Professional Boundaries (9 page)

“What do you mean?” I said innocently. Or as innocent as you can get when you’re lying.

She practically laughed at me. “Oh, honey. There’s definitely a history between the two of you.”

I tried to answer with the truth without telling the whole truth. “He was my calculus tutor my freshman year in college.”
That was the truth.

Her eyes gleamed, and she pursed her lips. “Why do I get the feeling those were private lessons?”

“Delfia!”

“Fine, you don’t have to tell me, but I have a feeling it’s going to get real interesting around here.”

I didn’t even bother with a rebuttal. I just let her walk out laughing to herself. She was right, though; things were going to get real interesting. In fact, “interesting” only took a few minutes. Mr. Professional Boundaries decided to grace my office doorway with his presence, and here I’d thought I wouldn’t see him all day.

“Can I help you, Mr. Greyson?” I tried to keep the derision out of my voice, but my nineteen-year-old self begged for it to come out. I mean, for heaven’s sake, this man used to wrap me up in his arms and kiss me until I saw stars, and then he would whisper in my ear, “Kelli, I’m crazy about you.” Now here he was expecting me to call him, “Mr. Greyson.”

He raised his eyebrow at me. “Do you have a problem with calling me Mr. Greyson?”

I saluted him. “No sir.”

So much for being professional. I looked at the time. That had lasted all of about forty-five minutes.

“Kel—”

I smirked at him

“Ms. Bryant, in my experience, it’s important that someone in my position set the proper expectation. I’m not here to make friends. ”

I so badly wanted to comment. I had the best comeback on the tip of my tongue; it took everything I had for me not to say what I so desperately wanted to. I wondered if Boss knew what an arrogant jerk he had hired to take his place. We were going from the man that was everyone’s friend to a man that apparently wanted to be an island.

I held in my comment, but it was really hard.

“Do you have something to say?” he asked arrogantly.

I just shook my head no, but he knew me better. He knew I had something to say. He waited several seconds before he spoke again. It was like he was daring me to say it. I almost did, but it was like a battle of wills, and I planned on being the victor. When he realized I wouldn’t be rising to the sarcastic occasion, he invited himself all the way into my office and came around and stood behind me at my desk. I thought it was odd.

He leaned down and looked over my shoulder and pointed to my screen. “Would you mind pulling up your schedule?”

Oh, he smelled good. He was still wearing the same cologne he had so many years ago. It was a warm, spicy scent. It drove me crazy, and when I looked over to him, our faces were too close for comfort. I immediately turned and complied with his request and tried to ignore my rapid heartbeat. This was ridiculous.

My schedule immediately popped up, and he reached over and began touching the screen asking about each appointment and asking if it could be rescheduled. Each time I replied in the negative. He was becoming increasingly frustrated with me.
Good
, I thought.

“How about a working lunch?” he suggested.

“Hmm … I had wanted to run some errands.”

“Kel— I mean, Ms. Bryant.”

I loved how he couldn’t even stick with his own dumb rules.

“It’s important that we meet. I would be happy to have Ms. King (aka Delfia), order something in for us. Or if you would like, we can go out somewhere together.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. He was giving me a headache. I really didn’t want to meet with him, but I knew I couldn’t keep avoiding it; the more I put it off, the worse it would be.

“I brought my lunch. I’ll meet you in the conference room at noon,” I replied in resignation.

He stood up straight. “That wasn’t so hard, now was it, Ms. Bryant?”

I turned my chair and narrowed my eyes at him. “Is that all, Mr. Greyson? As you can see, I’m busy.”

“I look forward to meeting with you,” he said while walking out. 

Yeah, well that makes one of us, buddy!
I crumpled up a piece of paper and threw it at the door.

I peeked out my office door to see Delfia trying to hold back her laughter. I just shook my head, threw my earbuds in, and went to work. I had emails and proposals that needed my attention.

The only interruption I welcomed was Boss coming in to wish me a good morning. “You look good in this office kiddo,” he said. I wanted to say I would look even better in the adjoining office, but I just left it alone. What’s done is done.

The morning unfortunately flew by between catching up on email, sending out two proposals, and having a conference call with a demo. As noon approached, I headed to my private bathroom and touched up my make-up. I knew it could have seemed like I wanted to impress my new boss, but I would have done it for anyone, and mostly for myself. I pulled up the roadmap for the product on my laptop before I undocked it and grabbed my lunch. Then I made my way over to the conference room. Delfia smiled devilishly at me as I walked by. I shook my head at her and smiled back.

 “By the way, you look sizzling today,” she whispered.

I laughed and kept on walking. I loved her. I walked in to find Ian, I mean, well you know who, set up with two laptops running, surrounded by a myriad of files. It also looked like he had ordered in sushi. Yuck! When he noticed me, he stood up and pulled out the chair next to him. Ugh, I was planning on sitting across from him. Once again, he thwarted my plans.

I begrudgingly took the seat next to him. “Thank you,” I said somewhat politely. I almost added in that it was probably crossing a professional boundary for him to pull out my chair, but I decided to keep that to myself and get this meeting over with.

“Would you like some sushi?” he asked as soon as I was situated.

“Uh, no thanks. We like our fish fried here in the south.”

He kind of laughed. “You might like it.”

I just shook my head no and pulled out my crunchy peanut butter and plum jam on whole wheat bread sandwich.

Before I took a bite, he looked at my sandwich, “Remember that day in the park when …” he trailed off.

I looked over to him as he continued to stare at my sandwich and then he looked at me. For a brief moment, I saw the old Ian. It was a little disconcerting, but then, just like that, it was gone.

He shook his head. “I can’t believe you still eat those.”

I had probably eaten more peanut butter and jam sandwiches than I could count, but I still loved them. They were a reminder of childhood and happy times. Some of those happy times even included him. I wondered what day in the park he had remembered, because there were several to choose from. It was our favorite place to study and engage in other activities.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Well, I can’t believe people eat raw fish.”

He held up sushi roll in response and downed it.

I went back to my plain sandwich. “So what did you want to discuss?” I asked after a few bites.

He wiped his mouth with a napkin and then pulled up a file on the laptop closest to him.

“I wanted to discuss the direction of the product, new feature enhancements, branding etc.”

“Great, I’ve been working on a roadmap …”

He didn’t even let me finish my sentence before he began showing me mock ups of a totally revamped product. It looked nothing like the original. It was very sleek and slightly complicated.

“Have you ever worked with banks and credit unions before?” I interrupted him after several minutes.

“A few,” he responded.

“Ok. Then did you know that most marketing departments, especially in smaller financial institutions, don’t have access to IT departments, and most of them lack high tech skills?”

“This product doesn’t just have to be utilized by financial clients.”

“I agree, and I would like to branch out to other verticals, but I don’t want to alienate our current clientele in the meantime. I believe the roadmap I’ve created addresses both issues.”

He sat back in his chair and folded his arms. “Show me what you have.” It was like he was daring me to dazzle him.

No problem
, I thought. I pulled up my road map that included a presentation outlining what I believed to be key feature enhancements like an expanded ad library and tools to create your own ads with ability to add branding and logos. I discussed my idea for tier levels of features and support with varying price points, and I also mapped out a free version with a limited feature set with just enough to water their mouths in the hopes of turning them into paying customers. Intermittently, I looked at Mr. Greyson and found him engrossed in the presentation. When I was done, I turned toward him.

He grinned and nodded his head. “I’m impressed.”

“You sound surprised.”

“I am,” he said with no hint of apology.

I couldn’t help it, I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “What did you expect?”

He briefly touched my hand, but quickly he seemed to realize that was crossing professional boundaries; he pulled it back, but it wasn’t quick enough. It was like my hand was saying, “Hey, I remember that touch.” And unfortunately it liked it. Dumb hand.

“You’re taking that wrong.”

“Oh really, how
should
I take it?”

He leaned forward, toward me. “Are you going to be sensitive about everything I say?”

I leaned closer.

“Do you plan on continually being condescending, Mr. Greyson?”

We both stared hard at one another for several moments. Boss walked in and caught us in our staring battle. We both quickly moved apart and sat up straight. I smoothed out my blouse. Boss looked between the two of us. I could feel my cheeks redden out of embarrassment and anger.

“Great, I’m glad to find you both together,” Boss said.

“Ms. Bryant was just showing me her roadmap,” Ian, or whoever he was, informed Boss.

Boss smiled and winked at me. “Impressive, isn’t it?”

“Very,” you-know-who replied. Then he ruined it. “But I would like to add in a few more feature enhancements like more variability and ordering control. I would also like to bring in a graphic designer to update the interface.”

I whipped around to look at him. “What’s wrong with the current design?”

“It’s too busy and a bit outdated.”

I looked at Boss for support. That was my design, and we had carefully gone through several versions until we got it right. We had even sent it out to several potential clients for feedback.

Boss looked uncomfortable as he pulled on his collar. “Kelli, maybe this is a good time to turn over the design work to someone else, so you can focus more on marketing and selling the product.”

My shoulders dropped. How could Boss take his side?

“I didn’t realize the design was yours,” Ian said.

I glared at him. I wanted to say it wouldn’t have made a difference, he still would have said the same thing, but all I could manage was, “Is our meeting over, Mr. Greyson?”

“What’s with all the formality between you two?” Boss asked.

I stood up without Ian’s answer; I was declaring the meeting over. “Mr. Greyson feels it sets the proper boundaries between himself and his employees.” I almost said
lowly subjects
, but that would have been going too far.

I walked to the door and looked back at Boss’ confused face and Ian’s stunned one. “Excuse me, I have an appointment.”

There was no need to say it was with me, myself, and I. I headed straight for my office and quickly put on my walking shoes and grabbed a jacket. I needed to walk around the lake to clear my head and possibly reevaluate my decision to work for Mr. Pain in My … Backside. As I walked back past the conference room, I could see Boss and Ian in deep discussion on the other side of the now-closed door. I’m sure my name was being brought up. I just kept on walking.

When I hit the cool air, I breathed in deeply. I felt so out of control. I couldn’t, in recent memory, remember feeling so out of sorts. I needed to get it together, but for some reason I just couldn’t seem to no matter how I tried. As I walked, I just tried to focus on my breathing and tried not to think about the idiot that occupied the conference room and ate sushi.
Ok
, I thought,
I hope his sushi was tainted
. He deserved a good case of food poisoning. How dare he be surprised that I actually have talent, and how dare he call my designs outdated! I worked hard on those, and I researched the best color schemes, patterns and placements for ease of use and aesthetics.

So I wasn’t doing well in not trying to think about him. Stupid, good smelling, handsome man!

After thirty minutes of walking, I felt a little better, but I knew I couldn’t stay out there forever. Good news, though, the trees around the lake were beginning to bud. Spring was just around the corner. Thank goodness! More good news, when I made it back upstairs to my office, the conference room was devoid of people. I walked back to my office in peace and finished the rest of my day on the phone with potential clients. I was more than ready to leave when five rolled around. I walked out to an empty reception area; Delfia had gone home for the day as had Boss. I didn’t think he planned on working full days for the remainder of the week. It seemed like his brain was already set on retirement.

With high hopes, I approached the conference room, but it seemed where Ian was concerned, my hopes would always be dashed. There he was, still working away. I planned to just walk on by and not say anything. Yes, that was unprofessional, but I think where he was concerned, the less I had to do with him, probably the better for both of us. He, unfortunately, had other ideas.

“Do you have a few moments?” he said as I walked by.

Reluctantly, I stopped and leaned against the door frame. I didn’t say anything. I just looked at him like, sure, whatever.

He gave me a wry smile as he sat there. “I hope I didn’t give you the impression that I’m anything but impressed with your work and vision. You’re very talented.”