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“Do you want me to poke around?”
Dad shook his head. “No. You need to stay out of it.” He scratched his chin and his eyes narrowed. “On second thought maybe you could talk with Martin and get a more honest take on the situation. I think I scare him.”
“Probably,” I agreed although it was a certainty, not a probability.
“You’re on thin enough ice as it is. George and the board were clear about you focusing only on this reputation project. They are already going to be tough in evaluating you as it is, so be careful about it.”
The wordsevaluating me at the board meetingimplied that my future with the company was more tenuous than I'd thought.
One of Dad’s golf buddies called out to us, “Fergus. Glad you could make it.”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” my dad said, striding away without waiting for an answer from me.
That left me to do a quick search of the room.
Noah was still talking with Alexa.
She looked radiant as ever even from this distance and I decided that regardless of the board meeting, the future looked pretty damned bright with her in my life.
If I ended up out of the company and suddenly had much more free time, how would she respond to that? It might be worth a discussion.
I started checking the room for Hartford. He was the discussion I had to have this evening even if he was crazy.
* * *
Alexa
We wereon the dance floor whirling in a ballroom style I’d seen in the movies, but only attempted twice before tonight. Since I was following instead of leading, I’d figured it out well enough.
Baldy was my sixth dance partner arranged by Noah and I was growing very tired of this.
“I think Evan would really like the potential of this project,” Baldy said for the third time.
“Yes. Yes. But, how many teeth does a blue whale have?”
“None,” he answered confidently. Surprisingly he was only the second man to answer this correctly.
I’d have thought the group attending a save the whales fundraising gala would be more informed.
“I don’t see how that pertains to my project.”
I ignored his attempt to take control. “On an application for a bank loan, what is the most important metric.”
“Uh… total debt I would think.”
“Now, let’s say you’re visiting a sketchy part of town, not Manhattan—”
“I avoid the outer boroughs except to see the Yankees play.”
I should have guessed. “Hypothetically if you were to visit a bad neighborhood and were in a seedy apartment building with your girlfriend when a known criminal shows up, He threatens her and demands money from her, what would you do?”
“I’d call 9-1-1.”
“They’re too far away, and the criminal has five of his buddies with him.”
“Then, I’d run the other way.”
The music ended and I brought the dance to a halt. “Thank you for the dance, Mr….
