Page 19 of Executives' Omega
He leaned forward, elbows on his desk, and grinned. “Some places, probably. But the referral is secondary to us. We get repeat and word-of-mouth business because we focus on what’s right for our clients first. Some options are out of the price range for smaller companies, other times they just need a simple solution—rather than an extensive product suite. Our clients appreciate that, which pays more than the referral in the long term.”
“I think I get it.”
He leaned back, and another few seconds of silence filled the space between us.
“Football?” I blurted, vaguely motioning to the jerseys.
He laughed, a rich sound that made a shiver of desire run up my spine.
“When I was a kid, we’d go to my great-grandmama’s house every Sunday for brunch,” he explained. “Grammy loved football, and everybody knew to leave the game on for her. Even when she was getting frail towards the end, she’d insist on watching, cheering on her team, and discussing plays with anybody in earshot. Her love of the game just kind of rubbed off on all her grandkids and great-grandkids. All of us are avid fans.”
He paused, smile going soft and contemplative before he continued. “One of the first things I did once the company became successful enough, was buy club-seat tickets at the fifty-yard line for the whole family. Grammy needed a wheelchair by then, but she whooped and hollered as loud as anybody else. And when she found out that I’d gotten her a chance to meet her team… I’d never seen her cry until that day, but her joy was so strong that even some of those pro players cried alongside her.”
His smile faded. “We lost her about six months after that, but everybody agrees that having that one experience—as a family—was something to be cherished. Even now, when we talk about Grammy, we remember how she sassed football players, even as she was crying just from the sheer joy of being able to meet them.”
“It sounds like a wonderful memory,” I said softly.
He nodded. “It is. Honestly, it was far more expensive than I was comfortable with at the time, but we knew Grammy didn’t have long and I wanted to give that to her, and everybody else. In the end, that day was priceless.”
I smiled as I got a brief glimpse past his business persona, to the person he was outside of work: a deeply caring alpha who wanted to make his family happy.
I jolted, clearing my throat and sitting straighter when I noticed him staring at me. I set a voice recorder on the desk, realized I’d forgotten to turn it on, and almost dropped it before I had it on the desk again.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. I opened the minutes app on my tablet. “I’m ready now.”
He shook his head, but his smile wasn’t as warm as it had been a moment prior. “You’re fine.”
He appeared about to say something else, but the phone rang. He answered, then nodded to me.
It was time to get to work.
∞∞∞
I hadn’t dealt with any other CEOs, but—in my opinion—Brendan was acting strange.
I checked his schedule for what had to be the hundredth time that morning and found it as open as it had been the first ninety-nine. However, he was running around as if he was expecting a huge client—back and forth between Linden and Zane’s offices and one of the front conference rooms.
Brendan strolled past again, stopped halfway to the conference room, then turned towards Linden’s office.
“Umm…” I started. “Am I missing an appointment? Do I need to prep the conference room?”
He paused, blinked at me, then laughed. “No. Don’t worry about it.” He took several steps, then stopped again. “Actually… Maybe you can do me a favor?”
“Hmm?”
He leaned on the counter that surrounded the desk. “A bunch of people will be coming up in about twenty minutes. Show them into conference room A if I’m not here to do that myself.”
“Ok…”
He grinned. “Then, find a reason to keep Alonzo in his office. We’ll need half an hour, maybe forty-five minutes.”
“You want me to… distract Alonzo for forty-five minutes?”
He nodded. “If you could.”
“Umm… how?”
He rubbed his jaw. “I guess I’m not lucky enough for you to have any reports to review with him, am I?”
