January 13, 2021
Nathaniel is typing furiously, trying to finish a letter to the judge before his weekly session at the prison. He's requesting a new hearing for one of the inmates, and he wants to be able to show her that piece of paper. He wants to give her hope, something tangible, to show that justice can still prevail.
At this point of the day, he almost expects an interruption. Without fail, it seems to be the time when his father suddenly has important business to discuss. How ironic it always happens to fall on Wednesday afternoons.
What he doesn't expect is for Rebecca to be the one to interrupt his work just as he's typing the final words of the letter.
"You will never guess what just happened," Rebecca says, appearing in the doorway of his office in her Rebetzel's apron.
Nathaniel's eyes only dart up for a second when she barges in. Distracted, he says, "I'm leaving for the prison in fifteen minutes. Really need to finish this."
Rebecca flops down dramatically onto the couch in his office, ignoring his protest.
"AJ quit," she says and then waits for his reaction.
"Uh huh," Nathaniel mutters.
"Did you hear me?" Rebecca cups both her hands around her mouth and projects through her imaginary megaphone. "AJ! Quit!"
"That's awful," he replies in a monotone.
Rebecca gets up from the couch and starts pacing, speaking hurriedly more to herself than to him. "He quit! Right when I need him most. We're opening the new location in less than a month. I was counting on him to help train our new employees, stock our first shipment of inventory . . . "
Nathaniel clicks to print the document and he instantly feels relief. It's done. However, it's wildly entertaining to wind up Rebecca into a tizzy, so he continues to pretend to be disinterested. "What a shame you'll actually have to do your job," he says, staring at the screen.
"Hey!" she exclaims and juts her arm across his desk, abruptly closing the lid of his laptop. "Pay attention to me."
Nathaniel stifles a reaction and calmly folds his hands on his desk with a sigh.
She continues, "I haven't even told you the worst part. He's graduating law school and – get this – moving away! He's going to apply for firms in New York, Chicago, San Francisco –"
"Good for them," Nathaniel says neutrally. At this point, he's playing it cool purely to annoy her and amuse himself. He's mildly peeved that she barged in and almost thwarted his progress on the correspondence, but it's fun to press her buttons.
"Good for them. Bad for me." She crosses her arms and waits for more of a reaction, none of which is forthcoming. There are dots he's not connecting. With frustration, she finishes the thought, "Which means he's moving out when our lease is up. Which means I'm stuck with the full rent payment until I can find someone else."
"Ah," he says, finally getting the full domino effect of everything that will happen.
"That's it?" she asks rhetorically, planting her hand on his desk and staring daggers into his skull. "Do you not have even one ounce of empathy in you? Compassion? Not even for how it could impact the opening of Rebetzel's?"
Finally, his facade cracks and he gives her a smile. He unclasps his hands and waves for her to come closer. "Yes, yes. I understand. Come here, I'm just razzing you," he says warmly.
Rebecca walks around to his side of the desk and he wraps his arm around her waist, pulling her close.
"You are such a dick," she laughs. She puts one arm around his shoulder and sits in his lap.
"It will be OK. We have enough staff and we have two full days of training scheduled. Sure, it will be a heavier lift, but we can do it."
"We?" she asks, leaning back so she can shoot him an incredulous look. "Are you implying you're going to help with the training? I didn't think you were going to be so . . . hands on."
"Oh, I'm hands on, alright," he leers, nudging his nose into her neck.
They're not usually this affectionate in his office, but since their blow up on Christmas Eve they've been in another honeymoon period, both grateful that their relationship survived.
"Oooh," she giggles as he skims his hand up her leg. She cups his chin and kisses him.
"Ahem, ahem," comes a low voice from the doorway.
Rebecca turns in his lap and they both shoot up out of the chair as soon as they recognize Nathaniel Plimpton Sr. in the threshold of his office.
"Sorry . . . sir," Rebecca says nervously, "I was just, um, I was just leaving."
Nathaniel Sr. raises his eyebrows as Rebecca crosses toward the door.
"She was," Nathaniel chimes in, "because I'm leaving for the prison now. Sir."
"Oh no you're not. We have business to discuss."
Maya peeks her head into Nathaniel's office with a piece of paper in her hand. She looks back and forth between Nathaniel, his father, and Rebecca, sensing the awkwardness of the situation. "Um, here is your print-out," she says, and extends her arm to Nathaniel.
He steps forward and takes the letter, skimming it quickly. "Thank you, Maya."
Maya scurries back into the bullpen.
"Whatever it is can wait until tomorrow," Nathaniel asserts, tucking the letter into his briefcase.
"You think I would come all the way from LA if it wasn't important? It's about this investment you kept from me. This . . . pretzel chain," he says, glancing at the Rebetzel's logo on Rebecca's apron.
Nathaniel Sr. holds up a flyer Nathaniel recognizes as the announcement for the grand re-opening of Rebetzel's at the Sugar Face lot. Rebecca has been distributing them to all their friends and colleagues to drum up interest.
Wondering how his father got hold of the invitation, he glances at Rebecca who is acting sheepish.
"I may have sent it to his office," she says, wincing. "I thought – I didn't know that he didn't know. Sorry."
"This is your name on this flyer, is it not?" Nathaniel Sr. asks rhetorically. He reads, "Rebecca Bunch and Nathaniel Plimpton the third invite you to the grand re-opening –"
"Yes. I am investing. In a way. I'm using my own money. It has nothing to do with you or with Mountaintop, so it's none of your concern."
His father bristles at his defiance. "It may not be my money, but it's our reputation, isn't it?"
Rebecca starts to side step toward the door. "Maybe I should just leave you two alone –"
Nathaniel is about to relieve Rebeca of her obligation to stay when his father looks her up and down and says, "Yes, run along. I can only imagine how you convinced him to take part in your excuse of a business. Probably some kind of romantic extortion."
Rebecca's eyes go wide. She's stunned into silence.
She can handle herself in an argument, this he knows. But he also knows that she wants his parents to like her and her instinct to please his parents is greater than her urge to fight him. She's stuck between a rock and a hard place and it's entirely his fault.
"No," Nathaniel stays, holding up a hand, "She can stay. If this is about her business, and my investment as it relates to her business, then she has every right to be part of this conversation."
Nathaniel Sr. frowns. Both father and son stand tall, two immovable statutes who each refuse to make the first move.
Rebecca looks back and forth between them and finally moves to close his office door. That's when Nathaniel notices that all the employees in the bullpen have ceased working to gawk at this familial dispute.
Once the door is shut, Rebecca stands next to Nathaniel in quiet solidarity.
After a tense silence, Nathaniel Sr. speaks first. "What do you even know about running a business like this?"
"I'm not running the business," Nathaniel quickly replies. "Rebecca runs the business. I bought a piece of commercial property, and her business will operate on that property."
Rebecca stays tight-lipped on the sidelines of their conversation, her eyes focused on the carpet.
Exasperated, his father peppers him with accusations. "You're probably letting her operate there for free, aren't you? Instead of generating a reliable revenue stream from a proven local business, you're letting your girlfriend take you for a ride. Well, let me tell you something. Mixing business with pleasure is messy. You two should know that by now. Never a good idea. Whatever you have with her isn't going to pay the bills or continue to put a roof over your head."
The irony isn't lost on Nathaniel that his father, of all people, would lecture him about mixing business with pleasure. His sister is proof enough of his own indiscretions. He tamps down the urge to throw that fact in his face.
"My roof is fine," he states.
"Oh, is it?"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Nathaniel Sr. shoots a glance at Rebecca and out into the bullpen before continuing. Nathaniel knows how much appearances mean to him, even if it is just Rebecca and a bunch of his mindless worker bees.
"You've been distracted ever since you came back from your sabbatical. You focus too much on your pro bono work and not enough on our clients who are actually paying – handsomely, may I add – for our services. Those clients are the ones who keep us afloat. We can't keep a business running on do-goodery and virtue signaling."
Nathaniel's nostrils flare.
His father continues, "And you think I didn't hear about the week you showed up to work with a black eye? That's right. I have eyes everywhere. People are speculating you got into some prison fight. What an embarrassment."
With that, Nathaniel reaches the end of his fuse. All these months of his father questioning his commitment to the firm have chipped away at his ability to remain subservient. He's dedicated his entire adult life to the firm. For his father to question his loyalty at the smallest inkling of interest elsewhere is enough to make him want to fly off the handle, appearances be damned.
"First of all, it's not –"
Rebecca reaches out and gently touches his forearm. It's the smallest gesture, the lightest touch, but it stops him immediately. He looks down at her and she's staring back with a serious, yet kind expression. Without a word, he knows exactly what she's silently saying to him. And she's right. He knows she's right.
He takes a deep breath and starts over, much more calmly this time. "I am an adult, and you need to respect my choices," he says simply.
Rebecca smiles a quiet, tiny smile. She lets go of his arm.
Nathaniel says, "I've worked my ass off for this firm my whole life, and you know it. But I need something more in my life than just this work. The pro bono cases give my life meaning. It's important to me. And so is helping Rebecca's business realize its full potential. I believe in her."
Nathaniel Sr.'s facial expression is full of disappointment, and it stirs up an anxious feeling in Nathaniel's stomach.
In a steady voice, he continues, "I think you're angry that there are parts of my life now that you can't control. When I went to Guatemala, it was the first time I made a decision for myself instead of following your marching orders. I know these choices – my choices – don't make sense to you. But they are my choices. I need you to respect that."
Rebecca's smile grows, becoming much more obvious, and she puts her hand over her mouth to hide it.
There are so many more things he wants to say to his father. He has so many questions, ones that lie outside the realm of the business. About his mother and how he treats her. About his sister and how he could hide her from him for so long. About why he could never be there for him emotionally as a father. He missed the Heroes of West Covina awards and he will probably choose to miss the opening of Rebetzel's too. If only his father realized that just showing up can make all the difference. Imagine how his life could have been different if his father had shown up for him in any small way.
Instead of airing all these grievances and frustrations now, he decides to keep them to himself. Saying all those things in the heat of the moment, the pinnacle of his anger, would feel good, cathartic, but solve nothing. He hopes, in the future, there will be a time and a more private place for those discussions.
Ruffled, Nathaniel's father sets his face back to neutral and says, "Congratulations, Nathaniel."
Nathaniel's jaw drops. Of all the scenarios he could imagine, that was perhaps the last thing he expected his father to say. "What?"
"You stood up to me. I have been waiting for the day you would show me you're a real man, and you finally have. Now I know you're ready for more responsibility. Maybe it's time for you to come back to the LA office. We will discuss that another time."
With that, Nathaniel Sr. walks out of the office, his demeanor as menacing as ever.
When the door closes behind him, Rebecca scoffs. "Wow. Just wow," she says. "I don't even know what to say."
Nathaniel exhales deeply and let's his posture relax. His heart is racing and his hands are trembling.
"Oh, wait, I do know what to say. What an asshole."
They both laugh. It's the physical release he desperately needs. He wants to scream, to cry, to laugh, to kiss her, and everything in between.
After his breath regains its steadiness, he says, "I think if I don't laugh, I'll cry." He means it as a joke, but it makes Rebecca's expression go soft.
"I'm proud of you," she whispers, squeezing his arm. "That was brave. Really brave."
As always, the words make him uncomfortable, even somewhat embarrassed. It took him over thirty years to speak his mind, to push back against his father in a real way for the first time. And he learned it from Rebecca. If he hadn't witnessed the way she put up boundaries with her mother, he's not sure he would have done the same today. It's one of the many ways she inspires him. A myriad of emotions well up inside him, filling up his chest with warmth.
"Well, I guess I should get back to work," Rebecca says, smoothing her hand over her apron. "A lot more to do now that I know AJ's leaving. See you later?"
He nods. As much as he hates to see her go, he's late now leaving for the prison, and she's been working non-stop on the grand opening.
Just as the elevator doors are opening, his feet propel him forward, following her.
He calls to her from the middle of the bullpen as the elevator doors are closing, "Rebecca, wait!"
She sticks out her hand to keep the elevator doors from closing. "What?" she asks, lifting her eyebrows, perplexed.
The entire office has gone silent, all the employees watching him.
He clears his throat and stands up straight. "I love – I love you, Rebecca."
It's the first time either of them have said it since their fight.
She smiles demurely. "I love you too."
As the elevator doors close, she gives him a sweet wave. His heart swells. Then, he becomes acutely aware of his surroundings again.
"Get back to work!"