“Hmm. I can’t recall ever seeing you drunk,” Rose said. “And your sister said you needed some time off from work, not from drinking.”
“That’s another thing,” Teagan said, showing that he could dodge questions just as well as she could. “Keep my sister out of this. She’s a college student. She needs to focus on school.”
“Your sister raised more money in the past three weeks than you did in the entire last quarter. She’s pretty good at it, which you aren’t.”
Rose’s words hit him right in his vulnerabilities. He knew he wasn’t good at it. He didn’t know what to do about that though.
“I’ve had a lot of other priorities here,” he excused himself. “If Nora’s worried about our cash position, I’ll focus on fundraising.”
“I’ve seen you make donor calls. You listen to them blather about their knee surgeries and their kids’ college admissions, and half the time you don’t even ask them for money.”
Teagan curled his hands into the loose fabric of his trousers. “If you have suggestions for improvement, I’m sure we have a box for that somewhere.”
“How about this? You literally do the work of three people. You know how I know that? Because I had to assign all your work, and it took three people to do it. We need to hire a controller, a director of HR, and an executiveassistant for you. Don’t handle the fundraising. Let someone else do it.”
“You want to increase headcount while we’re running out of cash?” he groaned.
“No, I want to increase headcount and improve our cash position. Which is why we need to start selling off the art. It doesn’t generate any liquidity, and we can sell the pieces that aren’t even accreting value.”
“I didn’t take this job to just liquidate the endowment,” Teagan said, even though it was hard to remember what he’d really thought he’d be able to accomplish. Today, this year, this entire job.
“Your mother sold art almost every year she ran this place. And took in new in-kind donations to replace it,” Rose pointed out. “Which we haven’t done in two years.”
“We arenotgoing to do things the way my mother did,” Teagan said, standing up and leaning over his desk.
Most of the people who worked at the foundation predated his tenure here. They remembered his mother. They certainly remembered her irregular hours and erratic behavior, and nobody could possibly forget how she’d died. If he’d disappeared for a month and came back with the announcement that he was an alcoholic, that meant he had to try harder than ever to impress upon everyone else that he was not her.
“The art donations are a scam, did you know that?” Teagan said, hand against the desk for emphasis. “It’s basically a tax shelter. My mother’s friends got inflated valuations on the art, the foundation held it for three years, pretended to use it for educational purposes, then sold it at a huge loss. And Nora got a piece too, when she brokered the sales.”
“Of course it’s a tax shelter! This is a family foundation, what did you think you were doing?” Rose said, dark eyebrows condensing skeptically.
“I’m running a children’s charity!”
She scoffed. “There are hundreds of these things in New York alone, and they only exist to avoid estate taxes and provide full employment for the progeny of the obnoxiously rich with delusions of dynasty. Funding art camps for children is basically a side effect.”
“If you really think that, what are you doing here?” Teagan demanded.
Rose shrugged. “I’m an investment manager. It’s better than working at Deutsche Bank. Or, you know, selling fentanyl on the street. What I’m saying is, it’s not worth killing yourself about whether you’re doing a good job or not. We could just liquidate the entire endowment and give the money out to poor kids; we’d probably have the same positive effect.”
“Are youtryingto get fired—”
Teagan was cut off by two loud raps on his closed door.
Both of them turned and watched it open. Darcy peered in warily.
“Inside voices,” she admonished them. “You’ll scare away all the wildlife.”
Once she’d established that Teagan and Rose were not actually at each other’s throats, she let herself into the office, surveying the space. Her eyes landed on the crystal decanter.
Making a chiding noise, she scooped it up with a stern glance at Teagan.
“Don’t worry,” Rose said in a dry voice. “I’ve been watching him. He hasn’t had any of it.”
“Good,” said Darcy. “I already took care of the beer inthe break room fridge. Do you think there’s anything else in the office?”
“I keep a bottle of Jameson in my desk drawer for days when my boss is being unreasonable, but I can lock the drawer,” Rose said, glaring at Teagan.
“Ah,” Darcy said, eyes flicking to him. “Well, maybe let me work on the boss.”
