“No. But—well . . .”

Beth Anne didn’t respond this time.

I was as surprised as you, Kevin thought. I didn’t see this coming, not ever.

Six faces that he knew and loved looked at him.

Jamie and Mia were the only two employees who were married. Jamie had a couple of kids. Both had husbands who worked. There wasn’t one sole and solitary breadwinner who was in danger of losing their job.

If they indeed do end up losing their jobs.

But it didn’t matter. Every single one of his employees had gotten the big dream speech when they first applied and when he finally hired them. The dream of working in an environment where people cared about one another and had fun and delivered exceptional service. A place of people who created because they loved to create. A place that was a business, but really at heart they were in the business of making magic happen, of designing a form around an idea, about creating something from nothing.

“So I had this idea last night that I wanted us all to meet outside in a field.”

“It’s kind of cold for baseball,” Pete joked.

“Well, I thought of it—no. I was going to give each of you a bat, then unveil Hal sitting in the center of the field. I was going to let you all enact our favorite scene from Office Space.”

“We still have time,” Jamie said as she stood up, acting like she was ready to go.

Jamie naturally would have been the one out of all of them to love his suggestion. She was the one who worked the most with the old Power Mac G5 that Kevin bought half a decade ago. It was at a desk that some of the interns used. The only reason Kevin still kept it was for all the old files on it. They’d nicknamed this problematic computer “Hal” from the legendary computer that went psychotic in 2001.

“You think I’m joking,” Kevin said. “But you all might want to after hearing about my trip.”

“That’s doesn’t sound very promising,” Beth Anne said. She shook her head, knowing him probably too well. “You’re worrying me.”

“Okay, so as you know, day before Thanksgiving, I met with Silverschone. And well, unfortunately they didn’t want to sign another retainer for the coming year.”

The energy and excitement was suddenly sucked from the room, like a balloon instantly deflating. Kevin saw their reactions, but he kept on talking.

“I know I told all of you when you first came to work here that we were going to do something great. I think we have. And I think we’re going to continue to do some good things. I hope. But you know how it goes—I don’t like companies that aren’t straight up with us. I gotta be the same way.” He paused and took a deep breath before he said what he knew he had to: “I can’t promise you that Precision will make it to the end of the year.”