AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twelve
‘Soph! So good to see you!’
After several attempts, I was finally on a video call with Robyn. We were supposed to speak at 8.30 a.m. when Leo had his nap, but she didn’t get to the office on time and when she finally arrived after ten, it was time for his feed. Robyn said she’d call this afternoon at 12.45, but when I chased at 1.30, she said ‘something had come up.’ So now, here we were at 5.35 p.m. UK time, 6.35 in Italy, getting to speak at long last. It wasn’t ideal, as I’d planned to give Leo his bath half an hour early so I could have a proper chat with Lorenzo about what had happened last night…
After Marta had left, Leo had taken ages to get to sleep and by the time he had, I’d been too exhausted to talk and then Lorenzo had gone to the restaurant extra early this morning.
Oh well. I guess that discussion would have to wait as this conversation was long overdue.
‘Good to finally see you too, Robyn…’
‘How’s life in Italy?’ she added quickly.
‘Great! Idyllic.Wonderful!’Ugh. I felt bad putting on an act with Robyn, but it was important for the team to believe everything was fine. ‘How are you feeling now?’ She looked pretty ill to be honest. Pale with dark circles. Her rich chocolate hair wasn’t as vibrant and her green eyes had lost their normal sparkle. It seemed like I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t been getting enough sleep.
‘Better.Sooomuch better. Thank you. I’m really sorry about taking time off and being late this morning. I think I must have been struck down by some bug or something,’ she added, avoiding eye contact. ‘Lots of people have had it. Really floored me, but I should be back on track now.’
Hmmm.
I hated to say it, but I didn’t believe her.
‘Really glad to hear you’re feeling better. Look, are you sure you can still handle it all? Running the business?’
‘Yes! Of course! Absolutely!’
‘It’s just, had a very concerning conversation with Viktor, who said that you cancelled a meeting at the last minute. And I received an email from MIKA Cosmetics this morning that seemed to imply the number of features secured for them has been dwindling. Then there were those missed emails and phone calls from a couple of other clients…’
‘I still don’t know what happened with those emails. Maybe they went to spam or something or I didn’t get the messages…’ She glanced down on the floor, then looked back at the screen again. ‘I normally always reply. And I’ll talk to the team about getting more coverage. Give them a bit of a push. I mean, with so many big magazines closing, it’s been tricky… and, um…sorry about the meeting with Viktor. I had food poisoning and so… I cancelled as soon as I knew I couldn’t make it in. I made sure we had a conference call the next day, though. We spoke for a good hour and got all the key points covered.’
The old spam excuse. There’s no reason the clients’ emails would suddenly start going to spam. Harrison always kept on top of those things. Yes, magazines have been folding, but there should still be plenty of opportunities online. And someone else could have taken the meetings.
‘Why didn’t Gail step in and meet Viktor instead? As a senior account manager, she’d have been more than capable. I know you couldn’t help being ill, but we never cancel meetings on the day. Unless it’s an extreme emergency. It’s unprofessional.’
‘I’m sorry’. She winced. ‘I should have asked her. I just wasn’t thinking straight… it won’t happen again. I promise. Everything’s under control. I’ll call a meeting with the team tomorrow. Check everything’s running smoothly with the accounts, that the results are on track for this month. I set up that meeting with Viktor’s PA for when he’s coming over in a couple of weeks and have booked a table at The Shard to take him out for dinner as an apology.’Glad she’d arranged that.‘I can fix this.’
‘Good. It really can’t happen again, Robyn.’
‘Understood. Look, I know it’s getting late there, so I’ll let you go. I’ll keep you posted.’
‘Okay. Goodnight…’ I’d barely got the words out before she hung up.
Hmmm…
She was saying all the right things and had obviously been in touch with Viktor since I’d last spoken to him, but somehow this didn’t seem like the reliable Robyn I knew. The one that I had trained and could always trust.
I’d give her the benefit of the doubt for now, but my gut was telling me that I needed to keep an even closer eye on things. On my list, I’d vowed to get the business back under control, so now I had to get round to actually doing it. I needed to draw up a plan of action.
And fast.
