“Those are the flyers for my show tonight,” Calvin announced. He was an aspiring musician, and a couple months ago I’d gotten him in contact with my friend from college, Sean. Sean owned a bar downtown, and he was tight with all the other pub owners in Boston, so he was the person to know if you wanted to break into the indie music scene. Calvin did two shows last month, and this would be his third.
“It’s tonight?” I asked. “Why are you just handing out flyers now?”
“Because Sean didn’t call me to let me know I had the gig until this morning,” he said. “But I was hoping you could give them out around the office.”
“Why can’t you give them out around the office?”
Calvin shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I would, it’s just that if thebosshands you a flyer to go to a show, you’re a lot more likely to check it out than if someone like me, a lowly HR person, gives you a flyer.”
“So, you want me to use my position of power to intimidate people into going to see you perform?”
He shot finger guns at me. “Exactly.”
I laughed. “I’ll see what I can do. I’ve got a busy day, and believe it or not, you’re the secondmember of the Stevens family to ask a favor of me today. Who knows, maybe you all will go for a hat trick and your sister will ask me for a favor when I take her to lunch later.”
Calvin scrunched his nose up. “I forgot she was starting today.”
“Seriously, what is the deal between you two? I know you said you don’t get along, but that can mean a lot of things. Do you guys disagree on politics, or did one of you get more attention from your parents and the other is forever resentful?”
Calvin crossed his arms. “It’s nothing. I just wish she would’ve stayed in London, that’s all.”
“Harsh, don’t you think?”
He smirked. “Just wait until you meet the person Kat has grown into,” he said. “And then you can tell me again who you think the harsh one is in the family.”
I sat down at my desk and frowned at him, but instead of elaborating, he simply walked over and tapped an annoyed finger on the stack of flyers. “Please, pass these out? If you think about it, you sort of owe me.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Well, if it wasn’t for you and all your pestering, I would’ve never decided to pick up my guitar again. And if it wasn’t for you getting me in contact with Sean, and practically insisting that I start playing live shows, I wouldn’t be having one tonight.”
“So, because I was a good friend, and because I told you to chase down your dreams, now it’s my job to do all your dirty work for you?”
Calvin scoffed. “It’s not dirty work, it’s just handing out a few flyers! C’mon, please!”
“Fine,” I said. “I will hand out a few. But only to people who I am running into anyway, and I draw the line at using my influence as their boss. I’ll tell them they can come, but I won’t make it seem like they have to.”
“Honestly, what is the point of being a boss if you’re not even going to use all the perks?”
“I could use one perk,” I said. “The perk of being able to fire people who spend all day printing flyers, using company ink I might add, instead of sitting at their desks and doing any actual work.”
Calvin flashed me a smile. “Fire me. I dare you. Seriously, I think it might be the happiest day of my life.”
I straightened the stack of papers and pushed them to the side. Calvin had been running with this joke for months now, but one of these days, I knew he would really be walking out of here. He wasn’t happy at this job, but you don’t walk away from a good paycheck when you live in a city like Boston. We had to wait until he had something better lined up.ThenI could fire him. That way he’d get the severance package.
“As nice as these flyers are,” I said. “And as big as the turnout may be tonight, I think it’s safe to assume you are still going to need a job tomorrow, so I’ll let you off the hook this time.” I pointed to the door, but not unkindly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some paperwork to do. Something I’m sure you’ve never even heard of, my friend.”
“Sir, yes sir,” Calvin said. “I’ll let you get back to this mysterious paperwork you speak of.” He turned on his heel, called a lazy thank you over his shoulder, and disappeared out the door and down the hall.
I smiled at the flyers, then opened my laptop and began answering a few of the more urgent emails. Some of which had been marked urgent when they were sent on Monday, and now it was Friday, and I was just now getting around to them. When I first started working at the company, I wouldn’t let a day go by without getting back to everyone who had contacted me. That was my claim to fame—well, one of them—and I knew for a fact it was one of the main reasons that I was able to rise up the ranks so quickly. The eagerness with which I would respond made clients and coworkers alike feel heard, and I gave them the impression that I knew their time was important.
I still felt that way. In fact, I felt that way now more than ever.
After I lost Erin, I realized just how important time was. For weeks after the funeral, I was plagued by memories of all the time I’d spent away from her over the years. HerandVictoria. I had put in so many late hours, worked during so many family vacations and romantic weekend trips away, and for what? Sure, I was CEO, I was bringing in more money than I knew what to do with, but I’d lost the one person who all along I had been planning to share this with.
Erin and I met in college, and I knew from the moment our hands first touched, the moment she first met my gaze, that I wanted to marry her. More than that, though, I wanted to give her the world. Every decision I made back then was in pursuit of making sure she was the happiest woman in the universe.
Now she was gone, and I would give all my money away, I would give my house, my cars, everything I suppose except Victoria’s college fund, to have just one more day with her.