Chapter 11 TIME BOMB PART 1
Noah sat at the kitchen counter with a bowl of cereal. Milk was dripping down his chin. His rocket ship shirt, the one he had begged his mom to buy him three months ago at Target, was already wrinkled from sleeping. Vivienne watched him from the other side of the kitchen, where her coffee was getting cold.
It was Thursday morning. Three days had passed since they got home from the hospital.
He looked better. His cheeks were no longer red, and his eyes were bright again. But she could still see how tired he was around the edges, how he moved a little more slowly, and how he had fallen asleep on the couch yesterday and slept all night. That was not like him. He was usually full of energy all day and didn't take many naps.
"Mom, can I bring my sketchbook to work again?" Noah asked through a mouthful of cereal.
"Yes. Just remember to stay in the conference room like you did yesterday."
"I know." He smiled and rolled his eyes. "Can I use the nice markers?"
"Yeah, the ones in the supply closet, but don't let Marcus see you. He gets too serious about his Copics."
Noah smiled and went back to his cereal.
The phone on the counter lit up. Another message. She looked at it. It was Marcus again, but she didn't answer the phone.
He had been calling since seven this morning, and it was only eight.
She would see him at work in an hour anyway.
Noah finished his cereal, got off the stool, and picked up his backpack from where he had left it by the door. "Ready when you are."
"Your shirt is inside out. Change it."
He looked down at himself, saw she was right, and walked away down the hall.
Vivienne reached for her phone.
Two calls that were not answered. Three messages that haven't been read yet.
From Marcus.
She opened the most recent text, which said, "Vee, when are you coming in?"
She wrote back, "See you in a few minutes."
CrossLight Entertainment was on the second floor of an old warehouse in Brooklyn that had been turned into a business. The big windows in the room let in too much light in the summer and not enough in the winter. Vivienne thought the lease was perfect when she signed it seven years ago: it was industrial chic, cheap, and close to the subway.
Now it just made her think about how hard it was to keep her business going. CrossLight should have been in a better building by now if things had gone the way they were supposed to. Something better. Something that didn't leak when it rained or freeze in the winter.
Vivienne and Noah got there a little after 8:30. Marcus had already gotten in because the front door was open. There was no one on the main floor. And last Friday, the lease company had taken back their equipment. It was weird how the space looked without it.
"Remember the conference room?" Vivienne said, leading Noah to the room with glass walls at the back.
"I know, I know." But he went anyway, already taking out his sketchbook and the old box of markers he had brought from home.
She walked to Marcus's office after leaving him there.
Marcus was sitting at his desk, looking at the screen of his laptop. His hair was all over the place, and he was wearing the same shirt as the day before. She thought about whether or not he had slept.
"Hey," she said from the door.
Marcus raised his head. His face showed relief. "Finally. You made it."
"Of course I made it. I work here."
He almost smiled. "How's Noah?"
"Better. He's still tired, but the antibiotics worked. The doctor said he could go back to school on Monday if he keeps getting better."
"That's good." Marcus shut his laptop and leaned back in his chair. "Do you want coffee? I just made a new pot."
"I'm okay."
"Vee, please sit down."
She sat down.
For a minute, they didn't say anything. She just watched as he rubbed his face. For his young age, he was carrying a lot of burden. Sometimes she forgot how young he was. That he had just turned 30.
Seven years ago, they started CrossLight together. She was a single mother who just wanted to get away from a bad job and didn't know anything about running a business. Marcus was a twenty-three-year-old rich kid who wanted to be free from his parents' control. He also knew everything there was to know about how to make something work. Two people who wanted to build a shared dream more than they knew how to do it.
She didn't know when it had begun to fall apart. Maybe it was doomed from the very beginning, and she just didn't want to see it.
"Sarah sent me an email this morning," Marcus finally said. "She won't be back. She gave notice."
Vivienne's stomach got tight. "Did we at least give her money?"
"We can't right now," he said, and then he paused. "She asked if I could at least write her a letter of recommendation."
"What did you say?"
"That I'd have it to her by Monday." Marcus looked at her. "Dev asked me the same thing yesterday."
"Is Dev leaving too?"
"He didn't say it straight out, but I think he is." Marcus picked up a pen and turned it over in his hands. "Kara said she had a phone interview set up. Mia has been taking calls during lunch breaks, probably from recruiters. I can't blame them, Vee. We're days behind on payroll. What are we really doing?"
Vivienne didn't know how to answer that. She could only think about her workers. She had let them down.
She thought about Sarah's daughter in Columbia. Diane, who got into one of the best colleges two years ago. It wouldn't be right to keep Sarah here. She had responsibilities to take care of.
She thought about Dev's new home in Queens. He only had enough money for the deposit. And he'd have to get paid to pay for the rest.
She thought about all the people who had faith in her to run this place and build it up.
"What about you?" She asked softly.
Marcus looked up. "What about me?"
"Are you going to quit too?"
"Jesus, Vee. No. Of course not." He put the pen down. "But I can't keep asking people to work for free. That's not fair to them."
"I know."
"And the landlord called again this morning. He's threatening to go to court to get us evicted."
Vivienne nodded. She had thought this would happen.
"What do we do now?" Marcus asked. "Because I've been up all night trying to figure it out and getting the same answer over and over. It's time to do the right thing, Vee."
She knew where he was getting at. She knew because she'd been thinking the same thing over again, coming to the same conclusion she didn't want to face.
The Hunt Contract.