I can come in this weekend to make up for the lost work time.” And I told you before I left that I had a family emergency. “But this is the first time I’ve ever done that. Things used to be much better, but our operating budget no longer covers middle-of-the-day-grandma-emergencies.” You don’t think I have a grandma who needs me just as much? Do you think our competitors care about our grandmas? It’s war out there! And we’re losing.

She’s a seventy-five-year old widow, so I had to be there to comfort her, and help her deal with insurance forms, doctors, etc.” And I wasn’t just going to leave her alone in the hospital. “Well, I had to go to Queens, where she lives. She called me for help because my parents were out of town.” “It’s the reason I gave you: my grandma had a bad fall and needed to be taken to the hospital. “Tell me the real reason why you were gone so long yesterday.” After Evan read the email terminating his employment, he recalled their curt discussion from the previous Friday. The tech crash would continue, and Evan’s boss, a mercurial CEO who closely managed his twenty employees, grew increasingly bitter and difficult as his company faltered. About six weeks earlier, the NASDAQ had dropped more than twenty-five percent from its peak in a single week. , the Internet-based, chocolate home delivery company, was another dot-com whose days were numbered. That was the first email waiting for Evan on Monday morning, May 29, 2000, at the office where he had worked for the last two years. Your last pay check will arrive in the mail.” I’m out of the office this morning for meetings but you should pack up your belongings by 1 p.m.

Sex in the Title by Zack Love