Page 25 of Basil

He gave out a harsh laugh. “No doubt.”

I leaned my head back and stared at the ceiling for a moment before lowering my gaze to him. “But I’m not going to.”

His brows lifted slightly.

“I’m giving you a chance. Justone, Felix.” I leveled him with a hard stare. “You screw this up—you sleep on the job—you’re gone. No discussion, no negotiation.”

Relief crashed over his face. “Basil, I swear?—”

“I know you could walk out of here and get another job—no problem. And if not, your family, and by extension you, are loaded. So you don’t have a financial reason to stay. I want you here because I believe people can evolve, get better—not change everything about themselves, but their behaviors.” I gave him a small smile. “I’m on the same twelve steps, buddy.”

Felix looked at me as I cleared my head, rearranged my plans to now include Felix because, sure he’d fucked up, but I believed he regretted what he did. He didn’t make excuses, didn’t try to bullshit me, he said outright he was to blame. I respected that.

I let that sit for a beat, then shifted gears.

“Now”—I smirked—“Since you’re still Head of HR, you’re going to handle something for me.”

“Drew?”

“Yes.” I turned to the laptop screen to face him and tapped to open my email. “Legally, we’re going to do this the clean way. Greer said we’ll have to buy her out. So, he’s put together a preliminary severance package that he will run by you. A generous one—I want her gone fast.”

“You got one there for me as well?”

“Yes.”

“But…you’re not going to give it to me.”

“No. I’m not giving up on you, Felix.”Because then I’d have to give up on myself as well.

He considered that for a moment and smiled. “I won’t let you down.”

I believed him.

Crossroads.

Epiphanies.

Wakeup calls.

Felix had just got his when he watched the video, saw who he had become, how he’d hurt someone for no good reason—how he wasn’t a man he could respect. I could relate and just like him I vowed to never disappoint Summer or myself ever again.

12

STILL CLEANING OUT MY CLOSET

BASIL

Drew wasn’t happy. She knew something was up. She knew because she hadn’t gotten her promotion yet—I’d told her we were still evaluating things, which had made her extremely angry.

“Are you punishing me because your girlfriend dumped you?” she demanded.

“This isn’t me; it’s the leadership team. Thomas Greer, Felix, our head of R&D and Quality, and I have all requested some more time.”

This was true. I had no part in there-evaluation. Greer said he’d seen some concerning behavior from Drew, and Felix backed that.

Drew had started openly bad-mouthing me and other leaders in her team meetings, which was why we agreed not to show her the videos and assess her reaction as we did with Felix. Ultimately, Drew wasn’t being asked to leave Stratos because of how she treated Summer. She was leaving because an external HR consultant had conducted a thorough investigation into her leadership—and the findings spoke for themselves.

Finally, three weeks after my conversation with Felix, we were able to discuss employment termination with Drew. We decided that Felix would run the meeting, and I would be there as a silent witness and for support.

---