Chapter 27 #2
He laughs again, and it grates at my nerves. “You sound pissed.”
“I am a little,” I admit, gritting my teeth so tightly my jaw starts to hurt. I force myself to release it and then take a breath. “I guess I’m more just confused about everything now.”
“I think you’re probably thinking too much on it. It just sounds like some weird, girly thing to me,” Chase says.
I glower out the window. “I just hate feeling like I’m being compared to every other guy she’s been with. There were pages of them with different names on the top of each one.”
“And?”
I shrug even though he can’t see me. “And I guess I meet more of her little requirements than all the others. I checked.” My mind keeps flashing back to fucking Daniel and my irritation mounts again.
I didn’t even know the guy, but somehow I figured I didn’t like him.
In the back of my mind, I wondered if he had been the source of one of her disastrous date stories she had told me.
Yet at the same time, I knew he had to have been more significant to her if she had enough time to check off seven of her ten little boxes.
“See, that sounds like a good thing to me.”
“Except the fact that she’s been tracking all these things throughout our entire relationship,” I grumble. “Like she’s been grading me on my performance as a potential suitor.”
“Maybe you’re looking at it wrong,” Chase says. I let out a frustrated sigh, knowing my brother—ever the voice of reason—is probably right. “Just calm down and try to think rationally about it. Will she be at the Board meeting today?”
“No, she has a dentist appointment. She probably won’t be in until after lunch.”
“Great, well, there you go. That will give you some time to mull it over and chill out about it.”
“As if I don’t have a million other things I need to be using brain power on,” I say.
“Well, I could argue that this is probably more important. At least to you. In the long run.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”
“I’m always right,” my brother says smugly. “That’s why you called me.”
We hang up the call just as my driver pulls up in front of our building.
I thank him and step out onto the sidewalk, buttoning up my suit jacket and looking up at the large skyscraper in front of me.
The air is still frigid, and winter is now in full swing here in Chicago.
I’m quickly learning that in the Windy City, the colder months come with a vengeance.
Not wasting any more time standing out on the cold sidewalk, I hurry into the warm building.
I say hello to the reception desk down in the lobby as I step into the elevator.
When I make it to my office, I drop my suit jacket down over the back of my chair and pull up my email and agenda, scanning over what the day’s schedule looks like.
Already, I’m due into the Board meeting in a little under an hour and a half. I busy myself by collecting everything I’ll need for that meeting. It will be different not having Whitney there to help keep me organized or give gentle reminders when we’re getting off task.
When I’m less than half an hour out, I’m confident I’m as well prepared as I’m going to be, so I pack up my things and wander down to the conference room.
As expected, I’m the first one there. As I’m setting up—getting my presentation pulled up, and the note packets handed out to each position at the table—my mind continuously wanders back to the events of this morning and my conversation with my brother.
I replay everything he said to me as he attempted to talk me down out of the panic I was feeling. Though I’m not sure I’ll be able to take a step back and view it how he wants me to, I’m grateful that he was readily available to lend an ear.
However, as I think about it more, I think he might be right that I need to look at it from a different perspective. So that’s exactly what I try to do.
Eventually, though, the three remaining Board members walk into the conference room together. I stand up and shake each of their hands. They take their seats, and then we dive right into work. Our main agenda for today is to look at some of the possibilities to fill the open positions on our Board.
We run through each of the candidates, and then I catch them up on where I am in my transition period as well. The meeting goes smoothly for the first time since I’ve been here. I think that largely has to do with Elena no longer having a looming presence.
As the meeting is wrapping up, I’m busy sliding my papers into my folder and powering down my laptop when the last matter of business is brought to the table unexpectedly.
“Mr. Hurst,” Johnson, now the oldest member on the Board of directors, addresses me as he folds his hands on the table.
His expression is grim, and I brace myself for whatever he’s about to say.
“We have been discussing your—predicament with your assistant, and unfortunately, we cannot condone a relationship of that matter in your position.”
I nod my head slowly, trying my best to take this curveball in stride. “Okay, so what does that mean moving forward?”
The Board members share a quick, uneasy look, and then Johnson continues, “You’ll have to end the relationship if you’d like Ms. Palmer to continue to work under you, or resign.”
I lean back in my chair. Those are not great options.
I stare at them silently, running over the potential outcomes of either of those decisions.
The first one, I’d have to publicly stop dating Whitney.
We’d go back to keeping our relationship a secret, and it would be vital that no one was aware of otherwise.
No one would know how much she means to me.
Or, I resign from my position as CEO.
As I mull it over, I really only see one option here.
But now, it’s a matter of making it happen.