Three Buses And A Father’s Pride, All Pushed To The Spare Table Chapter 07

Three Buses And A Father’s Pride, All Pushed To The Spare Table Chapter 07

Caleb didn’t believe he couldn’t land the Thompson deal without me.

He’d always been like that.

When I stayed up all night rewriting proposals, he said it was my job.

When I visited suburban factories with clients and came home with bleeding blisters on my feet, he said women were detail-oriented, so it was a good fit.

When I brought the budget down to a number Rick could accept, all he said at the meeting was, “The team did good work.”

The team.

Not Clara.

So this time, he figured I just took some files with me. I couldn’t take the whole project.

Three days later, he set up a dinner with Rick Thompson. And he brought Dylan Miller along.

I heard about it while I was standing in line at the business registration window.

Leo stood next to me, holding a stack of documents.

My father sat on a waiting chair, the half-repaired hope chest on his lap.

—

The new latch wasn’t installed yet, so he kept his hand on the lid to keep it shut.

Leo muttered under his breath, “He actually brought Dylan?”

I signed the form and capped my pen.

“Let him go.”

Some lessons hurt more when you learn them yourself.

I heard the details from Rick’s assistant later.

Caleb showed up dressed sharp. Dylan wore a suit too.

Not long after they sat down, Dylan started warming up the room for him.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Thompson. Our Group’s got this project locked down.”

Rick looked at him. “What part are you responsible for?”

Dylan froze. “I… I’m learning from Caleb.”

Then he added with a grin, “I saw the proposal before. The core idea is young marketing, right?”

Rick’s face went cold.

The core of that proposal wasn’t young marketing.

It was channel segmentation after restructuring the supply chain for an old brand.

It took me a month to break down the inventory turnover issue

—

that Rick was most worried about.

Dylan turned it into a few buzzwords.

Caleb tried to recover. But as soon as he opened his mouth, Rick opened the file.

“Who put this budget together?”

Caleb said, “Our team.”

Rick looked up. “I asked for a name.”

Dylan jumped in. “Caleb oversaw it, of course. Clara just helped organize it.”

Rick closed the file.

His voice wasn’t loud, but the whole table went quiet.

“I’ve only ever heard Clara present this proposal in full.”

“If Vance Group can’t even identify who’s truly in charge, I can’t trust you anymore.”

The dinner ended early.

When Chloe found out, she went to Caleb crying.

“Dylan’s just young. He doesn’t know how to act. You need to say something for him.”

Caleb had heard that line too many times.

He’d said it to me at the wedding too.

—

Dylan’s young. He runs his mouth. Don’t take it personally.

Now the cost was landing on him. And finally, it stung.

Too late.

The Vance Group project went into reevaluation.

On the same day, my company got its business license.

My father picked the name. Safe & Sound.

He said, “Safe and sound, Clara. That’s all that matters.”

The office was tiny. Three desks. Two dying spider plants that someone else didn’t want.

Leo ran errands, printed documents, dealt with vendors.

My father helped me fix the hope chest. I put it in the corner of the office.

Leo asked, “Aren’t you going to put that away somewhere else?”

I shook my head.

“That’s Dad giving me backbone.”

My father heard it. He turned around and wiped the latch for a long time.

That afternoon, Rick called and asked to meet about the new proposal.

I brought Leo.

—

Rick read through the plan and asked one question, “Your company just opened. Can you handle it?”

I said, “I might not have all the resources Vance Group could give you.”

“But every word in that proposal, I know exactly why I wrote it.”

Rick smiled. “That’s what I want.”

Walking out of the meeting, Leo’s eyes were shining with excitement.

He was about to say something when my phone buzzed.

A former Vance Group colleague texted. [ Caleb found out.]

[Your company is the first-choice candidate for Rick’s new proposal.]

I read the line and turned off the screen.

The sun was bright outside.

I thought about my father sitting next to the kitchen door on the wedding day, afraid to even clap too loud.

Nobody saw us as the main characters then.

Now we didn’t need anyone to give us a seat.

We sat down ourselves.