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She said kindly, “If Theo hasn’t done anything to make you doubt his feelings for you, then forget everything I said. I just want you to be happy.”
Hugging my friend back, I said, “Thank you.”
Pushing all the doubt out of my mind, I assured myself that Theo only had eyes for me. Fiddling with the diamond and ruby necklace Theo had given a couple weeks before, I smiled at my best friend, hoping Theo was as true to me as I believed him to be. Jill always had my back and she was just being cautious. Truly, there was nothing to worry about.
Chapter 14
Theo
The Board meeting was excruciating to sit through. Warren sat across from me with his eyes trained on my every movement. Every time it looked like I was going to implode, he gave me a stern look and raised his hands to stay me.
Warren, an old friend from college, lived on the same floor I did in the dorms. We became friends due to our mutual love for hip hop music. Blasting Souls of Mischief from my room with my door wide open had drawn him like a moth to a flame, and he popped his head in to see who I was.
We became instant friends from there on, trading mixtapes of E-40, Mob Deep, and Master P. Our musical tastes were eclectic, and we bonded over sharing knowledge of the underground hip hop that we’d found.
As our friendship grew, I showed him the project I was working on at the time, an early version of Pictogram. A business major, he’d been impressed by my endeavor and saw the money making potential right away. When Pictogram became official, Warren was the obvious choice as my COO, my right hand man.
For the last few months, Warren’s duties as COO had expanded to being my unofficial anger management coach. Being skewered by a bunch of old dudes, the Board, wasn’t my idea of fun. In my humble opinion, all the geezers on the Board were out of touch with today anyway, but Warren pushed my approval for each and every member.
As much as he tried to mollify my frustration with the annoying Board members, he also defended their actions. He balanced a delicate role as mediator between us. He had his reasons, backed up by research and financial analysis to why each member was valuable to Pictogram, but at that point, I just didn’t care anymore.
Why should I listen to octogenarians who didn’t even own smartphones?
Nonetheless, the Chairman of the Board, Lester Powell, stared down at me behind his thick bifocal glasses. In his gravelly voice, he declared, “We all think you’ve made incomprehensibly poor decisions as CEO. The naked photographs…” His face contorted into a mix between disgust and derision. “Orgies, Theo? Orgies?”
Gritting my teeth, I looked at Warren who shook his head at me silently begging me to stay quiet.
Lester sneered at me. “Your reputation as a womanizer, a man who partakes in orgies, is not helping the direction we want to take this company.” He was quiet for a moment. “You may not understand this, but people grow up. You may not have yet, but the Millennial generation are starting to get married and have children. Family friendly apps are the future.” Squinting his eyes, he said, “If we want Pictogram to be around in the future, then we need to prepare for it.”
Lester Powell was as old as dirt with a rotund belly. From the looks of him, he was on his last legs. From my vantage point, I suspected he hadn’t prepared for his own future with his poor health: diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Of course, I kept these thoughts to myself.
The entire room was silent. No one moved while Lester continued his diatribe. He picked up a paper jam packed with charts and numbers. Reading from it, he said, “In a recent poll, 33% of users felt uncomfortable posting pics of their children on the same platform that is run by a CEO who has sexual orgies.”
The other members of the Board shook their heads in displeasure. No one would look me in the eye. I couldn’t stay quiet any longer. “How did the other 67% feel about the photos?” I demanded.
“I hardly think that’s the point!” Lester insisted, slamming the paper down on the table.
“It’s a valid point.” I stood and snatched the paper up scanning the statistics. “The other 67% said they didn’t care.” I tossed the paper back down.
Walter, another Board member, said diplomatically, “Theodore, that is not the point. 33% of dissatisfied customers means that’s 33% of users that will not be using Pictogram any longer. User retention is important. Those numbers are not good.”
Sinking back in to my chair, I sighed. It wasn’t great, but 33% of unhappy users was hardly something to get frazzled about. Cocking my head at the paper, I maintained, “Those 33% of users stated they felt uncomfortable right now.” I jabbed my finger on the table. “This is not to say that these same users might forget about it in a couple of months and go back to using Pictogram.”
Lester scoffed. “Do you have a magic ball to assure us that will happen?”
I groaned loudly, looking up at the ceiling. “I don’t, but we have new features that users will love. We have new and improved emojis exclusive to Pictogram, facial recognition…”
Walter cut me off. “Sooner or later other competing platforms will have those same features.”
Lester cleared his throat. “You need to change your image, Theo. That’s the only way. You need to be the stable family man our users can relate to.”
“I’ve tried. What more can I do? The media has their mind set that I’m this womanizing playboy,” I countered.
Walter broke in, “You could get married, Theodore. That would definitely signify to the public that you are truly a changed man.”
The other Board members nodded their heads in agreement.
Eugene Carter agreed heartily. “What a wonderful idea! Let’s take a vote!”
