He smiled.
“That is exactly what he told me you would say.”
I stared at him.
“What is going on?”
He simply replied,
“If you come with me for ten minutes, you’ll understand.”
An hour later, I was standing in Richard’s office again.
This time, the lawyer, the accountant, and two other executives were there.
The same folder was on the desk.
My name was on it.
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Richard pushed it toward me.
“Open it.”
On the first page, I saw words I did not understand at first.
Share Transfer Agreement.
I looked up.
“What is this?”
Richard leaned back in his chair.
“I’m retiring.”
I froze.
“And for the last two years, I’ve been watching who actually keeps this company running when I no longer have the strength I once did.”
He pointed at me.
“You.”
I said nothing.
“Yesterday, I told you that you would no longer work for me for a salary. That was true.”
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He turned to the next page.
My name was listed among the company’s new partners.
Then I saw the number.
Twenty-five percent.
“Mr. Bennett…”
“Starting tomorrow, I’m no longer your boss,” he said. “If you accept the condition, you become a shareholder and one of the company’s executive directors.”
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The tears came again.
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.
