I roll on my side and stare at the screen with my father’s name on it.
Maybe I should rip off the Band-Aid.
With a deep breath, I suck it up and just get it over with. I hit Answer, but I have no voice.
“Teddy? Hello? If this is your damn voicemail again—”
“It’s me, Dad.”
“Ah. Well …”
Silence fills the line.
“You’ve been calling me repeatedly to say ‘Well’?”
“Yes, well, ah …” He clears his throat. “I expected you not to answer again. We have things to discuss.”
“Pretty sure we don’t. My future is my own, and I’m done—”
“I have a proposition for you.”
I sigh. “Let me guess. You’re willing to overlook the boyfriend thing if I put my head down and work really hard to be your minion.”
“Would you shut that mouth of yours for five seconds?” Dad grumbles.
Eww, why did my dad suddenly remind me of Jacobs? I shudder.
“If you want something more than Beckett Enterprises as your future, you need to have a backup plan.”
“A … backup plan?” I can’t have heard right.
“Have you registered for your classes this semester yet?”
I grunt. “Yeah, weeks ago. Why?”
“Oh. I thought that happened during your first week.”
“Everything’s online now.” You ancient dinosaur.
“Well, is it too late to change classes or switch majors?”
I’m confused. So fucking confused. “Yeah, like a year too late.”
There’s another beat of silence before he says, “It’s up to you to change that.”
“I don’t get it,” I say.
“If you want out of the business, you need to prove you have a different life planned out. One that is sustainable. You can’t live on your trust fund forever.”
I actually think I could, technically. It’s worth more than what a lot of people make in a lifetime, but I’m not going to bring that up. He’d probably find a way to tie it up in legal shit so I can’t access it until I’m fifty.
“I still don’t understand.”
Dad’s silence speaks volumes. “Maybe you are right and aren’t smart enough to run the company if you don’t understand what I’m saying.”
“Nice. Thanks.”
“You wanted an out, and I’m giving it to you.”
Wow. “So, because I have a boyfriend, you’re finally releasing me from my obligation?” I don’t know whether to be pissed off or happy. Maybe both.
“You don’t want to join the business, and I’m done trying to force you into something you don’t want. But that doesn’t mean you can go off and do nothing with your life.”
“You’re … really letting this go? Why? Is this because I have a boyfriend?”
“I don’t care who you’re dating, but seeing you with … him did make me realize something. It hit me all at once.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re not me. You’ve been acting out to prove a point, but all I was seeing was someone not wanting to grow up. I thought you didn’t want to work for me because it meant putting all your childish actions aside. I’ve been seeing all your shenanigans as a young man doing stupid shit while he can still get away with it instead of what it is—a protest.”
I suck in a sharp breath and hold it.
“I’m not going to make you take a job you despise, Teddy, but I’m not going to sit back and watch you piss away your money or your life. So, I have a proposition. You have until graduation to show me a life plan that is stable and supportive of a Beckett lifestyle.”
I narrow my eyes. “Meaning …”
“If you won’t take the job at Beckett Enterprises, you’ll be cut off from all the perks that goes with that. I need to have faith that you can support yourself.”
“And if I fail?”
“If you can’t do that, then you’ll take your position at my company and will grow the fuck up.”
Ah. There’s the catch.
This is a trap. It has to be.
It’s too late to change from a business major, meaning the only future he wants me to have outside the company would still be business related.
He’s trying to force me into working for him, but he forgets one thing. I’ve been trying to get out of my fate since middle school when I first found out about my father’s plans for me.
If there was a college degree in avoidance, hand me my diploma.
“So, I have until graduation?” I ask.
“Yes. If you can’t show me a plan that I approve of by then, you’ll take the job with me.”
“Even if I’m in a relationship with a guy? What happened to the board not accepting a queer guy as CEO?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Meaning he thinks we’re never going to come to it.
There’s every chance in the world that he won’t approve of any plan I come up with, but there is an opportunity to get out and do my own thing here.
I just have to prove myself.