Chapter 24

ERIN WAS NOT particularly keen about spending three hours in the car with Shannon Duval. She’d had very little interaction with the woman, so her only real basis for judging her was that she’d had an affair with Erin’s husband, which cost him his marriage. She doubted Mrs. Duval was any more enthused than she was.

“I ... My car is gassed up and ready to go if you’d prefer for us to travel separately,” Shannon said when they met in the garage.

“I think that would be wasteful. There’s no need to take two cars,” Erin said. “I need to adjust the seat and mirrors, though. I’ve not driven Mr. Carver’s car before.”

“He’s still driving the same car he bought when he first became Chairman of the Board,” Shannon snickered. “Mine’s a little newer.”

“Six years isn’t terribly old for a car that’s well maintained. It only has 35,000 miles on it.”

“Only driven by a little old lady to church on Sundays.”

“It is rather a cliché. But it’s a comfy car. Seat warmers if you want one,” Erin said. She backed out of the parking space and headed toward the freeway. She wasn’t very happy with Shannon’s implied insults to Mr. Carver, but she’d determined to make the best of this trip.

They rode in silence until they’d crossed the river and headed north. Erin considered turning on the radio, but that seemed rude.

“Tell me about the financial status of the Mackenzie project. How deep are we and what does it take to make it profitable?” she finally said. She took Shannon by surprise, but the controller opened a folder and began summarizing the numbers. Erin had already read the formal report that came from Masters and assumed correctly it had been written by Shannon. Hearing the woman explain the details helped sharpen Erin’s understanding and told her a lot about Shannon’s expertise.

“So, even though we have clear title to the property and the plans, we still have a heavy debt to cover the excavation that was done in November and December, before Mackenzie filed Chapter 11,” Shannon said. “We managed an agreement with the union local and the general contractor to stretch payments out over twelve months, which we’ve done by mortgaging the property.”

“How much of a commitment do we need to get from Allard, or a tenant, to clear us to resume construction?”

“A company like Allard might want to simply acquire the property and take over the whole project without us. We’d need to clear $1.7 million to be able to walk away. We could take that on a build to suit lease agreement and the union would be happy because they’d be back at work and we could get joint financing fairly easily.”

They continued to talk and strategize the meeting with Erin’s former company until silence finally fell in the car again.

“Don’t you want to talk about what happened with your husband?” Shannon finally asked.

“Is there something you need to say about it?”

“Only that I’m sorry I screwed life up for you. I’m trying to reform.”

“I’m divorced,” Erin said. “It’s past. I’m divorced because my husband was unable to keep his word to me. I don’t blame the other woman. There are always willing women if a man is willing to break his vows. I’m glad to have found out before we had children.”

“You’re very pragmatic about it.”

“I have a standard. Some would say it is a high standard. I think it’s fundamental. In business, I expect everyone who works with me to strive to adhere to that standard. In my personal life, I want to share my life with people who have a compatible standard. I have a hard enough time following my own standard to assume everyone else in the world is going to follow it.”

“But you divorced your husband because he failed?” Shannon asked.

“He wasn’t trying to live up to the standard. He failed in the most basic part of a relationship: trust. Once that was broken, there wasn’t anything else,” Erin responded. She was already tired of this conversation, but Shannon seemed determined to pick at it.

“Reprimanding my husband for dissing you wasn’t related to his firing your husband?”

“By the time Bruce lost his job, we were already headed for divorce. But Mr. Duval was not yet clear on what the standard is. He thought I operated on a principle of one-upmanship. Once I was clear with him that I would not tolerate that, he then had to make decisions and statements based on the standard of mutual support and promotion of the company. He did a great job with the groundbreaking at Cloudhaven this morning.”

“He’s a good man.”

“I hope you encourage it,” Erin said, ending the conversation as they crossed the Mississippi into St. Louis.

“When you left to move to the boondocks and have babies, I never thought I’d be facing you across a negotiating table,” Dee said as she and Erin left the meeting. They waved their team members off and headed out to dinner together.

“Believe me, I thought I’d left this life far behind,” Erin laughed.

“You know, if you’d called Allard when you divorced, you’d be on the other side of the table today. I was always second choice for this position.”

“You’re perfect for it, Dee. I’d never want to take it away from you.”

“It helps coming to a negotiation with a person I know and trust. So, tell me how you came to be the CEO of JeriCorp. This has to be quite a story.”

Erin was fundamentally honest, but didn’t feel it was necessary to go into the details of her Board’s attempt to overthrow the family and that she was a compromise.

“They promised me a better position if I could put up with being the Chairman’s assistant for a few months. I had no idea they’d make me the CEO. When it comes down to it, though, Mr. Carver is brilliant and being his CEO is still almost like being his assistant. I just get to do the fun things like this.”

“When do you think you’ll be ready to return to the big show? No doubt being CEO of a midsize company will definitely look as good as being a regional VP at Allard, but the next step for you has always been into the executive suite of a Fortune 100 company.”

“I don’t know that I’ll ever return to that path,” Erin said. “Not that I’m likely to return to the happily married mommy path again, but I’m learning a lot about balancing my work and life. Part of that has been working on this new community we’re developing. It could really change things for a lot of employees.”

“Do you think you’ll lose a lot of your office workers to the new remote community?” Dee asked.

“No. I’m sure there will be a few, but we’re not moving the company headquarters to Cloudhaven. I don’t see it becoming a headquarters for any company. The idea is to attract a cross section of workers who are from many different companies and industries. They’ll still have their strong connection to the people in their own companies, but they’ll work beside people from other companies. They won’t be competing for a promotion with the person in the office next door. If it works well, they’ll be doing more collaboration and partnering.”

“It sounds a little utopian, but I’d love to see it actually work,” Dee said. “Now tell me about your love life. Have you found anyone special in this new company?”

“Oh. Well ... um ... no ... not really. Working in a penthouse like I do, I really only see the Chairman and our assistant on a regular basis. Even he is often down at Cloudhaven, since he’s also the Chief Architect. I don’t think it’s that good an idea to shop in the company store, you know? I’ll try to get out a little more this winter. Meet more people.”

“But you share an office with the Chairman, who also happens to be the Chief Architect and principal owner of the company. And you think of yourself still as his assistant. Sounds like a recipe for romance.”

“You are the third or fourth person to suggest that,” Erin giggled. “Why can’t anyone believe we’re just good coworkers?”

“Maybe because of that little giggle,” Dee said. “Just remember, you don’t have to marry every guy you sleep with. You could just take him for a test drive.”

“You’re wicked, Dee. Wicked.”

The executive committee was meeting in the penthouse. Erin had decided that since the model of Cloudhaven had been moved to the portable building at the worksite, it would be appropriate to bring the execs into the penthouse to gather around the central table.

“Well, the contract with Allard is solid,” Masters said. “Mrs. Duval succeeded in getting a letter of commitment from First National in St. Louis for construction financing. The crews are back on the job and we should have footings poured by September 1. I am also informed that we owe the contract with Allard to our CEO who successfully negotiated with their regional Vice President. Well done, Ms. Scott.”

“Thank you,” Erin said. “I had an advantage. She used to report to me. Let’s move on to the status at Cloudhaven. Mr. Carver?”

“The street grading is nearly complete in the phase one section. Utilities have begun laying the water, electric, and sewer lines. Of course, grading is only the first step. They’ll start laying the sub base. Trucks will be lining up with gravel starting in two weeks. We will drive on the sub base for the winter. That will improve compaction and make a more stable base when we are ready to pave next spring. By that time, most of the heavy excavation equipment should be off the site and road damage during building construction next summer should be minimal,” Carver read from his notes.