Venessa, his assistant, said he’d just called to say he was running late.He’d breakfasted with one of his civic groups and gotten caught in conversation.
“Can we reschedule for ten o’clock?”Lara asked.
“He’s leaving for lunch at ten-thirty.Does half an hour give you enough time?”
To grab an ibuprofen for the headache that was gathering, perhaps.“Just tell him to call when he arrives.”
Venessa jotted a note to do so.
Back in her office, Lara’s cell phone was blinking.There was a message from Connor informing her that Texas had a mandatory seventy-two hour waiting period for marriage licenses.
He suggested they pick it up today if they wanted to execute it by the end of the week.
Execute was never a word she would have put in the same sentence with the certificate of her marriage, and it summed up her confusion.A business arrangement where they lived separately made sense in her mind.But living with him, watching a movie, having sex, sleeping in the same bed, sharing the same space, made it so much more.
Telling herself she was being ridiculous, she replied that his suggestion made sense.
He immediately responded with an address on Caroline Street downtown, and he added, third floor.He suggested they meet at two o’clock, after the lunch rush, and added that April was driving him and they could pick her up, if that would be easier for her.
Lara was still considering his offer, thinking through her options of accepting the ride, searching for parking or hailing a cab, when she received an emailed invitation to be an administrator on his calendar.
She had a vague recollection of him making that suggestion over the weekend but that he’d remembered to have Thompson handle it surprised her.How Connor kept his millions of promises straight, she had no idea.
Realizing she was taking one more step toward him, she accepted.
As the template in front of her populated, she was shocked.He had a dizzying array of appointments, some of them with BHI competitors.He also had chunks of time blocked out for planning, budgeting and strategy.Some afternoons, he had meetings scheduled every forty-five minutes.The BHI board meeting was already on there, as was their upcoming appointment, and a few hours on Friday afternoon marked as personal and unavailable.
A phone call from Venessa interrupted her study.Venessa said that Pernell had decided to work from his country club rather than driving all over town.He suggested they meet tomorrow morning instead.
Any doubts that she was doing the right thing vanished.
For whatever reasons he had, Pernell was no longer fully engaged in the business.Maybe fear?Maybe lack of interest?Maybe a mistaken belief that things ran well without his input.It didn’t matter where the truth was.He was impeding the ability to get business done.
She realized that she should have been pushing even harder for him to retire, or at least semi-retire.“Actually, if you can, put a board meeting on his calendar for tomorrow at five.”
“I don’t see any conflicts,” Venessa said.“But he doesn’t always tell me if he has things in the evenings.”
“Understood.Thanks, Venessa.”
Lara reached her father’s voicemail and requested he return her call.She said she would be in his office at four o’clock tomorrow for a private meeting, and she added that it was urgent.
Finally she messaged Connor to let him know she’d appreciate a ride this afternoon.That done, she waited for a feeling of relief.
It didn’t come.Instead, she had the sensation she’d just stepped onto a rollercoaster.
* * * *
“A genius is trying to reach you.”
Music shattered the silence.All of a sudden, Connor’s office sounded like the inside of a movie theater, with a decibel level to match.“What the hell?”Connor demanded, looking over at Thompson.
“I think that’s your phone, sir,” the man replied with a grin.
Connor grabbed his phone from the desktop.He went to turn off the ringer, but it was already in silent mode.
“Has to be Mr.Bonds,” Thompson said.“Right on!”
Around them, the action-adventure theme increased in volume.Connor realized it was now also coming from the computer’s speaker.
