AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He put up a hand to stop me. “Should I get someone else?”
I pasted on a smile, finally understanding the game. “Not at all. I’ll be ready.”
This was his way of getting me to fire myself because he and Fisher had some power play going on, and I was the pawn.
“Good. I’m counting on you, Jennifer.” He looked down at his desk, a non-verbal cue that our discussion was done.
I departed and closed the door behind me.
Cindy raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.
I merely smiled in return. Internally, I called bullshit on him being a softie.
Being unprepared for the meeting was one way to point out my inadequacy, but I didn’t plan on playing along. I would not be the pawn in their tug-of-war.
I returned to my office and shut the door to concentrate.
The term sheet and contract papers were in the first folder I opened. Five hours to go to finish this stack and attend a corporate merger closing meeting. It was worse than cramming for finals.
By noon, I’d made good progress and dialed Cindy to inquire about lunch.
She offered help. “I’ll order for you. Chinese, Thai, pizza, or a sandwich?”
I chose Chinese.
Chapter 9
Dennis
I satin the booth at the back of the restaurant. Larry had agreed to meet for lunch, but as always, he was late.
I’d ordered his usual and changed mine up as I tended to do. I couldn’t see getting the same thing every time.
He called it controlling the variables; I called it boring.
Finally he slid in across from me. “I see you let Mark get away from you. Who’s the new girl?”
I took a sip of my hot tea. “Jennifer. Jennifer Hanley.”
“She’s cute.”
“Give me a break. Jay stole Mark and sent her up in his place. This is Jay trying to teach me a lesson.”
“What kind of lesson?”
“He thinks I should have gotten the group together to decide the Hydrocom spin-off instead of just announcing it.”
“He’s right. You should have.”
“I thought at least you’d back me up.”
“Shoot the messenger, why don’t ya? I agree with Jay on this one.”
“We needed good news, so I pulled the trigger and moved up the spin-off. Big deal. We were doing it at the end of the year anyway.”
“Asking for help from the group isn’t a sign of weakness.”
I’d heard that lecture before.
