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“I can’t back away from the happiest thing I’ve felt since I lost my wife. I’d forgotten what it was to feel like this. After nine years without it, I don’t want to give this up.”
“Do you want to keep your production company? Do you want to be more than just the VP for your father’s telecom company?”
“How can you even ask me that? Of course!”
“Then,” Carl said, gesturing wildly to the harbormaster’s building, “you need to think about everything very carefully. Because our friendships and this production company will not survive a revelation like this coming out. I don’t know how far you’ve gotten, and I don’t want to know. It’s fucking better if I don’t. But you need to end this, or we won’t be a company six months from now, and you know what, man? That sucks. I have a family to feed same as everyone else here. We need this company to work, and you need to keep your dick where it belongs.”
Brent felt his jaw clench, and it took a few minutes to release enough tension to speak again. “Don’t overstep. We’re friends, but you still work for me, Carl.”
“You’re the one who overstepped first, Brent. End it. Or we’re all fucked.”
***
After they had come to an agreement with the harbormaster, Brent made up a lie about feeling a fever and chest cold coming on and went straight back home. He never took time off, usually worked nine to ten-hour days by getting to the office extra early in the morning, so the fact he was having his first sick day in three years had pinged Allen’s radar. While his friend was solicitous, there was a clear confusion in his gaze. Who knew what Allen really thought. It couldn’t have helped that there was thick tension curling between Brent and Carl all morning. Either way, he was home, and he’d be teleworking the rest of the day. Or that was the plan. Until his shitty day got worse and his father wandered into his office.
“Son, that little company of yours will never go anywhere if you take Mondays off.”
“I have the flu or something, and I’m working from home for the first time in years. We’re not about to be shuttered just yet,” he said, pointedly focusing on his computer screen and not at his father’s rat-like face.
“I’m just saying that from my experience, there are a lot of ways for a company to go belly up. A lazy CEO is the first weak link. What is that expression? ‘The fish rots from the head’?”
“You’d know, Dad,” Brent replied, his tone clipped. “I’m finalizing a few details for our next location scouting. Is there anything you need from me, or do you just want to dig in any knives as deeply as you can?”
“Son, I do what I do for your own good. It’s just a solid bit of managerial advice. Then again, I just run the tenth most profitable company on the planet. What would I know about business?”
“We’re doing fine, thank you.”
“Yes, Oscar-nominated in 2017. Isn’t that just another way to say ‘loser’, Son?”
“I am going to lock my door from now on if I’m ever in my home office. This damn complex must have close to one hundred rooms, but you just couldn’t resist barging into mine.”
His father continued, undeterred, “Not that I’d mind if your silly, self-indulgent quest to run a movie studio – out of San Diego no less – ran aground. I’ve always got a spot at the company still warm and waiting for you. One day, a girl as smart as Cara will make an incredibly incisive CEO.”
Brent shot up from his desk and bunched his fists at his sides. “Cara will grow up to do whatever she wants. Right now, it looks to be a marine biologist. In high school or college, who knows? But she won’t have her life dictated by you the way mine was.”
“I didn’t dictate you starting up a wannabe Warner Brothers, Son. Perish that thought,” his father said, leaning against the doorway and stroking his chin. “I’ve given you free rein, and the result has been quite disappointing.”
Brent took in a deep breath to try and dissipate his anger. “You say that, but you’re the one playing games with my child already and just waiting for my studio to fail. I know you think otherwise, but there’s disappointment to go around.”
“Cara’s brilliant like me and like LeeAnne was. Your company has done well enough for over a decade, much to my annoyance. That’s happened outside my sphere of influence. Now, can we actually discuss what I came here for or do you have more accusations to hurl at me?”
“I thought hurling insults at me was why you were here.”
