Lois, thank you for the beta...you are the greatest!
Chapter 27 - Touching Base A Few Moments Later…(Day 43) Brian settled once again into the limo. He was hoping that Justin was finished with his meeting and maybe would be able to join him for lunch. Unfortunately, the calls to Justin’s cell phone each rolled over into voice mail. “What’s the use of having a cell phone, if you don’t leave it on?” Brian complained into the open space of the limo. Brian looked at the time. “Well, I guess your meeting with the client could be running longer than you expected. I knew I should have insisted that you call me when your meeting was over,” he mumbled again. He leaned back in the limo in frustration. Brian hoped that whatever was happening in that meeting wouldn’t interfere with their weekend plans. Suddenly images of hot tubs and Justin quickly expelled all doubts. Brian smiled to himself as he reached for his phone again to place the next call. “Theodore, what have done to my company?” Brian bellowed for good measure. “Company still standing, Bri,” Ted responded, “How was Cincinnati?” “Let just say that Nicky managed to successfully turn four years old,” Brian said with a laugh. “That much we know,” Ted sigh, “Justin emailed pictures to Em yesterday. Em showed them to us during dinner. Gus and Nicky seemed to be having a good time together.” “You have no idea,” Brian added with a laugh. “How are things going in New York?” Ted asked. “Nothing I can’t handle. Now fill me in on what’s been happening at the office.” “Brian, we need to hire more people. Collezione Fiero and its accelerated deadlines are stretching everyone to the limit. Almost everyone was working all weekend. Then when you add The Pentland Group plus our existing clients…the staff is going to be overwhelmed in a few weeks unless we do something now.” “Hire what we need, but be sure that any new hires are willing to relocate to the New York office.” “Can you hold down the office there alone? I need to work from here for a few days. You can reach me on my cell phone. You can email and fax me stuff, of course. The working conditions are miserable, but I really need to do this.” “What’s going on?” “Justin needs to be here for a few days. He really needs to paint. He’s dropped everything for Kinnetik for the last month; the least I can do is give him a few days here so he can get some painting done. I can work from here.” “That’s a good idea. We can reach you if we need to,” Ted assured him. “And Theodore, if you breathe a word of what I just told you…” “I know I’m fired. Bri, my lips are sealed.” “Good,” Brian said, “As long as we understand each other.” Ted just smiled as he thought about Brian’s tough guy image. “Is there anything else?” “I need to talk to you about something.” “Sure Bri, go ahead.” “I originally told you that I wanted the New York Office of Kinnetik opened in three months, do you remember?” “How could I forget that little bombshell?” “Well, I need to change the dates a bit.” “That’s good because three months was going to be really hard to execute. It’s good to know that I’ll have a longer timeline to work with…especially with everything else going on.” “Theodore, you don’t understand.” “What do you mean?” “I was planning on talking to you about this face to face. But I don’t want to waste any time on this. I’m not extending the timeline. I need at least temporary offices here in New York almost immediately, so that means that I need a staff and living quarters. Run the numbers and make it happen.” “Bri, are you sure about this?” “No,” Brian said with a laugh, “But I don’t see that I have any other choice. I’m going to need a lot of office support. By the way, talk to Murph and be sure that the software I’m not supposed to know about is installed everywhere. I want to make sure Justin’s computer can talk to the office. Figure out what staff we are going to need. Hop to it.” Ted just sighed. “Is there anything else?” “Yeah, now give me a status report on Collezione Fiero.” Ted updated Brian on everything that had happened in the last few days on the campaign. Everything was still on track, even in his absence. Ted reminded Brian that as he had requested, Valerie had reworked the script for the commercial. The revised script had already been emailed to Brian this morning. Brian was pleased with what he was hearing by the time he said goodbye to Ted. Brian paused for a moment. He needed to call Cynthia. There were things he needed to discuss with his assistant. Things he would have preferred to discuss face to face, but time and circumstances were not making that possible. Cynthia had been Brian’s assistant since his days with the Ryder Agency. She had survived the transition to Vanguard and had believed in him enough to take a chance with him at Kinnetik. His relationship with Cynthia had always been more than account exec and executive assistance…it was a true working partnership. The combination of Brian, Ted, and Cynthia had made the Pittsburgh office of Kinnetik hum like a well-oiled machine. Now the New York Office was about to become a reality, and Brian needed to talk to Cynthia. “Cynthia,” Brian quietly said into the phone. “Hi Boss,” Cynthia answered cheerfully. “How are things? Anything that I need to know about?” “I guess you’ve talked to Ted, and he told you about emailing you the revised script for the Collezione Fiero commercial. Otherwise, just the normal stuff. We’re holding down the fort.” “That’s good. Listen, I know I was planning to be back in the office tomorrow, but I think I’m going to be working from here for a few days. Call me on my cell phone if you need me.” “No problem. How’s Justin?” “He’s fine. He’s meeting with a client as we speak.” “He’s really busy isn’t he? We were lucky that he made time to work with us on the campaign.” “Let’s not tell him that,” Brian teased, “He’ll be unbearable to live with.” “Ok,” Cynthia said with a laugh. “But I think he already knows.” “You’re probably right,” Brian said, nodding to himself. Look Cynthia, I need to talk to you about a few things. The phone isn’t the best way, but with the timelines and everything I don’t see that I have much choice. There are some things that you need to think about, and I want you to have the time to carefully consider you decision.” “Brian, you’re scaring me.” “I don’t mean to. I need you to listen. Are you listening?” “I’m listening.” “I need to open an office here in New York as soon as possible. I need at least a skeleton staff and temporary office space. I need permanent space ready within 90 days. Jennifer did such a good job with our offices in Pittsburgh, I want her to do the same here in New York, but Justin and I need to talk to her first.” “You’re right. She’ll be upset if she hears about this from anyone else.” “Since the move is going to happen sooner than I originally expected, I need to know what you want to do. Do you want to make the move with me or do you want to stay in Pittsburgh and run the office? Think it over and let me know.” “I don’t have to think it over. I’m going to make the move to New York with you.” “Cynthia, you realize that you have the education and surely the experience to run the Pittsburgh Office. You’ve worked with me long enough to…” “This isn’t about my capabilities. I know I can do the job. I know that I could have moved up years ago. But I also know that I don’t want to miss my front row seat of seeing the action in New York. Besides you’ll need me there more than here, trust me.” “Thank you.” “Don’t thank me yet. It’s going to cost you?” “Cost me? I knew that. How much?” “I want to run the New York Office when Kinnetik goes international.” Brian burst out laughing. “And what makes you think that Kinnetik is going to go international.” “Justin,” she said confidently, as if the mention of the name should explain everything. “Justin?” At the sound of the name, Brian immediately stopped laughing. “What does Justin have to do with this?” he simply asked, not knowing if he wanted to hear the answer to this. “Justin predicted that you were going to need international offices eventually. Don’t you remember? Plus after his show in Milan, he’s going to be internationally famous. So, I’m holding out for the New York Office. You always said, ‘Dream big or don’t dream at all’...” “I never said that. I’ve thought it…but I’ve never said it,” Brian teased. “I guess I must have read your mind…scary huh?” Cynthia said with a laugh. “Get back to work or you’re fired,” Brian teased, “I’ll talk to you later.” “I love my job!” Cynthia incanted, “So I guess I need to start to train several new assistants. I’ll get busy on that.” “Just be sure they’re willing to travel…willing to relocate.” “Got it. Now is there anything else?” “Check with Lindsay to be sure everything is in place for her arrival on Friday. Confirm the same with Paul and Jason. They’re going to need a limo. They’re arriving on Friday too.” “They are?” “Is Nicky coming too?” “Yeah. This is suppose to be a play date for Gus and Nicky.” “Brian, does anyone else know that Paul and Jason are coming?” “No. They’ll find out in due time,” Brian said nonchalantly. Cynthia smiled and shook her head as she pictured the impending weekend and the ensuing chaos. Michael especially was not going to like outsiders being here taking up Brian’s time, especially when Brian had already been gone for so long. She also couldn’t help wondering how Brian and Justin were going to deal with all of these people at once. “Michael has been trying to reach you,” Cynthia said, fully realizing that this message was unnecessary. “He’s left several messages.” “I’ll take care of it.” “By the way, how was your meeting with Liberty Air?” Cynthia finally asked as an afterthought. She was curious why Brian hadn’t mentioned the meeting at the beginning of the call. “Let’s just say the meeting made the client happy…and leave it at that.” “Oh, that good, huh?” Cynthia said with a laugh. “Well at least there’s no crisis. With everything else going on, no client crisis is a really good thing.” “Good point.” “Well, it’s almost time for my meeting with Eyeconics so I better get going. I’ll call you later,” Brian said, ending the call. “Bye,” she responded. Cynthia hung up the phone and smiled to herself. “I love my job!” she said aloud to no one in particular.