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“Just doing our jobs,” one of the male consultants said as he shook Patrick’s hand. The other man followed quickly behind, but Mackenzie stayed back.
“You have a lovely home,” she said. Well, she must be flirting now. Patrick’s home was clean, modern, and well-cared-for, but it was by no stretch of the imagination lovely. “Functional” would have been a better descriptor. It wasn’t like she’d seen his parlor, where he kept the majority of his private collection of art.
“Thank you.” Patrick began ushering her toward the door. “Once again, I appreciate your work on the installation.”
“Please do call me if there’s anything else you might need. Art installation or otherwise.” Mackenzie smiled prettily and finally allowed herself to be propelled out the door. As soon as the trio was gone, Patrick felt himself relax.
While he truly appreciated the consultants’ assistance, Patrick didn’t enjoy having people in his home. He was a very private person and preferred to keep his work life and his personal life separate — very separate. In fact, he was pretty sure this was the first time anyone from work had been in his home.
He turned from the door and walked back into his living room, where he sat on the couch. It was still a workday, though it was coming up on five o’clock, and on any other day Patrick would have stayed in the office for a few more hours at least. Today, though, he couldn’t bring himself to leave Aurora.
His connection to the painting was hard to explain. Usually, Patrick acquired art pragmatically, based on which pieces he thought would make the best investment. With the advice of his trained team of appraisers, he had grown very proficient at determining which pieces would resell for the highest price a few years down the line.
Aurora wasn’t one of those pieces. It wasn’t quirky, nor was it done by a master or rising star, nor did it have a particularly storied history. It was just… beautiful.
The painting depicted an ocean scene at sunset. The sky was streaked with oranges and reds and yellows, each brush stroke bold yet precise. The ocean’s waves reflected the bursts of color in the sky above, though they still retained some of the pure blue of daylight. Near the horizon tiny sailboats could be seen, their masks tall and proud, their sails stretched taunt in what must have been a windy day.
In the foreground stood a woman. Her back was to the viewer and her dark hair whipped and curled toward one side. She was wearing a white dress that skimmed the top of the waves, and something about her posture made Patrick think she was happy. Her hands were open by her sides as if to catch the breeze.
Patrick shook his head slightly at himself. He wasn’t a sentimental guy at all. If his parents had caught him mooning over a painting like this as a child, they would have been incredibly disappointed in him. They never thought art was a worthy pursuit for their son. Yet, there was something about Aurora that brought out this side of him.
He could have sat on that couch all day, just staring at Aurora and losing himself in thought, but he pulled himself away after just a few minutes. As always, there was work to be done, and he couldn’t let himself get lost in this moment — even as wonderful as it was to finally acquire this painting after over a decade of searching.
He packed his work things and headed back to the office. Even though it was evening, he could get a little more work done before retiring for the night. Plus, the director of his art acquisition department wanted to meet him today to go over a few requests.
Back at his office, Patrick rode the elevator up to the top floor and nodded a polite greeting at a group of employees on their way out. Once again, he didn’t know any of their names.
Outside his office, the art department director was waiting with a clipboard.
“Welcome back, Patrick.”
“Thanks, Owen.” At least Patrick knew some names. They walked together into Patrick’s office, where they took up their usual seats, with Patrick behind the desk and Owen on a chair beside it.
“I have just a few things that need your approval,” Owen began. “We’d like to acquire the Borenea, as presented last week, but the estimated cost is above the usual threshold.” He passed over a document with a cost outline, and Patrick looked it over before nodding.
“Done. Go ahead and move forward with the offer to the current owner.”
“Next, I’d like to send a few representatives to the Art Above All’s charity gala in two weeks’ time.”
“Done. I’ll be attending as well, so please let me know who you choose to send so I can coordinate with them.”
“Thank you. Finally, I need your approval to hire another appraiser.”
“Is someone leaving?” Patrick asked.
Owen shook his head. “Nothing like that. However, our workload has started to expand as we’ve moved more into physical pieces. We need more help.”
“Understood. Let me know once you’ve found someone to hire.”
“Thank you. That’s all I have.”
“Thanks.” Owen stood to leave, and Patrick escorted him to the door. He appreciated how much Owen was willing to work with him. Patrick knew this level of oversight was unusual for a CEO, but he liked to be closely involved in the art acquisition department. He enjoyed many aspects of business, but art was his true passion and the part of his work that he was most excited about.
Maybe he needed to apply some of that interest to finding out who his employees were. The fact that he didn’t know most of them hadn’t bothered him before, but today it seemed to keep coming up.
Patrick reached for the phone on his desk and dialed out to his assistant. Luckily, he was still there. After exchanging a few greetings, Patrick came to the heart of his request.
“There are some orientation sessions for new joiners, right?” he asked.
