Chapter 3 Cole
Cole
“You can’t fire your entire company.” Lucas fell into step alongside me.
“Not the entire company. Just everyone at that party.”
“The people who stayed late for your party, you mean? To celebrate your birthday?”
“No one gives a fuck about my birthday. Everyone is there for the free booze.”
Lucas paused at the elevator. I strode past him to the stairs.
“Can’t we take the elevator like normal people?”
I took the stairs two at a time. “We live in an obesogenic environment. An elevator is a shortcut to cardiovascular disease. What were you thinking? A surprise party is the most misjudged thing that’s happened around here since you grew that beard.”
Lucas jogged to catch up with me. His hand flew defensively to his chin. “There’s nothing wrong with a beard.”
“In general, no, but teamed with that hair, you look like you’re about to sell me an overpriced wood-fired pizza or tell me you do burgers differently.”
Lucas chased me up the stairs, half a step behind. “You’re salty because Gabe Rivers doesn’t want to talk to you.”
He knew about that? My shoulders stiffened. I paused in the stairwell. “Are you spying on me? You’re worse than Dad. I don’t even know Gabe Rivers. There’s no reason for him not to take my calls.”
“Why are you so desperate to talk to him?”
“Mind your own business.”
Lucas rested a hand on the banister, catching his breath. “You’re trying to get him to sell you that hotel in Rome again? The one Mum liked?”
Fuck you. I kept my voice level despite my irritation with his prying. “Which part of ‘mind your own business’ don’t you understand?”
“You won’t get anywhere with Gabe Rivers. I heard he thinks you’re an arsehole. Don’t worry about it. Everyone does. It’s even on your Wikipedia page. One of England’s richest men and most notorious arseholes.”
I stormed up the stairs, my brogues echoing through the silence. “Why do you know what’s on my Wikipedia? There isn’t a single citation on that page.”
“Consider this conversation your verification. People with integrity don’t want to do deals with verified arseholes.”
I turned, just enough to meet his eyes. “Gabe Rivers doesn’t have integrity. He’s been all over the tabloids for years.”
“Everyone says he’s changed. He’s settled down. Got himself a wife and kids.” Lucas pushed his glasses up his nose. “Listen, Gabe Rivers is the least of your problems. The shareholders aren’t happy. There has been talk of leadership more aligned with the brand.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Your flagship is a chain of family-friendly resorts where kids go to splash in waterparks and make their parents question their life choices. The brand is treehouses and toasted marshmallows. Wholesome. Authentic. Not arsehole-ish.”
“Arsehole-ish isn’t a word.”
“I got it from your Wikipedia page.”
We hit the landing. London stretched out in the floor-to-ceiling glass. “The shareholders can go fuck themselves.”
Lucas pressed his lips together. “Right, or they could club together and fuck you. You need to tread carefully.”
“Isn’t this what I pay you for? You’re the Head of Social Impact. You’re supposed to make us look good. Can’t you plant more trees or write another sustainability manifesto?”
He chuffed out a humorless laugh. “You can’t just outsource your conscience. The shareholders are still looking at their CEO.”
“What would you have me do? Magic up a wife and kids from somewhere? Toast some fucking marshmallows?”
His brow flickered with amusement. “It wouldn’t hurt. You just need to tone it down. Be more reflective of the brand. Remember the names of your staff. Ask if people have plans for the weekends. Bring in donuts. You’re not . . . nice.”
This was my company. I didn’t need to explain myself.
And not nice? I could take that, but not authentic?
That was unfair. I authentically didn’t give a fuck about people’s names or what they did at the weekend.
I was the most authentic person in this building.
Lucas should have backed off, but he followed and stood next to me at my office window.
I cut him my go fuck yourself glare. “Why are you still here? I’m staring broodingly out of the window. It loses impact with company.”
“The kids keep asking after you. They want to see their favorite uncle.”
Here we go. How I’d made it into the favorite-uncle spot was anybody’s guess.
Although with Theo as the other option, the bar wasn’t high.
It was probably because I’d brought them back that VR game console from Tokyo.
My nephews were more mercenary than any cutthroat business mogul I’d ever had to deal with.
“You know how it’s been,” I said.
“Yeah, I know how it’s been.” Lucas rocked back on his trainers. Trainers in the office, and I was the one the shareholders were moaning about. “Thirty. How does it feel to be old?”
“You tell me. I take it that midlife-crisis beard is what I have to look forward to?”
Amusement shadowed his expression. “Time is flying.”
“Mr. Thorner?”
I turned to see the back-stabbing assistant who’d dragged me off to the party. “Didn’t I just sack you?”
Lucas rolled his eyes and gave me a pointed look. “Ignore him. You’re not sacked. Sacking your entire office is too much paperwork.”
The assistant darted a nervous glance at me. “You’ve had a call. It was . . .”
Jesus. Did people think I had nothing to do all day? “Spit it out.”
“It was from your old school. One of the teachers has passed away. Mr. Ackroyd. They’re informing the alumni about the funeral.” She swallowed. “I’m sorry.”
The high-pitched whine of a vacuum invaded the silence, jarring me. My mind filled with memories. Rolling green fields. Endless summer days. Charlotte Ackroyd’s scrunch-nosed smile. Her laugh.
I stared past my reflection to the sea of soaring, faceless towers, and I had the strangest sensation that I was falling from the tallest skyscraper.
Flailing through the night outside, bitter air rushing to meet me, sucking the breath from my lungs.
Lucas and the assistant who should have been packing up her desk for dragging me to that surprise party bullshit were both staring at me.
My chest hurt, like I’d taken a punch in the ribs.
“I should pay my respects.”
Confusion crossed Lucas’s face. The words hung in the air, strange and unbidden. They puzzled me as much as my brother. I had no time for trips up north. No time for funerals of teachers I hadn’t seen in over a decade. No desire to revisit enough dirty, rotten childhood trauma to fill a truck.
Lucas raised a sardonic eyebrow. “Well, look at you. You should tell the shareholders you’re taking time out to go to the funeral of a teacher you haven’t seen since you were a teenager.”
Not a bad idea. “Do you think it would work?” I pulled out my phone. “I’ll ring Beatrice and mention it.”
Lucas snorted and rubbed his beard. Charlotte invaded my thoughts again.
The scent of her soft hair. The taste of her lips.
She’d be devastated. She’d adored her father.
Irritation prickled my shoulder blades. Why was everyone just standing around in my office?
The room was closing in. Alone. I just needed a minute.
Anything that wasn’t this terrible news.
“Go back to work. Both of you.” I sat at my desk. “Or fuck off. Either is fine.”
Lucas’s muttered words hung in the air after he left. “Verified arsehole.”