Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 88456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“I know, so much different from ‘Yo,’” Caine retorts while I pull up to the office. I park in my designated spot, seeing my name right above the company name, Cottrell Group. A company my parents started when I was born. They were both working for investment firms and decided to take their portfolio and see what they could do independently. They worked out of an office at home for many years until they outgrew it. Then they decided to open a branch in New York because of Wall Street. Their portfolio only grew. Caine and I got the bug to follow in their footsteps, so I graduated from the University of Philadelphia with a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics. During this time, my parents expanded to California, Chicago, Texas, and Washington, DC, where Caine runs the show. I took over the California office, dipping my toe into the Texas office every now and again. Even though we have our own branches, we still like to occasionally drop in to each other’s offices.
“Is this why you’re calling?” I ask, getting out of the car and walking toward the building. A building we bought not too long ago and moved everything over to.
“No, I’m calling because we seriously need to discuss hiring someone to take over the PR of the firms. Someone who will handle all aspects of media,” he huffs out on a deep breath. “Mom and Dad just let their assistants do it for the time being, but even now, they are done with it and don’t see the need for it.”
“Mom and Dad don’t know anything about social media, so they don’t see the need for it. I can see where they were twenty years ago, fuck, even ten years ago, but it’s a different time. The new generation is coming up, and everything, and I mean everything, is done online.”
“I agree,” Caine says. “Which is why I’m handing it to you. The cool kid.” He grins. “Besides, I don’t want to handle it.”
“You don’t want to handle it?” I tilt my head to the side. “Or you can’t handle it because of your age, Grandpa.”
“At this moment, if you calling me Grandpa means you’re going to take care of it, so be it.” He chuckles.
“So this is how it goes?” I pull out the key to the door and unlock it before stepping in and disarming the alarm. “You don’t want to do something, so you give it to me.” I shake my head. “That’s so generous of you.”
“You’re the hip one.” He leans back in his chair as Grace bites her lip to avoid laughing. “I’m the dinosaur who still answers my phone with my name instead of Yo. I also don’t know all those letter thingies.”
“Letter thingies?” Grace asks before I get a chance.
“Yeah, like ttyl or byob or iykyk.” He throws up his hands. “All these fucking alphabets.”
I can’t help but laugh at the last one. “That last one took you a whole five minutes of thinking before you pulled out your phone.”
“More like thirty. He fought the hard fight.” She grabs his face and kisses his lips. “You’re perf.” She abbreviates the word perfect, knowing it irks him.
“You know it’s one more syllable,” he mumbles as she shakes her head and stands. “It’s not so hard.”
“Before your brother irritates me even more this morning,” Grace says, “I have a list of names of people I think you guys should reach out to.”
I walk past the waiting area; the receptionist’s desk is empty, and the chair is pushed in under her desk. Making my way down the corridor on the left-hand side, where the offices are, I go into the first one. “Send me the list of names, and I’ll go over them,” I tell her, walking to my desk and putting down my protein shake. “I’ll set something up with a couple of them this week, and we can meet and see who we mesh well with.”
“Mesh well with?” Caine says. “Does that mean who has experience enough to do the job?”
“It’s something like that.” I pull out my chair and sit down, turning on my computer. “You also have to ensure we’re all on the same page. It’s about experience and also about who vibes well with your company.”
“That’s what mesh well with means.” Grace looks over at him, smiling. “In case you didn’t get it.”
“I got it,” he snaps, and her eyebrows go up in a warning of sorts.
“Okay, Batman,” she huffs. “Now if you will excuse me, I have an email to send out.”
She storms away from him as I smirk at the phone. “I don’t know a lot of things about relationships, but something tells me she didn’t like your tone.”
“This is all your fault.” He points at me.