Hunter
The last place I expected to be on a Monday morning was Boston. But here I am. I need to be here today. I want to see Ed through the fresh eyes I’ve been able to view the world with since visiting my parents and speaking to my father. Having my father try to dismiss what happened to my face rewrote the ending on every last story I’ve told myself about how I’d been responsible for the failure of our family business. Even though I knew my father handed me a business that couldn’t survive, I couldn’t lay the blame fully at his feet.
Not until I watched him try to so blatantly shirk any responsibility.
“Hunter?” Ed stands when he sees me walk into his office. “I was just about to call you. What are you doing here?”
I smile at my friend and business partner. It’s really good to see him. “What can I say? I missed you!” I pull him in for a hug. “Nice tan, buddy.”
“Belize, man. It was fantastic.”
“Yeah?” I say. “Tell me all about it.” Normally, I’d be down to business immediately, but my best friend just got back from his honeymoon, and I want to hear all the details.
“Wanna catch me up on what’s been going on in the office?”
I shrug. “That will wait. Let’s go grab a coffee, and you can tell me about Belize.”
Ed grins like I just handed him a cheesecake and a fork. “I could use a coffee. I’ve been in the office since five.”
I laugh at his early arrival in the office. How could I have been worried that Ed was going to slack off? He’s just as much of a workaholic as I am. We’re cut from the same cloth. He knew that when he suggested we go into business together. I’ve known it deep down from the start. I just didn’t trust that knowledge. My self-doubt has clouded my vision for too long. But I’m free now. Free to trust Ed. Free to trust myself. Free to let go a little. It may take some practice. My training wheels—my long-held beliefs about myself—have come off, but I’m still wobbly. But I know the more I live in this new reality, the easier it will become. My father’s fantasy of me being the son who failed his family is just that. A fantasy. He’s a father who failed his son.
I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay with what my father did. But the knowledge is more good than bad. I’m more positive and invigorated about the future of my relationship with Ed, and about our business, than I ever have been. I just need to be open with him today. That’s why I’m here.
We head out into the crisp Boston morning, looking for coffee.
“How was the food?” I ask.
“Incredible. And the beaches? Two weeks away is like ... medicine or something. I feel like a new man. I’m so pumped about this quarter. And now with the move, I’m going to make it in earlier.” He’s full of energy. Full of life.
“I was thinking about your idea for recruiting more staff,” I say. “You’re right, our quarter is showing huge growth again. And we need more hands on deck if we’re going to be able to keep growing at this rate. Let’s get ahead of it and not wait until we’re creaking at the seams to bring in more people.”
“Exactly!” Ed says. “That’s what I was thinking. Let’s recruit in advance and be ready for our next phase of growth.”
He pauses, then looks at me carefully before he opens the door of the coffee shop. “Are you okay? You seem ...”
“Let’s get coffee.” Once we do, I suggest we take a seat rather than walk back to the office right away. “I went to see my parents this weekend,” I say as we sit.
“You don’t go back very much, do you?”
“It’s been awkward for a long time now. I feel all this resentment toward my dad for what happened with Bain because we’ve never spoken about it openly. You know he’s never acknowledged what happened or the fact the business was dying when he handed it over to me.”
A look of disappointment crosses Ed’s face. Not long ago, I would have interpreted his expression as disappointment in me, but now I recognize he’s disappointedforme. Disappointed that I had a father who would do that to me.
“This weekend ... something changed. I couldn’t not say something.”
Ed’s eyebrows lift practically to his hairline, and he shifts forward in his chair. “You confronted him?”
I nod. “I did. I told him I knew what he did.”
“What did he say? Did he admit it?”
I pull in a breath. “No. He got defensive. Told me failure was ‘the making of me.’ But no, he didn’t take responsibility.”
Ed shakes his head. “God, I’m sorry, man.”
“Don’t be,” I say. “I feel like I’ve been carrying around a sack of rocks, and telling my dad what I knew and who I knew him to be ... It’s like I set that sack down. I feel lighter. I feel like this is fresh start. I know it’s not. We’re in the middle of a business relationship, and Portis is far from new, but ... I feel different. I want a chance to start again.”
“What do you mean start again? You’re not leaving, are you?” Panic flickers in Ed’s eyes.
