The Do-Over(72)

Everyone agreed and he went on. “So, I just got off the phone with Wes Bergman. The response to the PSAs was phenomenal. He was tracking the data over the weekend from the touchscreens and looking at the donation surges that came in after each of the videos played. They also had the people taking donations at the tables timestamping so that they could track back to the effectiveness of which video had spurred the donation and he’s going to use that data for his ad buys.”

“Did they hit their target fundraising goal for the evening?” I asked.

“He said they exceeded the goal by 36% and increased donations by nearly $1.5 million over last year’s event.”

I started to clap and the rest of the team followed suit. Yes! We were part of what made the evening a success and the pride I felt swept away the negative feelings that had encroached on the project. In my little way, I was able to honor Stacy and Jill and countless other women and men, and their families who had all been given that heart wrenching diagnosis. This was a day where I wanted to shout out my office window, I love what I do. I felt like a soldier fighting for the cause. I knew Chris had not charged C-Kicker corporate client rates for our work and I was happy he had made that decision, in addition to our corporate and individual donations.

“That’s right, a round of applause for this team is well deserved. I can’t tell you how proud I am of all of you and of your work. Sitting in that ballroom watching the crowd the other night, seeing how moved everyone was, was the most incredible feeling in the world. Everyone really stepped up to the plate on this one.”

“It was pretty awesome,” Kim agreed.

“So Wes would like to thank us all, and he’s invited the team to a party on his boat in two weeks on Saturday night.”

My heart stopped beating with Chris’ announcement. No. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be on the Second Wind again. Not with him. And definitely not with Julien. I just couldn’t do it.

“Oh and Tara, Wes asked specifically for you to make a jug of some special rum drink you make. He said you’d know what it was.”

I couldn’t respond. I had to get Chris alone in his office after the meeting and tell him that I couldn’t attend. There was not a shot in hell I was going to subject myself to being caught in the confines of a boat with Julien Matthews.

And Wes Bergman.

That boat held so many memories for me. It was a vessel of dreams that descended into lies. In my head, I knew that I had to deal with him through the gala, that was a professional commitment I had to honor. But this? This was pure torture. And to act like nothing was wrong with his staff and my colleagues there. I could already feel my stress level elevating.

After lunch I knocked on Chris’ office door.

“Hey, can I talk to you about something?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“I’d like to bow out of the boat party in two weeks. It’s my weekend with Scarlett and,” I never finished my sentence.

“I’d really appreciate if you attended.”

It was not the response I expected from Chris.

“And I’d really appreciate a pass on this one.” I was trying to remain calm and professional externally, but my anxiety was starting to skyrocket.

“Tara, you need to attend.” The look on his face told me not to push anymore. “Please close my door on the way out.”

Sitting back down behind my desk, I shook my head. That may have been the single strangest conversation I’d had with Chris O’Donnell in all the years I’d known him. He’d never dismissed me like that before.

Without saying the words suck it up and be professional, Chris had just told me in no uncertain terms to suck it up and be professional.

Great. Now I had two weeks to stress out about this when I finally thought I was getting a break from it all, that my professional commitment was over and I could put it behind me.

Hey, can you do me a favor? I texted Laynie. Saturday night, 2 weeks from now, can Scarlett stay with you. I just got this work thing sprung on me.

Sure. No problem

TY. At least I’d gotten that taken care of.



With Tux Paint loaded on the students’ laptops as well as the ones for instructors, we started by showing the kids how to use the different stamps to create designs. With the holidays approaching, we talked about how much fun it is to receive cards and how great it would be to give cards that we made. With Halloween rapidly approaching, our first digital design project was going to be to create a design that we would print out as both a card to give away and a poster to keep.

“Mom, this is so much neater than paint. There’s gonna be no clean up.” Tech-savvy Scarlett was in her comfort zone.

“Any time we can get the kids to use computers we’re enhancing not only their communications, but their work readiness skills, too. I can’t wait to see what they create over the next few weeks.”

As we were printing out the projects, Camille dropped by the room.

“The students did these?” she was astounded.

“Yes and this was only their first time working with the program.”

“Mind if I take some pictures of them?” she asked, whipping her cell phone out before I could respond. “I think the benefactor will be very pleased to see their donation is already at work enhancing the program.”

“Please give them a huge thank you from me.” I hoped she would pass that along.