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She looked up at him, then got up.
“I’m kidding.”
She sighed and sat back down.
“Bad time. You’re stressed.” He headed toward the door. “Your boss says you can go if you’re done with your work.”
“What about her?” Andrea asked.
“I’ll stay with her.”
Andrea nodded slowly. “I’ll check with Ken to make sure he doesn’t need anything before leaving.”
Seth went back in and sat on the couch.
“Can I run some things by you?” Clary asked.
He nodded.
“I was thinking, the most important thing to do will be to refund all the fees we got from the fake accounts that were opened.”
“Do you know which accounts were affected?”
“The independent review team has collected a list of over half a million accounts.”
“Can EB Co. afford to do that?”
Clary nodded. “But even if the bank has to go bankrupt, it still has to be done.”
“The board won’t agree.” He held a finger up. “And you’ll have to anticipate that there will be people taking the opportunity to try to fake a claim.”
She nodded slowly. “I’ll put in a clause that only those listed in the independent report will receive immediate payouts.”
Seth brought an ankle to his knee. “And the logistics of this?” Over half a million accounts. It wasn’t an astronomical number, but it would still need some planning.
“I’ve decided to put the compliance department and the front-line staff into a special department to deal with it. I was thinking of making them call to explain the payout and apologize to the account holders.”
“That will cause a bottleneck at the very first step. Half a million accounts. If we assume that every call takes an average of fifteen minutes, considering the customers will have questions and complaints, it would take …” He ran the math in his head. “Unless you have at least sixteen hundred employees who can dedicate all sixteen hours to doing this, you’re not going to get it done before Christmas Eve.”
Clary’s lips disappeared between her teeth.
“To make your Christmas miracle happen, I suggest you send out an email and text message with a short apology and the payout information. All that can be automated with a program. Then you can get your team to do the actual calls, which won’t be a problem if you extend it beyond Christmas.”
Clary’s lips curled. She got up from her chair and joined him on the couch. “Thank you, Seth.”
That bright smile of hers—all for him—made him feel better than any deal he ever signed. “Do you guys have an automated system in place?”
Her brows rose. “I’m not sure.” She rubbed her fingers against her forehead.
Seth hated seeing her this stressed. He took her hand and pulled it down. “I can set it up for you in a couple of hours.”
“Really?”
“There was a time when I had to do everything on my own, from programming to building the prototype.”
She tipped her head to the side. “It looks like you are my Christmas miracle.”
He put a hand on his chest. “Don’t you dare insult me like that,” he said, despite the warmth and … happiness that filled him. “Now, do you have five minutes to enjoy your muffin?”
