“It’s been a tough road. For everyone.” Stephen chimed in, aware of exactly what Rockwell was talking about. He had seen his business go dry from the drastic cuts in bank funding and companies losing their cash flow in the middle of sizeable projects. Unable to complete the project and unable to sustain the costs of maintaining a partially built property, several firms had no choice but to go out of business.
“Yes, yes it has. And it’s my belief that the markets are not going to recover in some rapid snap-back. It’ll take time.” Rockwell was habitually calculated in his words and leaned his elbows on the armrests with his hands interlocked. He seemed completely comfortable as he described the economic environment that threatened to tear apart his industry. Despite the grim storytelling, Stephen saw no sign of distress in the man.
“Stephen, the reality is that our company here is not immune to these difficult situations. Last year we had eight hundred thousand square footage in progress regionally. Our bank partners have since backed off and will only commit to finishing off our existing developments. They won’t back us to fund new properties.”
A cold wave flushed across Stephen’s face. He knew where this conversation was going. New property developments were the very thing his company worked on. Without them, Rockwell would have no need to contract commercial appraisers like him. The loss of the Rockwell account would be a death stroke to their small business. Stephen could see down the road of this conversation and every sign pointed to him going out of business. He immediately thought of Hailey and Sarah. His family and particularly his marriage had come so far from the bottom, having gone through the point of nearly drowning and yet they had struggled to break through the surface and recapture a breath, only for another wave to come crashing into them.
Taking a lesson from Rockwell himself, Stephen tried his hand at the direct tone, “So you need to scale back property acquisitions? I assume that will impact your need for commercial appraisers.”
They had lost possessions before and as difficult as it was, the Lantz family made it through. This would be different. Stephen thought through the steps of telling his wife. Sarah would be supportive; her commitment to their family was unwavering now. The thought of her embrace calmed his nerves even though he didn’t have the first clue as to how they could get through this apparent financial devastation.
Rockwell responded, “We’re going to cancel the majority of our outsourced services. And, yes, that includes commercial appraisal companies like yours.”
Jeez, this guy doesn’t beat around the bush.
Stephen took the hit in stride and kept his composure despite the distraction of being taken aback. His fingers rubbed his clammy palms in an effort to hide his fidgeting.
“I realize this is tough for your business, Stephen. You’ve been through this sort of cutback before, right?”
“Yes. We’ve seen tough times before.” Stephen’s facade of professionalism began to slip as he saw the grip on opportunity slide through his fingers. “Have to say we haven’t fully recovered from them yet.”
“You used to work for George McDowell, right?” Rockwell emerged from his chair and walked over to the window in what seemed to be an uncharacteristic moment of distant thought.
The question hit Stephen from left field and scrambled his thoughts. Why would Rockwell bring up George McDowell, someone Stephen hadn’t spoken to in years? “Yes. Um, yes. I was with him for about 10 years.”
“That didn’t end too well, did it?” Rockwell’s gaze returned to Stephen.
“No, I can’t say that it did.” Stephen racked his brain to make sense of the conversation.
“George is a longtime friend of mine. It was my first property acquisition. George set up the joint venture with me so we could secure the funding. At the time, I brought very little to the table and George generously treated me as an equal partner.”
Stephen’s mind went into overdrive.
Was he kidding? James Rockwell was the blazing comet of the commercial development industry and George McDowell had given this guy his first leg up?
With a poised and stoic stance, Rockwell continued, “I trust George McDowell’s word… emphatically. You should know that George and I recently had a chance to catch up.”
Stephen thoughts hit a moment of realization.
Holy crap, what did I say to McDowell in that last meeting? Is that what this was all about? I burnt that bridge and now this was some sort of long-term retribution being played out by McDowell?
Stephen could only take shallow breaths as he realized the meeting was about to conclude. Stephen retrieved the noisemaker off the coaster and took a careless gulp from the bottle, completely unconcerned with the impolite crackling from the bottle.
Caring little for the rudeness or impropriety while finishing the last few drops, Stephen held the bottle against his lip for a brief extra second. Without warning, a reflective flash off the office window caught the center of his eye. Instead of cringing from it, Stephen starred at the glimmer. He felt the warmness of the light coming into him as he strained to keep focused on the reflection of light. The brightness reminded him of the abandoned car he had irresponsibly attacked during an afternoon run the prior year. In a moment’s instant he recalled the feeling of helplessness, the lack of control, the unhindered rage he had unleashed on the vehicle. Then he thought about the blinding glimmer from the broken mirror which had nagged at him with defiance. His only concern back then had been for himself. He had become some enraged by everything that had happened to him, he hadn’t seen the pain his own anger and distance was causing his family. Back then, he could only see his own pain and by dwelling on it, it had hurt him more. But hadn’t the thing which pushed him over the edge, the foreclosure, hadn’t it worked out? He had lashed out in anger and desperation and a solution had been presented. With the benefit of hindsight, Stephen was seeing more clearly now. He could see that in this very moment his anger was forming, he could see it building, and he could see it emerging just as it had with the car. He pondered that just as he had no idea that his father would offer to sell his house and rescue them from foreclosure, he had no idea how they would make it past the loss of the Rockwell account. But a solution would be presented. For some reason, he knew it would. Whatever came from this meeting, he didn’t have to dwell on it. He would find a way to move forward and not adopt a mindset of unjustified anger as if he were constantly begrudging a world bent against him. Stephen wasn’t that man anymore.
His pulse eased and a calm began to drift over him. As he gently reached over to set the bottle back onto the table, he felt the gripping of a presence closing in around him. Unlike his previous emotions, this presence was warm, resting, even encouraging. By the time Stephen placed the bottle onto the coaster his mind was clear, his nerves settled and his palms were dry. Stephen was at peace with whatever came next.