Page 38 of Plum

Mom chatters as we wait for our drinks. She’s in the early stages of planning the Hearts and Diamonds Gala. She’s thinking about going with a different flower vendor this year. The dog had to go to the vet. He’s fine. Marjorie dropped chemistry but she doesn’t need it to graduate. She’s fine.

I nod occasionally, and I wait for it. These lunches are always about the same thing.

“And how is Eric?” she finally asks after her salad arrives.

“Eric’s fine.”

“Thomas says he’s been going out with clients. A lot of late nights.”

“That’s Eric’s job.”

Mom sniffs. “Thomas says at the board meeting last week, Eric stumbled in late. Disheveled. Maybe you should shuffle around responsibilities. I’m sure there are VPs who could wine and dine the clients.”

“Eric’s good at his job.” And he sure as shit wouldn’t stop doing it because I told him to.

“Thomas is concerned.”

“Did he speak to Eric?” That might explain why Eric’s been pushing the limits lately. He’s never responded well to Thomas riding his ass.

“Your stepfather spoke to me. And I’m speaking to you.”

“I’m not Eric’s keeper.”

“Aren’t you?” Mom narrows her eyes.

I see we’re getting down to brass tacks. She exhales, taking a moment to slowly swirl her spoon in her glass of iced tea. “Thomas has been talking about taking a more active role in the company again. Lending his expertise to mergers and acquisitions. Spending some quality time with his sons, wooing the clients.Getting his hands dirty.”

It’s clear that Mom’s quoting Thomas Wade, word-for-word. Her bored, haughty veneer has been replaced with a look I remember from back in the day. Calculating. Cunning. A tinge desperate.

She lowers her voice. “I’m sure you want him back on executive row almost as much as I want him at hotel bars and strip clubs.”

Goddamn. This day keeps getting better.

“I owe Thomas everything. It’s his company.” This is my standard line, and as far as it goes, it’s true. My stepfather inherited the company from his father, and it was a respectable institution in Pyle. A big fish in a small pond.

After I saved the company when it hit the skids during the last recession, Thomas retired from daily operations, and Eric and I have built Wade-Allyn into one of Fortune’s twenty-five most important private companies. We have offices all over the world, from Wall Street to LaSalle, The City to Marunouchi.

We’re still headquartered in Pyle because Thomas is chairman of the board, and he has strong ideas about honoring your roots.

Whenever we’re in New York, Eric and I spend some time checking out real estate, daydreaming about a spinoff venture free from the old economy bullshit Wade-Allyn has written into its DNA. For now, though, this is Thomas Wade’s company. He owns a 51% stake. And he’s our father.

I do owe him everything. And even though he doesn’t fully understand where we’re taking the company, he’s given us the keys to the kingdom. More or less.

The reminder adds fuel to my sour mood. Eric and I can do whatever we want, but not until Thomas votes aye. He never votes nay, but the ayes take longer and longer as time goes on. ArrowXchange will probably be overtaken by its competition before we get the deal past the board. It’s so much of a given that I have Eric schmoozing the competition’s C.E.O. on his off time.

I’m so lost in my thoughts that I don’t notice Mom’s face, not until she speaks. Her voice is low, but she’s spitting out the words.

“You owemeeverything. Do you think this is a joke? That I’d bring this up at all if it wasn’t serious? Maura Dorsett’s husband just left her for a twenty-five-year-oldhostess. Maura’s quit the Hearts and Diamonds planning committee. She’s going to St. Bart’s for the winter so she doesn’t have to watch some gold digger sit at her table at the Christmas Auction.”

“Thomas isn’t going to leave you for a hostess.” He likes his home life easy.

“I did not get us this far to lose it all.” She’s serious. She’s twisting her wedding ring.

“You’re not going to lose it all.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t lose it all. Only my dignity. My position.”

“You’re worrying about something that’s never going to happen.”

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