Page 12 of Lovesick

Chapter 5

Calling up his treating physician’s stoicism, he stepped into George’s office behind Louise.

“Close the door, Doc,” George said.

He kept his flinch to himself, but closed the door with a gentle snick. Something about closed office doors was getting to him. Having spent most of his professional life out in the open, either in the field in primitive conditions, including hospitals that were no more than tents, and at the free clinic where he rarely sat or had more than the shortest meeting with anyone other than patients, all this plotting and planning was foreign to him. And yet he knew it was necessary, felt the urgency of preserving the family-owned company himself. Almost as much as he felt Louise’s vibrating presence, tugging at him in a different and very urgent way.

George paced around in a tight circle and Louise leaned against his desk watching him, a pensive look on her face. He came to stand in a spot that created a triangle of sorts.

“I won’t kid you, Dr. Pendleton—”

“Call me Max.”

“You know what’s at stake. The vote could mean major changes in the company. We could go from a family-run company to a publicly-owned corporate machine. You would be the first casualty of such a change.”

“I understand.” In his mind he translated that to mean family owned with a company doctor to publicly-owned corporation with no frills, including no company doctor. He avoided Louise’s eyes.

“Good. Let’s go into the conference room. I got together everyone who I know is on our side.”

They followed Louise through the imposing door that opened into an even more imposing room dominated by a long, dark, heavy wood table and tall bookcases along two sides. There was a large floor-to-ceiling window at one end and a large marble-manteled fireplace at the other end. Between the bookcases on one side of the room was a credenza covered in delicious-smelling food.

There were three empty chairs. George went to the one at the head of the table and Louise took the vacant chair to his right. There was an empty chair beside her and she tilted her head with a look that told him he should sit there. He recognized a few of the people in the room: George’s wife, Margo, and Will Regal, his cousin. There were ten altogether. Max wondered how many of the family members weren’t there. And wondered how that made Louise feel about those family members. He almost took her hand, stopping himself as he remembered this was about business. Serious business.

George spoke. “Let the contest begin. We need to come up with a plan to convince everyone that Regal’s is better off kept as a family company, not only for our souls, but financially as well.” He looked at Max.

“I invited Dr. Max Pendleton here to the meeting since the investment company’s representative, Sosi Petrov, made him the poster boy of all that was wrong with the family-owned business. I think he represents all that is right. He’s agreed to help us.”

“Don’t worry, Max,” Louise said, commanding his attention, commanding the room’s attention. “We’re not going to let Regal’s go public. No matter how much Sosi Petrov and her investors want to offer us. Taking that money is short-term thinking. This company’s been in the family for five generations and we owe it to the next generation to keep it going to pass on the legacy. It’s not going to end here. Not on my watch.”

The phone at George’s elbow rang and he picked it up, raising his index finger to indicate a pause as he swiveled away from the table. Underneath George’s murmurs, Max decided to speak to Louise, to reveal the thoughts that ran through his head. His balls were growing by the day. Perhaps it was the irrepressible medical field hubris reasserting itself. Though he had no real business thinking what he did, with no standing of a long friendship, or family connection, let alone some kind of commitment, not even an understanding between them to back him up, to give him the right to comment, he leaned in and whispered, “Big talk for a lady with no children.”

The spark of shock flared in her dark eyes. “I’m not dead yet,” she said in a hush. “Neither are my ovaries, last time I had them checked, Doc.” Surprise with a smack of outrage under-rode her tone, but the look on her face was bald curiosity.

There was no reason her low husky voice should have flash-boiled his blood, except the words held intimacy. What she’d said and how she said it made him feel like she’d shared a dark secret, taken his smart-ass comment and raised his stakes. To infinity.

George clapped his hand to stop the mini discussions that had popped up around the table

“We’re not losing the family company on my watch either.” George panned his eyes around the room and it wasn’t Max’s imagination that he glared at him before he focused on Louise. George knew there was something going on. Hell, maybe he ought to corner George later and ask him what that something was, ‘cause hell if Max knew. He was running with it, playing with fire, going against his own steadfast grain and every time he tried to take control, to get back inside the place he knew, she undid him.

“Get yourself back on your feet, Lou.” George said. “We have a lot of work to do in the next few weeks before the vote.” George slapped down the financial proposal from the outside firm on the table. “This is what they’re giving the family stakeholders. It’s the public offering proposed. Sosi Petrov, as you know, is the representative from the investment company and it was agreed that she would come to come a meeting of the full board next week to make a presentation. We’ll need our own stick of dynamite to counter her.” George wore a grim face that didn’t suit him.

“I have an idea,” Louise said. “Margo and I talked about it this morning. We’ll hold a Back to the Future themed event with the goal of proving that some old-fashioned values never lose their charm. To prove that Regal’s will continue to thrive by keeping the old-fashioned parts that speak to people no matter the era, while presenting the latest-and-greatest style, fashion, and technology trends for sale.” Murmurs and excitement went around the room. Others threw out enthusiastic suggestions to flesh out the details and a true brainstorming session ensued. Max found himself caught up in the fervor and volunteering to play an exaggerated role of the old-fashioned company doctor at the event.

“We can do a Norman-Rockwell-meets-the-Jetsons theme. Best of both worlds,” Louise said.

“The idea sounds fun. I’m a Normal Rockwell fan.”

“Are we turning this thing into a carnival?” George asked.

“Of sorts, but it’ll be fun—and profitable,” Louise said.

George said, “What do you think, Will? You’re the financial guru.”

“If we can get enough ultra-high-margin goods for sale to cover the extra cost, it should work well,” Will said.

“It’ll generate loads of interest in the store. We’ll have photographers around and post tons of content in our social media accounts,” Margo said.

Ideas were flung around like a racquetball and Max knew it was at least partly because these people were all family. Close, respectful, irreverent, and loyal family. God, he wished for that kind of family for his son. It was too late for Max. His siblings were far-flung and when they thought of each other it was more out of obligation than caring. They might or might not be loyal, depending on the situation. At the moment, he was the black sheep partly because of his divorce, but mainly because he’d spent so much time away from them abroad with the Doctors Witout Borders. Too much time away to focus on family.