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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LANDON
Long week. Not nearlyas hectic as the previous weekend, but not short either. Full of endless meetings and glad-handing as the Chatter staff took over their new digs and got used to working for someone like a man, a man who was altogether different from the new age assholes on the West Coast who considered work from home the standard. Chatter needed a shake-up to have a ghost of a chance of reaching the full potential of the website, but it was going to take a guy like me to do it.
A guy who simply didn’t care what California granola heads believed was the politically correct way to handle things. The site was more than a social network, it was a business, and it was time it started acting like one instead of burning through billions of dollars a year in venture capital.
All of which meant putting in long hours once the fanfare about the new headquarters died away with the day’s headlines.
I pushed away from my computer station and swiveled the chair toward the desk in my office at the new Chatter headquarters. Months earlier, a team of designers had emailed samples and mock-ups of furniture. They’d said the design would complement my taste and make the office feel like home, right down to personal photographs they’d blown up for a display on the wall near the window. Even so, the effort hadn’t done much good. The place still felt like it was created for someone else. It would probably take at least a year for me to finally feel like the true CEO of the company.
Just how these things tend to go.
A knock at the closed door pulled me from my thoughts. I replied they could enter and Robert strode through the threshold.Why did he look...spooked?I’d known him a decade and it was rare to see him looking like that. What the hell happened now?
“This is becoming a habit,” I said.
“I know. Hope I didn’t disturb you.”
“Going through the usual.” Still studying him, I motioned for Robert to take a seat in one of the open chairs opposite my desk.
“And?”
“And... we’re going to have to a major houseclean. Been looking through some of the performance reports for the executive team and it’s even worse than we realized.” I gave him a wry smile. “They managed to hide a lot of bullshit out in Palo Alto.”
“That’s why sunlight is such a good disinfectant.”
“Exactly. No better place for that than Florida.”
“Speaking of sunlight...did you check your email recently?”
“Not in the last two hours or so.”
“Well, make sure you do.” A grin pulled at Robert’s mouth, which was framed by traces of a five o’clock shadow, and suddenly he didn’t look as pensive as he had when he first strode into the room. “I think you’ll be pleased.”
“How so?”
“Your interview withAmerican Profilecame out earlier this afternoon. I had the team on the lookout for it.”
My stomach tightened, but I kept my expression unreadable. I wasn’t ready to confide in Robert yet. “And how did it look?”
