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However, I had bigger problems, like I didn’t have a firm grasp on costs. I was used to grants, not investors. I’d never had to worry about the numbers or the bottom line. Yes, I had read dozens of quarterly reports over the years and I grasped the overview, but this was a whole new ball game. I had to make projections. Numbers I would be held accountable for.
Sure, if I was chosen as the CEO, I would work with the executive team to create our strategy as a company going forward, but the board needed to see what I brought to the table. I had to be able to answer the interview questions. They needed to see that I was more than a last name. I had to show Auggie his company was going to be in good hands.
Auggie and I had been having dinner together every night. Things were getting less awkward. I had decided just to get to know him like I would a friend. Tonight, we’d talked about what kind of music he liked. He was a classic rock guy. Who knew? He loved bands like Boston and Kansas. Apparently, groups named after cities and states were his thing. He’d even been to some of their concerts in college. I couldn’t imagine Auggie at a concert. In fact, it had made me giggle. Auggie had been amused that I was amused.
My mom, according to Auggie, loved classical music. She loved to play Tchaikovsky, Mozart, and Beethoven on the piano. A piano I never knew existed. Auggie admitted to giving it away after my mother died. It was a beautiful black baby grand, according to him. A gift from him for her twenty-ninth birthday. It made me want to take piano lessons. Maybe I would, once life settled down. I’m not sure when that would ever be. Running a large corporation was going to mean long days and little vacation time. Huh. I mean, I was used to that between medical school and my residency. But I had to admit that I had been looking forward to my time off before my lab director job started and the more stable hours that position would provide. Every weekend off sounded amazing. That didn’t mean I wasn’t up to being CEO. I didn’t have to be a workaholic like Auggie. Still . . . I would be naive to believe I wasn’t looking at sixty-hour weeks on a regular basis. It was fine. I was fine.
Was I? Yes, yes. Of course, I was.
I added a few bullet points to my report, explaining the cost benefits of keeping up to date on the latest technology and equipment. But my phone served as a constant distraction, daring me to click on my Facebook app. I turned it over, as if that would help.
Why did it matter what Kane had posted eight years ago?
Why was I a little disappointed he wasn’t home and pestering me?
Maybe this was part of his strategy. He knew if he could distract me, he’d have the CEO thing in the bag. Well, I would show him. I picked up my phone. I would read the post and get it out of my system. Then I would get back to showing him who was going to be the boss.
I clicked on my app and went to my user settings. He was the only person I had ever blocked, so it was easy to undo. It’s not like I used social media a lot. I hadn’t had time for it. Still didn’t. I went to my feed anyway. The first thing to pop up was Kane’s drive-in post. There we were looking cozy. I lightly brushed my fingers across the screen as if I could touch Kane. His eyes were bright, and I swore he was glowing. His happiness jumped off the screen, like he’d found his best friend. And that’s pretty much what his post said.
Best night in a long time. Reunited and it feels so good.
I rolled my eyes, but I had to smile. It had felt good. Even looking at myself in the picture, I could tell I was different. I saw some of what Auggie had said. There was a light in my eyes. An easiness to my smile.
I hesitated to go searching through eight years of posts, but I knew the not knowing would only take up precious brain power if I didn’t. As I began to scroll and scroll through pictures of Kane hiking, boating, and receiving awards, and his trips to London, Paris, Zurich, Hawaii, and on and on through the years, a pang hit me so deep. I felt as if I had missed out on a lifetime of memories. I had to stop and look at the ones of him deep-sea fishing. He was holding a ginormous fish. This one’s for you, Dad, he’d written as his caption. It brought a tear to my eye, as did his Father’s Day and birthday tributes to his dad, his hero. I found myself staring at Greg Hudson. Kane was his twin, except his father had eyes as blue as the sea. However, their eyes both possessed the same sparkle. I wished I had known Greg, the man Kane always spoke so fondly of.
