The Lakes

Chapter 14

14

Chris had never been so glad to go to work. The weekend had come with a variety of strange occurrences and she wanted a degree of normalcy. She was anxious to see Jeremy after their slightly uncomfortable meeting, but she was still glad to be there.

She walked into her office, threw her stuff down, checked her emails and voicemails, then headed for Mr. Lake's office.

He was standing at his desk, bent slightly over and looking very seriously at a whole slew of documents. She found she was used to this now, when he was focused he was focused. She cleared her throat and approached the desk. He looked up and immediately warmed.

"How was your weekend Ms. Miller?"

"Fine," she lied. "How was yours?"

"Fine, just fine. Ready to get to work?"

"Yes sir."

She hoped at some point he would explain what she was actually there to help him with. He handed her a stack of papers and asked her to separate everything into different stacks based on the person the papers involved. While she was going through them she realized that the people were the various board members of LakeAssociates.

The documents ranged from the contract signed by the board member to a list of emergency contacts to a simple typed page of likes, dislikes, interest, hobbies etc. That last one was a little weird for her but she figured it had something to do with Christmas or compensation for being a board member.

When she was finished with that he handed her some hand-written notes.

"Ms. Miller," he said very seriously, "this is a very rough draft of a proposal I'm submitting to the board. It's extremely confidential. I would like for you to go into your office, shut the door and make this...prettier. Can you do that?"

"Yes sir," she said nodding.

"Please be very dedicated to keeping this confidential," he said with the most serious tone she'd ever heard him use with her.

"Yes sir," she said turning and leaving.

She did exactly what he said, she went to her office and closed the door immediately. She even forwarded her calls and emails to Jocelyn just in case.

She pulled up the letter template then looked down at the paper. The notes were scratched out quickly but everything made sense. Mr. Lake wanted the board to agree to name Jeremy as the sole beneficiary to LakeAssociates when he passed. Chris realized she may be a bit naïve about the nature of the business world but she couldn't help but wonder a few things.

Why would it be a big deal to leave your company to your only child? And why would he need the board's permission? She wondered if it would be rude to ask Mr. Lake. Maybe it might be better to ask Jeremy.

It took her almost two hours to get the letter the way she liked it and when she was done she saved it, password protected, and printed a copy to show Mr. Lake.

He read over it with reading glasses that make him look like a very handsome college professor. When he was finished he beamed at her.

"This is excellent Ms. Miller, thank you. Where's the notes?" She handed them to him. "And the document is saved on your computer?"

"Yes," she said, "but it's password-protected."

His smile widened, "You are truly amazing Ms. Miller." He set the papers down on his desk and sat. "I've ordered in lunch for us, we'll need to keep working, is that okay?"