Chapter 46

Phil sat at the conference table beside Rob Costello, listening to an executive from GameChill drone on about how their attorneys wouldn’t sign off without a complete non-compete.

He glanced at his watch and saw it was after 11 o’clock.

“Excuse me, gentlemen,” he said suddenly, cutting off the man in mid-word. “I need to confer with my associate privately.”

He guided Rob outside for a moment and pondered if he should fill Rob in on what was happening in the room. No, he decided, he wouldn’t. It would take too long and it wouldn’t matter.

The nuts and bolts of the deal had been in place for 10 days. GameChill would purchase the patent and software for ‘Who’s It’ for $3.9 million. Phil had expected less when the initial bidding began. The response had been lukewarm at best, with just GameChill and PlayFactory angling for the product. GameChill won the 30-day exclusive negotiating rights and made a passable offer from the outset.

After three days of offers and counteroffers, a deal in principle was in place.

Then it went to shit.

The first hurdle came in the form of compensation. Phil and Rob had been clear from the outset that a cash deal was the only deal they would agree to. That had been fine until a few days earlier when GameChill countered with a deal that included a small amount of cash and a large quantity of company stock.

For a company with better long-term prospects, it was a good deal. For Waterford, it was tantamount to a death sentence. When Phil declined, GameChill countered with a lower all-cash offer.

Waterford’s negotiating team initially insisted that a deal was already in place. That brought the lawyers in. Phil had stayed overnight on Wednesday and Thursday while the final numbers were hammered out so he could sign off on them without another bargaining session.

He had expected Saturday to be a triumph but instead it was a catastrophe. The deal was dead as soon as GameChill insisted on a full-scale three-year non-compete for every employee of Waterford. It was a ridiculous notion to even consider it and GameChill knew it. In fact they counted on it.

Now he stood next to Rob Costello and wasn’t sure what to say to the man who’d given his adult life to Waterford & Waterford.

“Do you trust me?” Phil asked.

“Absolutely,” Rob declared. He had been amazed to watch the not-quite-19-year-old navigate the intricacies of high finance as though he was a veteran of dozens of mergers.

“Follow my lead,” Phil said. “Can you do that?”

Rob nodded and Phil led him back into the room. The PlayChill exec picked up where he left off and Phil let him carry on for five more minutes.

“OK, I’ve had enough,” Phil said, rising from his chair. “We’re not going to agree to a non-compete. You’re an idiot for even thinking we would. So let’s cut the shit. This deal is done. I thought you’d negotiate in good faith but I should have known better. You’ve dragged your feet and hemmed and hawed for five days and I’m sick of it.

“When we thought a deal was in place, we studiously removed every trace of our hybrid program from our servers and from our network. It now resides on a single computer, the only copy of ‘Who’s It’ remaining in the world. Here’s what is going to happen. One hour before we declare bankruptcy, I’m going to take a fucking hatchet to that terminal and smash it into a billion diodes and nodules. Then I’m going to donate the patent to the Heilman College general scholarship fund with the provision that it can’t be sold or transferred for anything less than $4.5 million, your original offer. We might be out of business but I will see to it that you will not get this fucking software for nothing.”

He walked to the door and summoned the security guard.

“Randy, give these men five minutes to collect their belongings and then toss their asses out and lock the door,” Phil commanded.

“Yes, sir!” Randy said eagerly.

Rob had stood when Phil had and both of them left the conference room and headed to the offices a floor above. Phil began to gather up his things.

“Where are you going?” Rob asked. Phil stopped throwing the files into his briefcase and looked at him.

“I’m going the fuck home, Rob,” Phil said.

“Why?” Rob said. “What you just said, that was just to let them know we’re serious, right?”

Rob Costello was a fantastic software designer and a hell of a nice guy. He wasn’t a businessman.

“It was to let them know that I understand it’s over,” Phil said in a soft voice. “Someone leaked our situation and they caught wind of it. They’re waiting for us to go belly up so they can get the software for pennies on the dollar through bankruptcy court. Go home, hug your kids and kiss your wife. It’s over. We gave it one hell of a run but it’s over.”

Rob’s mouth dropped.

“We can’t make our loan payments next week,” Phil explained. “When we default on those, even the money we get from whoever buys the software won’t bail us out. We have no chance of putting any money into software development and apps because every penny of it will be sucked up by the banks to cover the default.”

He closed his briefcase with a sigh.

“I’ve tried, Rob,” Phil said. “I just can’t free up enough cash to keep us afloat. Sam doesn’t have anything that hasn’t already been claimed by a hospital. Those experimental procedures aren’t covered by insurance. We had one option – close the deal this week. They aren’t going to do it. If we agree to the non-compete, it will be something else and then something else. We’ve done all we could and it wasn’t enough”

“And it God-damned sure wasn’t worth what it has cost me,” Phil said to himself.

The apartment was silent when he opened the door. It was only a few minutes after noon but he’d expected someone to be up and about – particularly given the screaming that had taken place only five hours earlier.

He walked back to the bedroom, half expecting to find Hailey and half expecting to find her clothing gone. He got neither. Hailey wasn’t there but all of her clothing was still in the closet. He pulled out his phone and called her. The call went to voicemail so he sent a text asking her to call him.

He changed out of his suit and went to find something for lunch. There was a bowl of salad with steak strips on top so he pulled it out and poured some dressing on some of it. He put on his sunglasses and went out the deck to sit in the sun. Hailey hadn’t called by the time he’d finished so he rinsed the bowl and put it away. He gathered up the dirty clothes and put in a load of whites before puttering around the apartment while they washed.

He still hadn’t heard from Hailey by the time he put the socks, underwear and towels into the dryer. He tried her again with the same results as before. He sighed and returned to his perch on the deck and dozed in the sun as his mind retraced everything he could have – and should have – done over the past few weeks.

He decided he would fix Hailey a nice meal – and offer to pay for dinner out for the others – and then take her on a proper night on the town to celebrate her birthday. He hoped she would agree – and he hoped it would be enough. He wasn’t sure of either. He was planning the menu in his head when the center door to the deck opened. He turned to see Katelyn standing there.

“What are you doing here?” she asked harshly.

“I live here,” Phil pointed out.

“You aren’t supposed to be here!” Katelyn said.

“Why not?” Phil asked.

“My boyfriend is here,” she answered. “And you ate the lunch I made for us.”

“Oh, sorry,” Phil said. “Why does it matter if I’m here the same time as your boyfriend?”

Katelyn looked at him like he was an idiot.

“He doesn’t know you live here,” she said. “He’s been over a few times and you weren’t here. I don’t want him to know I live with a guy.”

“Looks like he’s going to figure it out today,” Phil pointed out.

“Is there a way out that he won’t see you?” Katelyn asked, glancing back over her shoulder.

“Not unless I turn into Spiderman in the next couple of minutes,” Phil said.

“We agreed that I could have the apartment tonight!” Katelyn said.

“Tonight?” Phil asked. It was barely past three o’clock. “Where in the hell is everyone else?”

“I don’t know,” Katelyn replied. “Look, you have to leave.”

“I don’t have to do a fucking thing,” Phil said angrily. “I didn’t agree to a fucking thing. I’m sure as shit not going to disappear all evening.”

“All night,” Katelyn said.

“Ah, fuck no!” Phil said. “If you want to hang out with him while I’m here, no problem. I’ll even disappear for a little while so you can have a private dinner. But I’m not renting a fucking hotel room so you can have a love nest! Hey, where the hell are the rest of them staying?”

“I don’t know,” Katelyn said again. “Phil, don’t be an ass about this.”

“Fuck you, Katelyn,” Phil said. “Go to his house if you want privacy. You knew four other people lived here so don’t get all pissy with me when one of us won’t play along. I’ll go somewhere for a little while. Hurry up and get your freak on because I’m going to be back later tonight. If you can’t live with that, feel free to pack your shit and get the fuck out.”

The door opened and a guy’s head popped out.

“Katelyn?” he asked with concern. Phil looked at Katelyn and shook his head. The guy had to be in his late 30s. He had gray streaks in his hair – and the pale ring where a wedding ring usually rested on his finger.

“Is there a problem?” he asked, stepping fully outside when he saw Phil.

“Just two roommates discussing boundaries,” Phil said firmly. “It’s not your concern. Please excuse us.”

The man crossed his arms and glared.

“Unless you want to see if you can fly, I recommend you take your middle-aged posterior back inside the apartment,” Phil said angrily. “Because in 10 seconds I am going to throw you over the side of the building and swear to Christ I thought you were an intruder.”

“Go back inside, Josh,” Katelyn said. “I’ll be in soon.”

“Are you sure?” the guy asked.

“The clock is ticking!” Phil said, taking a step toward the man.

“I’m sure,” Katelyn said, putting a hand on Phil’s arm. She had seen him angry so rarely that she wasn’t sure what he was capable of.

“I’ll be inside if you need me,” Josh said. He looked at Phil for a moment and then slipped inside.

“Will you please leave?” she asked, turning back to Phil.

“A married man?” Phil asked incredulously.

“He’s separated,” Katelyn said.

“Yeah, bullshit,” Phil said. “Jesus Christ. I want no part of this. I’ll leave but he’s not welcome in my apartment from here on out. If he wants to screw around on his wife, let him spring for a seedy hotel like the rest of the lowlifes.”

He stalked through into his bedroom, packed a bag and gathered up the flowers he’d purchased for Hailey.

“We’ll finish this discussion tomorrow, Katelyn,” Phil stated as he opened the apartment door and left.

Phil drove around aimlessly for a while, stopping to try Hailey again. She didn’t pick up and she didn’t return his text. He cursed silently and pointed the Mercedes toward SouthPointe. He hadn’t paid attention on the way into the garage but he’d noticed Hailey’s car was gone as he left.

He also doubted Katelyn when she said she didn’t know where the others had gone. He could think of several reasons she hadn’t answered his calls. Perhaps she had gone to a concert; maybe she was at a movie; maybe the battery was dead on her phone. Hell, maybe the phone was still in the apartment. He hadn’t checked.

He sent a text to Tiffany and Molly as he waited at a stoplight a few blocks from his house. He carried the flowers with him but left his bag in the car. His mother was sitting on the back porch wearing a two-piece bathing suit and drinking what looked to be a Tom Collins. She turned when Phil opened the sliding glass door.

“Are those for me?” she asked when she saw the 19 red roses in Phil’s arms.

“Might as well be,” he said. “I can’t find the person I bought them for. I’ll put them in some water.”

Beth heard the tiredness and tension is Phil’s voice so she arose and followed him in the house. The air conditioning on her hot skin gave her goose bumps – and made her nipples crinkle. Phil had his back turned filling a vase with water so she grabbed a shirt and put it on.

“What’s wrong?” Beth asked.

“Oh, pretty much everything,” Phil said, sitting down and putting his head down on the cool table.

“Business or personal?” Beth asked.

“Both,” Phil said with a laugh. “Why settle for one clusterfuck when you can have two?”

“Hailey said you haven’t been around much,” Beth told him. “I know how easy it is to fall into that trap. It happened to me, too, if you recall. I tried to explain things to Hailey but she pointed out that you should know the result of putting business of ahead of family because you’d seen it close up.”

“She’s not family,” Phil said. “I didn’t have any choice. I missed her birthday but I didn’t have a choice. I was waiting to sign off on an agreement to sell our hybrid networking software to another company. Time was of the essence – literally every minute counted. It’s why I went into the office this morning. Hailey and I had a fight and, well, I’m not sure we’re dating any more. We had to have the agreement in place if Waterford was to survive.”

“Did you explain that to her?” Beth asked.

“I haven’t seen her in three days,” Phil said. “Hell, I haven’t seen her awake in a week. I tried to call her a couple of times but she was in a meeting or having dinner. When she’d call back, I’d be tied up on something else. I stayed overnight at the office on her birthday. I didn’t even know what the date was. I barely knew what day of the week it was. We needed the cash to make our loan payments next week.”

“And?” Beth pushed.

“And nothing,” Phil said. “They must have found out how precarious our finances are and they started to drag their feet after the deal was in place. It was the typical bullshit. They wanted to pay less in cash and more in stock – which we couldn’t do, so we turned them down. They tried for about a million less than the agreed price. It took us a day and a half to get the numbers reasonable and I went in this morning to sign off on it. They pulled a blanket non-compete for every Waterford employee out of the air, said it was necessary for their legal department to agree.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Beth said.

“Yep,” Phil said. “That’s when the whole week clicked into place for me. I told them I would destroy the software and donate the patent rights to charity before I let them steal it in bankruptcy. Then I tossed their asses out. I hope they don’t think I was kidding because I wasn’t.”

Beth chuckled.

“And Hailey?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Phil admitted. “She told me this morning if I wasn’t home for supper she’d be gone when I did get home. Hell, I made it by lunchtime and she was already gone. I tried to call her two or three times. I’ve tried to text her. I’ve sent texts to Molly and Tiffany. They’ve ignored me, too.”

“And Katelyn?” Beth wondered.

“She kicked me out of my own fucking place,” Phil scoffed. “She’s shacking up with some 40-year-old married guy, if you can believe that. She hadn’t told him I lived there, I guess. He knows now. He pissed me off and I threatened to see if he knew how to fly. It seems the girls had agreed to spend the night elsewhere. I was sort of hoping it was here.”