Merriton

“Don’t be mad at me, okay?” Kevin sounded nervous and Randy knew exactly why. “I just read about it on ValleyWag.” A slew of swear words came through Randy’s cell phone. “How could they have posted it?! I just came out of the meeting!!” Randy calmly replied, “Jeff has been feeding ValleyWag for the last year or so. I was okay with it because it got us more publicity, but now that you’re in charge of Zerbitz, that’s a decision you have to make.”

The phone was quiet and Randy pulled the handset away from his ear to see if he had lost the signal. “Kevin? Can you hear me?” “Yeah, I can hear you, Random. Are you mad at me?” Randy shook his head, “Kevin, someone has to be in charge of Zerbitz now that I’m gone. If you ask me, it took them too long to replace me. You’re the best they’ve got on that team. The fact that they put you in charge and didn’t move you to a different team is a really good sign. I’m not mad at you. I’m feeling hopeful for Zerbitz for the first time since I quit.”

Kevin didn’t say anything, but Randy could hear office noises in the background. Randy wanted to ask him what he was planning on doing, but he kept quiet. He repeated the mantra to himself, “It’s not my concern.” Every time he read about Zerbitz or their competition, he repeated the mantra to himself. He sold that company. He no longer had any interest in it. It was not his concern. He kept repeating the mantra to himself, but he also kept reading the gossip about Zerbitz.

“What do I do?” Kevin finally broke the silence on the phone. Randy shook his head. “I don’t know. I was always pushing for a short code. Are they willing to do that?” Kevin squeaked on the other end of the phone. “Sorry, I just read the ValleyWag post. Jesus, Jeff wasn’t even IN that meeting. How’d he get so many details?” Randy smiled. “Some people have connections. Jeff’s one of those people. I used to feed the details to Nicole and she would almost run over to Jeff, but I know you and Nicole don’t really get along, so you’ll have to find a different way to leak… So, the short code?”

“Oh yeah! Random, you’d be so proud of me! I told them I wouldn’t take over unless they were willing to get a short code. We’re not opening it up to everyone, though. We’re doing an invitation only start-up for the nationwide release. Want an invite?” The phone line was quiet. “Random? Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, Kevin. I can hear you. You did it. God, Kevin, you did it.” Randy tried to keep his joy from spilling out all over the parlor. He paced the floor of his huge farmhouse and felt the feeling of relief rush over him. “Yeah, I want an invite. Can you send one to Tank, too?”