The claw of fear did another pass. It didn’t help that the air conditioning was too low and her body was on a personal mission to sweat through her blouse.
Judy’s pictures done, Sean said a few words about good work, as always, and moved on to Marcus. Marcus started talking about marketing crap that made about as much sense as fog in summer in California. A bunch of hogwash, Krista was sure.
To illustrate his points, he passed around some art Judy helped him with. It was the same type of thing Judy had passed around already. These two were trying to create new ideas from old crap, and obviously working together so they could share the load.
Krista wondered if perhaps cataloging all the old stuff wasn’t a hindrance more than a help. She also wondered how Sean hoped to land a high-profile account with this type of information to work off of. Krista couldn’t imagine it was near good enough, and it was a shame, because Marcus seemed to have some pretty good ideas. Even Ben thought so, and he didn’t know anything about nothing.
“Great,” Sean said, turning to Krista. He held her eyes for a moment before saying, “You’re up. What have you done with a month?”
Krista nearly threw up. She’d had a whole month and she’d only done the first two numbers. Sean was obviously bracing himself for bad news.
“Relax,” Marcus said from across the table in his caterpillar voice.
Krista jumped, looked at Marcus with panicked eyes, then turned and grabbed the first book off her stack.
“Um. Okay. Well,” Krista cleared her throat and looked at Judy, who was looking back with a reassuring smile. Krista plunged on, “Sean gave me a list of things he was looking for. The list ranged from a general, broad history of the whole genre, to a narrowed scope of just sapphires. I then broke that down further into sapphires within the piece and type of jewelry. Then he wanted that information across the country, also the world, various markets, niches, regions, you name it, he wanted it.”
Krista stood and passed around the first couple books. Each book was well executed, probably half the size of a textbook, and had plentiful graphs and images in it. Once Krista had given them out, she sat back down. This section, which was Sean’s item number one, yielded three books. Judy, thinking that Krista had made a book for each person, presentation-style, looked at Krista to see why she didn’t get one.
“Oh, ahhh, each of those is part of the whole. There was too much information for everyone to get their own. So there are three parts. Ray has the first, Sean the second, and Marcus the third. I would have done one book, or two, but I didn’t really know how to work the machine and couldn’t get it to bind any more than that at a time. Plus, we really only need one set. I have everything saved electronically.”
Sean’s eyes snapped up from the information in front of him. He looked from his book to the others. When his eyes hit Krista’s they were wide with disbelief.
Judy, not caring about quantity, scooted over to Marcus to look over his shoulder. He immediately passed it to her, who scanned a few pages and gave up. They probably didn’t know what the hell any of it meant.
It was Krista’s turn to confuse the art people. Hah! She would remember to throw that in Marcus’ face.
If she didn’t get fired first.
“This is really good work, Krista,” Ray said to no one in particular, bringing her back to Earth. He was herding her focus like a sheep dog. He probably had a teenager. “Where did you get all this info?”
“Well, I looked at historical information first and got some broad stuff there. There was a lot there, but selective, you know? So I took to the library and pulled the rest.” She knew Ray knew what Sean knew, even if Sean said he wouldn’t tell anyone. Krista was not so naïve to think it was an honest secret. She also wanted to get across to Sean the type of information the others had, and how it ranked in the grand scheme of things.
“You have a library card?” Judy said with a chuckle.
“Geek Girl,” Marcus said with a smile, passing his book to Ray.
“Cheap books,” Krista retorted. “As in free. I have a lot of time to read on Muni, especially when I am trapped in a tunnel.”
Sean was now devouring the information in front of him. He glanced at everything in his book and then looked at Ray. Ray passed him the first book in the set, which was opened to the table of contents. Sean scanned it immediately.
“Geek Girl, you are making Judy and I look bad,” Marcus said disapprovingly, leaning back with a smile.
Sean glanced at Marcus, then shaking his head, looked at Krista with drunken, overwhelmed eyes.
Fear stabbed her again. It was a lot of information. Maybe she spent too much time on it? Maybe she spent too much time organizing it? Maybe she should’ve been watching Sean’s back with the art stuff?
She was on the edge, wondering which way the wind blew when Sean said, “Good work, Krista. This will be invaluable. It will also help us make contact with light comments.”
It sounded good, but his face was still blank as he looked through the information. Ray had the third book and was looking through it, slightly shaking his head. It sounded good, but the actions didn’t match.
Krista hated this. She hated having no idea where she stood. Her first real assignment with her first real job for a boss she really wanted to impress, and it was heads or tails if she totally messed up and wasted everyone’s time.
And that was just step one. She still had to show step two, which was an even bigger gamble.
Sean interrupted her self-loathing, still looking through the material, with, “Okay, everyone, let’s convene for now and we’ll meet back after I can process all this information.”
“Wait…” Krista grabbed the remaining stack.
Sean looked up with a light scowl. Everyone paused in their various stances, except for Marcus who was always lounging. He had a hopeful look, though. He wanted to know what the rest of the information was. Namely, he wanted to see what she did with his ideas.
“Um, that was just the first part of the list that Sean gave?” Sean’s scowl got slightly more pronounced. Krista hurried on. “I got a good way through the second one with Marcus’s help?”
Stop rounding off sentences with a question! You sound dumb and green!
“Yes,” Marcus settled back with his hands behind his head, his arms out to the side like wings. He was like a little boy about ready to see if his new model airplane would fly.
Krista passed out the remaining books. “Okay, well first, you should all know that Marcus and I speak a different language. He speaks in high-art, and I speak in normal person…”
“There was nothing normal in those books you passed around.” Marcus cut her off.
“Okay, well, affluent math, then. So when I went to get Marcus’s ideas, which I think was Sean’s big practical joke to torture me…” Marcus and Judy both laughed. Sean was looking at her blank-faced. She hurried on, “I wrote down a bunch of genius crap that I then stared at for a couple hours before realizing there was no way in hell—excuse my language—that I could turn it into logical, statistical research. It was all gibberish as far as I could tell.”
Marcus and Judy both laughed again, but Sean and Ray wore very similar masks of confusion.
“So I took his notes to someone who could speak both our languages, and asked for help. What I got was something I could work with. Now, before you look at these, please know that this is my interpretation of Marcus’s ideas turned into research. I made no decisions beyond that. If the ideas are stupid and not worth pursuing based on numbers, blame Marcus.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time!” Judy laughed.
“Why four smaller books rather than three?” Ray asked. “Did you do these before you figured out the machine?”
Krista smiled. Ray had a sense of humor it seemed.
“There are four ideas turned into research. I figured I would just break them down that way. The other collection, we’ll call number one, was a solid mass of information.”
Ray nodded as each person delved into their book. Each book was a little different, and each covered a different amount of terrain. They had graphs and, what Marcus and Judy latched on to, art. There were even photographs from when she people-watched. If the team missed her over-achiever status thus far, they were currently getting a rude awakening.
Plus, working on the whole idea was kind of fun. She got to do more than just work with statistical stuff—taking pictures and working with graphics was a great way to exercise the other half of the brain.
Krista was watching Judy and Marcus laugh about the perfection of one of the photos when she felt eyes boring into her. They were Sean’s. Their look was unreadable, as was his face, but his focus was acute.
Krista flushed and fidgeted, not sure what to make of the stare; not sure if it was good or bad or lust based.
“Too much? Did I waste too much time on this stuff?” Krista asked with a grimace.
Sean remained mute for a moment, his stare acute. When he was done trying to shoplift her grocery list, his eyes pivoted to Ray. Before either said anything, Marcus said, “Hey Krista, what is this one?”
It was a picture of a little girl at the beach with her mother’s bracelet. The bracelet was ugly and cheap, which was probably why the mother allowed the child to have it in the first place, but Krista thought the idea of it worked.
“Oh, well, you know that idea where you wanted to create some sort of collectable jewelry for kids? Kind of like those charm bracelets, but more for special occasions? You know, so that they could hold onto it through the years?”
“Yeah, but—“
“Well,” she said interrupting him, “the idea to market heirlooms was so similar, and you were hitting the very young and the very old, I—and my secret helper—thought maybe we could combine that. You know, a keepsake you get as you grow that you could then pass on? Something like that? It, ah, sounded good at the time.
“Anyway, I looked up info for the individual thing, then did some comparing numbers for the overall deal. I don’t know what you all aim for or whatever, but the overall deal seemed cool to me, so I went out and tried to find some people who might buy into that. That picture was cute and fitting, don’t you think?”
Sean’s expression changed. Now he looked at her like she’d just sprouted a third eye. It put her into defensive mode. “I mean, it’s not my job, I know, so I did both of Marcus’s original suggestions, but thought I might just throw that in for spice. It really didn’t take much more time. Just a few extra photo sessions, which was on my own time anyway, so…”
She was shrinking under Sean’s heated gaze. She’d gone overboard. Definitely overboard. This was the kind of thing she should have done after she got some direction. She should have kept it generic until they landed the account!
“I told you I was a genius,” Marcus said to Judy, who laughed at him and grabbed the photographs.
“I have to tell you, Krista, these photos aren’t half bad. I like how you captured life. You are no Ansel Adams, but these are great. I can work off these,” Judy said, giving them her technical “art” eye.
Well, at least someone liked it.
Sean was doing some sort of silent exchange with Ray, then he looked back at Krista. His face seemed a little hostile.
“I assume that is all you have?” Sean asked in a flat voice.
“Uh, yeah.” She had had a month, and she had a world of information on things that they might never, ever need. She only got to a quarter of the list he gave her when she probably should have gotten a little bit on every point.
Shit.
Sean nodded, “Okay, gang, leave those here with me, plus what you have, and I’ll look over everything. Ray will be in touch about the event. It is mandatory that everyone go, so make it work.”
Everyone stood up to leave.
“Not you, Krista.” Sean had his hands clasped on the table, staring at her with a firm, unreadable expression. Ray hadn’t gotten up, either.
Krista froze. She gave a scared glance at Marcus with a plea of help. He got it and smiled.
“Relax,” he mouthed, giving her a Cheshire Cat smile as he drifted out of the room with Judy.
~*~*~*~
“I told you!” Marcus exclaimed when they were out of earshot. He was still high from the effulgence that was the young stud. If only that man had been born g*y, Marcus and he would’ve made the best pair. For about two seconds, then they’d have an open relationship, naturally, until they got old.
“You did not tell me that girl was such a workhorse!” Judy nearly yelled back. “She made us look like slackers.”
“I wasn’t talking about that, but yes I did tell you, dearest. It was right after I noticed her fabulous red pumps, remember? I said she was getting all her work done in style, much unlike myself. Work done, I mean. I always maintain style, of course.”
“Getting all her work done doesn’t mean coming up with the entire presentation—art, marketing and research combined—in one month, Marcus! Sean is probably wondering what he needs me for—she did all the images already!”
“Relax, honey; you are still the most experienced. Sean needs you. But he wants that little geeky blond! Did you see the way he was drooling over her? He was ready to gobble her up!”
“Who, Monica? They’re just trying to out-sleaze each other. I don’t care to pay attention to that.”
Marcus stopped her with a hand on her arm as they got out of the elevator. “Woman, I am starting to think you are blind. Not that old tramp! I heard she had a drunken night with John two years ago. Any woman that hates herself enough to sleep with John is trash and—“