A 'TAPS' inspired photo of sunrise at home
Not wanting to waste time commuting, I worked from home yesterday. However, Line & I needed to talk before I initiated the procedures that would move the office, so I sent her a text inquiring if she was in the city. Yes, she replied, and what did I think about her grabbing a bottle of wine then coming to spend the night with me in the bush? Great minds think alike, I texted. Maybe… but I was soon to discover that it’s not necessarily for the same reasons.

I am still somewhat perturbed.

Before my brother fell so ill, Line had decided to strike out on her own. With my laying her off, she would be eligible to collect unemployment insurance while finding clients and reactivating her former company. We would share the expenses of the smaller office, upkeep of the accounting programs, etc., and back each other up during the high season and our vacations.

When I returned to work after Bird’s passing, her plans had changed. She was selling her condo in the city and moving in with her friend, who does not reside in the area. She was leaving for a 10 day vacation within the week, and was more than fed up with accounting and the business. Although stunned, I could completely empathize with her. She had held the fort alone for so long. Besides, she saw me every day for the last 3 years, and has lived through my turbulent separation, my partner’s fiasco, losing Bud, now my brother…it has not been easy. She couldn’t help but share the heavy emotions I was feeling. In fact, it must have been extremely wearing for a person who thrives on positive influences.

It was her decision to drop our plans that motivated me to bring my office back home.

Line is not a drinker, and after two small glasses of wine she threw me the bomb. One of my best clients, the one she had offered to cover on her return from vacation last week (I had gratefully agreed; I was attempting to complete a complicated file for another customer) declared that he was going to change his account over to her new company. What???? This is a steady weekly account, one that I had set up and was serving before I hired Line. She has been covering it for three years…as my employee! I replaced her while she was on vacation, and had just warned him that she was relocating, and that it would be either me or someone else coming in the future. Now it seemed he had not known she was opening her own business and taking clients in this area, he did not want to break up his ‘team’, her rates were lower than mine...and, oh my….I don’t think I tasted the rest of the wine in my glass…it was gulped so quickly!

As she talked, my mind raced back to a few months ago, when she had first decided to branch out and was looking for clients. Another of my long standing accounts, one of the group she took care of and who, when warned nothing more would be done until he paid some of the sizable and long delinquent amount owed to my business, had apparently asked her if he could not switch over and work directly with her. I had blown a fuse when she approached me with this. What she was suggesting was a way he could ignore paying me and have his work done by someone familiar with his books…and paid by me. She reminded me that I had said I’d just as soon get rid of that client. True, I had said that…but it wasn’t happening until I was paid up!

I had told Bird about it during one of our chats. “Watch it!” he advised me. “She’s trying to steal your clients while you are out of action. When the cat’s away…” I denied it vigorously. This girl, who has been my close friend for years, had acted on the assumption that I wanted to get rid of the client. Even now I didn’t want to admit that Bird had possibly been right.

Life is all about choices. After Line went groggily to bed, I sat and thought about it all. The deception seemed enormous, but what mattered most to me? Keeping the client , or accepting that a dear friend, who had covered for me more than once; who, for such a long time, had helped me shoulder the burden of dealing with a hectic business while struggling with traumatic personal issues, was in a financial panic and was acting completely out of character? Which one of us needed help?

Before Line left this morning, I told her that I would call and discuss the issue with the client, then get back to her. Not wanting the client to be subject to a conflict of interest, I told him to feel at ease if he decided to switch to Line. The only thing I asked is that he advise his CA, who has referred other customers to me too. Being an honest businessman himself, he was ill at ease with the situation. His version of what had happened is not quite the same as hers.

I don’t care. I have decided to keep my friend. I can find other clients. There is no money equal to what this girl has given me over the years. I doubt it can ever be the same between us but, what the heck! Payback sometimes takes weird shapes.

Making a decision and being okay with it – it just makes you SMILE!!

I’m way behind, so sending out a gazillion of them over cyberspace to y’all!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec