AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sorry, sir. I have meetings lined up all next week, and an exciting deal to talk to you about from Australia. I’ve been working hard at securing the details…”
“Which would’ve been good to know two months ago.” I tap my pen on the paper repeatedly, looking back up at her under my glasses. “Wouldn’t it?”
“You’ll love this brand, Mr. Petrov, they supply to all the top stores around the world. I have a meeting scheduled first thing Monday….”
I remove my glasses, chewing on one end as she waffles on. I completely zone out.
I don’t give a fucking shit about what’s going on in Australia when this information should have been old news weeks, if not a month ago.
“That meeting is no longer,” I say. “And neither are you, Amanda. Goodbye.”
Her eyes go wide. “But Mr. Petrov, I promise I’ve been working diligently to secure…”
“Nothing,” I interrupt. “To secure nothing. I have several meetings this week with personal friends of mine, and I have no fucking diamonds to show them. Extensive research is one thing, but I’m not a goddamn mind reader. Your contract states that I’m supposed to be emailed a detailed report on our purchasing negotiations and evaluations, and yours have been non-existent or not at all.”
“But Mr. Petrov…”
“Are you just going to sit here and tick everyone off one by one?” her colleague and friend Josie says, on the other side of her. “We’ve barely been given any time to prepare. We’re on deadlines that nobody could possibly meet in this economic climate…”
I turn my gaze on Josie. Her tone irritates me. Her job may have been safe if she’d just kept quiet. “In this economic climate where I pay you — and pardon my French — a fucking shit-load of money to give me nothing but verbal diarrhea in a pathetic excuse at covering up why you’ve spent the last month and a half playing solitaire on your computer and giving me absolutely no samples of my product. It seems a little discouraging for someone with your credentials.” I shake my head.
“But we’ve got a whole report ready to present. We’re lining up some exciting new prospects that I’m sure you’ll be pleased with.” Josie tries to salvage back some of her credibility, but I’m pissed. Losing money by the truckload isn’t fun and it won’t be happening again.
I ignore her pathetic words. “Frankly, I expected more. You’ve had plenty of time to please me. It just looks lazy, and if you were under pressure, you should have called an emergency meeting, not let me find out that Tre’sor Seattle was in the shitter before it even got off the ground.”
I don’t revel in yelling at people, but what do they expect? They’re lazy and arrogant. Treating this like it’s some fun factory where millions of dollars are not at stake.
I’m at a loss. I’ve never had this issue in any of my stores, and I believe it’s because I don’t have good management in place. Marcus was useless. I need to be here.
“So, that’s it?” Amanda squeaks. “Are we fired too?”
I stare at her, unsmiling. “In fact, that’s a tremendous idea. Everyone at this table can pack their shit and get the hell out of my building, except Doris, Johans and Morgan.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. This is not going to go down well with the board.
This all falls on me, and I blame myself for not having a proper team in place. I trusted the wrong people. The board will be displeased, but I plan on rectifying it before our next meeting.
“Oh, god,” I hear Amanda mutter.
“Fuck,” says another.
“I really think you need to reconsider,” Josie, the wise-ass pipes up. “We’ve all worked hard, just because you’ve only recently arrived and haven't seen the bones of the operation, doesn’t mean that we’re lazy or unprepared.”
“That might be true if you’d done any actual work,” I fire back. “Which you haven’t because I have no fucking diamonds! I’ve never seen anything like it in my twenty-some-years in the industry. Don’t expect any glowing recommendations from me or the company.”
Josie glowers at me, but I’m not looking at her.
My little Krasavitsa goes to stand… does she think she’s fired? I guess I did say everyone at this table except Doris, Morgan and Johans.
“Imogen. Sit down.”
Her pretty blue eyes meet mine and she does as I say.
I roll my glasses around my fingers and wait for everyone to pile out.
“Well,” I say finally. “I think that went well.”
“Khristian,” Morgan starts. “We have to start from scratch. I don’t know if we can pull that many strings and organize a new team by the end of the month.”
