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“You wanted to see me,” she said when Stella didn’t say a word to her.
“Shut my door,” Stella snapped.
She turned and shut it. For the life of her she couldn’t imagine what was wrong, but she didn’t think it was something she’d done.
“What can I help you with?”
“How dare you meet with Aaron andNatewhile I’m not here.”
“What?” she asked. “When?”
“When I was on vacation,” Stella said.
“That was over a month ago,” she said. “I didn’t ask to meet with them. Aaron stopped me in the hall and asked if I had a minute. He needed something you were working on and hoped I had it.”
“That’s right,” Stella said. “What I was working on.Not you. And you shouldn’t have taken credit for it.”
She wasn’t going to assume anything. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play dumb with me,” Stella said. “They asked to see some drafts and you showed them.”
“I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to,” she said. “I’m not in the habit of telling my boss no. And though you’re my boss, they are your bosses so that makes them mine too. They didn’t ask anything that was unreasonable.”
“Of course they didn’t,” Stella said. “But they not only saw it, but you also sent them a draft of it. And you said you wrote the draft.”
“I always write the draft,” she said. “That is my job. I don’t understand.”
“When they saw the final version released they didn’t see anything changed at all other than some stats that were added.”
She got it now. It meant Stella wasn’t doing the work. She was doing it and Stella was taking the credit for it.
“I told them you read and approve everything,” she argued.
“You did, but the damage was done. If you hadn’t sent it to them to compare it, it wouldn’t have been questioned.”
Lilian wanted to ask why it was even being looked at but kept it to herself. There had to be more going on that she didn’t know about.
“Again, they asked me and I found it reasonable.”
Stella’s shoulders stiffened as she tightened her crossed arms. “As if that wasn’t bad enough, they didn’t know anything at all about the survey. I was going to surprise them with the initiative that I had taken but because you told them about it, they felt they didn’t know something that was being done in their department. Do you know how that makes me look?”
She wanted to say incompetent but wouldn’t. “Did you tell them you were going to surprise them with it once it was completed?”
“I did,” Stella said, nodding her head. “But I could tell they didn’t buy it. You know why?”
She let out a sigh. “Because they saw the survey that I had created?” she asked.
“That’s right,” Stella said. “Why did you tell them you created it?”
“Because I did,” she said. Lilian knew she should try to smooth things over, but she was too upset to think that. “If I am supposed to lie in my job, I was never informed of that and it’s not on my job description that I signed.”
She knew she was pushing it by saying that. “I’m not telling you to lie,” Stella said.
“Then what was I supposed to say? You were on vacation and unreachable. The survey isn’t a secret that only you and I knew about. How was I supposed to know you didn’t at least tell Aaron?” Then it hit her. “I believe I’ve got an email from you to go ahead and do it, saying that Aaron approved it.”
There almost appeared to be smoke coming out of Stella’s ears. “I wouldn’t have put that in writing if I didn’t tell him.”
“Exactly,” she said. “Hang on.” She turned and marched out, grabbed her laptop and while walking back in, she was doing a search of her emails. “Here. Right here. It says Aaron loved the idea. Go ahead and do it.”
