BWWM Interracial Romance 1: Professional Relations

Professional

Relations

Elena Brown

Copyright © 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial us
es permitted by copyright law.

Copyright © 201
4

Table of Contents

New Beginnings

Complications

Confrontation and Conflict

Tension and Release

Rumors and Repercussions

Apologies

Decisions

Professional Development

Crisis and Solution

Reputations and Resolutions

Regina arrived for her first day at her new job five minutes early; she had wanted to be even a little earlier than that, but the nervousness she had felt at the prospect of starting a new position at her job had led to one change of clothes after another, followed by anxiously adjusting her hair and makeup until she knew she had to hope that traffic wouldn’t be too bad. She was desperate to make a good impression ever since she had more or less limped back to her hometown, pushed by the need to make a clean break from her failed marriage. She had been hungry to prove that she could stand on her own two feet—and this job would go a long way toward redeeming herself in her own eyes. In unguarded moments, she could still hear her ex-husband’s harsh words in her mind:
“You’re nothing without me.”
She was determined to prove him wrong.

The promotion she’d achieved, right around the time that her divorce was finalized, had been a godsend. She had been at her lowest point, preparing to make the trip back home, to leave her job behind when her manager called her into his office and told her to sit down. “I know you’ve put in your notice, and I understand you’re going through a difficult time, so a decision like this is probably a little difficult. But there’s been an opening at the headquarters, which is convenient to where you’re moving.” Regina had felt glad she was sitting down when he told her. “I recommended you for the opening, and apart from the formality of an interview, the job is yours—with a pay increase of 18%.”

Regina made it through the interview the day after she arrived in town, feeling jittery from too-strong coffee made by her sister, Abigail. But in spite of everything her ex-husband had ever had to say about her intelligence and prospects, Regina knew that her work history spoke for itself. She focused on what she had accomplished in her previous positions with the company, glossing over her reasons for moving, and the interviewer had been enthusiastic about her taking up the position. “I think you’ll be a great fit for the team, and I know you’ll work to the high standard you’ve already set. I’m sold.”

Regina had had the weekend to get truly nervous about starting. The position wasn’t entirely out of her comfort zone, but the prospect of new coworkers, of increased responsibility, when she wasn’t entirely recovered from the drama and stress of her divorce was daunting. Her sister had told her over and over again that she was going to do great—not to worry about it, it was out of her control anyway—but Regina still barely slept the night before she was scheduled to start. She knew, objectively, that she had earned the position; but after years of being told by her husband that she was inferior, it was difficult for Regina to keep that knowledge up front.

The elevator finally arrived she stepped on, smiling pleasantly to the people who entered with her. She noticed that one of the men close to the doors had selected, among other floors, the thirteenth. Regina wondered which—if any—of the people she was sharing the elevator with were her new coworkers. She had met some of the headquarters personnel on previous occasions, but there were a ton of people working at the company, and there was a good chance that she would never really meet more than a fraction of them—even at the headquarters. After her interview, Regina had gone on a brief tour with her manager, so she knew where to report when she arrived for her first day. She waited with nervous patience as the elevator made its way quickly through the floors, stopping with a bright and cheery “Bing!” on each of the floors that had been selected. Gradually the elevator cleared of everyone but Regina and two other employees, a man and a woman, who she didn’t recognize.

When the elevator reached the thirteenth floor, Regina allowed the other two to exit ahead of her, and walked through an echoingly empty lobby; she glanced at the receptionist at the desk, giving the younger woman a polite smile as she took out her security fob from her purse. Regina took a deep breath, preparing herself for the stress of a first day on the job.

In spite of the hiring manager’s enthusiasm for giving her the position, she knew that more than most candidates, her behavior the first several days and weeks on the job could make or break her. She had experienced veiled discrimination before—being told after putting in a maximum effort at a new job that she was “just not a good fit” for the “company culture.” One of the things that she had loved about joining this company was the diversity: in previous jobs she’d been the only woman, the only person of color, or both, on her team. Since starting with Pater-Gray, Regina had had the pleasure of working with people from all over the world: China, India, Jamaica, Thailand, and Iran. But the specter of color was not one that Regina could comfortably ignore.

She stepped through the secured door and into an office that was positively bustling with activity. Regina fought the urge to take a step backward and instead plunged in, listening to the hum of conversations, the music playing over a sound system, and the footfalls of people rushing from one desk to another. The hiring manager, a woman by the name of Talitha, had told Regina to expect things to be hectic when she arrived—the company had just taken on several new clients, which was part of the reason her position of assistant project manager was open. But even that warning had not prepared Regina for the reality of what she stepped into.

Regina found Talitha as the other woman was heading from the employee break area to her office at a near-run, an insulated tumbler in her hands. “Ah! Regina! I’m so glad you’re here,” Talitha said, smiling broadly. “You look like you’re ready to take everything on—which is good, because the shit has hit the fan, as they say.”

Regina spared no time in settling into her small office, putting her purse down and immediately turning on her computer. The IT person who set it up had left a sticky note with her user ID and password next to the keyboard, as well as his extension in case she had any questions. Regina logged in and opened up the software she was used to using: the project management tool, the email program, and the applications she had used in her day-to-day work for Pater-Gray in her previous position. She saw that there was a seemingly endless amount of emails to get through, and as she settled into her chair, she started from the very beginning—the earliest emails, knowing that she had to grasp the situation at hand as quickly as possible.

She barely managed to read the most recent email, an update on a client’s situation regarding an ongoing project which had the potential to go south if action wasn’t taken, when her computer beeped an alarm at her; Regina had a meeting to go to. She pulled her makeup compact out quickly and checked to make sure she was still looking presentable, touched up her lipstick, and grabbed a notebook and a pen to make her way to the conference room. Talitha was already there, along with some of the team that Regina now belonged to; a few more came in after her, one a straggler that she thought she recognized.

“Okay,” Talitha said, after the last employee came in, shutting the door behind him. “Our usual status meeting has to be put on hold, because as I’m sure you’re all already aware, Brockway Industrials is about to jump ship if we don’t come across for them.” Talitha gave the assembled employees a tense smile. “Thankfully, we have our new assistant project manager on board—everyone say hello to Regina.” Talitha gestured for Regina to stand, and she did, feeling a little self-conscious at the greetings she received. She sat back down, more than happy for the meeting to continue on track.

Talitha explained that Brockway Industrials had signed on with certain expectations which Pater-Gray had struggled to deliver: design concepts, implementation guidelines, production plans. Regina took notes as Talitha outlined the issues, glancing around only occasionally as different employees chimed in with their own bottlenecks and concerns. As an assistant project manager, Regina was responsible in part for the client in question; Talitha, as the main project manager, was nominally responsible for all of the clients for the department, while Regina had charge of three or four clients and the workers who were attached to the projects.

“We need more personnel on this,” Regina said, shaking her head as another of the assistant project managers complained that the timeframe wasn’t going to work. “With all due respect, we can spend time blaming the account manager for setting an unrealistic expectation—or the client for misinterpreting the timeframe that was provided—but in the end, we have to deliver. And to deliver in the time we need, we’re going to have to pull some people from less urgent tasks.”

Talitha nodded. “That was about the conclusion that I came to,” she agreed. “But where do we pull personnel from?”

Regina shrugged. While the answer itself was apparent to her, she didn’t have enough of an understanding of the current state of projects in the department to know who was doing what—much less which of the ongoing projects were of lower priority. “Are there any internal projects that can be put on hold for a day?” she asked, glancing around the room to see if anyone could answer the question. There was one man she recognized from previous work engagements—when she had been a project coordinator in one of the other branches of the company; he had been the contact person for a particular assignment. She remembered that his name was Bradley, but very little else about him. He was slightly taller than her, with bright blue eyes and reddish-brown hair cut close to his skull.

“None of the projects my team is on right now can be paused,” Bradley said dismissively, not even looking at Regina. “You know what Al is like when we tell him the internal stuff has to be put on hold. If the account manager said something wrong, let him deal with the client flack.”

Regina rolled her eyes at the arrogance of the response. “So it’s worth losing a client to avoid having to tell the big boss that his project is going to take an extra day or two?”

Bradley looked at her sharply. Regina had to admit to herself that, in spite of his arrogance, Bradley was well-dressed; he almost looked like the kind of man who would be vain about his looks. “Excuse me, but you’re new here; you haven’t had to deal with Al before. He’ll make my life miserable if I tell him any one of his pet projects is going to take longer than he decided it should take.”

Regina shrugged. “So tell him that paying customers are more important.”

Bradley snorted. “You must not want to stick around here long, chickie,” he said, shaking his head. “YOU try telling Al that this client is more important than he is.”

Regina raised an eyebrow. The condescension was bad enough; for Bradley to call her ‘chickie’ was inexcusable. Her older sister had told her on more than one occasion, “We teach other people how to treat us.” Abigail had meant it in the context of personal relationships, but to Regina it made sense for work purposes as well.

“Well, ‘chickie,’” she said. “If you’re scared to give him the brass tacks on the issue, then send him my way.” Regina knew that she would not be as cavalier as her tone suggested—but she was accustomed to giving bad news to higher ups, and knew that making the case for a paying client over an internal project wouldn’t be terribly difficult. Some of the others—including Talitha—chuckled at both Regina’s attitude and also her use of the same down-talking nickname that Bradley had employed. The target of her retort stared at her for a long moment.

“Well, if you’re willing to run interference, then sure thing—take whoever you need.” He smiled slowly and unpleasantly. Regina knew that she was taking a risk; causing an upset on her first day was not the best way to ingratiate herself with her manager’s bosses. But she also knew that bold action, no matter how much it scared her, was a better idea than giving people the impression that she could be walked all over.

The meeting ended with personnel shifting, Talitha authorizing a few designers and planners who were working on internal projects to be moved onto the Brockway Industrials account. Regina felt anxious, but at the same time gloriously empowered; she had just enough time to grab a cup of coffee to keep her alert before she would need to meet with her team to discuss how they would go about completing the project by the end of the day.

Regina had been a designer herself, in her early days with Pater-Gray; she had worked her way up into her current position by taking on more responsibilities, and by demonstrating that she had the capacity for managing others, for seeing the full scope and keeping the details in mind at the same time. When she sat down with her team, she took a brief moment to introduce herself, explaining that she had been with the company for a few years.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know all of you a bit better—once we’re able to leap over this giant hurdle.” The designers, including two who had been working under Bradley, chuckled. She went through her notes and consulted the mental map she’d made by reading through the emails first thing in the morning, explaining what was needed. “I know this is going to be difficult,” she said, “But if we’re able to get this done by the end of the day, I swear to all of you I’ll buy lunch tomorrow to make up for it.”

The meeting ended, and for the last hour of the morning before lunch, Regina worked on filling out her transfer forms, updating her personnel information for the Human Resources department while her team got to work on the project. The designers and planners who had been involved from the beginning had the know-how to inform their colleagues about what was needed. Regina would have another meeting in the afternoon to attend to. She had also agreed, as an expedient, to chip in in order to complete the project on time; she had the necessary design and software skills to push it forward.