He turned and stared out the window at the gray landscape. It matched his mood. Meetings all day with no reprieve. It was going to be a long day.
They drove in silence the rest of the way to the ECT campus.
Hal stopped the car and hurried around, opening the door for Nathan to get out. The cold wind bit at Nathan’s nose and ears. He only had a suit jacket on for the short walk from the car to the building. He helped Lucy out of the car, and together they hustled into the warmth of the building.
“Ugh. I don’t like the cold,” Lucy announced once they were inside. “Give me that California sun every day of the week.” She shivered and rubbed her arms. “I can’t believe you willingly go out in snow.”
Nathan chuckled. “It’s fun once you get used to it.”
Lucy made a face and shivered again. “No, thank you.”
She looked around the lobby of the building. Lucy looked out of place here. Here dark red clothes contrasted sharply with the pale blues and light colors of the office. Her sharp elegant look was jarring against the comfortable calming tone of the office.
“Your first meeting is in the Elbert Room,” Lucy said, reading off her tablet. “You ready?”
Nathan sighed. He looked wistfully toward the R&D department, but knew that he couldn’t go there today. He couldn’t play with the laptop. He couldn’t install the new driver he wanted to test. He couldn’t play with a RAM configuration that was teasing his brain with possibilities.
No. He had to go to endless meetings.
He sighed again, resigning himself to his fate. At least the view out the windows was better here.
The meetings dragged all day.
They were tedious.
They were boring.
It was awful.
This was the part of the job that he loathed, yet it seemed to be the part that took up most of his time. He had to placate different groups. There were conference calls and egos to be soothed. He had to come up with solutions for problems that didn’t even exist yet.
There were some upsides to the meetings today. He learned about how well this office worked here. His plan to keep ECT in Colorado, rather than moving it and the employees to California was sounding better and better.
There were families here. There were mentorships and history. The company thrived here. Plus, he got to meet some of the new graduates from the computer science program at the local college. They were good. They were really good, and since they weren’t from Silicon Valley, they weren’t nearly as expensive.
The more meetings he went to, the more convinced he became that the move to California was a bad idea. He knew that the company had already invested money in the move, but he could eat that cost. It would still be cheaper than packing up everything.
Unfortunately, Lucy disagreed.
The two of them sat at lunch. Everyone else sat apart, as if they had some contagious disease. He sat and ate his turkey sandwich, trying not to count the hours until dinner. Dinner was with Holly and would be his bright spot for the entire day.
Lucy reached across the table and took one of his chips. He glared at her, but she just smiled at him, popping the chip into her mouth.
“You doing okay?” she asked him, swiping another chip from his plate.
“I will be if you stop stealing my food,” he replied, playfully moving his plate away from her. She grinned, trying again. This time he blocked her with his fork.
“There, there’s that smile,” she said, pointing to his face. “I haven’t seen it all day.”
Nathan rolled his eyes, but pushed his plate toward her. “Have as many chips as you want.”
She grinned at him. “Thanks.” She reached across and took two this time. “So, I wanted to talk to you about moving ECT to California.”
“I don’t think we should do it,” he told her. “This place is good for the company. If we move them, we risk losing what made them a good acquisition in the first place.”
Lucy crunched thoughtfully for a moment. “And your decision has nothing to do with a pretty blonde that happens to live just down the road?”
“No.”