“Yes, I’m listening. The distribution deal I set up is already doing more than the previous contract. I heard.” He stared past the view, not really seeing the sea of skyscrapers, at least for a moment. Instead, the Pacific stretched out in front of him. “And the company is doing well.” He put his hands behind his back. “When is our lease up on these offices?” Chet asked.
“Excuse me? We don’t lease this space. We own it and have for nearly twenty years.”
“Good. So, when you retire, I can sell it… all of it.” He turned around slowly. “We’re not in the real estate business, we’re in the cookie business, so we can sell what isn’t producing revenue and put that money back into the business itself.” He didn’t have to look to know that his father was as pale as a ghost. The man loved this office and the location.
“Where did that come from?” his father asked, his voice shaky. “This—”
“Is just an office and an expensive piece of property. The floors above are all being converted into living space. So why not this? The view is wonderful, and this space would yield forty, fifty million dollars once converted.” He smiled to himself, knowing he had put his father completely off balance, which was exactly why he was doing this.
“I think you and I need to have a conversation about our vision for the company,” his father said levelly.
Chet finally turned around. “What you mean is, your vision for the company, which isn’t going to matter once you retire.” He met his father’s gaze. “But that’s immaterial right now. Just know that I want different things than you do. That’s my pointhere.” He went back over to the desk and sat down. “Now, you asked for this meeting. What was it you wanted?”
“With the new contracts, it’s clear we’re going to need to increase capacity.” His father held a few reports.
“No, we don’t. I figured this could happen, and I also included projections of ten and twenty percent increases, which we can easily handle. If it gets more than that, then we can add a shift or two at the plant. We have six running now, and we can add more without any issues. We don’t need to expand our capacity, just use what we have more efficiently. It’s all in the report I sent you months ago.” He got up once more and wandered back to the windows. “I used to come up here as a kid and play in that corner. I used to pretend that the windows opened and that I could fly out of them and soar above the city.”
“What does that have to do with the price of flour?” his father asked.
“Nothing. Other than I used to have fun here. This space used to make me happy.” He turned to his dad. “Does it make you happy? Are you happy doing what you’re doing?”
His father looked like Chet had just asked him for the secrets of the universe. “Of course I’m happy. The business is chugging along and making plenty of money, and it’s going to continue to grow. I have people working on some new products that will fit our lines. And my son is next to take over for me. What more could I want?”
Chet should have known that was all his father was concerned about. “What about someone to share your life with. I know that you and Mom….”
“Your mother was far from perfect, but I can’t see myself finding someone else to fill her shoes.” His gaze turned hard, tinged with regret.
“Okay. So, you’re going to work yourself to death, and you expect me to do the same thing. I’m not. I want more out of life than that.”
His father stood and smiled. “Good. Go out, get married, have children to carry on the company. Make a life for yourself, and then you can take over for me, and your sons will take over after you.”
Chet groaned. “You know I’m gay, so there will be no wife.”
“I don’t care if you marry a man, just have children. Your children. Whatever floats your boat. There are great families in New York, and a lot of them have gay sons. We can find someone for you.”
Chet laughed outright. “I’m not going to date or marry someone you think I should. I’ll find the person I want and that will be the end of it. Do you understand? I don’t want some East Hampton snob or a kid who grew up on Park Avenue and thinks the world revolves around him, his car, and his trust fund. I’ll find someone on my own.” The truth was he thought he might already have done that, but Darren was three thousand miles away… on the other side of the continent. “Now, I’m hoping you called me in here to talk about some business project and not waste my time butting into my life.”
“I’m your father.” There was that command in his voice.
“Yes. And you got to choose the life that you lead—you don’t get to pick mine, father or not. There are limits as to what I will allow, and you know you have very little influence over me. I already own enough of the company through my trust fund to have a say in how things are run. So, ease off on the heavy-handedness.” God, he felt so much better just standing up for himself. It was so liberating. “What is this project you need me to look into?”
“I think we need to look into upgrading our inventory control systems. Can you look into it? Here is a list of issues thathave been reported over the last six months. See if we need to change our system or if the current one can be fixed.”
“You know I could have done all that while I was away. I don’t need to be here in the office. This is a national business, and I can log into any of our systems remotely. All I need is a secure internet connection.”
His father growled under his breath. “I don’t know about any of that sort of stuff. If people are being paid to work, then they should be in the office working.” That was his father. He liked to have the people on the payroll where he could see them.
“That’s what I was talking about. I don’t need to be here to do my job, and we don’t need to keep these big offices any longer. You could work from your office at home most of the time. Elaine, your assistant, could help you still, but she doesn’t need to be sitting at the desk outside your door. She could do her job from her home too. I mean, we updated our distribution. Now it’s time we updated the way we do business in general.” He figured trying to get his father to go with the times was going to be difficult.
“Well, let me think about it. In the meantime, please look over all this system stuff for me.”
Chet nodded and took what his father had for him and left the office. It wasn’t like he was going to get any further at the moment. He went to his office, much smaller than his father’s, and sat at his desk, going over what he had. Chet read through the information and called in the head of systems, who bounded into his office like a puppy dog.
Randy always moved at lightning speed, like if he slowed down, the world would somehow catch up to him. “What’s up, boss?” he asked, breezing in.
“Systems issues, courtesy of my father. He seems to think we need some sort of upgrade, but these look like changes we can make.” He handed Randy the list, and he read through it.
“When do you want these changes made?” he asked. “All those things are configuration settings in the current system. I suggest we make them in test, review them, and see if the impact is what we really want, and then go forward. It’s not a huge issue.” He continued reading through the list. “I could have had all these done some time ago if someone had told me about them.”
