While Andy was busy running the shit out of every project on deck, I was coming to terms with my new title as senior managing partner. My partners outvoted me on that measure, but I succeeded in elevating Shannon to managing partner and adjusting titles for Matt and Sam to reflect their respective specialties.
For me, the changes lived in legal paperwork and on our website, and though it didn’t imply anything new, it felt different to me. Theresa dropped three boxes of freshly printed business cards on my desk last week with a purposeful cluck. I immediately shoved them in my bottom drawer. Although I spent more than a decade at the helm, making it official required some adjustment. It was a reminder of everything that changed.
Shannon nodded and glanced at me. “I would agree. So Tom will book you at The Statler?”
“Fine,” I ground out, struggling to contain my irritation. We didn’t do this to each other. We figured out shit out before coming to these meetings.
“Awesome,” she chirped. “Now. Matty’s wedding is only a few weeks away, woohoo, and we need a plan for when he’s out of the office.”
“I got you, bro,” Riley said, dousing his pants with coffee as he attempted to slap Matt’s back. It was refreshing to see the spill in action. I was beginning to think he was buying his pants pre-stained. “I’m all over it.”
Matt started to speak but stopped, snatching Riley’s coffee as it teetered toward his keyboard. He met my gaze with a small shake of his head, and we knew there was no way in hell Riley was rubber-stamping anything structural. My irritation flared again. I glanced at Shannon, my eyes asking why she didn’t come to me with these issues first. Shrugging, she looked away and I added ‘deal with Shannon’s shit’ to my list for the day.
I tapped my coffee cup against the table, and said, “I need someone on engineering. Someone who understands physics.”
Looking up, I met Riley’s irritated grimace.
“Could be good for Andy,” Sam mused.
I inhaled sharply, immediately wondering whether we’d be able to keep up our daily rituals if she shifted gears for a few weeks. Spending a couple of nights in Ithaca was bad enough; the prospect of loaning Andy out to Matt’s office for three weeks was heinous.
Riley stopped blotting the coffee and scowled. “And where the fuck does that leave me? You don’t think it would be better for me to take over Matt’s projects since I know what they are and work on them every day?”
I needed to have a serious talk with Riley. In all fairness, that talk should have happened ten months ago when it became clear that his skills required extra levels of supervision. He was making progress, but I occasionally doubted he’d be able to manage anything independently.
“With me,” I replied. “I have a lot of design projects coming up, and I need your eye on those.”
Riley rolled his eyes, and with a lifted shoulder, the topic was dismissed.
“Look at us, on schedule and everything,” Shannon said with a glimpse at the clock on her screen. “I want everyone to know that Lauren’s shower is Saturday evening, and there are no boys allowed so I expect you all to keep Matt occupied.”
“Can I renew my objection to this?” Matt asked. “Lauren wants me there.”
Shannon crossed her arms over her chest and gazed at Matt. “That’s horseshit, and what part of ‘no boys allowed’ are you struggling with? Go drinking with these idiots, and have a big, bloody steak, and leave us girls alone for once!” She shook her head and slammed her notebook and phone on her closed laptop. “Christ on a crutch, Matthew. I’m leaving. Figure out your Saturday.”
Sam and Riley launched into a point-by-point comparison of the city’s best whiskey bars and steakhouses, and Matt rolled his chair away from the table to type a message on his phone. He smiled at the screen, replacing it with a tolerant grin when he returned to the table and offered his opinions on Grill 23, Abe & Louie’s, and Boston Chops.
I knew exactly what that look meant. He was going along with this obstacle course, and he’d probably have a stellar time with us on Saturday, but he would spend the evening counting the minutes until he could get home to Lauren. She would always be his first choice.
I knew all about that.
I told the boys to make the decision without me and moved ‘deal with Shannon’s shit’ to the top of my list for the day. I was prepared to breathe some fire. My legs ate up the two flights of stairs between the attic and Shannon’s office, and she waited a full ten seconds to look up from her documents after the door slammed behind me.
“What the fuck was that about, Shannon?”
She carefully peeled a sticky note from its decorative dispenser and marked a few notations before lowering the lid of her laptop and meeting my eyes. “I’m not sure what you’re referring to, Patrick.”
So that’s how we were going to play? Fantastic. Fucking fantastic.
“All right, Shan. I’ll break it down.” I deposited my laptop on her round conference table and approached her desk. “Your little list? We never bring up topics that we haven’t run through in advance, especially not big things like coverage for Matt. You need Riley losing his shit about as much as I do, and it was not the time to figure that out.”
“I’d be happy to do that, Patrick,” she replied with enough sweetness to rot teeth. “But that only works when we check in before meetings and you don’t bother to do that anymore. You don’t even talk to me unless I corner you in the stairwell.”
I winced, thinking about the stolen moments with Andy in the shower this morning and the assumption Shannon would have chased me down if there were something important to review before the meeting.
“And Andy? How is it not obvious that we need to keep her? Do you need a fucking billboard?”
“You know that I like her. Hell, Patrick, I go out for pedicures and drinks with her a couple times a month, and she’s one of Lauren’s best friends, and I think she’s awesome, but you don’t communicate with me anymore.” Shannon rolled her Starbucks cup between her palms and lifted a shoulder. “You’re in your own head, and you’re not talking to me, and I don’t know what else you want me to do.”
