Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 (11 page)

“Touché,” he said quietly, reeling
her eyes back to him.

She had enough time to recognize a
look of hunger, and feel a worrying surge of desire, before she was saved by
Ray opening the door with a chair. John was right behind him.

Krista didn’t bother masking the
loud sigh of relief.

John came in to perch on the desk
on Krista’s side of the office, all his attention on her. Ray closed the door
and took a seat, moving his chair away from her a little, and Sean leaned back.
Krista was suddenly extremely nervous. John usually didn’t have this effect on
her, but usually she wasn’t worried about being fired, either.

She put her mug on the desk so her
sudden onslaught of Parkinson’s didn’t upset her cold coffee.

She’d learned a thing or two about
John since her eavesdropping sessions in the break room began. The topics most
often talked about were his fast cars, fast women, and the ridiculous fact that
he tried to pretend he was twenty. He hated when people used Mister with him.
He wanted people to call him by his first name, or a nickname of some sort. He
thought he was Superman. Also that he would live forever. He may, or may not,
have dated someone in IT. It was hard to pinpoint because, unlike Sean, the guy
was good at keeping his romantic life away from his work life.

“Krista,” he said. “I haven’t had
the opportunity to talk with James yet, so this is just a conversation based on
intent.”

She decided he couldn’t very well
fire her without permission. That was good news. It also meant she had a window
of time before anything was set in stone in which to talk to Mr. Montgomery
herself. She had insurance.

John leaned toward her a little,
his eyes glued to hers. She got the impression he was trying to intimidate her.

“Sean filled me in about the presentation
on Friday. As you know, our big fish right now is Dell. But Sean’s presentation
was very important. Not because of the three men that showed up. Not even
because of the company they served. No. It was important because they might get
bought out. The company buying is what’s important. I got wind of it from a
buddy of mine who drank too much scotch at a barbecue. Now, Krista that is top
secret information.”

John stopped talking and stared at
her for a second, willing her to digest that tidbit. Her brain was covered with
wine film so she was having a hard time focusing while looking at his muddy
brown peepers. She tried super hard to look like she was still paying
attention, but all she could focus on successfully was the cool air from the
fan.

“Now,” John continued, sitting back
fully on the desk, making himself a little more comfortable, and trying to make
her more comfortable in the process. It wasn’t working. “As I said, Sean here
has filled me in on the presentation. He showed me the slides you created. He
also painted a visual picture for me. I require this with any big goings-on of
course. Sean filled me in on how you answered that last question…”

Krista felt her face flush. She
needed to defend herself, but she was talking to the Junior VP. What was she
going to say? Well, sir, I didn’t know what I was talking about, so I used some
bullshit answer instead of asking for help? She could then grab a pen and sign
her pink slip.

With a rush of movement, John was
up from the desk and pacing around the small office.

“Incredible work!” he said in a
booming voice.

The unexpected movement startled
her and, embarrassingly, she jumped and looked around wildly. Ray barely
stifled a laugh.

“We haven’t had someone from your
department with any real forward thinking since I’ve worked here,” John said
unnecessarily loudly. “Numbers people mostly. No one we wanted in front of
clients for too long, at any rate. Boring, most of them. That is also top
secret information.”

John perched on the desk again,
dangerously close to Krista’s lucky mug, and leaned toward her. She could see
ideas flowing behind his eyes, but couldn’t focus on anything but her mug.

“You, on the other hand, are a
natural. If you weren’t so valuable to me in Research I would move you to sales
immediately. You seem to really have a knack for getting the clients’
attention.

“Now,” and here John leaned back
and scrutinized Sean, his butt rocking her mug. “Part of that was youth and
beauty—please don’t take that the wrong way, Krista.” He turned back to her.
The guy was all over the place. And her mug was paying the price. Currently it
wobbled toward the edge of the desk.

John didn’t seem to notice.

“Those clients weren’t the most
advanced or experienced, and they apparently had trouble focusing on your data
with your…charisma taking precedence. But besides youth and beauty and the
inability of those particular clients to focus professionally, I think we have
a winner in you. Your slides fit perfectly with the theme of our presentation,
your answer was right on, even though Sean assures me he didn’t coach you, and
you presented the information with insight and exuberance. Most importantly,
you presented the information in a way normal people can understand. That is
something we’ve been having problems with when it comes to some of your fellow
Research representatives…”

Krista was being blindsided. This
wasn’t what she had in mind for today at all. She thought she would be
struggling to get heard and clutching onto the door so they couldn’t throw her
out.

“So,” John boomed as he once again
got up and paced the floor. Her mug was pushed closer to the edge of the desk.
She reached for it casually, but John swiveled toward her and cut off her grab.

“And here is what I need to talk to
James about. We need you on our team. This is very hush, hush, mind you,
Krista. You can’t breathe a word.” John kneeled next to her and started to talk
quietly. Before she knew what she was doing, she leaned away as far as she
could. “We are going after bigger fish than Dell, and that little presentation
for a vastly unknown company is the doorway into a larger, much more promising
portal in the great unknown.”

She had a sneaking suspicion John
was drunk. The man was talking nonsense. Before she could contemplate further,
he jumped up, pacing back and forth. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the
animated movement. He changed direction constantly; sitting standing, kneeling,
standing again, pacing. Possibly too coordinated for booze. Drugs came to mind.

“Sean is going to head up this
exploration, and he needs a solid, round-the-clock group to help him chart
foreign territories. His goal is to land us that big fish. The biggest fish. I
want you on our team to do it. The problem is that you are not in our
department, and not subject to my demands. This is why I need to get James on
my side, which is not easy. Not easy at all. He doesn’t like change, and he
doesn’t like demands. It will be tricky, but in this I must get what I want
because Sean must get what he wants. Do you understand? Are you on board?”

John moved to stand directly behind
her. Given the opportunity, and the silence so she could do something other
than process the babble coming out of his mouth, she went for her mug. In a
shock of dread, she realized her mug was no longer hugging the edge of the
desk. She did a quick sweep of the ground, but saw nothing. Now wasn’t the time
to dive under the desk. Not for her, anyway. Sean could, though, the dog.

In desperation, she looked at him,
and noticed he was trying to keep his face blank, but a boyish, lopsided smile
made him look irresistible. Her mug was sitting in front of him, safe.

She breathed a sigh of relief as
John came and sat in front of her again. She belatedly realized she hadn’t
answered his question.

“Well, Krista? How about it?”

“Uh, sure, yeah. I mean, if my
boss, uh, James, says it’s okay. Whatever you guys think is best…” She
stammered.

Relief briefly crossed Sean’s face
as he looked up at John.

“Great!” John said as he smacked
his hand on the back of her chair. She jumped again with a squeak.

“Okay, Sean,” John said as he
turned toward the door. “I’ll let you finish up here. I’ll talk to you after I
talk to James.”

With that John was gone from the
room. Ray closed the door, then returned to his seat next to Krista, moving his
chair closer again.

She noticed Sean hadn’t taken his
eyes off of her.

“So, does that answer your
questions?” he asked, his eyes boring into hers.

When it came to power plays, she
was a novice. “Um. I guess.”

“Great. Look, I need to go over some
things with you about my style, how I sell, and what will be expected of you
within that parameter. My style isn’t for everybody. I use everything I’ve
got.”

The way that last part came out, he
could have been talking about using slides and graphs. He wasn’t, though. He
meant selling himself. Selling her. Using her for office prostitution. She
didn’t graduate with honors so she could be used for tits and ass, thank you
very much.

I wanna go home.

Sean must have seen her body coil,
but he didn’t try to take it back. Instead, he forged ahead, “I use image,
personality, quirks—anything at my disposal. Take Ray, there.”

She looked at Ray, who she realized
still hadn’t spoken throughout this whole botched disgruntled situation. He
looked back, highly entertained.

“He’s not young, not single,
doesn’t drive a fast car, doesn’t cheat, has kids, goes to the “Y,” has a
mortgage, is stable…Ray is absurdly normal. He is what the American Dream turns
you into. Hell, his kids play sports that all kids play. One’s in little
league, one’s in soccer. He’s got kids covered.

“Ray is my front man for a certain
client demographic. He gets to people I can’t reach. And while we are on the
subject, let’s talk about me. I use my face, my body, even the way I talk to
influence people. An older woman needs to feel sexy again, I am your man. A guy
needs a buddy on the golf course, no problem. It is a game we play in sales.

“John knows that game better than
anyone. He talked circles around you just now. He had you so confused you
forgot you should ask questions. He never let you get a moment’s pause to
think. You forgot about being pissed about Friday. You forgot about your
suicidal mug for a moment, although surprisingly not very long, and you forgot
you hated me. You forgot you are looking for another job, and agreed to go
along with his half-cocked plan.”

“I am not looking for another job,”
she said in surprise. Was that the latest rumor?

Sean’s face lit up in a large smile
and he looked at Ray. “See Ray, I told you she hated me.”

Oops. “I don’t—“

“It’s okay, Krista,” Ray said in a
gentle voice, turning his eyes to her. They were a deep, but soft chestnut. “I
would encourage most young women to hate him. But he does know his stuff.”

She had the distinct feeling she
was being played again. In fact, she knew she was. “Look, guys, I already
agreed I would be on your team. If you’re under the impression I’m going to do
a strip tease for clients, then you found the wrong girl. If you stare at me
like a hunk of flesh in a presentation again, I’ll walk out. But if you can get
me moving up the corporate ladder, I will do whatever is in my professional
power to make it happen.”

“What pissed you off most about
Friday?” Sean asked, not to be deterred from her obvious desire to wrap this
up.

She sighed loudly. She was hesitant
to answer for reasons she couldn’t explain. It probably had something to do
with Sean playing her like a violin. And while she had to admit that being said
violin, especially while horizontal in some place private, was appealing, she
had to regain the upper hand somehow.

“Okay, let’s take a break,” Sean
said into her lengthy pause as the phone started ringing. He let it ring out as
he got up from his chair. “Krista, go do whatever it is you Researchers do.
When John arranges everything, I’ll give you a call and we’ll go over
specifics.”

Finally!

She stood up. Sean opened the door
for her and stayed there, holding the handle as she walked out, his body mere
inches from hers.

As she passed he whispered into her
ear, “And nurse that hangover.”

When she turned to him in surprise,
she could feel his warm breath on her face. He smelled like coffee and
spearmint with that underlying scent of musty man-smell. She pictured herself
on a warm beach with the sun beating down and waves curling around her ankles.
Her body wanted to lean into him and grab some of that heat. She wanted to feel
if his chest was as hard as it looked.

Her brain, however, sounded an
alarm and tried to steer clear. The result was her flinching back, losing
balance, and crashing against the doorframe on her way out.

He chuckled quietly as he closed
the door.

Sean returned to his chair.
“Eight-oh-one. Impressive.”

“She left her mug.” Ray pointed to
the desk. “Should I go stop her?”

Sean smiled. “No. I want to keep it
hostage. I want to see if she comes back for it.”

Ray was quiet for a minute. Then he
said, “I don’t think those types of games will work with that young woman.”

Ray was one of the few men who
could put manners back into Sean. It was why Sean kept Ray close. He constantly
needed a reminder that life was more than a false bravado.

“You’re right. They don’t. But
still, I’m curious.”

“You were right—she’s a very pretty
young lady.”

Sean nodded. “Out of my league.”

Ray crossed his ankle over his knee.
“I don’t know about out of your league, but she seems slow to trust, and you
are usually…less than trustworthy with women. I think you two are at an
impasse.”

Sean sighed. He knew it, but he
didn’t want to hear it. “She’s in, though. She’s on the team. I just have to
make sure she gives her full potential. She wasn’t as opinionated today as I
thought she’d be. I didn’t think she’d give in so easily.”

“She wasn’t feeling that well.”

“Another thing—she had an important
meeting today and she overdoes it last night. That doesn’t bode well.”

Ray shifted. “Sean, I think you are
forgetting—that young woman has absolutely no experience in a professional
setting. She feels like she was abused in the meeting on Friday. It takes real
courage to confront a man on that sorta thing. Real courage. Especially a man
with your … social standing. She is confronting someone she thinks sexually
harassed her, if what you say is true, who also happens to be the best salesman
in the company. She probably had a glass of wine to cool her nerves last night,
and overdid it. She is just out of college—give her a break.”

Sean shook his head. “Well, we’ll
see how it goes.”

“That’s all you can do. Now, I
would like a cup of coffee, and to meet this Research department I hear so much
about. I want to see what else you have to work with.”

Sean laughed and stood. “Don’t
trust that I want Krista for her Research ability?”

Ray just smiled. He knew Sean too
well.

~*~*~*~

The next day Krista landed in early
and refreshed. Her hangover was long gone, she got up on time, and she dressed
in spiffy business casual and took more time on hair and makeup than a standard
business day. She was ready to hear about that job with Sean, and she didn’t
want all the Sales people to think it standard that she looked half-dead.

Another factor for dressing to
impress was that she really wanted her lucky mug back. She might have to plan a
seduction, and a girl had to look decent when throwing the boobs around.

In reality, though, she hoped it
would be on her desk when she got in.

It wasn’t.

She went into the break room at
Sean’s normal time, but he didn’t show. Nor did he leave it in the cabinet. She
clamped down on the worry that he was holding it hostage, and also that he
wanted her to go get it. By now that guy knew what that mug was to her, and
likewise he knew she would be missing it.

If he was trying for the upper
hand, he was barking up the wrong stripper pole. If he withheld it too long,
Krista would send one of his admirers to get it. There were no shortage of those,
and they would do next to anything for an excuse to flaunt their
ridiculousness.

She’d choose an ugly one, too.
Preferably one that talked too much. She already had three people in mind.

It was a mug-less mid-day before
Mr. Montgomery walked into her cube with a sigh.

“Krista? How are you?” He looked
around her area. He always seemed surprised when he saw her. It was like he
forgot he hired her until he actually saw her face. He also seemed to avoid eye
contact at all costs.

“Oh, hi Mr. Montgomery,” she said,
turning her chair to face him. She was still too new to ignore him like
everyone else.

“I heard you had a good
presentation,” he nodded as he stared at her computer.

“I seemed to. I gave my speech
pretty flawlessly. Sean had me answer a question at the end, and then I was
done. So it was a successful overall, I think.”

“Yeah, I heard. Listen, I was
talking to Mr. Susan and he seemed to think you would work well on some sales
team or other.”

“Mr. Susan?”

“John Susan.”

Oh, holy God. John’s last name was
Susan? It reminded her of Johnny Cash’s song, Boy Named Sue. How embarrassing!
She’d want to be called John if that was her last name, too.

If her boss were cool, she would
share that hilarious thought process. She looked up at Mr. Montgomery in expectation,
then said, “Oh.”

“Yeah, he said something about
working with that Sean on some project for the company? Did he mention that to
you?”

This was dicey. Krista didn’t want
Mr. Montgomery to think she was in league with the enemy, which was Sales, but
she also liked the prospect of working with younger, livelier people, so she
wanted to give this idea a shot. She just didn’t know how to work with John to
get Mr. Montgomery to agree.

She chose the
“Sales-sucks-and-I-am-a-woman-therefore-I-have-a-small-brain” approach.

“I went to talk to Sean about the
presentation because I hadn’t heard how it went--no one called me after.” She
gave a sigh and rolled her eyes, playing up Mr. Montgomery’s bitterness. As
hoped, he also sighed and leaned more comfortably on the wall.

“Sean said I did okay,” she
continued, “then John, ah, Mr. Susan came in and said I did a good job and
talked about some ideas, but he wasn’t making all that much sense. He moved
around a lot, so I just kind of smiled and nodded. Maybe that was what he was
talking about?”

Playing dumb was easy for a blond
girl—no one thought they had a brain in the first place. Some people played the
race card, others the glass ceiling issue—Krista played the idiot factor, and
it worked better than any other excuse. Granted, she couldn’t use it in her
favor as often, but when she could, it was the golden ticket with no raised
eyebrows.

“He does talk fast, yeah. You have
to really keep up to make sense of him. I’ve been here fifteen years and I am
just now getting a handle on his tactics.” Mr. Montgomery shook his head then
went on. “Well, I hesitate to loan out our newest star, but Mr. Susan has made
it perfectly clear that he will personally block any attempts I make to give
you that promotion if I don’t give in.”

“Oh.” She didn’t have to reach far
to sound deflated. “Well, I don’t really want to be a salesman. It isn’t the
job I signed on for.”

“Oh I agree, yes,” he said, now
looking at a framed picture of her and a friend from college. “But you would
still be working for me. You would just be working on one specific project with
some team Mr. Susan put together.”

“Oh. Well, that wouldn’t be so bad,
then, I guess.” She sounded more hopeful, but still nonchalant. Maybe she
should have been in sales.

“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking.
Yeah. Hmmm. Well, I’ll see what Mr. Susan will do for you in terms of what I
already promised.”

That was one good thing about Mr.
Montgomery—he always tried to get something out of the company. It didn’t
matter if it was for himself or his crew, it didn’t matter if it was money or a
new microwave for the break room; if there was a chance he could get the
company to spend money, he would drop everything and pursue it.

He muttered something else she
didn’t catch, probably “Yeah,” his favorite catch phrase, and wandered away.
She just shook her head and went back to her work. It was out of her hands now.

The day after Krista had just
finished a report that was supposed to take her all day, and was about to step
out for a late lunch, when the phone rang from conference room B. It was true
that she was a fast worker, but these deadlines were ridiculous! If they didn’t
have the giant database with pre-completed reports, she might understand, but
as it was, the amount of time she wasted emailing her friends and shopping
online was staggering. In order to have work all day, or most of the day,
anyway, she would have to work at a snail’s pace.

She grabbed the phone, thinking
about restaurant choices, and said, “Research, Krista speaking.”

“Krista.” Her mind snapped away
from sandwiches and clung to the plastic earpiece pressed painfully against her
head. She couldn’t help it, she loved the way Sean said her name. The nuance of
it. The tone. It was like he reached through the phone and licked her ear.

She was going to get in so much
trouble from Kate.

She decided not to give him the
satisfaction of recognition. Plus, he was on speaker. Lord only knew who was
listening in. “Yes?”

“This is Sean.” He paused, and when
she didn’t fill the space—maybe she was taking the failure to recognize a
little far—he said, “McAdams.”

“Oh yes, hi.”

“You’ve been successfully assigned
to my team. Could you please come up to conference room B? I would like to
speak with you.”

Krista had a rush of pleasure
before she could stop herself. She pushed it down fiercely.

“Oh, sure. Do I need to bring
anything besides a notepad?”

“Just your winning personality.”

Trying not to roll her eyes, she
hung up. Then tried to control her elation as she made her way upstairs. She
told herself, over and over, that she was excited to see her lucky mug, and
that was it. As she walked in, excitement unfurling from her gut, she looked
around at five faces, one being extremely gorgeous in another perfectly fitting
suit that hopefully had her mug.

She met Sean’s clear green gaze as
he glanced up at her, did a once over on her body, and returned to the report
he was working on. Excitement turned to uncertainty as three sets of eyes
settled on her, judgment plain on their faces.

“Great,” Ray said as he stood and
walked toward the front of the room. His wasn’t one of the three. “Krista, I’ll
get you some water.”

“Um, thank you.” She swallowed and
sat in the chair closest to the entrance. It took her half a second to realize
she should’ve sat closer to everyone else. She wasn’t doing a great job of
closing the gap the stigma of her department had opened.

“Krista,” Sean began, looking up
and leaning back in his chair, “let me introduce you around. You know Ray, of
course.” Ray gave her a nod as he handed her a glass of water—in her lucky mug!
She beamed at him. He smiled back sheepishly. He obviously didn’t know what her
lucky mug meant to her. It was killing her that Sean had it imprisoned.

Ray sat down a few seats away from
Sean.

Sean didn’t pause for the exchange,
though the humor in his eyes said he recognized it. “This is Judy, the manager
from the
Art
Department
.”
He nodded to an older woman with impeccable style and dress. She looked like
she made gobs of money while still seeming homely. She seemed stable and
motherly while also being cutting edge. Krista wouldn’t have thought the
crisscross in image possible, but there she was.

“She has been working with the
company for five years and has assisted on various accounts. Before us she
worked with many large companies through her impressive employment history. She
brings extensive knowledge of their wants and needs artistically. In addition,
she still teaches in the field, and has her finger on the pulse of art
technology.

“Next to her is Marcus.” Marcus was
a strikingly handsome black guy. He looked at Krista and nodded. He was wearing
jeans and a tee-shirt and promoted utter relaxation in his regard and demeanor.
Krista felt relaxed just looking at him, which was hard to do because everyone
was still assessing her.

“Marcus is a whiz kid at reaching
various audiences and demographics. He has worked with companies such as Apple,
Coke, McDonald’s and Wal-Mart. You give him a desired pool of people, Marcus
will give you a way to reach that pool easily and effectively. He is an
underused star in this company... until now.”

Sean smiled at Marcus and Marcus’s
eyes glittered. Krista could see his head whirling with ideas even as she
looked at him. Either that, or it was the swirls of crazy. He was from art,
after all.

“And last, but certainly not least,
is our secret weapon.” His eyes turned intense as they peered at a cute, bubbly
blond girl. She looked about Krista’s age or a little older, had bobbed,
stylish hair, giant brown eyes, and was tall and slim. In short, she was a
knock out.

She looked back at him with
flirtatious desire and utter confidence. She even batted her eyes! High
maintenance, definitely. She would be a match for Sean, though. She was
certainly the type of woman Krista imaged he’d choose.

“This is Monica Devine.” The way he
said her last name, as if it were a comment rather than a name, made Krista
wonder if they were doing it. He was all drippy with lust and desiring eyes and
creepy sex-filled gooeyness. It was gross. If they weren’t bumping uglies yet,
it wouldn’t take long.

Krista got a pang of jealousy
before she clamped down on that ridiculous emotion. Utterly absurd! He was
welcome to her. And she to him. They seemed like they’d play the same game—a
game Krista had absolutely no interest in playing. And it wasn’t because she
was terrible at it!

“Monica is our part-time team
member—I wasn’t able to get her full time.” He actually pouted as he said it.
It wasn’t cute. “She is our party planning specialist. We are going to need to
sidle up to this client without our intentions known. Right now that is through
an independent company that we hope will be bought out. That’ll get our foot in
the door. If that fails we’ll go for plan B. But, Miss Devine will be throwing
casual parties that will make communication not only possible, but easy.”