way out of my chest, and soon everyone—Cole, Ned, Anita, Stan, and every admin within earshot—would hear. I took a quick step around Cole so I could exit without humiliating myself.
He was too fast. His heavy arm shot out and captured me, pulling me to his side. We’d never stood this way in public, and rather than feeling protected, I felt exposed.
“We’d hoped to tell you in a more positive setting,” Ned said. “Congratulations, Cole. You’re the new CEO.”
“We are.” He squeezed my shoulders. Damn his forceful grip. If he weren’t so buff, I’d have slipped out and already been at the elevator bank.
“No,” Ned said. “You’re the sole CEO. Just like we discussed.”
“What?” I flailed out of his embrace. He’d talked with Ned? After all that bullshit about love, he’d been working behind my back. He hadn’t changed at all. He was the same asshole who’d barged into the office I deserved. “You knew?”
“No, honey, I— What the actual fuck, Ned?”
“What’s happening here?” Stan asked. “Why did you call her ‘honey’?”
“Because I love her and because I’m trying to help!”
My face went from ice-cold to red-hot. “This is the opposite of helping, Cole.”
“You two are in a relationship?” Anita demanded.
“This is utterly inappropriate,” Stan said. “Bridget, I’d have given you more credit than this.”
“What?” I yelped. “It was consensual.”
“You know better,” Anita said. She didn’t have to remind me that the woman always had more at risk.
Unfair as it was, I did know better. I needed to leave before I burst into tears and before Cole made me unemployable in Northern California. Clutching my severance package, which seemed more necessary by the minute, I stormed toward the elevators. A uniformed security guard appeared and followed.
“Bridget, don’t go like this,” Cole pleaded. “I can figure this out.”
“Of course you can,” I tossed over my shoulder. “After all, it’s just you now.”
The one thing that went right for me all day happened: I pressed the down arrow, and the elevator doors opened immediately. I stepped inside, and so did the security guard. I jammed the button to close the doors.
An arm like a small tree trunk blocked the door, and Cole’s face appeared. “Bridget, sweetheart, don’t go. I love you.”
“Do you? Or did you want to fuck me into a sense of security before you and Ned truly fucked me over?”
For the first time ever, I’d shocked him speechless. Anita, Stan, and Ned, too. They glared at me from behind him. As the doors closed, shutting out Cole’s wide-eyed face, I feared I’d never work in this town again.
I blocked his number before we made it to the ground floor.