Time to Get Even

Offer

I woke up to the sun shining brightly into my room and groaned in frustration.  How I forgot to close the blinds the night before was beyond me. I chalked it up to my new surroundings and decided to get up and seize the day.

I made my way down to the kitchen and saw that my mother was still asleep. Content with her absence, I embraced the moment of solitude and looked for the coffee. Luckily it didn't take me too long to figure out where things were placed and I sat down enjoying the fresh brew.

I unlocked my phone and began to slowly go through and read my received messages from the last few weeks. Not wanting to upset myself, I skipped the ones from Cole completely.

I concentrated on the ones I knew wouldn't piss me off or ruin my day. I started with a few from my friends back home and moved on to the well wishes from my new/old boss.

Unfortunately my position in B.C. was terminated, but on good terms. They couldn't hold off and needed to hire someone immediately. The hospital emergency wait times were something the province was cracking down on and having a vacancy didn't help the matters. They left the offer open, pending a future vacancy, and me being deemed fit to return to work. I was fine with it as I wasn't too stressed about money. I received a pretty generous severance package from the hospital and was bought out by Cole for the house.

I could easily ride out the next few years without making much of a dent in my account, Which made me question what I was going to do with myself.  My frustrations grew as I thought of my options or lack there of.

I was pulled away from my thoughts when my phone started ringing.

I glanced at the screen and saw that it was an Incoming call from Terry

"Hey Terry" I put the phone on speaker.

"Hi Ana, are you busy right now? I'm near your place and needed to run a few things by you" I could sense that he was tense. Whatever it was, he was nervous to talk to me about it which peaked my curiosity.

"Sure. Give me 5 min to get dresses and I'll buzz you up" I hung up the phone and rushed to my room. I took a quick look through my closet and decided to throw on a casual tshirt dress and pull my hair up into a messy bun. It wasn't pretty, but it was the best I could do on such short notice.

I heard  a loud beep and made my way to the small ipad looking thing mounted by the front door. I pressed the screen and an image of terry waiting outside the lobby doors popped up. I squinted my eyes and looked at the little bubbles with writing. I found the pass button and let him in.

Few minutes later there was a soft knock at my door.

"Hi terry" I gave him a big grin and went in for a hug. It really was great to see him. His presence always offered me a sense of comfort.

"Hi Ana" he squeezed back gently "it's so great to see you kid. You gave us all a tremendous scare"

"So I've been told" I chuckled and gestured Terry inside. He made his way to the table and placed his briefcase on top of it. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, I come bearing gifts" he opened the Briefcase and set out a series of documents in front of me.

I took a look at them and glance up at him confused.

"I have no idea what this is" I shrugged and push the documents back to him.

"It's a clinic, your clinic to be precise" he stated as he starts to flip through the pages with determination.

"Here is the gist of it" he found what he needed and handed them back over to me.

I took them from him and started skimming the paragraphs.  As I continued, I tried to make sense of what I was reading while keeping a headache from coming on.

"I believe that Marcus previously informed you of his plan to build a clinic and his wish for you to run it. Now I say clinic as a loose term as it functions more like a small hospital" he waited for a response and continues when I didn't give him one, " Marcus is handing 49% of the shares to the clinic over to you. He, in return, wants you to run it as chief, staff it, supervise, and direct the department successfully. He also wants you to oversee any clinical trials and receive your feedback before, during, and after"

"I don't want it" my voice came out barely above a whisper.

"I thought you'd say that" terry places his hand over mine and continues "you have an incredible brain and passion Ana. You may not be on best terms with Marcus right now, but this is an opportunity for you to help thousands of people. Before you say no, just look everything over and sleep on it"

"Fine, I'll think about it" I can't say no to this man. Not after all he has done for me, so the least I can do is think it over.

"Thank you" I could see the tension on his face disappear. "I'm going to leave you to it. Think about what I said Ana" and with that, he left.

I closed the door and plopped my butt on the couch. This whole situation was infuriating, and what's worse, he sent Terry to do his dirty work.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I decided that there was only one thing I could do in this situation.

With a new determination, I grabbed a piece of paper and started writing down all the pros and cons I could think of.