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“Yes,” Janine said. “We always got along and she felt I got a bum rap.”
“You did,” he said. “You couldn’t control two tragic things happening in your life. You needed some time off to deal with them, but you still got your job done. It’s not as if you were making mistakes.”
Janine’s eyes started to water. “I appreciated you being in my corner. I know you went to bat for me when I was terminated. I knew it was coming and, in some ways, it was a relief. Others just sad. I had so many friends there.”
“It sounds as if you keep in touch with some of them,” he said.
“I do. Not all. Many I found were friends there but weren’t going to stick their necks out when I was let go. It’s fine. I don’t have enough time to have that many people in my life.”
He laughed when Janine said that. He understood that statement too.
“You brought up Frannie as if she said something important?”
“Yeah,” Janine said. “They aren’t happy you left. The partners. Though Melissa said she was glad you got out, she won’t go against the rest of them.”
Melissa Maxson’s father was one of the founding partners and he had to say one of his former bosses wasn’t that bad. But she was quiet and wouldn’t stand up to the rest.
Though he got along with her, it wasn’t enough to stay and be brought down or watch others be treated that way.
“She could leave like I did or many more.”
“I said the same thing to Frannie. I think it’s the pressure to stay. But Frannie said morale is horrible there. There is always yelling and snapping going on. Those that never did before are.”
“It’s like a cancer that spreads,” he said. “I didn’t want to be like that. And if I ever do that here, I want you to let me know.”
“Listen, Trent. We all have bad days. We are going to snap or be short and I know it. I won’t hold it against you if you do because I might have a day like that too. And if I do, you can ask me what my problem is.”
He smiled. “You can do the same,” he said.
“Oh,” Janine said, “I will.”
“If you need me, I’ll be in my office,” he said.
“I forgot to ask if you’ve met Roni yet?”
“Roni Hollister?” he asked.
“Yes,” Janine said.
“I did,” he said. “I came in on the holiday to get some work done and she was here too. The faucet was leaking in the men’s room and I went down to tell her. She seems nice.”
“She is nice,” Janine said. “Super sweet too. She came up to introduce herself to me last week and apologized she hadn’t been up earlier. She said she likes to know who to talk to in each business and that they have a face with a name if there are any problems. I just told her it was the two of us but forgot to mention it to you.”
“She was nice,” he said again and went back to his office.
Nice to look at too.
She was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt like him that day. He’d noticed she’d almost been embarrassed by it, but he didn’t care. It was her day off and she was here working.
Her brown hair was loose and wavy, falling across her back. She had minimal makeup on, but her blue eyes stood out.
Wide and almost innocent. Until you looked closer and realized there was more going on.
When she’d mentioned that she was a student of Diane and Carolyn many years ago and that she’d gotten cookies the same day as him...yeah, he knew what was happening.
She didn’t seem to understand though and he wasn’t letting on that the games were about to begin.
Trent knew exactly what the Fierces had planned and with whom and he was going to prove he was smarter than them.
