The Big Boss

“Justine.”

My stomach drops, and my heart rate spikes as I turn to find Keenan on the sidewalk behind me. I know that I need to talk to him, but now is not the time or place, especially when I’m trying to figuratively cock block him.

“I’m working, Keenan. Now isn’t the time.”

He swallows. “That’s fair, but before I go, can you tell me why you’ve been avoiding me? I just want to know so that I can fix it.”

I square my jaw and gather my courage. “To get where you are I’m sure you’re very smart, Keenan. And you know enough about me now. You could figure it out. If you tried.”

Reaching out, he takes the clipboard out of my hand and scans the top pages that explain who we are and what we’re trying to save. He then flips to the pages beyond it and looks at all the signatures that I’ve collected so far. The expression on his face is somber.

“Can I borrow your pen?” he asks.

“Why?”

Keenan just holds out his hand, and I give him the pen. And I think my jaw nearly hits the sidewalk when he signs his name under all the others listed.

“What are you doing?”

He sighs, handing pen and clipboard back to me. “I get it now. Why you haven’t been speaking to me.”

“But why would you sign it? Are you making fun of me?”

He closes his eyes for a moment. “You always think I’m doing that. I’m not.”

“But this is you, Keenan. Silverman & Blake. Your company is in charge of this teardown.”

He nods. “I know. That’s why I’ll stop it.”

“What?” I feel like words aren’t computing in my brain right now.

And then he shrugs. Keenan shrugs. “I can put this project someplace else. It won’t be ideal, but I can figure it out once I talk to my partner and some other people. I can fix it. I promise.”

My vision turns red, and suddenly rage that I didn’t realize I was holding comes flying out. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I throw the pen at him, but it doesn’t feel like enough, so I throw the clipboard too. The papers come loose and scatter all over the sidewalk. He looks shocked, and I don’t even care.

“You can fix it? You’re the one that broke it in the first place! The fact that it’s just as easy as that is disgusting, Keenan. Tear down buildings just to build more without a thought just because it suits whatever whim you’ve got in your head without any thoughts about the consequences for the real people who live in these places. And because you want to fuck me you’ll bend over backwards to save this one?

“Do you understand how fucking furious that makes me? These are people’s lives, but it’s nothing but a bottom line to you. Everything is about money and profit and nothing else.”

I start to gather the papers from the ground before a breeze starts up and takes them away. I’m still going to need all of these signatures. Without a word, Keenan bends down to help me gather all the rest of the stuff, including the pen and clipboard.

“You’re right,” he says.

For the second time in our conversation my jaw feels like it’s hitting the ground. “What?”

“There’s definitely a power imbalance,” he says. “Between you and me. Between me and almost everyone. But I’ve never met anyone that would tell me something like this to my face. They’re all too afraid of me, or too after the money you mentioned. Nobody bothered to suggest that it might be a mistake. Or that it was the incorrect path. There were never any questions.

“I knew there would be some displacement, but I wasn’t told that it would be elderly citizens who are vulnerable. If you think that I would intentionally destroy lives like that, you must really think that I’m a monster.”

I swallow, sitting on the sidewalk. My knees are shaking enough from the adrenaline that I’m not sure that they would support me. “I’ve met other CEOs, Keenan. They’ve never cared. And when I heard it was you…”

He laughs softly, without humor. “I’m not saying that it doesn’t make sense. But I can only do so much. I can’t make up for the actions of other people, but I can try to make sure that mine are solid and okay. This place was literally numbers on paper for me. I’ve never been here or to the park.”

My stomach unclenches and my nausea eases. Rose was right. As fucking always. The woman is psychic. I really swear that she is. She said she thought as much. “I’m sorry,” I say. “For not talking to you about it first.” I’m not sure I can apologize entirely for everything I said. Keenan still has a lot to prove.