Remember Me (28 page)

“Absolutely! Not only that, I’ll also give you a three year option to renegotiate your contract with E.M.J., under certain circumstances and within certain limitations. All of which will be carefully worded and laid out in the contract you will sign.”

Tom reached his hand up to the back of his neck. He un—

crossed his legs and leaned forward towards me. “I’ll give your S 207 S

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offer very careful consideration,” he said in his most professional tone. He set the sheet of paper on the table. “Is there a number where I can reach you after I’ve had time to mull it over?”

“Let’s cut the crap, shall we!” I hammered at him. “You

have a choice to make, sign the confidentiality form, or don’t sign it. It won’t be properly notarized, but for our basic discussion it can still be enforced. Money isn’t going to be an option.

Either you take it or leave it. It’s quite a simple decision, really! You are my first choice, but I can easily find others. If you think you have the ability to play me, forget it. I don’t have the time, or the desire to contend with self-indulgent egos.”

My words made him angry, and it was all he could do to

control it. His face flushed, and I watched the clenching of his teeth become visible in his cheeks. I took it as my cue to end our meeting with a power move of my own. “I can see that you don’t like my attitude. So be it.” I gathered the papers back together and put them away in the manila folder. I had to lean forward to nab the one in front of Tom. As I did, I looked directly into his eyes and said: “Thanks for your time.” I rose from the table before he could respond—verbally or otherwise. If my plan was to work at all, I had to establish who would be the true lord of the jungle. I would never be able to let my guard down with Tom. I knew what he was capable of and trusting him would never be an option. I exited the kitchen and headed toward the front door. I started counting on that imaginary hand in my mind—waiting for Tom to call out.

I was nearly to the front door when he yelled, “Wait!” I kept right on going, out the door and down the steps. “I’ll sign!” he sang out in a pleading voice. He caught up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder to regain my attention. “I want in, I’ll sign it.”

I stopped and deliberately turned slowly to face him. This S 208 S

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time I let my anger rise to the top so he could see every bit of it. “I have a plan and that plan is going to make me very rich.

It also means that anyone who comes along for the ride will prosper too. I don’t have the necessity to placate anyone, do you understand?”

“Yes.” The fight had gone out of him. I’d won, or more precisely, the notion of untold riches had won. He would hate me, and try to manipulate me in the future. For the moment, I had been declared the winner.

“Good!” I willed myself to take the edge out of my voice.

“I’ll see you Wednesday at four p.m. I’ll be leaving the following morning. You should have ample time between now and

then to reconsider—if you still choose to do so. I’ll meet you at the Citizen’s First Bank on Elm Street.”

Tom didn’t say a word, just nodded his head in acknowledgement. I didn’t offer him my hand. I turned and walked briskly to my car. I wanted him to remain uncertain about me.

It would be my trump card over him. I was going to need

every edge I could muster to stay one step ahead of Tom. I started the Blazer and drove away. I could make out Tom in my rearview mirror. He hadn’t moved from the spot I’d left him.

It was a good thing he couldn’t see the maniacal grin which had spread across my face.

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Celebration is in order.

August 22nd, 1987

It had been
three months since that initial meeting with Tom at his apartment. Today, he and I were meeting with Hoganhoff Commercial Realty in Des Moines to procure a place to use as the corporate site for E.M.J. I knew something that neither Tom nor the realtor knew. I knew the direction of future expansion for West Des Moines. It would grow unbelievably over the next twenty years. The dilapidated warehouse, with a small office housed in a mobile trailer, would become a mega-office complex by two-thousand and four. It still could, but not under the same circumstances it had in my time. For now, it was still far enough outside the current expansion projections and reasonably priced.

I wrote the realtor a check and waited while he called on the phone to verify the amount with my bank. Satisfied, we signed the paperwork. If you looked at the two of us, Tom and me, it was Tom who looked the part of rich entrepreneur.

With his signing bonus he had purchased a Rolex watch and an Armani suit. His shoes alone cost more than everything I was wearing, including the cash in my wallet. I could have cared less. A month earlier he’d finished his last class and two weeks ago he’d graduated with his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.

After I signed the papers with the realtor, Tom and I drove back to the new site of E.M.J. We had a building, a notion, a S 210 S

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company mission statement, and two employees. E.M.J. was still a very long way off from profitability. The next hire for the company was going to be the most compelling and the most challenging. E.M.J. needed a crusader, the super-genius geek that would make it all happen.

After our auspicious start, Tom had been everything I could have hoped to hire for the position—personal dislike aside. He was ten minutes early for our designated appointment, and he was dressed to make an impression. The confidentiality form had been slightly updated as had my job offer for him. In truth, I was getting him for less than I was willing to pay, something he didn’t know or ever would. He signed the confidentiality form without even reading it. The Assistant Vice President of the bank witnessed the signatures and it was duly notarized.

Tom and I were alone in the small office. I closed the door.

I had yet to give him the job requirements and show him my cellular phone. I was beginning to think that he would take just about anything I had to offer. Tom wasn’t one to let anyone get the upper-hand, yet that was exactly what I’d done. I was feeling pretty proud of myself. When he saw my phone, “a futuristic prototype,” was how I described it, he was completely riveted by untold dollar signs.

I offered him eighty-five thousand, four weeks’ vacation (which I knew he wouldn’t use) and a company car. The kicker was the five percent of yearly profits up to a maximum of one point two million dollars per year. If he had been a fish—he would have jumped in the boat without me even having to bait my hook.

By hiring Tom I would also get to stay close to Amy. Tom was great for E.M.J., and Amy was great for me. In the early planning stages of E.M.J, Amy with her marketing background would be a valuable reference on the marketing aspect of promoting the company. Amy was in her final year at Iowa State S 211 S

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University. When we had dinner together to celebrate Tom’s new position, he introduced her to me as his fiancée. I could tell that he was hesitant in wanting me to meet her. I’d asked him several times to dinner, but he always found an appropriate excuse to delay. I kept after him, and he finally relented.

We agreed to meet at “The Mariner” in Urbandale. It was a restaurant known for its delicious seafood. He was nervous as I said hello to Amy and shook her hand. It only took one look from Tom for me to understand that he had just relinquished a little more of his power to me. He knew that I knew. The past incident in the bar, between him and the two girls, was still fresh in both of our minds. I resolved to play my role as Tom’s boss the best I could. It was hard not to stare at Amy like the lover and husband I had once been. In my mind, she and I would always be destined for each other. I doubted that the Andrew in this time would ever get to meet her, (with me in the picture.) I couldn’t actually take his place—the age difference and my desire to only do right by her wouldn’t allow me to cross that line. I was pretty certain that I had efficiently cut-off his chances to be with her. Amy’s close proximity and the electricity that shot through my hand when we shook were tough to endure. My heart ached for her. I had to stay in reality—it wasn’t her, and she wasn’t mine. As the meal continued, it became easier for me to distinguish my Amy from this one. The woman sitting across from me tonight, and the woman she would become twenty-three years from now, were as much alike as they were different.

This Amy was full of youth and adventure and completely

in love with Tom—not with me. It was a hard pill to swallow. When he reached under the table and squeezed her leg, I wanted to cry out and tell her what I’d seen him do, but I didn’t and I couldn’t, not now and maybe not ever. I smiled and laughed, and in the end thanked her for being the bright S 212 S

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spot of my evening. I made sure I smiled at Tom when I said it.

Amy stopped at the bathroom on the way out, and I used the moment to put in a dig. “Been engaged long, Tom?”

“A few months,” he responded. He wouldn’t look at me

directly.

“I see. She’s a beautiful girl; intelligent, spirited…everything a man could possibly want or need.”

“Yes, she is.”

“If it was me, I think I would do whatever is necessary to make sure she knows how important she really is to me.” This time I sought out his eyes and held his gaze. My meaning was clear and concise. Tom understood the underlying conviction behind my comment.

“I couldn’t agree more,” he said, never taking his eyes from mine. And for the briefest instance…I almost believed him.

When Amy came out of the restroom, I shook her hand in

a farewell gesture and nearly lost my composure. It didn’t matter what age she was, her touch was always going to get to me.

I held onto her hand just a little too long, and she scrunched her eyes as she looked into my face for some sort of non-verbal explanation. I blushed, and I could feel it burning across my face like a lit fuse to a keg of dynamite. I smiled and made my excuse, “You’ll have to forgive me, but you are so much like someone I used to know. For a brief instant there I was overcome by a beautiful memory of her.”

Amy smiled and everything was laid to rest…for now. She

and Tom made their way out the door. Before Amy got in the passenger side of Tom’s Mustang, she looked over her shoulder at me. It was the look I’d seen many times on her face, “I’m going to figure you out and when I do…Watch Out!”

Tom and Amy spent many days with me, leading up to the

contract signing with the realtor, discussing all the advantages and disadvantages of our chosen location. Tom spoke from S 213 S

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a distribution perspective and Amy from a promotional and marketing assessment. In the end, it was Amy’s comment on the potential for West Des Moines expansion that sealed the deal. She said, “Current projects show that West Des Moines is pushing expansion towards the property site, but slightly south of its location. If business in West Des Moines starts booming, then it’s entirely possible the land alone might sell for five times what E.M.J. would pay for it.”

“I believe that not only will expansion over-run our site, but we could eventually sit, smack-dab, in the middle of it,” I tossed back at her.

Amy looked quizzically at me, “And you are guessing…or

do you have some hidden evidence to back-up your statement?”

“No evidence, just a hunch. Let me tell you though—my

hunches have been better than ninety percent recently.” I have another insight as well, and I might as well throw it on the table now before it becomes too late.”

I had both Tom and Amy’s undivided attention. Neither of them moved a muscle, sitting with their arms on the table.

Amy held her pen poised over a yellow legal pad. “Ok Pete, enlighten us,” Tom said sarcastically.

Even though I held prominent status over Tom, he could

still be a condescending personality. He took too many stabs at those in authority. I don’t believe he knew how to be any different, a product of his upbringing…maybe. But I still found it tiresome. I said to them, “I believe before the end of the year we will be able to buy all of the land adjacent to the warehouse for a song. It would be in our best interest to throw out a line to the realtor and to let him know we might be interested, should the current owner ever want to sell.”

I could tell that Amy was trying to interpret me. She was sharp and very few things snuck by her. I often wondered if she S 214 S

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had any inkling about Tom’s addictive behavior. She must have just chosen to accept it, long before she finally put an end to their relationship. It was a further statement of her resolve and belief in commitment. You stood steadfast no matter what the circumstances. You respected the bond and what it represents.

This Amy was only beginning to be a reflection of the Amy I had been so lucky to love. It was strange, but because of her current age, and mine, I found I was developing new feelings towards her. They were different and that was good. I felt the need to protect this Amy, to give her a chance to be all she had once dreamed, and gave up because of Tom. I had those same feelings for Emily and Samantha as they ventured out on their own. It was okay; I was going to be fine. I could harness these new feelings and find my way in this world. I suddenly felt more purposeful and hopeful.

“And you know this how?” Amy asked, interrupting my

new awareness.

“Let’s just say that I have a few, very well placed sources, and leave it at that!”

By the end of our conversation we all agreed on the building and on the price we should try and negotiate. There were fifty acres of land all around the warehouse. The land was split by two roads, one paved the other gravel. I left Tom and Amy at his house and drove back to my apartment in Des Moines.

I had plenty of time to think through my strategy, and it had nothing to do with buying the warehouse. My mind was clicking with the grand possibilities of
what ifs
. I really didn’t care any longer about how this reality would be changed by my actions. It was the most selfish statement of my life. The lives of everyone I would ever come in contact with would be changed. All I could focus on was keeping Amy nearby. What had once been a ripple was now an ever-growing and expanding wave of change. Someday, I was certain it would become a S 215 S