James
Christmas was never a Rockwellian picture for me and Amelia. My father didn’t have the sentiment gene. Or the loving father one. Christmas was more of an annoyance to him because everything was closed and everyone was at home with their families. The exception had been the company’s annual Christmas party. He used this occasion to schmooze and booze with the elite, as well as to remind people that he could ruin them.
This year would be different. My father was disgraced and rotting in jail until his trial after his bail was revoked when he tried to leave the country. Since then, I’ve been CEO and have done my damnedest to keep the company afloat amid my father’s scandal, as well as cleanse it of my father’s questionable and ruthless reputation. I knew I was in for the effort of a lifetime. What I hadn’t expected was that the board would make it so hard for me. Working with them was like driving with the parking brake on.
They questioned everything I did to clean up the company’s act and forge a future without my father’s corrupt practices. Was I naïve to think they’d want that? Maybe. After all, the board looked the other way at my father’s less than legal business tactics. He was currently in jail for kidnapping, false imprisonment, and fraud for what he did to my sister, Amelia, and her husband, Max. But now he was also being investigated for mortgage fraud. Now all of a sudden, the board was worried about the CEO’s reputation?
I wasn’t perfect, but I wasn’t using people to get what I want at the expense of others. I wasn’t inflating assets or low-balling them to manipulate loans or taxes. I wasn’t threatening or extorting anyone. No. I was busting my balls to right the company ship that had hit an iceberg and was going to sink without major changes.
To be honest, when I met with the board earlier today, I thought I’d be recognized for getting us to the end of the year. What an idiot I was. Those motherfuckers decided that a single man running the company was a risk. They acted like I was running a fucking bordello out of my office. They saw me as a man sowing my oats, and for some reason, that was bad for a company.
“Single men aren’t settled, stable,” George Keyes said.
“I don’t remember your telling my dad to get married.” What a hypocrite.
“Your father had been married. He raised his kids on his own when your mother left.” George said that like my father was a saint.
I bit my tongue. They wouldn’t care that being raised by my father was like being raised by Rasputin.
Simon Jones nodded, but his expression held sympathy. “You’re working hard, James. We can see that.”
They all had called my father Mr. Dunsmore, but I was James. Maybe I needed to assert myself more. Be more of an asshole like my father.
“But the company has a lot to overcome, and a single man playing the field doesn’t show the sort of stability that our partners and investors need right now,” Simon finished.
I hadn’t fucked a woman in longer than I could remember. Sex wasn’t anywhere in my orbit. But I couldn’t very well tell these men that. Not without having them see me as a lesser man than they already did.
“What are you saying?” I asked, thinking maybe I was misunderstanding them. Maybe I was a lesser man.
“You need to get married. Settle down,” George said.
I looked at each man sitting at the boardroom table, wondering if they’d taken whatever my father had drugged Amelia and Max with last year.
“What if I don’t?”
George didn’t blink. “Well, we could remove you as CEO.”
I left the meeting. Hell, I left the building and seriously thought about not returning. The only reason I was at this fucked up company Christmas party was that many of the people I worked with were good and loyal workers. They deserved to have someone recognize their efforts after a very difficult year.
So there I was, feeling like Scrooge as company workers and city elites drank booze and schmoozed.
When my sister and Max arrived, she came over to where I was hiding in the corner.
"You're doing a great job, James. Look at everyone here. You should smile and not look so sour."
I scowled at her. "You will not believe what those motherfuckers did to me today."
"What motherfuckers?"
"The board. I have been busting my nuts for the last ten months, but they still feel like the company is at risk of falling under another scandal."
"We can't help what's going on with Dad,” she said.
“Not Dad. Me. They think I’m a risk."
She looked at me quizzically. "What are you talking about?"
"They're worried that my single status leaves the company open to scandal. They act like I'm a fucking playboy. Do you know the last time I fucked someone?”