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.”
Sean smiled in a sleazy sort of way. Monica smiled back in a flirty care-free way as she turned her eyes on Krista, who was unimpressed with the whole scene. To be polite, she nodded hello as she turned her eyes back to Sean.
Sean followed Monica’s eyes…to Krista. “And this is Krista. She is fairly new with this company and comes from Marketing Research.”
There was a small groan from the group. Sean smiled. “Now, now, we need market research like a baby needs milk. Anyway, this is our team. I have high hopes for us.”
Sean turned to Ray to ask him to pass out their first assignments. Krista couldn’t help but feel like an outcast already. She got a crappy introduction, she was still getting stared at fairly constantly, she got groaned at, and she was quickly discarded as Sean moved on to other business. It didn’t look like this was a step-up. More like a step sideways.