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I look at myself in the window of Sphinx and Sons and suck in a calming breath before pushing through the door, holding my head high and heading for the reception desk.
“Can I help you?” the receptionist asks pleasantly, smiling as she greets me.
“I’m Reagan Quinn, CEO of Hicks Life Solutions. I’m here to see Mr. Walker.”
“Ah yes, Ms. Quinn. He’s expecting you. Take a seat for me and I’ll let him know you’re here.”
“Thank you.” I smile politely and take a seat nearest the door. Placing my purse on my lap, I pulled out my cell and make sure it’s on silent. A text from Ruby is sitting on my lockscreen, but I’ll get to it later. Just as I dropped it back in my purse, the door to Walker’s office opens and he comes out to greet me. Robert Walker is a tall, handsome man in his late forties, with a polite and easy nature.
“Reagan. Come on in.”
We shake hands before I stand and follow him into his office.
“Please take a seat.”
I sit and place my purse on the floor next to me.
“Can I get you anything to drink, coffee maybe?”
“No, I’m great, thank you.”
He takes his seat and steeples his fingers together. “I’ll cut to the chase, Reagan. When something like this happens, I don’t generally see clients myself, but since we’ve had such a good rapport, I thought maybe I should deal with it face to face.”
“Thank you for that,” I say with a smile. I don’t want to come across as desperate, but there’s a lot riding on this. “Honestly, I wouldn’t usually do this myself either, but I had to.”
“I understand. So, the reason for the account closing is because of the order of the shipment. We think it’s a human error; not technical. We had two hundred pills delivered not two million. A lot of lives have been put at risk, there’s a lot of lives that depend on this drug. I’m sorry but until we can get to the bottom of the issue, I can’t see us moving forward.”
“If I can get to the bottom of this accident, would we be able to pick up where we left off?”
“I’m not sure we can take that risk, Reagan.”
I chew on the inside of my lip to stave off my anger and my nerves. “Robert, I understand your reticence, but I worked so hard to get this account.” And there goes my image. So much for no desperation.
“I’ll let you in on a secret—I didn’t give Hicks Life Solutions the account because of their reputation, it was you who impressed me. You’re a hard worker, Reagan, and I like that. I have some reservations about Terry Hicks.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” A smirk tugs at my lips. I consider what he’s just told me, but I’m not sure how I can pull this back. “How about you give me a couple of days to get to the bottom of it. I didn’t even know that it happened until I came back from a sick day. Not that I’m making any excuses, I completely accept the blame. I have IT looking into the computer system for me.” I suck in deep a breath and hope he’s swayed by my softer side.
“Honestly, Reagan, if it was just you, I’d say yes, but I’m not sure. Let me think about it and I’ll give you a call. I’ll give you your two days for your own investigations and then we’ll speak, how does that sound to you?”
“I…I understand.” I nod, feeling nothing but guilt. This is my fault. I shouldn’t have gone home. It wouldn’t have happened. “Well, thank you for seeing me, Robert, I appreciate it.” I stand and reach out my hand to him. Robert takes it in his and I give him a firm shake with a small smile.
“It’s a lot of money on the line, but I’ll go over everything and see if we can salvage something here.”
“Thank you again.”
He walks around his desk and opens the door for me. I say goodbye to him and his assistant and walk out the way I walked in, with my head held high.
By the time I reach the office, I am furious.
I storm through my office door and slam it shut. I drop down into my chair, slam my purse onto my desk, and drum my fingers on the arm of my chair. My knee is bouncing with negative energy and I actually want to hit something. A timid rap sounds on the door. I looked up and see Margie. With the curl of my finger, I coax her in.
“Is everything okay, Ms. Quinn?”
“Is everything okay?” My eyes widened and I spit her words back at her. “No, Margie, everything is not okay. I may have just lost a $250,000 dollar account. All because either my system crashed, or someone isn’t doing their job. In fact, why don’t you do your job and go and find out what’s going on! Get onto IT; I want answers.” My hand slams the desk with a loud thud.
“If it’s the system, how the hell does it change the number of drugs to be ordered. Someone had to physically change the order!” I roar. I heard the tone of my own voice and even I would be scared. “Please don’t come back until you have some answers for me. In fact, schedule a meeting with all department managers for later today. I don’t give a shit what they have scheduled, they’re not leaving until I’ve seen them.”
She leaves my office and closes the door behind her. I’m so fucking angry, my hands are shaking. I need coffee. No, I need something to calm me, not speed up my heart rate. I watch Margie closely through the window. She picks up the phone and talks to someone. I’m assuming she’s doing as I ask. Rather than let her tell the sales team, I go out myself.
