Yo. So I have this book coming out next Tuesday, and I think you should read it. It’ll be released in both paperback and electronic formats the same day, but if you’re a Kindle person AND you don’t like the hassle of remembering things, you can actually preorder it RIGHT NOW and it’ll automatically be delivered to your device on September 2. Cool, huh?
If you’re a paperback person like me, you’ll have to make a sticky note or something, or just keep coming to the internet, as I promise to spam you again once the release date comes (Tuesday, September 2, 2014/the day you have to go back to work after a long weekend).
Here’s the other thing: I’m going to post the first chapter below. I do this because I care about you. Have a look, invest yourself, and as always, thanks for reading.
{ Chapter 1 }
How it Started
The email had no sender, which was the first sign something was not right.
There was no subject either, but this was not alarming; emails are often sent without subjects. The blank white space in the “From” field, however, was downright odd. David Grasso had never received an email from no one.
He read the body text.
Hey Dave,
Just wanted to let you know everything’s alright with me. I ended up where I should be. It’s real, man…all of it. I’m home now, so don’t worry.
Hope everything’s well with you. Be good.
Love you,
Sal
Clearly this was an enormous mistake.
The only Sal that David knew was his younger brother. But the email couldn’t be from him, because Sal was dead.
Honestly, it was out of the ordinary for David to receive emails from anyone at this address. He’d created it years ago for reasons he couldn’t fully remember, and for the most part it sat dormant and unchecked. He got an occasional handful of spam emails, but aside from that, there had been little activity in the last year. And now here was this curious email from someone. Or no one. He wasn’t sure.
So as he wiped the sweat off his brow, David Grasso stared at the text on his computer screen and rapidly went through the possible scenarios in his head. It could be:
a) A mistake. He wasn’t really sure how that would work, but it seemed like a good place to start the list.
b) An email from a dead man. Seemed even less likely.
c) Someone trying to deceive him. This was really the only reasonable possibility of the three, when it came down to it. And as the minutes passed and that conclusion began to sink in, it made him very, very pissed off.
David got up from where he was sitting – on the couch in his apartment, laptop on his lap – and went through the sliding glass door to the back porch. He lit a cigarette, hoping it would help him calm down. It didn’t.
—
Monday mornings were important at the offices of JF&A Integrated Advertising Agency. At such a prestigious firm, every day was significant, but management considered Mondays especially paramount. It was when the work was put in, the deals were struck, and the money was made. Monday set the tone for the week, and was to be respected accordingly. This belief was shared by all employees, mostly due to fear; workers at JF&A were meant to buy in. Anything other than a vehement toeing of the company line was frowned upon, and looked at as unfavorable by the higher-ups. And nobody wanted to look unfavorable at JF&A.
It was a serious operation, one of which young creatives and aspiring account execs dream. While small-scale in relation to other major firms – seventy-two employees worked at the headquarters in downtown Chicago – JF&A garnered respect among its peers and industry types for consistently great, innovative campaigns. Ownership liked the small size; they considered it a boutique firm, a distinction that differentiated them from the large, sprawling firms of Manhattan. They played the niche role well, positioning themselves as a personal, attentive ad house, even if many of their clients were halfway across the country.
The salaries were generous, as one would expect at such a prominent company, and the associates earned every penny; JF&A employees were expected in by 7:30 every morning, and leaving after dark wasn’t uncommon. The firm put up a front about a work/life balance and “casual” atmosphere, but this was mostly propaganda used to impress clients and lure fresh recruits. The air was tense, the dress formal, and the hours long. There was a game room with a pool and ping pong table, but it was hardly ever used. There was too much work to be done.
It was by no means a sweatshop, but when you worked at JF&A, you were expected to work. It was probably for this reason that the median age at the firm was thirty-two – even most of the top-level account executives were under fifty. It was a young man’s game, and the company brain trust understood this. Get them while they’re fresh, hungry, and stupid, and get their best years before they decide to leave for a slower pace. The current CEO had been on the job for a year and a half, and had just turned thirty-eight.
This was the world David returned to Monday morning at 7:17, a little early as always. He walked into his “open-air office” (the company’s fancy wording for “cubicle”), set down his coffee cup, plopped down in his chair and massaged his temples, eyes closed. Monday mornings were usually not bad; he was always energized at the beginning of the week.
On this Monday, however, he was not ready to go. Since initially reading the email yesterday afternoon, he had:
● Smoked four cigarettes. Since quitting two years ago, there had been only three occasions in which he indulged. Each time he felt immediately stupid afterward. Having four yesterday made him feel especially like an idiot.
● Reread the email sixteen times.
● Picked up his cellphone to call someone about it, but put it down when he couldn’t figure out who to call.
● Sent a reply email. It was a simple “who is this?” and was immediately returned as undeliverable, for there was no recipient.
● Slept two and a half hours. He got into bed at 10 and fell asleep around 3:30.
The rest of the time, his mind was occupied with who the email was actually from. Aside from the fact that he was dead, the evidence was pretty much in favor of it being from Sal. He had been, for the most part, the only human outside of work who emailed David. He was the only person that had sent emails to that mostly dormant email address. And he was the only person that would tell David he loved him. No one else had said it since Sal died. There was no one left.
And for the most part, that was a good thing. It always made him uncomfortable. David didn’t talk about his feelings. His father had been a stoic, hard-working man of few words, and that was the way David assumed men were supposed to be – they weren’t supposed to have feelings. Leave the fluffy stuff for the ladies. Two men saying they “loved” each other? Even if it was family, it was weird.
So he had rarely – if ever – told Sal he loved him back, a fact that now after his death had struck David with a considerable amount of guilt. But he did his best to suppress it. Guilt was a feeling, and feelings were for pussies.
As he ran through the possibilities of where the email came from in his head one more time, Todd walked in.
“Sup, bro?” Todd asked. He always started conversations like this.
“Morning,” David said as he slowly swiveled around to greet him.
“How was your weekend, buddy?”
This was a regular conversation. Todd initiated a discussion about the past weekend each Monday, mostly because he wanted to fill in David (and anyone else who would listen) about his weekend, which undoubtedly included epic parties, bottle service, scantily clad drunk women, or a combination of the three. David cared very little about any of this, but the rules of social interaction – and the fact that Todd was his immediate superior – required him to at least entertain the conversation.
“It was fine,” David replied. “Didn’t do a whole lot.”
“No? Well you shoulda come out with us. It was crazy. Hit up Club Seven Friday night, had like ten ladies at our booth. Must’ve drank a liter of Grey Goose, and by the end of the night – I shit you not – my boy Derek was dancing on a cop car. The cop told him to come down, and…”
David stared and nodded along at the narrative, but he had tuned it out. It was a skill he’d acquired along the way.
As a graphic designer – or a “Multimedia Production Specialist,” as the company insisted on calling him – David worked with a wide range of people at JF&A, but it seemed like he and Todd had the most contact. Todd, a slender man of slight proportions, wore short blonde hair and thick-framed Ralph Lauren glasses. He had a small bald spot on the crown of his head, but overall he looked pretty good for a man in his mid-thirties. Lean, healthy.
As the Executive Vice President of Something at JF&A, Todd oversaw a few departments, creative being one of them. He had previously spent years as an account exec, a position for which he was perfect; his brash, arrogant style resonated with high-profile clients – likely because many of them shared the same characteristics – and on more than one occasion, Todd set company account records. The man could sell, so naturally he was promoted to a position that utilized a completely different set of skills. And as the Executive Vice President of Something, Todd struggled. Gone were the long lunches and extravagant golf outings and the ins and outs of the old boy network. He was a manager, in charge of delegating tasks and overseeing departmental operations, and thus the subject matter of his work was considerably more boring. There were no more big fish to chase, no more getting drunk at noon on Wednesday. His life became sitting in meetings and responding to emails. He knew little about managing people, so his wisest decision was mostly staying out of the way. Which meant there was very little actual “work” for Todd to do, and that’s why most of his days at the office were spent socializing and browsing the web. He was good at those things.
David still had to report to him, however, so in weekly meetings and whenever else necessary he gave Todd updates on the status of his projects. As he listened, Todd would nod, frown, scribble on a notepad – anything to give the impression he understood, despite the fact that he almost certainly did not.
“…and anyway, you totally need to come out next time.” He was finished.
David nodded. “Totally.”
“And hey, remember we have that lunch meeting with the Devaney account today.”
“Yep,” David replied. “I’m ready to go.”
“Good to hear, man. Anyway, I’ll let you get back to it.”
JF&A had been chasing Devaney Shoes for years, since Todd had first made contact in his time as an account rep. It was a huge company, specializing in discount shoe sales, with warehouse-style stores in twenty-eight states, and it would be a sizable account. The one thing that Todd was good at was setting up and executing meetings, and since he considered himself close personal friends with the company’s representatives he was coming along to “facilitate.” Todd, along with a strategist from JF&A, was going to pitch the company’s potential campaign for Devaney. It was a big meeting.