AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Miss Monroe!” The older woman holds out her hand, already walking ahead before I shake it.
“Please, call me Ava.”
“We’re running a little behind this morning. We had an issue with the servers, and it caused havoc. I wanted to show you around properly, but I won’t have time. So, it will be this floor for now, and when we have the weekly meeting later, I’ll show you around the meeting rooms and executive floor.”
I keep following and absorbing the things she points out around the floor.
“Don’t worry, it’s a debrief of what’s on the agenda. The management like to know the pipeline.”
I’m not worried. I’m more than prepared.
“Makes sense.”
Claude introduces me to the other editors—all men, of course—and to the team of assistants that keep this floor running. Before I know it, the entire day has flown by with IT taking up a good portion of my morning and lunch.
It’s so quiet here compared to the bustle at Monroe where the editors aren’t on a floor of their own.
Shuffling the papers and files around my desk, I try to ignore the tight squeeze of my heart. Leaving Monroe wasn’t easy. I miss it terribly, but I needed to make this move. If only to prove to myself that despite what happened, I’m as good as I believe myself to be.
“Knock, knock!” I look up to find one of the other editors leaning into my open doorway. “Owen…in case you’ve forgotten.”
“Hi, Owen.”
“So, you ready for the meeting?” He leans on the edge of the glass wall. “Even if you have shit, you always take something, or Coldwell will chew your ass.”
“I have something.” I gather the files I worked on over the last couple of weeks. I knew I wouldn’t be able to walk through the door empty-handed. No one in their right mind would let their competitor through their door without an ironclad noncompete clause and something significant to offer. I have both.
“Ooooh,” Owen croons with a high-pitched whistle as I round my desk and start for the elevators. “And here I thought you were the token female of the floor.” Owen shoulders me. His hand wraps around me, and oddly I don’t find it too much too soon.
“Token female?”
“Yeah, they have me—the token queer—and they used to have Marcella—the token female slash exec slut.”
We head up to the top floor.
“Rumor has it she was banging one of the gods and it went sour.” Shrugging, he exits the elevator, and I follow him past the front desk of this floor. It’s identical to ours, except all the glass is frosted with the company logo etched in orange.
“Rumor has…” He nods me forward with him as he walks through the floor like it’s ours. “Rumor has it that you jumped ship because Monroe is sinking.”
What?
“I’m not judging,” he adds. “I would too.”
“I didn’t jump ship; I made a career decision…for me.” I add that last bit because rumors are worse than boils on the ass…or herpes. “And Monroe is doing fine.”
“Transparency is the foundation here, Ava.”
“You realize I’ve had my interview and got the job, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t get why you’d leave your house for ours if it is fine.”
“I left because I’d capped out and I want more.”
We sit on one side of the long boardroom. While Owen goes about spreading his stack of manuscripts and files, I leave mine closed in front of me with my sheet of notes sitting on top.
Claude enters followed by a petite brunette who sits on the other side, opposite Owen. The two other editors walk in; one is on the phone talking loudly to a client. The other carries his laptop in, still opened as he one-handed types away.
“Ava,” Claude calls from where she’s sitting beside the other woman. “This is Francesca Gianotto, the CFO.”
