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I walked to my desk. I didn’t need to hear any more girl talk.Go big or go home, Dad always said. I’d madeuspublic in a big way. The company grapevine would see to that.
Ten minutes later I walked out to Cindy’s desk and handed her the envelope from the night at the museum.
She took it. “What’s this?”
“A thank you for your help.”
Her eyes lit up when she opened the envelope. “Hawaii?”
“You earned it.” I turned for the door. If she hadn’t been in contact with Serena, I’d probably still have my head up my ass.
* * *
Jennifer
As I walkedto my once-again office, I wondered how many people beyond Cindy had seen through our charade and guessed Dennis and I were seeing each other. It didn’t matter, but it brought back the awkward feeling that I might be judged has having slept my way into this job, and I wouldn’t even know it.
Yesterday every employee I’d passed had made me wonder if they knew what I’d done to hurt them. Today, I had to add the issue of whether they thought I’d slept my way to where I was. Agreeing to go public about us didn’t feel as good as it’d sounded at Starbucks.
A little while later, I took a place at the far end of the long table as the group assembled in the boardroom.
Dennis had invited more department heads and managers than I’d seen him assemble before, and I didn’t even know all their names.
Larry chose a seat next to me as the room filled, and the ambient noise of a dozen side conversations grew. Dennis was talking with Fisher.
“Let’s get started,” Dennis said.
The group instantly quieted, except for the young IT guy and his neighbor.
A few seconds later the two realized all eyes were on them and stopped.
Dennis surveyed the room. “Let me bring you up to date. An outside activist group called the Cartwright Group has taken a very substantial position in our stock, and they have visited us to say they’re going to advocate for change in the company.”
“Like what?” one person asked.
“They will say we’re not running the company optimally for the shareholders, and they can do a better job. So expect that your employees are going to start seeing things either in the papers or in their mailboxes basically saying I’m a jerk.”
That got a few giggles from the crowd.
“I’m a jerk, and they can do better,” Dennis added.
“Why?” the same guy asked.
“This can likely play out one of two ways. Either they want to take over the company…”
The group grew restless at the statement.
“Or they’ll end up blackmailing us into paying them to go away.”
“Can they do that?” Paul, the guy from HR, asked.
“Yes and no. They’ll be overt about it, but they’ll imply that if we agree to purchase their stock back from them at a certain level, they’d sell and move on to their next target.”
“Like hyenas,” Larry added.
“What will this do to our stock options?” the IT guy asked.
Larry spoke up again. “In the previous companies they’ve gotten control of, they’ve ended up cutting stock options drastically. They view it as a way to save money.”
