Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 (9 page)

The man nodded once and looked
toward Sean. The other two men were still gazing at her. So was Creep-O
salesman. She was starting to feel a little self-conscious about the whole
situation.

“Great,” Sean said, pushing away
from the wall. The other sales guy stood up and conferred with Sean for a
second before Sean sprang into action, no longer sparing her a glance.

Krista figured her time was up, and
that she should exit the podium, when Sean introduced the art guy. With a
ragged sigh, she grabbed her computer and headed toward the table where the
rest of her team waited. Before she made it, she was intercepted by Creep-O.
Confusedly, she let him usher her out of the room, making sure he didn’t touch
any part of her person.

Once outside, the guy said, “Great
work Kristie. Really good stuff. You’re excused.” He turned to go back inside.

Kristie? “But… what if they have
questions?”

He closed the door again. “We’ll
handle it. You’ve done enough. Thanks.”

And just like that he briskly
walked back into the conference room, leaving her standing in the hallway
alone, clutching her computer. She was the geek who was laughed out of the
cafeteria by the cool kids. First the loser that has to sit on her own, now the
unwanted geek.

The bitch of it was, she was a cool
kid in school, and was always nice to the geeks. She did not deserve this
karma.

With teary eyes she slowly walked
back to her desk, everything she did and said tumbling through her mind. She
came to one conclusion: She should have waited for Sean to answer that
question. Obviously she messed up there. She’d done her presentation for the
clients exactly how she’d gone over it with Sean. If there were any problems,
he would have pointed it out then. It had to be that question. That was the
only missing link!

And what was with the sexual
overtones? What was with staring her down like she was supposed to take off her
clothes and dance around for dollar bills? That wasn’t professional, it wasn’t
cool, and it made her so angry and frustrated she wanted to find where he lived
and set fire to his bushes. She hadn’t deserved that. No one deserved that.
This wasn’t 1940. There were rules against that behavior in the workforce!

Krista’s anger, once ignited, now
fumed. If Sean hadn’t been daydreaming about the best way to get her into bed,
maybe he would have done his job and answered that question so she didn’t have
to make something up. Maybe this was exactly how he got ahead. He made sure
everything was ready and foolproof then waited for the right moment to let an
up-and-comer hang themselves.

Krista’s resolve crackled. She did
not quit. Not for her own mistakes, and certainly not those of others. She
wouldn’t go down without a fight for this. If her boss talked to her about it,
she would tell him exactly how it all played out. It wasn’t her fault she had
to step in and do Sales’ job! And she knew that Mr. Montgomery, despite his
faults, would have her back on this one!

If only she could pin sexual
harassment on them, too. She’d have to think about that. Assholes!

The remainder of the day was a
blur. The rest of her department was working on the thing for Dell, so they
weren’t around, and she didn’t hear a peep from her so-called team about the
presentation. All she did, then, was stew. Stew, and plot revenge.

When
5:00
rolled around Krista was seething. She shut down her computer and headed out
with a scowl.

She walked the three blocks to the
pub where she would meet the girls for Friday happy hour. She’d been there
before a few times, and every time Kate had gotten there first she chose to sit
in the miniature booths. Usually Krista would sit there until Jasmine came in,
then they would all move to the bar. This time, however, Krista went straight
to the bar.

“I’m over here,” Kate called from
behind her.

“I know that. I saw you. But we are
going to end up at the bar anyway, so I’m heading there now.”

“Wow,” Kate said as she changed
locations. “You’re in a mood.”

“My day sucked!” Without further
ado, Krista launched into an account of the specifics, starting when she got to
the conference room, ending with why she thought it had to be that last
question. Kate listened without saying a word until she had finished, then
finished her beer and looked for the bartender.

“Well?” Krista prompted. Sometimes
Kate had A.D.D.

“Are you sure it wasn’t something
in the presentation itself?”

“Like what?”

“Fuck, I dunno. Are you sure you
didn’t miss a slide or say some numbers wrong?”

“Even if I did, no one noticed, so
it couldn’t have been a deal breaker.”

“And you’re sure you answered that
question how you told me you answered it?”

“Not verbatim, but something like
that. I know as much now as I did then, so the content is the same.”

“Well, I think that answer was
fine, so I can’t see how that was it.”

“What else could it be?”

“This was that Sean guy?”

“Yeah.”

“Does he still want you?”

“He wants all women. He doesn’t
want me any more than any other piece of ass in the company. Maybe less,
actually. What does that have to do with it?”

“Maybe he’s pissed because you
won’t f**k’im, and this is how he’s taking it out on you.”

A cold shiver went down Krista’s
spine. He hadn’t actually asked her out, but he definitely wanted the
poo-nanny. He wasn’t shy about that fact.

“Hmmm,” Kate said over Krista’s
mental panic. “If it’s not that, I’ll be buggered, I have no idea.”

“I really did want that promotion,
though.” Krista was promised a promotion and a raise if her first presentation
went well. It was apparently how it was done in Research for new people. The
promotion was a minor title change, and the raise was like half a percent or
something stupid, but it was a much-needed start.

“Where the hell is Jasmine?” Kate
asked, easily distracted on a Friday.

Kate got out her phone to text her
as Krista ordered a beer for both of them.

Half an hour later Jasmine finally
showed up, again looking like a painter. It seemed like these days she was
doing more painting than numbers—it wasn’t her choice, and it wasn’t sitting
all that well. She had started half-heartedly looking for another job.

At Kate’s behest, Krista retold the
story to Jasmine, who listened intently, asking questions throughout, until the
end. She then asked questions much like those Kate had asked. Krista gave the
same answers.

“Then I just don’t know, you know?
You’ll just have to ask,” Jasmine surmised.

“You think I should ask?” Krista
directed the question to Kate. Jasmine tended to be the most truthful person on
the face of the planet. If you asked her something, she would generally give
you an honest answer. Often times it was a breath of fresh air because you
really knew where you stood with her. Sometimes it was a curse because it
turned out you really didn’t want the answer you were given.

Kate looked at Jasmine in thought.
“I think you have to. If it turns out you totally f**ked up…well, at least
you’ll know for next time. If that bastard doesn’t have a good reason for you
falling on your face—well, I don’t know. We’ll have to plan that next step when
we get there.”

“But what I am supposed to say?”
Krista whined. “Hey Sean, how’s it going? Say, why did you kick me out of the
meeting?”

“Yes, that is exactly what you
say.” Jasmine nodded.

“No way, I’ll sound stupid.”

“Why would you sound stupid? Did he
tell you beforehand he was going to have you leave after your thing?” Jasmine
asked logically.

“No…”

“And did he give you any sort of
explanation, anything at all, as he was doing it?”

“The Creep-O salesman did it.”

“Then why is it stupid to ask?”

“I don’t know,” Krista said
petulantly, looking at her beer. “Because I don’t want to.”

“Well, then…”

The girls went back and forth on
that idea for another couple minutes before Krista was resigned that come
Monday, she was going to confront the problem.

She now had the whole weekend to
fret about Monday.

Sean sat at his desk, reviewing
some numbers for Dell. He wasn’t actually on the account, but John wanted him
up to date in case they were having a hard time pulling it off. It put extra
work on Sean’s desk, but he wanted his name on all the big accounts, so he
agreed to it without a struggle.

At
five
past five
John came barreling in, his suit jacket long gone and
looking harried. “Why didn’t you call when you got back to your desk?”

Sean put down the spreadsheets and
leaned back in his chair. John was the most extreme micro-manager Sean had ever
worked for. It was almost laughable, and also intensely annoying.

“I knew you’d come down about now
anyway. I figured I’d just wait.”

“I like to know things as they
happen. I need to be in the loop. You know that.”

“You just got out of Dell.”

John grunted. He was deciding if it
was worth the fight. Finally he did a quick pace and switched to the next plan
of attack. “How’d it go?”

“We’re in. I could have sold it by
myself.”

John did an air pump then smoothed
his greased back hair. “Good! Good. We’re in! That’s great news. What was the
final number?”

“We are fifteen percent over what
we hoped to get.”

“Fifteen percent, huh? Wait—over?”

“Exactly. With just me sitting in a
room, I could have sold it for our original price. That Research girl came in,
though, and threw them numbers and figures and spreadsheets—she had them eating
out of her hand. There was no negotiation.”

“No shit, huh? Krista, you mean?
The hot little blond?”

“Yes.” Sean didn’t like the look in
John’s eye when he talked about Krista. John was exactly the man Krista thought
Sean was. He was sleazy and nasty and talked about women like they were
animals. He disgusted Sean at every juncture, but he also thought Sean was the
same caliber. He thought they were bosom buddies—the “hit it and quit it” type
of guys who would never settle down. They’d live life free and go down on a
motorcycle somewhere in
Tucson
, or
some other stupid cliché John saw in a movie. Sean sold the image because…well,
he needed John on his side to get that Junior VP title. He sold it, but he
didn’t like to hear it.

“You’re sure they’ll be bought
out?” Sean asked, easily changing direction. It wasn’t hard—John had the
attention span of a moth.

“Oh, yeah. They’re starting now.
You need to get in position to jump in. We’ve gotta get your team assembled.
Who’ve you got in mind?”

“Ray, Judy, Marcus and Krista.”

“Just three staffers and a Sales?”

“That’s all we need so far. I have
faith that those four will get the job done to get us in position. After that,
we’ll see.”

John grabbed a chair, pulled it two
feet to the left so he was sitting directly in front of Sean on the other side
of the desk, and sat down in a whoosh. “Judy is a yes. We’ll pull her off Dell.
She’s exactly the experience level you need.”

Sean nodded.

“Marcus, though… He has one bad
idea for every good idea. No, I’m not buyin’ it—what about Rachelle?”

Sean shook his head and leaned
back. Negotiations had begun. Sean would get his way, though. Of that he had no
doubt.

“Rachelle is obsessed with me. I
can’t have that distraction with a team member. Marcus has one mediocre idea
for every five brilliant ideas. We just can’t find a way to get numbers on
those ideas—yet. But he’s gold. He’s what I need.”

“A brilliant idea unexplored might
as well be a bad idea. What about Tommy?”

Sean shook his head again. “Tommy
is great with color and design, but we have Judy for that, who is better. We
need an idea man. We need someone who gives us something unique. Our big fish
will want something no one else can give them. That’s the only way they’ll look
at someone as small as us.”

“Okay, but Marcus will need someone
in Research to get info on those unique ideas. And Krista is a definite no.
She’s hot, don’t get me wrong. Sexy as all hell. I’ve been trying to figure out
where she hangs out so I can meet up with her, but she is brand new. She has
absolutely no experience. None with our company, and none from anywhere else.
She’s small potatoes. Plus, she’s a chick that likes dick—you’d have the same
problem as Rachelle.”

Sean steepled his fingers, ignoring
the language. “She is good at what she does. Based on today, I’d even say great
at what she does. She’s smarter than the rest of her department, a harder
worker, more insightful, and she can charm any client, man or woman. You should
have seen how those men watched her; she had them hypnotized.”

“You’ve never met Tory, but let me
assure you, he won’t be transfixed by a nymph, no matter how pretty, and he
won’t go starry-eyed, no matter how sexy. Plus, she won’t work all that hard
when you get tired of screwing her.”

Sean shifted position. “She won’t
let me anywhere near her. I throw her a line, she runs the other direction. I
guarantee she won’t let her job suffer because of a man. Much as it pains me to
say.”

John leaned back with a sly grin.
“So, you can’t get in her pants, huh? She’s too hot for you—that’s obvious—but
you have a way. I thought if anyone could close the deal, you could. But she’s
outta your reach, huh? How’s that taste?”

Not great. She was out of his
reach. Out of his reach and out of his league, but for all that, he was a man.
Men didn’t give up, their egos wouldn’t allow it. He should know, he was all
kinds of proof. Plus, he still made her nervous. In a good way, though she
didn’t agree. She liked him. Or at least was affected by him. One day she’d let
her guard slip and give him a chance. He just had to keep close to make sure
that happened.

To John though, he still had to
play the game. “No one is out of my league.”

John laughed and stood up. “Well,
bring Marcus on, but have someone pulling back up just in case his ideas don’t
pan out. Make sure someone can step in immediately, if needed.”

“Not many people are going to want
to do the extra work.”

“To work with you they will. I’m
sure you already have someone in mind.”

“Two people. I’ll just have to
smile a little more.”

“Then do it.”

“But I want Krista.”

“So do I. Under me butt-assed
naked. But this is work and we need someone who knows the job.”

“Look, I’ll tell ya what …” Sean
was about to gamble. He hated gambling. It was too unpredictable. He liked to
be sure of the outcome before he put his neck out. It was why he hadn’t asked
Krista out yet. He didn’t like when people said no. “I pissed her off today.
She’s going to take it all kinds of wrong—“

“What’d you do?” John sat down
again, his grin back. The guy couldn’t sit still.

Sean shrugged. “There’s a list,
actually. All in the best interest of the presentation, but I doubt she’ll see
it that way. Anyway, because I know she cares about her work, and her job, and
how she is received, I bet you she’ll be in here Monday to bitch me out.”

“The way I hear it, when she gets
in a foul mood she bitches everyone out.”

Sean laughed. It was true. He’d
witnessed it a couple times when she’d had a bad date, or James Montgomery was
being particularly stodgy. In the early morning she let her bad moods get away
from her. Sean loved watching the fireworks. She could make the old ladies
scurry out with a look.

“True, but she does it in the break
room. I bet she’ll seek me out to yell at me.”

“What if she catches you in the
break room?”

“She’ll probably try, so I’ll come
straight here.”

John looked at Sean for a while,
weighing. Unlike Sean, John lived to gamble. He was in high-roller status in
three different casinos in
Las Vegas
.
You had to know your mark.

Finally John jumped up with a nod.
“Fine. But she has to come down, to this office, in person, before
12 o’clock
. She does that, to bitch you out,
mind, not to flirt, and you can have her. But…” John raised his finger in
warning, “If she does a shitty job, for any reason, she’s out. She’s off the
team and I’ll find someone else to take her place.”

Sean stood and shook John’s hand.
“Deal. I’ll enjoy proving you wrong.”

“Yeah, right,” John said, leaving
the office.

Sean hoped he knew Krista as well
as he thought he did. He didn’t want to hire in, and he sure didn’t want to use
someone else from Research.

~*~*~*~

The high-pitched wail of her alarm
clock seeped through the fog of her dreams. She came slowly awake, her head
feeling thick and sluggish. She opened her eyes miserably, hating that morning
had come so early. Also hating what the day would bring. She knew she’d have to
confront Sean in a few hours. She’d known it all weekend. She had an ulcer from
worrying about it. She’d also had too much wine last night, fretting about it.

As if the day wasn’t going to be
hard enough, now she would have to face it hung over. She was an idiot.

She closed her eyes again,
desperately wishing away the headache that was pounding on the inside of her
too-tight skull. She needed Tylenol. And water. And to call in sick.

Sighing loudly, she lugged herself
up. It was going to be a long, long day.

Unless she got fired. Then it would
be a long, long week.

She had a slow morning of misery
getting ready. She didn’t put much flair into her appearance even though she
probably should have. She just couldn’t care that much—she hurt too badly. The
wine residue was holding her prisoner.

On the large, old, shabby train
headed to work, the announcer informed everyone that the doors were on the
fritz. The Muni was at a full stop, on the tracks, and they were advised that
they could either wait for a Muni crew to fix it, or disembark and catch
another train. The crew in this establishment was neither fast nor competent,
so like most of the other disgruntled morning commuters, Krista lumbered off,
half thinking she might throw up, and sought out another ride to work.

The day was sublime with soft
sunshine, a cool ocean breeze that tickled her face, and a lovely hint of
spring. It was too bad the sunshine made her head pound, because she would’ve
really liked to enjoy the brisk morning.

The pack of commuters trudged into
the West Portal station where they would wait in a tightly packed horde for
another train to come. They stood in a big glob, occasionally being jostled as
people vied for better positioning. As the next train pulled up, people started
to crowd in. That was when the foul play started.

As Krista stood, feeling miserable,
waiting patiently for the hopefully working doors to open, some old Asian man,
probably half her height, came barreling through, pushing her to the side and
throwing her an elbow to keep her there. Once he had the advantage, he stepped
in front of her. She didn’t have time to be indignant. He saw another opening
and pounced, knocking a man as he’d done Krista. The man didn’t move nearly as
far, but the old dude didn’t need a big opening. He stepped in front of yet
another waiting patron, working his way to the very front.

Krista didn’t have the energy to be
put out about it.

Then the doors opened. She’d
thought waiting in a tightly packed group of people, with all the different
scents and odors, was bad. As it turned out, it was heaven compared to the
press she went into as everyone waiting started to squeeze through the door.
Arms, elbows, briefcases and bags surged through the narrow passageway into any
opening a body could fit. Krista felt like she was a napkin in a washing
machine.

What was worse than a hangover? A
hangover in a stuffy, enclosed space with a crowd of people. Krista spent the
entire ride doing her best not to throw up on the business man she was facing.
He was taller, so at least she would have gotten his chest instead of his face,
but it definitely would have ruined his day, not to mention his
expensive-looking suit.

She hoped he couldn’t smell the
wine from the night before.

Miraculously, she walked into work
on time. It was a good thing, because there was no way she was hurrying today.
No running. She wouldn’t even bother with a brisk walk. Basically, a
zombie-lurch was as much as she could do without kneeling over and giving up on
life in the middle of the sidewalk.

She dumped her crap next to her
chair and headed toward the break room for coffee. She didn’t give a damn about
seeing Sean today. She had to eventually anyway, so why not when she was in the
worst mood to date?

There were two people present when
Krista made the entrance into the break room. They looked up when she walked
in, which meant they were probably gossiping. When they didn’t continue
talking, it probably meant they were gossiping about her. She didn’t care.

She stopped behind the one with
tight curls on the top of her head in an ugly hair thing.

“Nice clip,” she said, being nasty
but hiding it behind the compliment. Basically, that was her kicking the dog.

The woman—she was from Client
Retention—gave her a weird look and shuffled out of her way with her cup half
full. The two ladies left shortly after. Krista didn’t care.

She got her java and skulked back
to her cube with a raging headache. She had no phone messages and no emails, so
if she was getting fired, the meeting wasn’t scheduled yet. Mr. Montgomery
wasn’t in yet, either—she did a drive by and a quick glance—so she couldn’t
enact the scowl-meter. She was flying blind. And in pain.

~*~*~*~

Sean sat at his desk facing Ray.
She had till twelve. God he hoped he’d been right. He needed her. Their
personal history aside, she had the potential to be a rock star. The
presentation she put together was top quality material. The delivery was even
better. And that was her first one! She was executive material. Undiscovered
executive material. He could mold her like play dough. Marcus, too. They were
both gifted and bright—if they could do what Sean suspected, they’d get the
account and take it to market, no question.