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Reacquainted
Kyle
LainafuckingJameson.
I can’t believe it.
I knew there was a new employee starting today but since we have the hiring staff, I’m not a part of interviews unless they want to run something by me. I have complete faith in them but seeing her was a shock.
It’s been since eighth grade when my dad got a job in Oregon running a marketing company there before he took over C&K. He became a partner here so I could take over for him.
Marketing is his field, and he excelled in it before he took this job. Had he not been a partner, I wouldn’t be CEO and I know there are people that hate me for it.
Like it or not, I grew up in this industry and it’s what I know. My degree is in marketing, and I have a second degree in management.
I had no idea it was what Laina wanted to do, but we were also thirteen years old when we saw each other last. I don’t even remember talking about what our parents did when we hung out after school. Looking back, she always had a creative streak, and this seems like it might suit her.
If we hired her, she’s got what it takes.
This company makes billions with campaigns at this point because my father knows what he’s doing. He created this over the last ten years and supported my family very well even before that, and I have no financial worries. I also work hard, and he wasn’t about to let me be a trust fund kid and wander the country.
“Have a good day, guys.” I smile at the other team leaders as I remember they’re with me. I know Seth resents my position, but I’m out to prove that I’m right for it.
I walk into my massive office that overlooks The Sound and stare out over the water. It is as big as my room in the house I recently purchased and there is my large cherry wood desk and a leather couch with a separate desk for my assistant if needed. All the technology is top-of-the-line, and they upgrade regularly.
It’s all mine.
Laina fucking Jameson. I still can’t believe it.
I think back to school and how much we hung out in Junior High in the treehouse my father built me on a random afternoon in the woods behind my house. At the time, I thought it was the coolest thing ever, but looking back, I now know it was just to keep me busy so my parents could do their own thing.
At any rate, that was where I spent so much time with Laina. We talked about everything under the sun, and she truly was my best friend. Laina had always been intelligent and enjoyed the little things in life. With her middle-class family, that made sense because treats were just that.
Treats.
They had handed me everything in life, including this business. Not that I didn’t work to learn everything I know, because I did. I fucking worked hard, and I’d continue to do so. I just never struggled for material things, and we had staff in the house for every need.
Granted, I own a mansion on The Sound right now and have a housekeeper once a week. There is a chef that came in to cook once a week as well, so I have meals ready to go, but that was more because I work so much. If I didn’t have food ready to heat at home, I’d likely live on take out and that’s too unhealthy.
I also have a home gym I use late at night when the insomnia kicks in to stay healthy. Fuck anyone in this company that thinks I live pretty and don’t have any worries.
My phone vibrates on my desk, and I glanced at my screen to see that it is my mom. I open the text and sigh as I read it.
Kyle. Don’t forget that you have dinner with Cleo tonight at The Hilton. She’s a lovely girl and I think you’ll get along well.
I send back a brief thanks and close my eyes as I think about my mother’s matchmaking efforts over the last few months. In her opinion, a proper CEO is married and settling down with a family. At least, that’s how it was in our family. Never mind that I spend hours at the office working.
It is all a show to prove something to the world.
Cleo is just a girl in the line of many. I’d been on countless blind dates with carbon copies of the same girl. There are all wealthy, high in my social circles and ready to be taken care of by a rich man. In my mother’s eyes, any of them will be the perfect daughter-in-law with the perfect little family to display in pictures. She can go to lunch with them and talk about the next shopping trip that she’ll love funding.
It gives me a fucking headache thinking about it.
I think back and grin at the memory of making a pact with Laina about getting married if we were still single at thirty. I have heard of others making that same one, but there was nothing romantic about it for us at the time. Me and Laina thought the idea of being married was gross but if we must, we could marry each other because we were the best of friends and didn’t argue.
That is a few years away and I still don’t like the idea of marriage, at least not the way Mom goes about it. I want it to be for love with someone I can share my life with, not more of a business transaction. I don’t want to be just some image that society thinks I should be. Why they believe I should be married to carry this image is beyond me. I still want to be true to myself.
It’s all part of being an Owens, I suppose.
