Looking at my watch, I hadn’t realized how late it already was.
“Gage, have a great weekend.”
He stopped, turned, and smiled.
“Thanks for all your help with this, Maryellen. I couldn’t pull this off without you.”
My smile was immediate. He ran to the elevator, obviously anxious to get on with his special long weekend. I couldn’t blame him, I was excited for them both. I sat back at my desk, giving my schedule one more glance. It was then I realized there was another meeting on the calendar with Mr. Parker and his boys for the end of next week. I half thought I should call Gage to remind him but decided against it. He didn’t need that information going into his time with Harper.
Dialing the number I knew by heart, I decided to make sure he was still expecting the meeting to take place. He’d been busy with his new girlfriend lately, and maybe they wouldn’t be in the area.
“Hello, Maryellen? Is that you?” Mr. Parker asked through the line.
“Hello, sir. How are you?”
There was a pause on the other end, and I could hear him shuffling his feet and talking to someone, probably Sara, as he most likely was moving into his office. They now lived most of their time in Palm Springs, California. He was rarely in New York, but when he was, he expected his sons to be ready to give him the time he wanted.
“I’m well, darling. How are you doing?” I cringed a bit at thedarling,but he was so old school and never quit the habit of using those types of phrases in the office, or with me. “And how is PFA? I know it’s truly in your hands, so give it to me.”
We discussed some business details for a while. I brought him up to speed about the changes happening with Chase, all of which he knew already. My allegiance was to Gage and Chase now, but their father didn’t need to know that. I made him feel as though he got some dirt on the company every now and then.
He rattled on about all the adventures he and Sara had been taking and the places they’d visited. These were not necessarily phone calls I looked forward to, but ones I felt I needed to make, for a variety of reasons. Today there was a specific reason, and I wanted to get to it. So, when there was a break in the conversation, I took it.
“Sir, I have one more thing I need to discuss. There’s a meeting on the books for the three of you next Friday. We need to reschedule. Neither of your sons are available that day, business takes them out of the office.”
He had no idea I was lying. And neither Gage nor Chase knew about this meeting to begin with. They wouldn’t mind missing a meeting with their father, or at least it being pushed off a bit.
I was the one who didn’t want Robert Parker around right now.
“Is there another date, say next month, that you can make it to New York?” I asked.
There was silence across the line and muffled sounds of which I could only imagine was him looking through his datebook. I heard pages flipping as he hemmed and hawed. While he did that, I put the call on speaker so I could start to pack my bag. This was taking longer than anticipated and I wanted to get out of here.
“I was looking forward to seeing my boys,” he said. “But it would probably be better to give Chase some time in his new role before we meet, anyway.”
Some more shuffling of papers on his end.
“How does the end of February look for them?”
I was bent over shoving my computer into my bag when Mr. Parker finished talking. When I popped up, Chase stood in front of my desk. His eyes were wide as he stared at my phone, making me fumble for the headset and take it off speaker. My hands faltered trying to find the right buttons as Mr. Parker awaited my response on the other end.
“Maryellen, darling, are you still there?” Robert said.
My heart sank.
“Gage is away this weekend,” I said, finally hitting the right one. I worked hard to avoid the questioning stare from Chase, but I couldn’t. My eyes continued to be drawn to his as I spoke to his father. “Once he returns, I will check with him and get back to you with a date. How does that sound?”
There was no response as I waited.
“We should probably touch base and catch up about you, too, don’t you think?” he asked.
I wanted to pull the headset from my ear and throw it to the ground.
“Yes, we should, sir.”
In my ear, Mr. Parker said, “That’s good, Maryellen, Thank you. And remember, I’m not your boss anymore.”
My heart hit my stomach.
