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Why do I want to head home, curl up under my blanket, and rewatch the tapes Leaf gave me for the hundredth time?
"Cory." My boss’s firm voice snaps me out of my daze. "The afternoon meeting started five minutes ago."
Oh—crap. Scrambling to fix my mistake, I close my laptop and rise from my seat. "I’ll be there right away."
"Your head’s not in the game. This is the real world—not college."
My eyes narrow—but there’s nothing I can say. Truth is, a month ago, I never, ever would’ve let a man come between me and my job. Especially not after the shit Daddy Thomas put me through.
Now? I can barely focus on anything else. My mind keeps drifting back to last weekend, replaying the wonderful scenes of safety, coziness, and comfort that I’ve been craving for so long.
Little Land. Wearing my diaper. Eating chicken nuggets and using my special fork and knife.
It’s not fair—not a bit—that I can’t occupy that world, that dreamland, 24/7.
I follow my boss to the conference room. Inside, my coworkers are already gathered around a table, tablets and laptops in front of them.
"Our stock is down five percent this week." My coworker, Luke, shakes his head in disgust.
Tanya, another analyst, grits her teeth. "It’s because of the West End investment we had to write down last quarter. Our competitors saw the disclosure in our latest filing and jumped us."
"Fuckers." My boss isn’t impressed. "We have to get back on track ASAP. Otherwise, our shareholders won’t be pleased."
I clear my throat. "I have an idea."
Tanya turns to me. "It’d better be good."
"Why don't we expand Green Tom Thumb’s core business? Going green is super popular with corporations at the moment. I foresee a pathway to profitably developing eco-friendly PR strategies for businesses in our portfolio using Green Tom Thumb’s proprietary technologies."
My boss takes this in. "That’s not a terrible idea."
"We can send a tweet out in less than an hour playing up our commitment to green-friendly principles," I explain. "We can talk about how we’re asking the right questions and searching for solutions to end our dependence on oil and gas."
"I love that." Tonya jots something down on her tablet. "Asking questions—that’s big right now."
"It’s a great way to hold ourselves accountable to our commitments, too," I explain. "We need to keep asking questions until we get it right."
My boss barks out a growl. "My only question is—can we get this done before lunch? I want a sandwich platter."
Everyone nods in agreement. "Get on it, Cory."
"I won’t let you down," I say.
My coworkers and I discuss a few more important topics. One is interest rates, which is crushing our lending division. Lending out cash is easy in a low-rate environment, but right now, everyone wants high-yield savings accounts—there’s not as much investment activity in the community.
Another is a potential bankruptcy of one of our portfolio companies. Clarks Corporate Wellness took on too much low-interest rate debt with callable notes. Their rate expired last week and now they need to refinance at six percent.
When the meeting ends, I head back to my desk to get down to business. My chest fills with warmth as I contact the CEO of Green Tom Thumb about this novel idea.
Sure enough—he’s on board. "That’s a wonderful idea. I’ve been thinking about increasing our corporate sales for a while. They’re the only ones with cash on hand right now to make a difference in our bottom line."
Pride. That’s what I feel. Not only was my idea amazing, but I’m working with Daddy’s former business.
I picture Leaf as a younger man, building his business, energetic and eager to change the world. I wonder if he wanted to make a difference for the planet when he started Green Tom Thumb or if he simply saw a niche and filled it.
I pray it was the former. Nothing is more disappointing than when a man you think has core principles doesn’t actually have any. That’s all too common in business, but I hope Leaf is better than that.
I’m drafting the tweet our social media manager will send out when my phone buzzes.
