As soon as Jim slid into his first-class seat, his phone rang. He smiled when he saw the call was from his granddaughter.
"Hi, sweetheart, how are you?" Jim answered.
"Great, Papa. Are you on the plane yet?"
"Yep. Just sat down. Everything okay?"
"Yep. Just wanted to remind you I've got a soccer game Saturday. You'll be back by then, right?"
"Of course. You know I wouldn't miss one of your soccer games!"
"Okay, Papa. Just checking. I love you. Have a good trip."
"Thanks, sweetheart. Love you, too. See you Saturday."
Jim smiled to himself as he put his phone back in his pocket. He tried to make as many of his granddaughter's events as possible, both because he loved watching her do whatever she was doing and because he wanted her to know how important she was to him. Starting next week, he'd even be able to pick her up from school on some days and take her to her gymnastics class.
The ability to do things like that is why Jim decided this was his last project; it was time to retire. His firm had done well over the years, and the buyout he'd get from his two partners would allow him to live a very comfortable life. Of course, he had also saved well over the years and had a nice 401K balance, so he really wasn't concerned about money. Having turned 65 earlier this year, he was now on Medicare, so his medical costs would actually go down.
He considered retiring four years ago when his wife died from cancer. He was devastated and depressed. He took off a full month of work and just moped around the house. His daughter convinced him he had to try to start living again, so he took on a small project. But as soon as he started, he realized work actually made him happy. He liked the challenges, and he really liked the people. So soon he was working more than full time again and was happy.
But now, although he still liked the work and the people, he thought it was time. It didn't really bother him that he was older than the parents of many of his co-workers, or even that he was older than some GRANDPARENTS of some of his co-workers. But the fact that he was always the oldest person in the room made him think. And reading the Death Notices in the newspaper, and seeing so many people only a few years older than he -- with some even younger -- helped him decide it was time to enter the next stage of his life.
He was piling up a list of "lasts": his last partners' meeting, his last Quarterly Report to the staff, and his last commute on the 6:30 a.m. train into the city. And today was the beginning of his last business trip.
He enjoyed this last project -- it was good to go out on a high. It had been going on for about 18 months, and they finished everything a couple of weeks ago. All that remained was a formal presentation to senior management, a "Lessons Learned" session to improve the next project, and perhaps most important, the project completion party.
Like so many projects of late, much of the team worked from home in different parts of the country, and most meetings were virtual. Like most of his recent projects, Jim went out to the client's office for a few weeks in a row at the very beginning of the project to meet people, establish relationships, nail down scope and expectations, and build a little credibility. He used to tell people that after you've sat in a room with people and convinced them you know what you're doing, it's much easier to conduct future business virtually.
After those initial weeks, Jim visited the office every four to six weeks. Once a quarter, the entire team tried to meet in person for a few days. He always looked forward to those meetings. More specifically, he always looked forward to seeing Kelly.
Kelly was a young, smart woman who had only been with the client for four years. She went to work for them after receiving her MBA from Stanford. She was very good at what she did, but she also realized she didn't have the most experience in the world. She gladly accepted constructive criticism and suggestions from Jim, often reaching out to him when she had a tough problem.
They also really liked each other and teased each other. Jim will never forget the first time he met Kelly in person. They had had what seemed like thousands of video calls on Microsoft Teams -- both with the whole group and just the two of them -- and they hit it off together right away. After three months of video calls, he finally met Kelly at the first all-team meeting in Los Angeles.
He walked into the office she was using, and said, "Hello, there!"
Kelly looked up and smiled. She got out of her chair, and just as Jim spread his arms to give her a hug, Kelly stuck out her right arm to shake his hand. She stopped cold and stared at him, before saying, "You're going to try to give me a hug? Here? Like we're old friends? Do you think that's appropriate in a business relationship? Were you going to try to touch my ass, too?"
Jim felt horrible. He was always a warm, touchy-feely kind of guy, but even he realized some norms had changed. He did consider Kelly a friend, but, apparently, she didn't feel exactly the same way. And with all the sexual harassment issues in business, he realized he should have been more sensitive.
"No. Look, I'm really sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have presumed..."
Suddenly, he was cut off by the sound of a loud laugh.
"Oh my god, Jim, you are TOO easy! Come give me a hug!"
Kelly opened her arms as she walked up to Jim and wrapped her arms around him. Tight. Jim felt such a relief.
"Shit, Kelly, you really had me scared!" he said, without breaking the hug.
"I wish you could have seen the look on your face!" she replied with a laugh. Then she reached behind her and pushed Jim's right hand, which was around her waist, down to her ass. "Yeah, I knew you wanted to feel my ass. But two can play at this game." Then she moved one hand down to Jim's ass and gave a squeeze.
"If I was just ten years younger," Jim said. "No make that twenty. Okay, if I was thirty years younger, I'd challenge your husband to a duel to win your love!"
Kelly was laughing as she broke the hug. "You've already got my love, Jim. Just be thankful you don't have to put up with the rest of my shit."
Jim smiled every time he thought back to that day. And Kelly frequently brought it up to him.
Kelly often sought Jim's input when she had to make presentations to her management. She always had the key points, but Jim helped her order certain things and remove smaller details that senior management wouldn't want to be bothered with.
One night she called Jim in a panic. She got a last-minute request from her boss to provide some numbers he needed for a presentation he was giving in the morning, and she wasn't sure how to do it. She had various files with sales data, expenses, and special project costs, but they all used different codes and files. She wasn't sure how to consolidate them into a meaningful summary.
Jim worked with her late into the night to pull everything into spreadsheets and wrote some macros to let her boss respond to questions by changing the displayed data on the fly. Kelly loved the results and thanked Jim profusely for helping her out. As usual, he responded with his standard answer after she thanked him for helping him: "Happy to help you out. Wouldn't have done it for anyone else." This always brought a laugh from Kelly and another "thank you."
On the afternoon of the next day, Kelly called Jim on Teams.
"Oh my god, Jim. Jack just called, and the presentation was a HUGE hit. He called to thank me for putting it all together at the last minute. I told him I asked you for help, but you refused, so I had to do it all by myself."
Jim laughed. "Yeah, I'd expect nothing less from you."
"Seriously, thank you. You saved my ass."
Jim laughed again. "Your ass can thank me next time we're in LA."
This brought a loud laugh from Kelly.
