he promised...
I felt my heart clench at the memory of my first love, the man who still came to me in my dreams on some nights, despite his lies and utter betrayal. Despite me trying my best to move on with other boyfriends who could never compare to him.
Stop it, and focus on the future, Kate. It’s been over nine years now. It’s time to finally let James Garrett go ...
(and) while I can’t deny
Sean
SUBJECT: OFFICIAL BOARD Vote & Replacement Interviews
Mr. Holmes,
After much deliberation, the board has come to a decision. Despite the fact that you are reckless, selfish, and wholly dedicated to working against us at every turn, we will allow you to sit in on the remaining interviews for our all new executive team.
The vote was a heated one (9-7), so I suggest you take a long look at yourself in the mirror and realize that you are 100% replaceable, CEO or not. (I also find it quite frustrating that you don’t even drink coffee ...)
Please come to my office so we can discuss the applicants we’ll be meeting this week.
Chairman of the Board,
Pier Autumn Coffee
Joseph Jewell
P.S. ―No offense, but we miss our old CEO.
I HELD BACK A SIGH as I read his message, debating whether I wanted to waste my time with a response. I wasn’t even in the office today; I was at home working on one of my favorite classic cars with Blue.
Not that this was an excuse. I’d always hated being trapped in an office and dealing with corporate culture. Reading long, drawn out emails in a gilded box, instead of having face to face conversations someplace we actually wanted to be. There was no amount of designer-grade furniture or Grade-A building amenities that could keep me in my office for more than four hours at a time.
Does he honestly think I want to come in and sit through these boring-ass interviews?
I’d sat through enough of them yesterday to know that the applicant pool was far from impressive. A part of me almost regretted firing the old team, but another part of me wanted to fire every person in the Human Resources department for wasting my time. Not a single applicant had scored higher than a sixty out of a hundred on the intake test (which was a take-home), and some of them were people I’d previously fired before.
Hmmm. Firing the entire HR department may be the better idea ...
I drafted an email to let the department know that they were no longer needed, but I eventually deleted my words and typed some for Joseph Jewell instead.
SUBJECT: RE: OFFICIAL Board Vote and Remainder of Replacement Interviews
Mr. Jewell,
Unless you and the other board members are discussing the ways that you all are planning to leave and finally let me run the company the way I want to, I couldn’t care less about your discussions or your thoughts about me.
I have no desire to sit in on any interviews until someone gets a perfect score, and when I do look in the mirror today, it won’t be to realize that I’m “100% replaceable.” It’ll be to remind myself that I’m the CEO and not you. (Oh, and that your wife blushes at this face whenever she sees me.)
I’m not in the office today, and for the umpteenth time: I don’t need to drink coffee to know how to sell it.
CEO of this company (not you),
Pier Autumn Coffee
Sean Holmes
P.S.―No offense taken. I miss not having to answer to a power hungry, blood-thirsty board.
MY PHONE RANG WITHIN minutes of pressing send on that email, but I hit ignore. Three times for each of his unwanted calls.
I started to turn off my phone for the day, but it buzzed with a new email from him.
SUBJECT: RE: RE: OFFICIAL Board Vote and Remainder of Replacement Interviews
Mr. Holmes,
Let’s start over and be a little more mature, shall we?
As of today, one applicant for the marketing executive position has scored a perfect 100/100. That interview will be Thursday at 8:00 a.m. Will you be there?
Chairman of the Board,
Pier Autumn Coffee
Joseph Jewell
I hesitated to answer. Since I’d taken over, no applicant in any department earned a perfect score. I’d honestly thought that by setting the bar that high, that I would get out of coming into the office for an entire month.
THEN AGAIN, IF WE COULD finally land a good marketing director that’ll be the start of me finally changing things around...
SUBJECT: RE: RE: RE: Official Board Vote and Remainder of Replacement Interviews
Fair