18. Elliot
ELLIOT
“ I t worked!” Lucy sang, twirling around their shared office. The door was closed, so none of the employees could see their CEOs dancing with excitement.
“I knew it would,” Elliot said. “Because you’re a genius, Lucy. And this is a good sign for our European trip, too.”
They’d spent the last week having meetings with local clients to encourage them to add more business to the app, and it had been a rip-roaring success.
Borderless had secured its relationship with existing clients while growing its services.
Elliot was thrilled. Lucy was thrilled. And they were both certain that Dominic would have been, too.
Lucy beamed. “Should we start planning? I already have a few clients in mind who we could visit.”
“Let’s.” Elliot crossed the room in a few strides and caught her in a deep kiss. “You know,” he said softly in her ear. “News like this calls for a celebration.”
“What are you thinking?” Lucy asked as he pressed kisses to her soft lips, across the length of her freckled cheek, and down the sensitive skin of her neck. She gasped slightly at his touch, angling toward him, and he lifted her onto the edge of her desk.
“The door is locked,” Elliot pointed out, running a hand up and down the length of her back. She pressed closer to him.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea…”
Just then, Elliot’s phone began to ring. Annoyed, he shut it off without looking at the screen and turned back to Lucy. “Sorry about that. Where were we?”
“We were just talking about how, just because the door is locked, we shouldn’t necessarily get up to anything in here. We’re at work, after all.”
“Yes, and we run the company.” Elliot kissed Lucy again, slow and deep. “Come on, we work a lot,” he whispered in her ear. “There must be some perks to being the CEOs.”
Lucy kissed him back. “I suppose there should be…”
Elliot’s phone began to ring again. Lucy sighed. “Maybe you should take that. It must be important if they’re calling again.”
“Okay, but don’t move.” Elliot reached for his phone and swiped to answer, pressing it to his ear as he ran his thumb across Lucy’s cheek. She smiled at him.
“This is Elliot Cobb,” Elliot said, a little gruffly. The voice on the other end belonged to his second in command, Jennifer Carston, who’d been running things at Keype in his absence.
“Elliot, thank goodness I’ve reached you.” Jennifer sounded more than a little panicked.
“What’s wrong?” Elliot asked, the warmth of the moment dissipating. Lucy looked up at him with concern, but he turned away to focus on the call.
“There’s been a problem with Keype.” Quickly, Jennifer laid out what had happened. Apparently, there were issues with a new product, which had caused Keype’s stock prices to plummet.
“Didn’t anyone do quality testing?” Elliot asked, one hand instinctively lifting to run through his hair.
“Yes, but apparently, clients switching to the new product lost some of the data stored on the old one. It seems to be partially client error, as they are asked to back up regularly, but it’s still a huge problem for Keype.”
“Obviously.” Elliot sighed in frustration, then shook his head. “Listen, I can’t do anything about it from here. I’ll be back in Chicago by this evening to get this sorted out.”
“All right.”
They hung up, and Elliot turned to Lucy, who’d clearly been listening to every word on his side. Her blue eyes were wide with worry.
“What happened?” she asked.
“There’s a mess with Keype.” Frustration oozed from Elliot, mostly because he knew this was his fault. It was too much to run two companies in two different cities at the same time, so of course he’d dropped the ball on something. “I need to go to Chicago.”
“I heard that. When are you leaving?”
“Now.” Elliot bit his lip. “I’m sorry, Lucy, but I have to go. It’s my company.”
“I understand.” She tugged a strand of hair. “I can run things here.”
“Of course you can.” Elliot gave her a quick kiss, but his mind was already back in Chicago with Keype. “I need to go.”
“Call me when you land,” Lucy said, a hint of anxiety creeping into her voice. Elliot wanted to reassure her, but he needed to leave. Now. He needed to fix this. Now.
“I will.”
He grabbed a couple things from the desk, along with his backpack, and called a rideshare that would take him straight to JFK.
On the way, he booked a last-minute plane ticket, wishing, not for the first time, that he had his own jet as many CEOs did.
As it was, he’d be traveling in a middle seat in economy for an exorbitant fee, but it couldn’t be helped. He needed to get back tonight.
On the flight, Elliot paid for a Wi-Fi package and spent the whole journey working.
His assistant sent a car to pick him up at O’Hare on the other end, and Elliot kept working right through the ride.
He went straight to the office, where Jennifer and a few other important employees were waiting for him in the conference room. They jumped straight into work.
It became immediately clear that, as much as Elliot thought he’d been coping with remote work, he hadn’t been.
Things at Keype had spiraled out of control in his absence, and it wasn’t just about the new product.
That product had only been the first thing to fall apart.
There were dozens of other small fires burning that only he could put out.
Elliot stayed at the Keype offices half the night, making a plan of action for firefighting.
It was only in the cab on the way back to his apartment, which he hadn’t seen in almost a month, that Elliot realized he’d never called Lucy to tell her that he’d arrived safely.
He sent her a quick message letting her know that he was here and that he’d need to stay for a few days to sort everything out.
Then he put his phone away, his mind already drifting back to work.
The next few days were spent in hectic activity.
Elliot had to catch up on everything he’d missed while he’d been in New York, figure out a strategy for dealing with the flaws in the new product, and address dozens of small issues that could easily escalate.
He had little time to keep in touch with Lucy or work on Borderless business. He had little time even to rest.
The more Elliot worked on Keype, the more it became clear that he couldn’t run two businesses and be a good boyfriend to Lucy.
Something would have to give, and it couldn’t be the company he’d spent years of his life building.
So, once everything was sorted out with Keype for the moment, Elliot flew back to New York and called a private meeting with Borderless’s board members. He didn’t tell Lucy.
“I’ve enjoyed being one of the CEOs,” Elliot explained to the gathered board members on an unseasonably cool Saturday morning they’d chosen for the meeting.
“But the co-CEO position was only meant to be a temporary measure. Clearly, Lucy is able to run Borderless well, and I’m not. Not when I also need to run Keype.”
“So, that’s why you’d like to sell your shares and resign your position?” one of the board members asked.
Elliot nodded. “Exactly. Ideally, I’d retain a presence in some way, but in an advisory role, not as a CEO.”
“Have you spoken to Ms. Winter about this?” another board member inquired.
“Not yet.” Elliot sighed. He knew Lucy would be sad that they wouldn’t be working together anymore, but hopefully, she’d understand that his stepping back was a vote of confidence in her work.
He still wanted to be with Lucy, even if it was hard to imagine how to make that happen.
He still wanted Borderless to be all it could be.
He also wanted to keep Keype afloat. He just couldn’t do everything at once.
“But I’d like to be the one to talk to her. ”
“All right. I believe we can now take a vote.”
The board members voted for Elliot to be allowed to sell his shares and step down in two weeks’ time.
Elliot left the meeting with a heavy heart at the changes that would come but feeling lighter than he had in a while.
Finally, he could focus on Keype and on Lucy without worrying about another whole company in addition.
It would be hard to walk away from Borderless or even to take a step back, but Elliot knew it was the right thing to do. It was the only choice.
He returned to his New York apartment that afternoon. He’d have to tell Lucy what he’d decided sooner or later but later felt better. He wanted to tell her in the right way so as not to jeopardize their relationship.
A part of Elliot asked if he could keep his relationship with Lucy strong while working in Chicago most of the time, but he kept that part quiet. They would make it work. Somehow. She would understand that most of his energy needed to go into Keype right now. Wouldn’t she?