It's been in there ever since. Olivia was quiet for a second. Covered instead of fixed, she said. Yeah. How does something like that last 15 years without anyone catching it?
Because it looked fine from the outside. Marcus said things can look fine for a long time. Then one day something puts enough pressure on that spot and everything that was hiding comes out at once. She looked at the wall for a long moment. Then she looked at him.
That's a very philosophical answer for a question about framing. She said it's a true answer. Marcus said and Olivia Bennett CEO did something she almost never did in a professional interaction. She smiled, not the polished board meeting smile, just a real one. Small and slightly unguarded before she put the armor back in place.
Good night, Marcus Carter, she said. Safe rest, he said. She turned and walked back toward the dark blue car. He watched her go and he thought that woman is exhausted in a way that sleep won't fix. He thought she knows it, too.
He got in his truck, hit the dashboard, and drove home to check on Amara. Saturday came. Desawn and Tommy sat across from him at the kitchen table. Amara was at her friend Kzia's house. So Marcus had made coffee and laid out the numbers, all of them, the way he always did because he didn't believe in keeping the people who depended on him and about what was real.
The numbers were not good. They weren't catastrophic, but they were the kind of not good that became catastrophic if nothing changed in the next 60 to 90 days. Desawn sat with his hands around his coffee mug and looked at the spreadsheet for a long time. Tommy looked at Marcus. What are the options?
Tommy asked. Three, Marcus said. First option, we go to Coastal's level. We cut the materials budget. We cut the timeline estimates.
We bid lower. We win more contracts. And the work, Deshawn said, the work would not be what it should be. Silence. Second option.
Marcus continued, I take on a partner, silent or otherwise, who brings capital in exchange for equity. That buys us runway. But we give up control of decisions. Whose decisions? There's more silence.
Third option, Marcus said, we hold. We keep doing what we do at the standard we do it. We aggressively pursue referrals and new client categories. We cut our own overhead, not the crews pay, our overhead, and we bet on the reputation outrunning the cash problem before the cash problem gets critical. Tommy looked at him.
Which one do you want to do? Marcus was quiet for a moment. The third one. Because the first two compromise what we're building, Deshawn said. It wasn't a question.