If we were going to spend money on marketing, we needed a good slogan, a good logo.
The meeting that I’d had with the marketing team ended well, and I thought I’d conveyed what I wanted to do with the rebranding initiatives of Colby, but when I’d received the new potential marketing materials … they were okay at best.
Maybe it was because they were all about to retire and were not with the new trends.
Most of our employees had started with Colby’s years ago. There was very little turnover because my parents treated their employees well, even better than their own family members.
I rustled through the papers one more time.
“No.” Flipped paper. “No.” Flipped another piece of paper. “No!”
I slammed a palm against the desk and ran the same hand through my hair. I needed this right. Time was running out. I needed to solidify the changes to the brand, sell the changes to my father, and then put the changes into motion. I couldn’t possibly extend my leave of absence at Financial State any further. My current employer would let me go; I knew that much.
“I feel like it should be branded to the essence of family, but you can do it without using the family name in big, fat letters.”
Charlie had been exactly right. But even with giving her original bar sketch to my marketing team as inspiration, they had gotten the concept all wrong.
I hated that our conversation at the bar had been cut short by a game of pool.
After leaving the bar, I’d realized one thing: I needed her on the team, needed her to work on these rebranding initiatives. I wouldn’t take her from her regular job, but I could get her overtime approved for helping me. Problem was, would she even agree to that?
I’d have to talk to her today to try to convince her.
The buzzing on my phone broke me from my thoughts.
I pressed the button on the intercom.
“Mr. Colby, your father is on line one.” It was my secretary.
“Thanks, Claire.”
We were all Mr. Colby—my father, me, and Kyle. It would get confusing at the company if I worked here permanently. I ticked off another reason I needed out sooner than later.
“Dad.”
“Hey, I’m scheduling an impromptu meeting in the boardroom at one. Please make yourself available.”
Great. Has this man ever heard of a schedule? No one appreciated impromptu meetings, especially when their schedules had been planned out for the day.
“I’ll be available.”
There was a long pause before he spoke. “Are you coming home tonight or at least stopping by for dinner?”
I’d been renting an apartment within walking distance to work. Tension between my parents and me was at an all-time high, and I didn’t want to say something in the heat of an argument. Keeping things strictly professional was the best way to deal with them right now. It’d been that way ever since I left for college.
“Not tonight.” Or any other night for that matter.
“Nana requested you for dinner.”
I huffed audibly loud. “I’ll talk to Nana.”
When they used the word Nana, it was as though I couldn’t say no. Maybe she’d settle for alone time—with just us going out to dinner.
“Okay, son. I’ll see you in a little bit.”
Son. I rolled the word in my mind. If only they had raised me and treated me like their son.
My father paced the front of the room, near the whiteboard, as everyone in the office filed into the boardroom. My mother sat at the head of the table. Her short hair was pulled back in a sleek brown ponytail. She had aged well and looked half my father’s age with his pepper-gray hair.
I watched the interaction of the employees greeting my father as they walked in. Almost as pals, more than coworkers or acquaintances for sure. Some of these people had been here since before I was born. I stood, flushed against the back wall with a few other employees, trying to blend in. No matter what others thought or said, that was what I was. I’d act like an employee, here on a temporary assignment.
“Connor.” Elise from accounting pinched my cheek. “Glad to see you’re back.”
She’d known me since I was a little boy, eating the candy directly from the conveyer belts.
“Hey, you.” Logan from quality and assurance patted my shoulder. “You’re back.”
“Just temporarily.”
“I hope not,” Jenny from production said. “We miss you at the company. We really want you back.”
I smiled down at the woman who used to set up a scavenger hunt around the office for my brother and me when we were younger.
“They need me back at Financial State Bank pretty soon.” My voice was polite, respectful.
In a way, these people who had worked for this company for so long were the ones who had raised me.
A long mahogany table sliced the boardroom horizontally, and chairs surrounded all sides. But as people filed in, they occupied the chairs backed up against the wall. Some people preferred to stand while other people preferred to sit, and most of the people seated at the center table were VP level or above.
As more and more workers filed in, thoughts raced in my head. I’d been here before but in front of a different company, not in front of my family’s company. As sales decreased and expenses stay the same, soon, profit margins would dwindle down to where layoffs were needed. A sinking feeling hit the pit of my stomach, and I thought of Elise, Logan, Jenny, and many others I knew closely at Colby’s. I didn’t want to do that. Lay people off, people I knew, people who had watched me grow up. My father didn’t want to do that. He’d raised this company from the ground up, working nonstop, my mother right alongside him. If anything, these people had seen my father more than Kyle and I had.
There were multigenerational employees, such as Casey, where her father had been the head of quality and assurance before her. My father might not have known all of the factory workers, but here, at corporate, he knew them all by name.
Even though I didn’t want this to be personal, it was. Those companies that I tore apart for Financial State were nameless faces, but everyone in this room knew me by my first name and vice versa.
It’d kill him to fire any of them, and my stomach churned at the thought of if we’d have to come to that.
Alyssa and Casey were the last to enter the room, Casey laughing, as always. They staggered in, and beside them, Charlie strolled in, smiling. Her dimples were set deep in her cheeks, her most endearing quality. It was almost childlike, but when you took her all in, you knew she was no child. She was all woman with her slim waist and the nice curvature of her ass.
I cleared my throat and swallowed. Yeah, can’t go there.
Casey and Alyssa made their way to their regular spots at the table, but Charlie backed up against the wall.
Casey swept her hands over to the seat next to her, but Charlie adamantly shook her head and inched further away, almost at the corner, as though she didn’t want to be seen.
“Charlie, get over here,” Casey hissed.
My father peered up at Charlie as the room quieted to a hush. With one look, she meandered to the seat.
And then my father started his spiel. “As we close out this quarter, I want to personally thank each and every one of you for all you do. For all your hard work, day in and day out. I’m so very proud of this team and where you’ve taken Colby’s.”