The Better Half(70)

Nina,

I’m on drop-off duty tomorrow, Gemma’s at a fasting retreat in Napa. You would not believe how much it costs for Gemma to not eat for a week holed up in a remote resort. We have some board business to discuss prior to Tuesday night’s meeting so I’ll swing by your office around 8:00.

Best,

Winn

“Okay, let’s head in, and I’ll ask Mimi to push back anything I have for the next forty-five minutes. Would you like some coffee and a pastry?”

“Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I’ve been eating double the past few days since Gemma’s off eating nothing.”

“You and me both,” I say, rubbing my belly. Winn smiles but then quickly averts his eyes as if looking at a woman’s pregnant belly is grounds for litigious action. “I’m going to make some tea, so make yourself comfortable in my office. I’ll be back in a minute.” I don’t really drink much tea, but I need a moment to figure out if it’s worth it to confront Winn on the topic of Courtney Dunn. I’m tired to the bone today.

“Nina, Winn in there with you yet?” Jared yells as he hustles by me on his way to class. He pivots and jogs backward down the hall to catch my answer.

“How do you know Winn’s meeting me this morning?” I ask, now more interested in the conversation I have coming up than I was a minute ago.

“Winn’s my man,” Jared lobs back, giving me a salute before continuing on his way. I’m puzzled by Jared’s commentary, so it’ll be interesting to hear what Winn has to say.

“I just saw Jared in the hall, he seemed to know you’re here,” I say, taking a seat opposite Winn.

“I love that dude. We see eye to eye on a lot of things.”

There should be a cut off age for using the word dude.

I take a slow sip of my tea. “What can I do for you, Winn? Tomorrow night’s agenda seems more or less straightforward; nothing too urgent. Since you’re here, though, I would like to talk to you about board composition.” In my sixty-second strategy session with myself and the teapot, I decided it would be best for me to bring up the subject of selling board seats before any other topic comes to pass.

“Yep. Good place to start.” Winn scoots himself forward in his chair, eager to dig in to this contentious topic. His enthusiasm for this discussion was not part of my bad boss game plan, so I’m a little thrown.

“Help me understand why, without discussing it with me, you invited Courtney to join the board,” I say, direct and to the point.

“During my time in high school at Royal-Hawkins, our soccer and baseball teams were all right, nothing special. Never made it out of our division into any sort of regional playoff.” This jaunt down Winn’s high school memory lane is super boring and taking this discussion I don’t know the hell where. “And when your daughter was here, what’s her name again?”

“Xandra.”

“Yes, Xandra. Were the sports teams she was on very good?”

“I don’t remember, and it was elementary and middle school. As you know, Royal-Hawkins has a no-cut policy, so she played soccer and everyone made the team.”

“You’ve worked at Royal-Hawkins for fifteen years, and you’ve also been a parent here, and you have zero recollection of anything memorable about sports at Royal-Hawkins? What about basketball?”

“No, I don’t, Winn, but I also have never considered myself a big fan of any sports team, high school, college, or professional.” I mean really, I went to Wellesley for God’s sake, I think to myself. “Royal-Hawkins is an academically focused school, not a sports-driven one.” I’m getting irritated at the local sports trivia, my raw emotions from last night not helping the situation. “What’s your point?”

“For decades Royal-Hawkins has sucked at sports. Meaning, I can’t remember a time we were any good. It’s embarrassing, and it needs to change for the future health of the school. It’s no longer enough to be a strong academic institution, Nina. In fact, I would argue, looking at our competition in Los Angeles, it hasn’t been enough for quite some time. We have to perform on the field, on the track, on the court, in addition to in the classroom if we truly want to be one of the best day schools in the country.”

“So, you want to abandon our areas of growth laid out in the strategic plan and build an athletic pipeline to D-1 schools?”

“Ah, so you do follow collegiate sports.” Winn winks at me, thinking he’s found an entrée to budging my leadership needle. “No, I don’t want to change the strategic plan, Nina, you and the rest of the board can continue to focus on it as it stands. Courtney and I have improvements to the athletic program at Royal-Hawkins covered.”

My moment of illumination is here. I open my desk drawer and pull out the envelope with Courtney Dunn’s quarter mil check still in it. It’s been in there over a month as I considered whether to march it over to the finance office for deposit or return it with a thanks, but no thanks Post-it. “I take it you are leading the sports improvement campaign, and the Dunn family is funding it?”

“I’ll be putting up matching funds, and I have a few alumni on the hook for sizable contributions up to a million dollars. A lot of money can be raised on a golf course. Sports begets sports,” Winn brags. This is not my time to debate if golf is truly a sport. Doesn’t sweat need to be involved to call something a sport? Hey, look at me, I do have an opinion on athletics!