The Boss (6 page)

“You have such an eloquent way of describing simple things. That or you’re a top notch bullshitter.”

“Its a magical combination of both, really. But it works. So you ready to see some magic?”

“Show me the magic.”

Jake shows Abbey the photos on his laptop. She watches as he works his magic with the software to create some truly spectacular images from his already great photos. He sets them to music and plays the picture show for her.

“Jake, you’re amazing. It makes me wanna come back here, and I’ve already seen this place.”

“Now you know what I can do.”

“Thanks for the show. But I have to check in to my hotel. You know, the one with half as many stars.”

“You’re welcome to stay here if you like. Save a couple hundred bucks, Abbey.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“I’m afraid of what might happen.”

“We’ve already been there, and we’re both single, so there’s really nothing to be afraid of.”

“I’m not ready for that.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Do you want to understand, Jake?”

“I do, Abbey.”

“You know how you say you’re in love with me?”

“Of course.”

“I want to feel the same way. And the only way I can convince myself it’s real if I convince myself that this isn’t a relationship based on lust.”

“I get it. Now let me make you an offer.”

“OK.”

“There’s two beds in here. You take whatever one you want. I’ll take the other. You can have the bathroom first. We’ll talk into the wee hours of the morning, and I promise I won’t leave the bed. Except to pee, of course.”

“You can do that?”

“It’ll be my way of proving to you that I value your company more than, you know, getting lucky.”

“You’re on. But any hanky panky, and I’m out of here.”

“Under one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You don’t sneak over to my bed and start tempting me. That’s entrapment, and then all bets are off.”

“Don’t worry, that won’t happen. You got a deal.”

“OK, then. You get ready first. I’ll wait till you’re under the covers before I get ready.”

They both get ready for bed as promised, and finally they are under the covers in separate beds as agreed. They talk into the wee hours of the morning, sharing details of their lives and their families. Finally, with not a hint of lust between them, they drift off into slumber.
 

As the night sky begins to lose it’s darkness, slowly and quietly, Jake climbs out of bed and into the bathroom to ready himself for another day’s work. He must catch the morning sun coming up on the Space Needle. He quietly leaves the room without stirring his room mate.

After getting the shots he needs, he returns to the room. Abbey is still sleeping. He lies down on his bedspread, staying fully dressed. The morning sun
 
 
 
shines in through the window. Diffused by the curtains, it casts it’s soft yellow glow on Abbey’s face. Like a newlywed admiring his pretty new wife, Jake watches her sleeping peacefully with such joy in his heart. It was a challenge for him not to break their agreement, but now he’s glad he was able to prove himself worthy. She smiles at him as she awakens to greet the new day.

“Good morning, sleepy head.”

“What are you doing dressed already?”

“I went to work this morning.”

“Where?”

“Sunrise shots of the needle and the downtown.”

“Wow, you are the industrious one, aren’t you?”

“Have to be. Sun don’t wait for no one.”

“My meeting isn’t till after noon. Can we have breakfast together?”

“I was counting on it.”

“OK, close your eyes while I get up.”

“What? And spoil my entertainment?”

“Yes. Now be a gentlemen and turn the other way, please.”

“OK, but only cause you said please.”

Abbey gets ready, and an hour later the two of them go for breakfast.

“How come it only takes a man half the time as a woman to get ready?”

“A man is only half what a woman is.”

“Oh, there’s some sexual harassment in there somewhere.”

“You asked.”

“And you sure answered. But my answer is the right one.”

“OK, let’s hear it.”

“Men only need half the time to do what a woman does.”

“Talk about sexist.”

“Hey, you asked.”

“You know a good place for breakfast?”

“Not yet. But I bet it won’t take long to find one here. Seattle’s loaded with coffee shops.”

“I could go for something on a croissant.”

“Figures. Girly breakfast.”

“Well I’m a girl. So there.”

“Point taken. Whatever you want, I can eat anything.”

“You have a busy day?”

“Nope. As a matter of fact, I’ve gotta figure out what I’m gonna do till the golden hour before sunset. Pictures in midday light look horrible.”

“Come with me.”

“Where?”

“To my meeting. It’ll be like old times.”

“I don’t quite recall the old times being all that endearing, Abbey.”

“Right. Good point. Will you come anyway?”

“Maybe. Do I get paid?”

“I’ll buy you lunch.”

“Now who can resist a deal like that? You’re on.”

They finish breakfast, take a little walk around town and head toward Abbey’s meeting. Abbey is trying to pitch a client into using her publishing company, but the client seems to feel that traditional printed books might not be profitable enough as they once were. The online market is changing the book world on a daily basis, and it’s getting easier for authors to manage their own publishing. Still, even with online publishing, there’s a need to market the service effectively.

Jake, sitting there listening to the pitch and seeing the less than enthusiastic response, is hatching a new plan in his mind. He wants to see if Abbey is receptive, and if so, they can pitch it together. He motions to Abbey for a private moment. The two of them leave the room. He explains the idea to her and the two of them head back into the conference room to pitch it.

“Mr. Foster, my partner and I have a revolutionary idea for your books. Jake, why don’t you explain the idea to Mr Foster?”

“Sure, partner. OK, here’s the basic idea. We all know books are losing market share, eBooks are taking over, blah, blah, blah. Old hat. But what if we were to set up mini libraries in all these expensive coffee shops?”

“What would that do for me?”

“I’m getting to that. Sure, clients come in for coffee, but what they really want is a little down time from their busy days. We set up a small library loaded with a hundred or so books from up and coming authors. Short stories, an hour at most. On the cover of the book, we put the word count or reading time so a customer coming in for say, thirty minutes, can pick a book to read that’s thirty minutes long.”

“And how do we get paid for that?”

“He borrows the book for half a buck, or a dollar, whatever. Haven’t worked the price thing out yet. But it’s still cheaper than an eBook. And the guy doesn’t have to pay twenty bucks for a printed book, either. He reads the whole thing in one sitting and turns it in. Saves him money, and saves space that he doesn’t have to store fifty of these in his apartment.”

“Brilliant. I like it.”

“Now here’s the best part. We keep the rights to the concept. When it becomes big, we open up our own chain of coffee shops, sell only the big profit makers and keep it simple and profitable. We get seven years, maybe, before the next trend hits.”

“I like it. Abbey, you devil, you didn’t tell me you had such a brilliant partner.”

“Oh, yeah. Jake and I go back over seven years.”

“Well then, as long as you and Jake are together on this, let’s do this thing.”

“I’ll get the papers drawn up and have them by end of day tomorrow.”

“Great. I look forward to it.”

Jake and Abbey leave Foster’s office. In the lobby, Abbey pulls Jake aside.

“When did you come up with this? It’s not half bad.”

“At breakfast.”

“You mean just before? And you had all those details?”

“Yup.”

“That’s brilliant. I mean, it’s incredible the way you think of stuff so fast.”

“That’s why I get the big bucks, Abbey. Partner. By the way, what’s this partner stuff?”

“I had to tell him something.”

“So are we really partners? Or going to be?”

“I thought you didn’t want to work for me?”

“Right. I’ll never work
for
you, but I will work
with
you.”

“What about your job?”

“For now, having use of the jet will make travel easier for us while we get this thing off the ground. That is, if you can schedule the client meetings around my shooting schedule. At least until we can make enough to buy our own jet.”

“I like the sound of that, but I just don’t see those kind of profits.”

“I do. Down the road some, and I think it’s gonna work out better than I thought. But we gotta set some ground rules.”

“Like what?”

“First one is we’re equal partners. Fifty - fifty all the way. You’re not my boss and I’m not yours.”

“I’ll go along with that. But if you make me fifty one percent, we get special benefits for a woman owned business.”

“True, but that sways the influence. It isn’t worth the benefit. Fifty-fifty or I’m on my own with it.”

“But it’s my company.”

“It’s my concept. I’m willing to share it, but you have to be willing to share what you have, too. Deal?”

I have to think about it.

“Think about it? Think about what? You can’t lose.”

“OK, it’s a deal.”

“Shake on it. We’ll do the legal stuff later.”

“So what do we call this new venture?”

“A.J. Lenders.”

“Where’d you come up with that name?”

“Really, come on. A for Abbey, J for Jake and lenders because we -”

“- OK, I get it.”

“It’s about time.”

“Has a nice ring to it.”

“Figures. Guess you like the A being first.”

“Of course.”

“Just sounds better that way. That’s the only reason.”

“Whatever you say, partner.”

“So what’s on the agenda the rest of the day?”

“Gotta draw up the papers for Foster. A little rest, and then the red-eye home tonight.”

“The red-eye? You’re kiddin’ me. No, I guess I’m not surprised. You prob’ly saved a bundle on air fare.”

“Think you could give me a lift to the airport later?”

“So early?”

“I don’t have a room, remember?”

“How about we take a drive to Puget Sound first. There’s some great little stores you might like. We can find a coffee shop to sit and do the paperwork.”

“That’d be nice.”

Jake takes Abbey to a few of the stores in one of the small towns on the east side of Puget sound. Abbey is enjoying window shopping while Jake just admires the fact Abbey admires him. This is his dream come true. The one he thought he would only live out somewhere in his own mind.
 
All the years of past office problems melt away as this new era of Abbey and Jake takes root for the future. Jake makes sure he takes lots of pictures of Abbey everywhere they go.

A few hours later, they are pulling up to SeaTac airport in plenty of time for Abbey to catch her flight. Jake is scheduled to fly on to Portland, Oregon, Sacramento, California and then San Francisco for more photography.

“Abbey, come with me to Portland.”
“I can’t, Jake. I’m due back tomorrow.”

“What do you have back home that can’t wait a few days? The office will still be there. Erika will see to that.”

“You know how hard it is to change a flight, especially this late?”

“Forget the flights. Come back with me on the private jet. It’ll be a real treat.”

“You know, if you had planned this out ahead of time, I might of said yes. But I really just need to get back. You know me well enough to know once I set my mind to something, that’s it.”

“You’ll be missing a rare opportunity to see lot’s of great places. Multnomah Falls, Canon Beach, the Redwood Forrest, Lake Tahoe. These are some of the most beautiful places in the country.”

“You take some great pictures and show me when we get back. It’ll be just like being there.”

“No it won’t, Abbey. Not for me.”

“It’s only a few days, Jake.”

“A few days without holding your hand. Without tucking you in at night and laughing till the wee hours. I’m gonna miss that.”

“Come on, now. You hated me for seven years and loved me for a few weeks. A few days and we’ll be able to do those things again.”

“OK, hard ass. Have it your way. I’ll see you when I get back. What’s your flight number? I’ll track it on my laptop.”

“2188 through Atlanta. Eleven PM.”

“We’ll have to say goodbye here. They won’t let me stop more than a minute to unload your bags.”

“Thank you, Jake. For everything.”

“Thank you, Abbey. For making my dreams come true. I love you. See you in a few days.”

They hug and kiss goodbye until they see the security person start giving them the ‘look’ to get moving. Jake pulls away as slowly as possible to catch a last glimpse of Abbey as she makes her way inside the airport. Then he drives off to his hotel room grabbing a few snacks at a convenience store along the way.

Back at his hotel, Jake can feel the emptiness in his heart without Abbey by his side. He can not understand the logic why, after so many years of spats and only days of quality time together, he feels so lost without her. He calls Abbey to make sure her flight is on time. She’s already on the plane, and is just getting the instructions to turn off all electronic equipment. They exchange one last goodbye before she has to turn off the phone.

Jake turns off his phone and puts it on the charger for the night. He loads his laptop with the many photos he’s taken, and copies all of the pictures of Abbey into a separate folder. He sets those photos to play, and he just watches them over and over. Then he sets up the tracking program and watches the airplane logo over the US map of Abbey’s flight as she jets across the country. He alternates between the photos and the flight tracker until he’s just too tired to keep his head up. Somewhere over southeastern Idaho, the logo fails to come up. Jake is to tired to wait for the next update. He shuts down the laptop and turns in for the evening.