AN: It's back to work mode for me, and this means I can't contribute as much to my writing as I would like. But better this than nothing, I guess. Thank you for reading!
Chapter 18
Logan approached the small six-person conference room with a languid pace, already hearing Colin and Finn. Strong bursts of laughter along with unusually loud banter, as one might rather expect at a pub, than at an office, carried along the hallway. But at this hour - well past office hours - it wasn't really an issue. Still, it's presence now, was creating an off sense of nostalgia in Logan. Like he just knew he was going to miss this. Not that he'd made up his mind about his future, but even with that in an undecided state, he was beginning to sense his life wasn't going to continue as it had so far, in it's new form, for very long. The feeling was bittersweet, a part of him knowing he'd miss it. Another part of him was feeling suddenly very mature with the decisions and challenges that laid ahead of him, soon more experienced and smarter than his friends in some ways. Even know he couldn't help thinking that his friends could do some growing up on other fronts of their lives besides their careers.
"There you are!" Colin chimed, at the sight of Logan.
"About bloody time! I've got to pick up Katharina in an hour," Finn added.
"Don't you mean Zarina?" Colin chuckled at Finn.
"What sort of name is Zarina!?" Finn replied in disbelief.
"Beats me, but that's what her name was…," Colin insisted, not paying a lot of attention to Logan.
"You're pulling my leg!" Finn argued.
"I am not," Colin tittered.
"Can we get on with this, please?" Logan asked for their attention, having told them he had something to discuss with them this evening.
"Sure, be my guest," Finn gestured towards the table, showing a side of him that he brought out when he was at his work mode.
"Whatever it is, it must be important that you wanted us to do this so formally. Not like the time we put together the business plan for this place," Colin chuckled, recalling the night of heavy drinking, scotch tasting, in fact, as they'd done it. And done it well, I might add.
"Well, it kind of is," Logan began, taking a moment of pause.
"Wait, you are kidding right?" Finn turned to Colin.
"About Zarina?!" Colin raised his eyebrows and added a chuckle.
"Bloody, yes. I sent the girl 60 roses this morning!" Finn replied, angrily, beginning to realize now how he must've gotten the name wrong on the card too.
"Well, you'll be lucky if she's still coming to dinner this evening," Colin laughed.
"Come on, please guys. We all have plans… let's just get on with this?" Logan pleaded. It wasn't the first time it was a struggle to get these two onto the correct wavelength when it came to discussing business after hours.
"He heard me make the order and didn't tell me then!" Finn complained, gesturing towards Colin.
Colin simply snickered, clearly liking the fact that he'd managed to cause some mischief without doing anything at all.
"I'm sure you two can figure out a fair way to settle this later," Logan sighed, feeling a little tired of their banter right now.
"Please," Colin urged Logan to continued.
"So, as you might've heard, the HPG is sitting in an odd state of limbo right now," Logan began once again.
"There was some whispers, yeah," Finn commented.
"Well, it's mostly because of me, you see. Mitchum… I don't know what he was thinking, either he forgot about it or he did this on purpose to prove some stupid point to me…," Logan continued.
"He didn't!?" Colin connected the dots in his head.
"Well that's just classic Dark Lord, isn't it?!" Finn chimed in. "Wait - he did or didn't, what?" he added, having gotten carried away before fully understanding what was going on.
"He did. He left me with the choice of either accepting the shares and everything else… or not. And honestly I almost said 'no' on the spot," Logan shared.
"I would've kicked your ass right about now if you had, you know that, right?" Colin said, being always rather the kind of guy who hated turning down good business opportunities. And this was definitely the case. Logan knew it. Life, not to say 'his father' was handing him an opportunity, a very good opportunity. One worth billions of dollars. To almost anyone this sounded like most obvious chance to jump at.
"You know it's not that simple," Logan replied.
"So, is this you telling us we're closing down?" Finn inquired, in an almost puppy-like manner.
"No, that's not it," Logan replied. "But I did want to touch base with you about how you think this is going. Is this something you like doing, where do you see this going? Where do you see this place in five years?" he added.
"Oh, he's having the commitment talk," Finn noted, adding a soft chuckle, comparing this to the dreaded talk with one of the girls he'd dated.
Colin didn't hold back his laughter.
"I just want to know whether this is something you think you'll be content with. I mean, I want to factor this into my decision," Logan explained.
"I like this. I like not having to answer to anyone else, the workload is manageable. I get to work with you guys," Finn commented, showing his softer side a little.
"I mean, I agree. For the most part. But considering we've discussed the goal to stay fairly small…. I enjoy this now, but I honestly can't be sure where my head will be in a few years time," Colin admitted.
"You break my heart!" Finn pretended to take it dramatically, but actually understood what Colin had meant.
"I know you miss your old work," Logan sympathized with Colin, knowing he'd given up a lot of exciting high profile cases.
"I mean, just every now and again… it's not like I'm regretting this," Colin added.
"I love the smallness of this, you guys know what. It's been so liberating, and the HPG is anything but…," Logan explained further.
"Yeah, but it's pretty much everything at the same time. You'll have, what, 60 companies under that umbrella, you'll get to have your pet projects there, too," Colin pointed out something Logan already knew.
"I know," Logan exhaled.
"It would be kind of bad-ass for you to kick it to the curb, too, you have to admit it," Finn discussed, continuing to pretend to read out a newspaper headline - "The Huntzberger heir - too good for family company".
"Yeah, and the news would probably send the stock prices plummeting as a result," Colin mused.
"I'm more worried about all the people employed than a few points drop," Logan replied. "It'll get divided up between a bunch of people and I am fairly sure a good share of them will sell. There's no telling who the buyer is or what their plans are. Most likely some competitor whose aim is to merge. An average merger…," Logan continued, going into explaining how mergers usually meant a lot of downsizing. Even though there were tens of thousands of people whom he'd never met, there were a number he knew well from the years he'd been more involved with the place. They were, on the most part, not bad people. And he was already now sensing the pressure of having to make a decision that would not only influence his life, but also theirs. There was more to taking over the company - it wasn't just becoming powerful, it was about becoming responsible. It wasn't just about giving in to his father wishes, the wishes of generations of Huntzbergers, it was also his legacy, his family's life's work, something he deep down inside was also a little proud of if he separated its achievements from the poor relationship he'd had with his father.
"That's going to be one hell of a pair of shoes to fill," Colin let slip, realizing a second too late that the last thing Logan wanted to do was to be compared to his father. But Logan knew he was going to be compared to him no matter what, hence he couldn't really be mad at his friend for pointing out the obvious. "I just meant timewise. It's going to take up a lot of time. You probably won't have time for fiddle-faddle like this," he said, gesturing around them, trying to turn this into a joke.
"I know," Logan sighed. "And that's what I am honestly the most worried about," he added.
"Don't tell us you've gotten used to these flexible schedules, and actually having spare time?" Finn teased.
"It's not just that," Logan said, and bit his tongue. He knew he wasn't supposed to say anything about Rory's pregnancy, not before they were past the crucial 12 weeks at least. And there was still a long way to go before that, and the decision was going to have to be made well before that. "I just don't want to be like he was," Logan added, not needing to say he meant his father. He wanted to be home for dinner, see Rory and the baby, actually feel like he belonged somewhere else than behind his desk.