River City Connections — 2026-01-07 (Patreon)

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IT’S A PLAN, Part 1 by by Jordan Warner

I woke Michael up today when I called. “Is Cindi there yet?”

“Who is this? No… Cindi isn't here… Jordan?”

“She has your Jeep from yesterday. She’s picking you up. She’ll call soon. We need to meet. It’s urgent and important.”

That was a few hours ago. Now, the whole ClearStream team is having coffee. Time to bring Michael up to speed.

“Boss,” I said, “you’re costing us money.”

“I am?”

Carter handed him a copy of the spreadsheet he and I had worked up. Michael looked at it carefully.

“Cindi, have you seen this?” he asked.

“Just this morning when I was getting dressed. The math says she’s right.”

“I can’t argue,” Michael replied.

“Michael,” Carter said, “you’ve got a gift. I’ve never seen anyone who can take 1000 words, cut it down and make it look as good as it reads. Not just words that convey the idea—words that also look good on the page. We need you to let go of the paperwork and get back to what’s putting prospects in the inbox.”

“We just got another one,” Michael said. “The New Delhi company—who we haven’t even received an RFP from—referred a company in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It’s called Horizon Stays, and it handles Airbnb bookings all over the world.”

I did that goofy shoulder-crash thing and almost made him spill his coffee. “Michael, we’re leaving money on the table if we can’t get to the prospects.”

“And continue serving the clients we have,” Carter added.

“So your spreadsheet shows us hiring a person to do admin?”

“That’s right,” Carter replied. “It lets you get back to putting the final polish on things sooner. Better quality work faster…”

Michael nodded. “Not much to think about here… The numbers speak for themselves.”

To Be Continued…

IT’S A PLAN, Part 2 by by Roman Lenox

Hayes was already in my office when I arrived today. She seemed relaxed and at ease.

She was holding an envelope, and as I approached, she handed it to me. “Here… problem solved…”

“What’s this?”

“My resignation letter. I’d rather be with you than work here.”

My thoughts spun fast as I got the letter I wrote yesterday from my drawer and handed it to her. “You need the job.”

“What’s this?” she asked, looking at the letter. “Roman… no… severance of partnership interest? You can’t leave LDM…”

“I can. I brought most of the software with me, and I can take it when I leave. The company keeps the clients and continues servicing them. I’ll rebrand the software and start over. I can do this. You keep your job—and I get to keep you…”

“That would destroy Lenox, Davis, and Marston. And think about all the employees… you can’t quit.”

“I can,” I said. “And I will. I wrote that yesterday, thought about it all afternoon, and decided. They’ll find a way without me.”

“Roman, listen to me. I'm going to quit, and we can stay together. I’m not being impulsive or reckless. I’ve thought this through. I want to be with you and…”

“And what?” I asked.

Hayes smiled. “I don’t need this job.”

To Be Continued…

IT’S A PLAN, Part 3 by Jordan Warner

Michael looked over Carter’s spreadsheet again. He was staring and nodding, which I took as a good sign.

“Any questions?” Carter asked. “Does it make sense?”

Michael nodded. “If we land just one more of the prospects, then we come out ahead with the new person taking over all the admin work and bookkeeping.”

Cindi took Michael’s hand. “Not to be selfish about this, but it would be nice if you cut back to… maybe 50 hours a week.”

Michael smiled. “Okay, let’s do this… What’s the plan? Write up a job description… Make a listing on the job sites? We can do this quickly, right?”

Carter looked at Michael, then at me, and then he smiled. “Faster than you’d guess, probably.”

Cindi had no idea what was going on, by the way. This little conspiracy was just Carter and me. Okay—mostly me—but it was Carter’s spreadsheet that made it compelling.

Obviously, Michael caught on that something was up.

He turned to me. “Jordan?”

“I offered the job to Hayes. She starts today.”

Michael blinked. “You… already hired…?”

His voice trailed off, eyes scanning the spreadsheet and checking with Cindi.

Cindi prompted him to finish his thought. “Michael, what do you think?”

I could see the relief wash in. “Jordan — that’s perfect.”

“I know, right?” I smiled. “Carter started things and did most of the number crunching. This sets us up to keep growing.”

Michael was smiling, too. “Okay, we have prospects to work up. I really liked what you did with Satellite Safe-Systems. Give me the rest of the day, and I’ll have a process outlined. We got this!”

IT’S A PLAN, Part 4 by Roman Lenox

I went by Ron Marston’s office and asked him to follow me to Claire’s office. He went in first, and I stopped at the door.

I handed Claire my letter. “I wrote that yesterday so you could tell your friend in Nashville that everything was fine. I appreciate Lydia Markel’s relationship with you, but she should not be dictating policy at LDM.”

Claire handed my letter to Ron. “You’re severing from the firm? Don’t be ridiculous, Roman. That will destroy this whole company.

I laughed. “No. That was my plan. Hayes had a different one.”

I handed her Hayes’s letter. “She asked me to think about all the other employees and what it would mean if I left.”

Claire looked up from Hayes’ letter. “So she is resigning?”

“Work it out. Pay her all her unused PTO and give her the standard severance package.”

Claire looked at me, then at Ron. “We don’t have a standard severance package.”

“Find out what Apple does and do that.” I took my letter back from Ron. “I’m taking the rest of the day off. I have a lot to think about, then I need to get ready for a trip to Denver to do some goodwill face-to-face with one of our clients out there on Friday. I’ll be back on Monday.”

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