“Life is about more than money,” she chided him. “Since when is that the big motivator for you? You can’t give up our whole life for that.” But she could see the longing in his eyes. He’d never looked like that about a job before. She knew it wasn’t about money, but about doing something exciting and new. It was thrilling. This could be very big for him, and ultimately for them if it was a huge success. That wasn’t negligible. Where the job was located didn’t matter to him, for the first time in his career.
“It’s different when you’re talking about these kinds of amounts, Syb,” he said softly. “Couldn’t you base yourself in San Francisco for a few years? You could write there, and work on your book, and send your articles in from anywhere. And you could fly back to work with the museums and curate shows, and meet your clients in New York.” He was trying to make suggestions that would work for her, but it was like trying to climb a glass wall. He got no traction from her.
“And spend my life on planes, with three kids at home,” she commented and looked shocked by his question, and the fact that he would even consider it, for any of them. She could see he was evaluating the offer seriously. She could understand why, but it was going to disrupt their lives beyond belief. She couldn’t do that to the children or herself. It wouldn’t be fair.
The kids came back to the house then for something to eat, and they shelved the discussion until that night, and picked it up again when Andrew and Caroline went out to see friends, and Charlie was asleep in the room next to theirs.
“I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but the kids would adjust,” Blake insisted. “They’ll make new friends, and Andy is leaving after this year anyway. The offer won’t wait. If I don’t take it, they’ll make a proposal to someone else. They need someone now.” He sounded desperate, and she felt sorry for him, but more so for herself and their kids. She could see how badly Blake wanted to do it, but it was in direct conflict with everyone else’s needs.
“And they have earthquakes there,” she reminded him, clutching at straws to deter him, and feeling selfish when she did.
“They haven’t had a really big one in over a hundred years,” he said, laughing at her. But she was as stubborn as he was.
“Then they’re overdue. Besides, there was a fairly big one in 1989.”
“They’re not going to have an earthquake just because we move out there,” he said, pulled her into his arms, and forgot about the job in San Francisco for the rest of the night. And the next day they went back to the city, with nothing resolved between them. Neither of them was angry, but it was important to both of them.
They went back and forth arguing about it for several days, neither convincing the other, and she finally realized that he would never forgive her if he turned it down. It would remain a bitter pill stuck in his throat forever, more so than for her if she moved to San Francisco for him. She wasn’t happy about it, but she also knew that he was right that at his age a chance like this wouldn’t come again. And the money was a certain incentive for both of them in the end, if they and their children would truly be secure for life if it really took off. She could see the value of that too, after discussing it with Blake at length.
All he asked was that she give it two years, and he promised that if it was impacting them too severely, he’d quit and return to New York. Sybil loved him and didn’t want to hurt his career, or their marriage, and at the end of two weeks, she looked at him, exhausted, and put her arms around him.
“I give in. I love you too much to make you give this up for us. We’ll make it work somehow,” she said, and knew she had done the right thing when she saw how grateful and ecstatic he was. He called San Francisco in the morning and told them the good news and resigned his position at the venture capital firm. They told the children that night after dinner.
They were horrified by what their parents said, but their mother was firm with them, saying that it was a sacrifice they would all have to make for the common good. It was important for their father’s career and their own security in the long run. Caroline and Andrew were both old enough to understand it and Sybil gave them no choice, and she pointed out that it was a huge adjustment for her too. She had already called Andy’s school that afternoon, and they had agreed to let him come back and graduate with his class, if he wanted to. He could walk with the friends he had been with all through high school, as long as he successfully completed senior year at his San Francisco school.
Blake had agreed to let them finish the fall semester in New York, and Sybil and the kids would all move to San Francisco in January. He would be leaving in the next two weeks, and this way he would have time to find them an apartment. Neither Blake nor Sybil wanted to buy, since they weren’t sure yet if it would be a permanent move. Sybil had been clear that she wanted a bright, sunny, modern apartment, not a house. She had researched San Francisco schools and already contacted them. And they were leaving the apartment in Tribeca as is, in case they came back to New York in two years, and so she’d have a place to stay when she went to New York to work. She had two and a half months to get everything organized to leave. And Blake had that time to find a home for them, and settle in at work. Sybil was planning to stage the San Francisco apartment he found with rented furniture at first, and they could buy what they needed if they stayed. For now, they were considering it a temporary move for a couple of years, to see how it worked out. Knowing that they might return to New York took the sting out of it for Sybil and the kids, and she hoped that San Francisco would be short-term. But she threw herself into the move for Blake’s sake, and tried to convince their children and herself that it wasn’t the end of the world.
Andy was upset about it but tried to be reasonable, once he understood the financial potential for them. He was proud of his father, and relieved that he’d be graduating with his friends in June. Caroline was dramatic, and threatened not to come, but there was nowhere for her to stay in New York. She didn’t have grandparents or uncles or aunts, and didn’t want to go to boarding school, which her parents offered as an alternative because she was so adamantly against the move. So she had no choice but to accept the plan to go to San Francisco. And, predictably, Charlie was the easiest of all, and said he thought it would be fun. He wanted to know all about his new school.
Two weeks after Blake left, Sybil had them enrolled in excellent San Francisco schools, based on their transcripts. Blake had visited the schools and said he was pleased, and the apartment search had already begun. But when he came home for Thanksgiving, he still hadn’t found them a place to live. It had been harder than he thought to find an apartment to rent within reasonable distance of the schools, with all of Sybil’s requirements: light, sunny, airy, modern, with high ceilings and excellent views. And the rents in San Francisco seemed ridiculously high to him, even compared to New York.