Chapter 7

“WITH AN EMPLOYEE?” Royce bellowed. “You know better than to get it on with an employee!”

“He was convenient, good looking, and well hung. You can’t expect me to do without all the time.”

Shannon didn’t feel bad about sleeping with Bruce. It had been fun. She was pretty sure Royce had spent at least one night this week with that classless beautician. If she was anything with him like she was in the beauty parlor, he’d have had to gag her to get her to stop talking. At least Bruce was an intelligent guy, and not looking to wreck her home.

“I’ve never complained about little affairs—and you haven’t either. But there has always been one rock-solid restriction. Not with anyone in the company! What does it look like when the president’s wife is getting boned by one of his employees? Do you think people won’t find out and talk? Your lover would be passed over even for legitimate promotions, just because it might look like favoritism. It’s that Bruce guy in architecture and planning, isn’t it? The one on the Mackenzie project. I should have known with all the trips to St. Louis. I expected so much better of you!”

“Like me sleeping with a guy you’re trying to cut a deal with? What was getting a commitment from our little consortium in St. Louis worth? Certainly, it was worth sharing your wife,” she fumed.

Not that Royce had to pressure her to sleep with the developer they’d met in St. Louis. But the guy was at least fifty. Gross. If it hadn’t been for her having pulled the deal together in the first place, they wouldn’t be sitting pretty now. Royce could sell anything, but it was Shannon who identified the opportunity that Interlake Land Holding was going to provide. They’d almost been too late to acquire the piece that would be big enough for a golf course.

“I’d be better off without you,” Royce shot at her.

“Don’t even think about it. If you try to divorce me for infidelity, I have enough evidence against you for the same to get the entire pre-nup thrown out. You’ll become the penniless president of JeriCorp.”

“Ha!”

Royce poured himself a glass of bourbon, then put two ice cubes in a second glass and poured for his wife. He handed her the glass. Anyone looking in on their bizarre relationship would believe they hated each other. Divorcing Shannon was unthinkable. He’d broken his own rule when he started dating the young finance person in his company. And it had been worth it. They were a team.

“We’re quite a pair, aren’t we?” he chuckled.

“A marriage made in hell.” They clinked their glasses together.

“Mostly hell for others,” he said. “It isn’t all that bad.”

“We have our moments,” Shannon laughed, glad to put aside the shouting at each other. Royce could be so dominating, it turned her on. “By the way, you know that bit you were out with this week is only after one thing.”

“That was obvious. Did you know she was out with Preston last weekend? Didn’t take long for that to fizzle.”

“I was a little preoccupied that night. Preston’s smart enough to keep a girl from taking half his empire. Are you?”

“Yes, but I’m also smart enough to use a condom. Preston dropped her off and never called her back.”

“Well, at least you know I’m not sleeping with anyone who wants to replace you.”

“That girl could never take your place. She had some talents, though.”

“Do tell.” Shannon put her glass down and put her arms around her husband’s neck. “Better yet, show me.”

They’d start celebrating New Year’s Eve a couple of nights early. Shannon could feel fireworks coming on.

“I’ve got to tell you, Preston, it will be hard to sell Cloudhaven in the wake of the upcoming layoffs,” Royce said as they met in Preston’s sitting area. They spoke quietly so Mrs. Armstrong couldn’t hear them at the other end of the room.

“It’s the way of our future. It’s not dependent on ... on someone else’s profits. Not like Mackenzie. I never much liked that partnership.”

“You designed it,” Royce said.

“The design was good. Mackenzie wasn’t. I think we could foreclose on the property and continue construction under our own name. It’s speculative, but we could have it near completion before we can get anything constructed at the lake.”

“I like that idea. The bank there was friendly until Mackenzie defaulted. We could buy it out for pennies on the dollar. And then get them to fund the completion.”

“That’s thinking. It’s why you sit in the big chair.”

“You sit in the big chair, Preston. Don’t ever think I don’t remember that. I wish you could make these presentations to the board.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll provide the slide deck and narrative for you. You just need to sell it—like always,” Preston said.

“We need to let it rest a while and take the jobs in order. First, the personnel. Second, Mackenzie. Third, Cloudhaven. It’s the only way they’ll understand it.”

“I can be patient.”

Royce took the folder of papers on Cloudhaven with him. He’d need to study this carefully for the next month. He’d run it by Shannon, as well.

He went to his office. It wasn’t as large as Preston’s, but he didn’t live in it, either. Still, it was an opulent corner office overlooking Main Street. He had maximum visibility to employees. His secretary carefully guarded access to his inner sanctum, but he emerged several times a day to walk around the company, stopping to greet employees and ask about their projects, their families, and even the latest sports scores.

That was what Preston didn’t understand. Glad-handing the employees made them think they were important. He looked out over the open office on the fourth floor and contemplated how many people would be gone on Tuesday.

He opened the folder of employment cuts that Preston had given him. There was one adjustment he needed to make and no one needed to know he’d changed it.

The day after New Year’s was turning out to be a very bad day for Bruce. He’d tried to talk to Erin over the weekend, but she told him she never wanted to see or hear from him again. He didn’t blame her. Erin was more loyal than anyone he’d ever met. It was one of the things that attracted him to her, even though he wasn’t in her league when it came to love and loyalty.

He guessed he’d need to be the one to file for divorce. Mostly because he didn’t want to be the one served papers.

When he got to the office Tuesday morning, he was conscious of people looking at him. He couldn’t be imagining the hushed tones in the office or furtive glances as he walked by. How could anyone even know? He didn’t think Shannon was the kind of woman who spread word of her conquests around the office. It would harm her ability to do her job, just like it would hurt him. He sat at his desk, expecting to get started on a normal day. He’d been told to start putting together a plan to recover the Mackenzie project without Mackenzie involved.

First, email. There was a new meeting request, sent out that morning by his boss for a one-on-one. Bruce wasn’t worried about his performance and figured this would be about how to approach continuing the project. He’d managed the design reviews and meetings with Mackenzie perfectly. It wasn’t his fault that the company defaulted. He got his notes and files together and went to meet his boss in the downstairs conference room.

Ellen Barrett was with his boss. He hadn’t seen her since his initial interviews with HR months ago.

“Bruce, have a seat,” his boss said. “There’s no easy way to put this, so I’ll get right to the point. The Mackenzie project put a big hole in our finances when it was canceled. They announced they were filing bankruptcy and closing their doors. We have no choice but to eliminate our expenses for the project as quickly as possible. I’m afraid that means you and your team have been terminated.”

“Terminated? You mean fired?” Bruce asked in disbelief. “But what about taking over the project independently from Mackenzie? I have the folder here with all the numbers in it.”

“I’m afraid so, Bruce,” Ellen said. “We have people with longer service. Last in, first out. The entire company is being affected, not just your team. We’ve cut five percent of our employees, plus several contractors. I know you relocated to Jerico City recently and I want you to know the company is still committed to covering your relo costs, a portion of your housing, and we’re giving you a three-month severance package that includes your health benefits for that period. You should probably be sure you and your wife get doctor, dentist, and optometry appointments taken care of in that period of time.”

“Doctors,” Bruce mumbled. What if Erin was pregnant? This could be even more disastrous than getting divorced.

There was more. He had to sign a letter accepting the benefits. Ellen said something about an employment agency and assistance preparing his resume. And then a security person accompanied him to his desk and watched as he packed the few personal items he had there, collected his ID badge, and escorted him out.

On Wednesday, Bruce waited at the diner until Erin got off work and met her outside. She agreed to sit down and talk at the house when he told her he had important news he needed to share with her. Erin assumed it was about getting a divorce.

Instead, he told her he’d been fired and they had just three months of income to live on. It was shocking news.