But this time, for a completely different reason.
“Then why didn’t you just tell me yesterday?”
He laughed.
“I tried. You didn’t let me finish my sentence.”
I remembered the park.
“Starting tomorrow, you will no longer work for me for a salary.”
He had never said “for free.”
I had assumed that.
Richard stood and walked toward me.
“Seven years ago, I hired a frightened young woman who could barely speak during her interview. Today, I’m trusting that same woman with the company I spent forty years building.”
I was already crying.
“So your one condition…”
He smiled.
“Never call me ‘boss’ again.”
I laughed through my tears.
One month later, Richard officially stepped away from the day-to-day management of the company.
But every Friday, he still comes into the office.
He sits across from me.
He drinks his coffee.
And every time I accidentally say,
“Mr. Bennett, boss…”
He immediately raises one finger.
“Remember the condition.”
The day I walked away from that park, I was convinced I had lost my job.
In reality, I had only lost my old position.
Because he wasn’t pushing me out of the company.
He was making room for me beside him.
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