“Well, let me know if you want to see the numbers,” Chris replied standing up. “I have some meetings to get to, I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Sounds good,” I said standing and shaking his hand.
I watched Chris walk out of the office, shutting my door behind him. He was a good guy and had the best financial interest of the company at heart, but he was very disconnected from the rest of it. When I started the business, I knew I could grow it fast enough that it would make a significant impact on the stimulation of our economy, and it has done exactly that. Today, it was one of the largest stimulators of our country’s economy, but I could see it taking a turn. Corporate America was not what I wanted out of Pope Financials, and though I knew it was impossible to stay entirely out of the circuit once the company reached a substantial size, it bothered me that it was starting to dive in, instead of sticking its toe in the waters.
I knew from watching my father, reading, and seeing the trends of the largest corporations in the world, that once you completely submerged yourself in the politics and policies of the corporate big time, the company often lost all will to remain a morally intact organization. That was what I was afraid of, running and owning a company that was questioned by the very people that kept it afloat. I didn’t want to be the latest corporate scandal, or the company found to be working along with the big government to fill the pockets of politicians. I had made it this far without dabbling in morally questionable actions, and that had been difficult, especially once Pope Financials hit the top ten companies. I was publicly traded, had investors, and the whole nine yards, but I was very careful with what avenues we took to get ourselves there. It was starting to become harder and harder.
I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my chin, wondering what other companies thought about this. I knew I didn’t have to outsource to get overseas, but I also knew that financially it was a risk to expand on the back of current profits. If anything went wrong, there would be no net to catch us. With outsourcing, we could save a lot of money and put that back into expansion. At the same time though, that would turn off a lot of people, put thousands out of work, and create a stigma of morally questionable operations with the public and behind the scenes. Personally, it would create a question in my own mind.
The decision was difficult and I knew I couldn’t jump in head first.
Chapter Four
Ruby
The week had gone by so fast I didn’t even know what I was doing. It was Friday which meant the protest march was almost there. I didn’t have many spare moments to be taking personal time, but I had promised Lisa I would meet her friend, so that was what I was going to do. I had to remind myself that she didn’t force it on me, I agreed, knowing I needed to get out there and broaden my horizons a bit, it just never seemed to be the right time.
I looked in the mirror at my long dark hair, pulled up one side. My hazel eyes glimmered against the dark eye makeup I had applied, and I was satisfied with my outfit. It was a tight black dress with a black suit jacket over it, creating a serious but playful effect. This was one of my problems, I thought about everything way too much. People didn’t like intelligent people, it made them uncomfortable, but I had a hard time playing dumb, especially with so much ignorance already in the world.
That ignorance was in full force this week when the higher powers would found out about the number of people that the march and protest were going to bring. No one ever paid attention when it was under a thousand, but you could start to feel the push back when the numbers breached that mark. We had done that and more, especially with the controversy swirling around in the current administration. People were ready, they were no longer hiding behind the comfort of their front doors. They wanted change in any shape they could find it. In some ways, the political unrest happening had strengthened our ability to get the issues noticed. Three years ago, no one would have cared about a protest against outsourcing, it wasn’t one of the popular human rights issues, but now people were starting to take notice of everything.
That was good for us but also brought the opposition in our faces full force. I had seen it all through the years from death threats to financial bribes and this time was no different. You knew when people started to get nasty and show their colors, you were headed in the right direction. They were paying attention to you and perceived you as a danger to their pocketbooks. The thing you had to remember was they were people just like you, and their threats and callous words didn’t mean anything more than someone was taking notice. Still, it brought a level of discomfort and stress to my life since I had somehow become a leader in this movement.
I grabbed my bag and headed out the door, ready to go meet this guy at a restaurant in Manhattan. My sister had described him as funny and handsome, two things that were a plus but not the core of what I was looking for in a man. I just had to keep telling myself that like him or not, I was getting out there and meeting people, which I needed desperately in my life.
When I arrived, he was standing in front of the restaurant in a pair of dress pants, a button-up shirt that looked slightly too big on him, and a nervous smile. I stepped out of the car and watched his eyes grow bigger, obviously pleased with how I looked. I smiled at him and walked over, leaning in and kissing him on the cheek.
“Jack, I presume?”
“Yes,” he said smiling. “Ruby, you look beautiful.”
“Thank you,” I said, liking the smell of his cologne.
“Shall we?”
I nodded my head and walked through the door he held open for me. The hostess showed us to our seats in the back of the restaurant where we could talk more privately. You could barely tell how a date was going to go from the first twenty minutes, especially with nerves running wild between two people sizing each other up. That was the time when we decided whether we were attracted physically. He was handsome, I would give him that, but there was nothing smooth about his mannerisms. He looked like a big kid fumbling around at a fancy restaurant. I tried to ignore it and give him the benefit of the doubt.
However, after a bottle of wine and some food, I had a better idea of who this guy was. Jack was your typical spoiled middle-class male, from a family with enough money to keep their attention focused on moving up in the world, but not enough to enjoy dinners at places like we were sitting. He had been coddled to the point where he had no clue what went on in the world around him. It was like watching the news, listening to them recite the bull crap that was passed down from channel to channel until the truth was utterly unrecognizable. He lacked the capacity to make a clear, intelligent statement without replicating precisely what he read on his Facebook feed. I was trying hard to not be rude, but he was making it very difficult.
“You actually believe the CEO’s of these companies care about a few million dollars? They are making decisions on what will grow their business,” he said shaking his head.
“Of course, they care,” I scoffed. “And so do their stockholders. When you get that big, you start to lose touch with why you started in the first place. Though, some of these guys knew exactly what they wanted, without any moral or patriotic base to their decisions whatsoever. There is more than one way to accomplish a goal, Jack, it’s just that the most lucrative are almost always the easiest and quickest way around a problem.”
“You sound like a conspiracy theorist,” he laughed.
“You sound like an idiot,” I replied, not feeling sorry about it at all.
I looked down at my purse and pulled some cash out for dinner and tossed it on the table. I was done, I tried. This was the reason why I didn’t put myself out there anymore, it ended in me being pissed and storming out of whatever social situation we
were in.
“Thank you for a lovely evening,” I said looking over at him.
“Oh, come on, Ruby,” he chuckled. “It was a harmless conversation. Don’t go.”
“It’s not harmless,” I said turning around. “It’s the world we live in, and I can’t sit there and even consider spending time with someone that sees things through the same mainstream goggles that led us into this mess in the first place. I’m sorry, I’m sure you are a delightful person to hang out with outside of the debate, but this is my life.”
He shook his head with a snide smile on his face as I turned and walked out of the restaurant. I was pissed, not because he was the same old unintelligent guy that I seemed to always find, but because the world was so blind to everything. I couldn’t even socialize myself for a long enough time to make friends. Maybe I was kidding myself, maybe the people I worked with and protested with were the only people that I would ever feel even minutely comfortable with.