Gap Year - 55. Chapter 55

March 1, 2004

The Hotel Del Mar

Del Mar, CA

Will

Two things happened to disrupt the happy moment I had with Stef and Tom. I’d put my phone on vibrate, so when I felt it throbbing in my pocket, I took it out, looked at the caller id, and saw that it was Travis. I gave those two an apologetic look. “I have to take this,” I said, and answered it. “Hang on,” I told Travis. As soon as I did that, I heard the doorbell ring, announcing the arrival of the Anders-Hayes contingent.

“That is fine,” Stef said, even as he rose to greet our visitors.

“Sorry about that,” I said to Travis as I walked outside.

“Didn’t mean to drag you out of a meeting,” he said.

“It’s no big deal,” I said, and despite all the shit I was dealing with I found myself smiling because I was talking to him.

“What’s it about?” he asked.

“We’re thinking of buying a production company,” I said obliquely.

“You get to sit in on meetings like that?” he asked, stunned.

“This time,” I said.

“I got a break and wanted to call you,” he said quickly. “Taylor said she had to take Zach to the hospital.”

“What happened?” I asked, trying to pretend to be worried.

“He tripped and slammed into a post,” he said. “Fractured the bones around his eye. She said something about orbital blowout fractures, or whatever the fuck that means.”

“Wow,” I said, pretending to be sympathetic, while in reality I felt nothing.

“Maybe we should go see him this afternoon,” Travis said.

“No,” I snapped, totally giving away the act I’d been putting on for him. I’d tried to pretend like I was worried about Zach, but the threat of a hospital visit blew all that away.

“Okay,” Travis said slowly, to show his surprise.

“I have to go to this meeting, the people just got here,” I said. I realized I was about to leave him hanging. “I want to talk to you about why I reacted like that, but I want to do it in person.”

“Alright, like I said, I’ll be there around four,” he said. After all the shit I’d dumped on him over the last few days, I wondered if he’d just run as far away from me as he could get. Then I pondered Zach’s story that he ran into a pole, and how he could use that to garner sympathy. I got worried that Zach would use his wound to lure Travis over there instead.

“Thanks,” I said. “That’s really important to me. Right now I feel like I’m adrift at sea and you’re my lifeboat.”

“Are you alright?” he asked, sounding very concerned.

“I will be at four,” I said, then we ended the call. Well, if he went to see Zach anyway, at least I’d put my best effort into stopping him. I paused to digest that I was doing just what Zach had accused me of doing: coming into his world and making Travis choose me or him. I shrugged that off, reasoning that if last night hadn’t gone so horribly wrong, I’d be planning that threesome with Zach and Travis. I walked back inside to find four people there in addition to Stef. “I’m sorry I’m late.”

“We have just greeted each other,” Stef said.

“Hey Evelyn,” I said enthusiastically, then gave her a warm hug. I wanted whoever these other people were to know that she was important to me, and to us.

“It’s good to see you again so soon,” she said. “This is our Vice President of Finance, Allison Keyes.”

“Will Schluter,” I said, and shook her hand. She was dressed very conservatively, so much that her business suit almost looked severe. There was a coldness to her gaze that was a little off-putting, but I could almost see that behind that frigidity there was a gentle warmth.

“I’m Jamal Smothers, Vice President of Marketing,” the next guy said. He was about six feet tall with deep black skin and wore a trendy suit that was mostly purple. It might have been garish on most people, but on him it looked really good. Everything about this guy screamed that he was straight except his clothes.

“I like your sense of style,” I said, as I shook his hand.

“Thanks,” he said, and gave me a bright smile.

“This is our lawyer, George Price,” Stef said, introducing me to this middle-aged guy who looked a little frumpy.

“Pleasure,” he said brusquely, then shook my hand in the same way.

“Thank you all for coming,” Stef said, and gestured for us to be seated at the table. “I wanted to update you on the progress we’ve made with Progressive.” I thought it was funny that he said ‘progress’ with Progressive, but I managed not to giggle.

“So you’ve had a chance to talk to them?” Evelyn asked.

“I have,” Stef said. “We’ve entered into an agreement to buy Anders-Hayes for $145 million. That will close on Wednesday.”

“You already have the deal done?” Jamal asked.

“I do,” Stef said. “They were relieved to exit the business, and I suspect they were even more relieved to be able to do so without working with Hiram Barnes.” That made everyone chuckle.

“What will happen to Alex?” Allison asked.

“Progressive will tell him today that they have sold the company, and that the new owners do not require his services,” Stef said. “They have a high opinion of him and indicated they will try to persuade him to take over one of their other ventures.”

“So he’ll have to move to Salt Lake City,” Jamal said, shaking his head. He saw I was confused so he enlightened me. “That’s where their corporate offices are.” I nodded to thank him.

“Then that leaves a question mark as to what happens next,” Allison noted. She suddenly seemed to realize how vulnerable the three of them were, because Stef didn’t have to retain them.

“The purpose of this meeting today is to finalize the plan Evelyn submitted to me last week,” Stef explained. “After that, I will put you in touch with our Chief Financial Officer to give you access to the funds you’ll need to implement that plan.”

“What still needs to be finalized?” Jamal asked.

“I mentioned to Evelyn on Friday that I was okay with everything but your incentive compensation,” Stef said.

“She mentioned that to us,” Allison said. “We thought 10% was fair based on what we were able to save you during the due diligence process. We thought that your proposal, making us spread half of it out, showed a lack of confidence on your part.” I found her attitude kind of insulting, but Stef took it in stride.

“I can understand your point of view,” Stef said calmly, “but please also allow me to share mine.”

“Please,” Jamal said, indicating that Stef had the floor.

“We paid $5 million dollars less than Hiram had offered. That is how much your due diligence saved us,” Stef explained. “I am not refusing your proposal, I am just extending it. I think that the lack of confidence you accuse me of could just as easily be reframed as your lack of confidence in me.”

“So your proposal is that we get 5% upfront and an additional 1% for the next five years, conditional on our good performance?” Jamal asked.

“That is my proposal,” Stef said.

“I don’t know,” Jamal said, and looked at Evelyn and Allison. “It still seems like you don’t think we’re worth it on the front end.”

“I think what he’s saying is that he has confidence in you, you just have to prove it to him,” I interjected, since they were frustrating me with all their posture. “Why is that a problem?”

“I’m just trying to wrap my mind around it,” Jamal said, since he was kind of stuck.

“Look, if Stef didn’t think the three of you were a key part of this, he wouldn’t even keep you around,” I said. “You guys are good. Are you afraid that you can’t do this?”

“We can implement this plan as we have submitted it,” Allison said formally.

“Then what difference does it make to you?” I asked.

Stef smiled at me, then addressed them. “This is a risky investment. We did not have much time to make the decision to buy Anders-Hayes, but we did investigate it thoroughly. You should know that the final decision was not unanimous, which is what usually happens.”

“I’m wondering why they thought that?” Evelyn asked.

“I can explain those details later,” Stef said, but not in a dismissive way. “As my grandson has so directly pointed out, I do not think it is unreasonable for the three of you to assume some risk as well.”

We all sat around the table in silence, while the three of them looked at each other, trying to decide what to do. I was kind of surprised that Stef didn’t leave to allow them to talk privately, but there was no way I was questioning how he handled this. In the end, it was fascinating to watch how well they interacted with each other, and in the end, they each gave a small nod. “Thank you for explaining your thoughts, Stef,” Evelyn said. “Your proposal will work fine.”

“Excellent!” Stef said. Everyone shook hands and smiled. I looked at my watch and that whole deal had taken fifteen minutes to work out. I was thinking that we’d get done early, but that wasn’t how things worked out. They started to talk about all these details, and while at some other time that might have been interesting, right now it was grueling. My head was throbbing, every time I moved my torso my side hurt, and I was exhausted.

“I need to make a few calls,” I said as I stood up.

“That is fine,” Stef said, looking at me with concern. “You will be back at ten?”

“I will,” I replied. I said goodbye to everyone there, making sure I exited with good grace, then I walked out of his room and breathed a sigh of relief. I dragged my tired ass over to a bench next to a fountain, pulled out my phone, and called Darius. I needed his read on how I was handling Zach, I needed to formalize our plans for New York, and I needed to convince him to come back to Palo Alto on his way home from New York. None of those topics could be addressed by a phone call.

“S’up?” he asked and sounded drowsy.

“I need to talk to you,” I said. “Any chance you can come over?”

“Now?” he asked.

“If you can,” I said. He waited for me to tell him that if he couldn’t make it, that was alright, but I didn’t do that. I heard him sigh as he got the point.

“I’ll pick you up by the lobby and we can go get breakfast,” he said. “I have a class after that.”

“I have a meeting at 10,” I said.

“I’ll be there in 15 minutes,” he said. I walked back to my room and ditched the blazer and the tie, then made it back to the lobby where I only had to wait for Darius for five minutes. “I hope this is important,” he grumbled when I got in.

“I think it is,” I said. We didn’t say much, probably because he had to totally focus on where he was going. We went to a nearby bistro and got a table, and it seemed like that was the first time he noticed me.

“What the fuck happened to you?” he asked, staring at my forehead.

“I got in a fight,” I said. A waitress interrupted us to get our drink orders and to hand us menus.

“You okay?” he asked. Darius and I were tight, so even though his words were pretty truncated, I could hear the concern in them.

“The whole thing is fucked up,” I said. “I just have a couple of bruises that aren’t really pleasant.”

“Who’d you fight with?” he asked.

“Zach,” I answered. He stared at me, stunned. We sat there in silence for a few seconds until the waitress returned with drinks and to get her out of the way, we went ahead and ordered food.

“What happened?” he asked. I told him the whole story, from when I’d found Zach in my bed to when I’d thrown him out. He let me ramble on, not interrupting or saying anything. When I was done, he just nodded. “He crossed a big line.” It was funny that he used the same term that kept reverberating through my head.

“He did, and we’re done,” I said.

“When I see Zach, I’m going to call him the Pepsi Can Man,” Darius said, cracking me up.

“I heard he ended up going to the hospital and had some of the bones in his face fractured,” I said wryly.

“Dude, I didn’t know you could pitch that well,” Darius said.

“I’m a good pitcher and a good catcher,” I said in a sultry way, which got me rolled eyes in response, then he got serious.

“I know people who have shit like this happen, where someone gets violent. They convince themselves it was some one-time event, and that everything will be fine,” he said.

“Are they right?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Never. It’s like once that line is crossed, it can be crossed again,” he said.

“The look in his eyes during that whole thing, there was nothing but anger,” I explained. “Even afterward, there was no real remorse.”

“You decided that showed you his true feelings,” Darius summed up.

“Yeah,” I said.

“And that’s why you’re done,” he concluded.

“Yes,” I said.

“Dude, sometimes you get a little too drama,” Darius said, unable to miss a chance to throw some shade at me. I rolled my eyes at him. “This time, I think you handled things perfectly.”

“You do?” I asked. He gave me an annoyed look for demanding reassurance, but this was what I needed from him right now. I needed him to tell me exactly what he’d just told me.

“I do,” he pronounced. My mood this morning had been melancholy, but after he absolved me, I was almost euphoric.

“Thanks,” I said. He reached out and grabbed my hand for a second, a stunning physical demonstration, especially in public. That made things a little weird, so I changed the subject. “I think I’m going to fly out to New York with you from here.”

“I have a class at eight, and we have a test. I can be ready to roll by 10:00,” he said.

“Awesome!” I responded, since that way we’d get into New York at a reasonable hour. “I want you to come back to Escorial for dinner on Sunday.”

“Why?” he demanded.

“We need to have a family meeting,” I said.

“Jesus Christ,” he said, getting flustered. “What the fuck are you going to do now?”

“This is important,” I said firmly.

“It’s like you thrive on those high drama dinners that just sap the life out of me and everyone else,” he said.

“I fight when it’s important to fight,” I said through clenched teeth even as I glared at him. Before I could rip him a new asshole, the waitress brought our food. We started eating and used that time to calm down our emotions. I decided to try a different approach to this situation. “I was thinking about how Curtis Buck has all of his kids’ phones tracked so he knows what they’re doing all the time.”

“Dude, that would seriously piss me off,” he said.

“Then now you know why dinner on Sunday is so important,” I said.

He dropped his fork on his plate with a thud and looked at me. “What the fuck?”

“It’s part of the SWAT key system,” I said. “Anyone who is on our system has their phone tracked.”

“Who’s looking at that?” he asked.

“That’s what the meeting is about,” I said. “I found out about this from Jake when he got Zach a new phone. I asked him what the protocol was for accessing that data and found out there wasn’t one.”

“It’s probably Dad who looks at it,’ he said, shaking his head. “Please don’t lose your mind over this.”

“I’m only going to lose it if they think that’s okay,” I said. “If that’s the system, where Dad can spy on everything I do, then I’m off the system.”

“So am I,” he agreed. “We’ll make it back in time for dinner on Sunday.” He got me back to the hotel with 15 minutes to spare, just enough time to go back and put my tie back on and grab my blazer.

I was about to leave my room when I got a text from Zach: I AM SO SORRY. He put it in all caps to try to make me think he was sincere.

If I didn’t respond to him, he’d continue to hound me. I didn’t want that; it just bothered me. I typed back in normal letters: I need space. Hopefully that would keep him away from me for a while.

I made it to Stef’s suite and found it empty but for Stef and Tom. “They just left,” Stef said, to answer the question I hadn’t asked yet, but was about to.

“I’m sorry I bailed on you,” I said. “My head hurts and I’m tired. I’m not at my best.”

“I thought you did a very good job,” Stef said. “I appreciate the way you are able to condense things into concise statements. It was almost as fun to watch you do it there as it is when you do it with JP.”

I laughed. “That is one of the more fun things to do to Grand.”

“For both of us,” he said. “Do you need to see a doctor?” he asked, worried about my injuries.

“No, I just need to get some sleep,” I said. “So did everything work out well?”

“It did, and as a bonus for you, they are going to reach out to Tony,” Stef said.

“That’s very cool,” I said. “He’s been into movies forever. It will be good to give him an opportunity to do something he wants.”

“I agree,” he said.

“I have a question,” I said. He looked at me curiously. “How come you didn’t give Evelyn, Allison, and Jamal some privacy to talk about the pay issue?”

“How interesting that you noted I did that on purpose,” he said. “I sensed that they were strong when they were united, so if I gave them time to talk to each other they would be more resolved, and a deal may not have been possible.”

“So you divided then conquered them?” I asked, making him seem like a merciless capitalist. That got me a not unreasonable scowl.

“Rather, I forced them to make the decision in front of me, so we could get a deal done,” he said. “The end result would have been the same, but in this way we were able to get things out of the way without arguing about it for a long time. The relationship starts off on a better footing.”

“That makes a lot of sense,” I said. “I had originally thought that meetings were just people sitting down and talking about data and facts.”

Stef laughed. “If that were the case, they would be a lot shorter, but they would miss the human nuances. That is the difference that has allowed me to make so much money. Understanding facts is easy, but understanding the people is not only much more interesting, it is much more rewarding.”

I nodded. “I see what you mean.”

“You do not have to stay for this next meeting if you do not want to, but I would like it if you would greet everyone first,” he said.

“You want me to show Cam that we’re good,” I concluded.

“In that way, it will eliminate any tensions or residual issues that may arise,” he said. I stared at him blankly. “You said that we should evaluate him based on his business performance. If any personal issues are removed, then that is what I will do.”

“I got it,” I said with a smile. “I’m not mad at him anyway. He ultimately gave me what I wanted.”

The doorbell rang, which prompted Stef and I to stand up while Tom opened the door. Cody strode confidently into the room with Cam Squires in tow. “Good to see you, Stef,” Cody said, giving Stef a hug and a kiss.

“I am glad we could fit this into your schedule,” he said, then moved on to welcome Cam while Cody focused on me. “Hey there!” he said, and gave me a big hug along with one of his trademark a-little-too-friendly-for-friends kisses. He pulled back and stared at my wound. “What happened to you?”

“Ran into a shelf,” I said. I’d give him the real story later.

“You should watch where you’re going,” he said unhelpfully, then moved aside so I could greet Cam.

Cam looked at me nervously, like he was worried I’d turn this whole meeting into some weird inquisition. I found that insulting until I realized that he didn’t really know me that well, and it was quite possible I would be that bitchy and vindictive. I almost laughed when I thought that he was lucky he was dealing with me and not JJ. “Hey,” I said, smiling at him. He responded with a full grin, one that made him even more handsome.

“Good to see you,” he said, and gave me a man-hug. “You think that sometime we can have dinner or something?”

“Something?” I asked with a raised eyebrow, making him grin. “I think I told you before you could call me. My phone hasn’t been ringing.”

“It will,” he said.

“I’ll let you guys enjoy your meeting,” I said.

“That is fine,” Stef said. “If it works with your schedule, let us do lunch.”

“Call me when you get rid of these two,” I said, smiling at both Cam and Cody.

I started walking back to my room and found myself hoping that Zach got my message and was going to leave me alone. I found myself on edge, worried that he’d jump out of some bushes or otherwise magically appear, so I was pretty relieved to get back to my room.

I walked in and put my key on the counter when I noticed a CD case with a note on it. “Will, thanks for everything. This is the cut of our next album. You said you were a fan, so let me know what you think. Also don’t let this get out of your hands and don’t make copies. Billie Joe.” There was another sticky note. “I named the album after my wife.” I laughed when I saw that the name on it was American Idiot.

What a cool present. I hoped it didn’t suck. I took a few minutes to call my shrink and set up an appointment for Wednesday, then popped the CD into the system here at the hotel, which was kind of lame but did the job anyway.

American Idiot was the first song that came on and it was awesome. By the time I got to Holiday, the anti-war lyrics had reminded me of Grand, so I channeled that into action and wrote him an email. I had to re-write it about six times to make it sound official and unemotional, pretending that I was Jake, until I finally got it to the point that I was satisfied. I sent it to Grand, and copied all of our family members who may have phones on our system.

Grand,

I have learned that the set up that we use for our mobile phones allows them to be tracked. I understand that may be part of the emergency key system, or what I normally call the ‘SWAT’ key. I am very upset that this is happening without my consent, and I think it is important that we set up protocols to handle this information.

I am requesting that you convene a family meeting on Sunday, March 7, 2004. Here is my agenda:

1. An explanation on how the system works and how our information is captured and stored.

2. The individuals who currently have, or have had in the past, access to that information.

3. Any originals and copies of printed or electronic logs showing our locations

4. The development of a system to handle this information in the future.

Darius and I will be in New York this weekend, so we will try to persuade JJ to come back with us. Regardless, Darius and I will be there.

Thank you,

Will.

I re-read the words and shook my head at how I sounded like a fucking lawyer. One minute I’m bantering with Travis like I’m a high school dude, the next I’m writing an email on privacy controls. No wonder I was so fucked up. I got up and took off my tie and blazer, then went over and collapsed on my bed. Like an idiot, I’d landed on my bruise, and that was painful enough to make me get up and pop a couple of Advil.

I lay back down on the bed and closed my eyes just as the opening notes of Boulevard of Broken Dreams began to play.