“In several windows.” Anna waved. Some waved back. Anna clutched her heart. “I am so glad we came here.”
Vanessa took Anna’s hand. “Me too.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
Monday morning, Vanessa got to the office before seven. When she sat down, she had a weird feeling that things on her desk had been moved. She looked around, unsure whether she was imagining it or not, but there didn’t seem to be anything missing.
She took her laptop from her bag and placed it on the desk. When she opened her email there was one from Robert.
She groaned, unable, or maybe more like unwilling, to deal with him right now. She had to admit that, with Anna here, she understood his tie to being with family over the holidays. And even more so from being around all of this here in Fraser Hills.
Anna had been so excited about going with Buck to cut down her own Christmas tree, she said she hadn’t slept a wink all night. Not in a complaining way, but with exuberance thatsuperseded all the happiness she remembered with Anna. Real happiness.
Vanessa was glad she’d taken the time to set the expectation with Anna that she would be working late and would be staying at the corporate apartment tonight to get as much done as possible so they’d have time to do something fun on Tuesday.
Misty showed up at 9:00 sharp with her computer and a three-ring binder of reports.
“Knock-knock,” Misty said from the doorway. “Are you ready for me?”
“I am. Come on in.”
“Lilene said she’d adjusted my schedule.”
“She has. So, let’s get started.”
Vanessa moved over to the table next to the window so she and Misty could review the plans together. She listened quietly as Misty shared every project and the supporting documents with her, further ensuring the discussion points they’d gone over last night.
They uploaded the project plan into Vanessa’s system and then Vanessa walked through her thought process and the changes she’d make and where additional details needed to be fleshed out.
“Everything should be time-framed, and dependent milestones should always be connected. If some of those earlier steps get dropped you can end up with an eleventh-hour failure, and you never want that.”
“I see. So like right here.” Misty pointed to one of the steps that was required to get started.
“Exactly. So, let me show you how to mark those dependent steps.” She made examples out of the first few, then backed up the file. “You try it.”
Misty took over as Vanessa looked on.
“You’ve got it,” Vanessa said. “The other thing I see in new project managers is they overcomplicate things. That’s where really talking to the people who know and live the process is so important. Simple solutions are often the best.”
For the next two hours they talked through potential failure points and what checkpoints needed to be put in place to ensure they were on time and on budget.
At one o’clock, Lilene poked her head inside the door. “I hate to bother you two, but I brought a homemade turkey pot pie for lunch. Y’all haven’t moved from this office all morning. Can I bring you some lunch? I think you’ll like it.”
Misty said, “Oh you’ll love it. Lilene makes the best turkey pot pie around.”
“Then make it two. Thanks, Lilene.”
“My pleasure, ladies.”
They continued working and Lilene brought them lunch. Rather than stop, they kept right on working. While Misty worked on refining the retail and factory plan, Vanessa worked on the plan to completely empty the other warehouses and begin prepping them for Outdoor Sports Pro to take over the first of the year.
She picked up her phone and dialed Bill. “Hey. It’s Vanessa. Can you provide me with an update on how things went over the weekend, and see if we have any unexpected hurdles to clear on the project?”
“No, ma’am. The guys are making quick work of this. All of the scrap equipment is gone. We’ve got a few guys blowing out the dirt and cobwebs, general cleanup, and a couple repainting some areas that were in bad shape. We had the paint. We were going to paint earlier this year and then it got pushedas not a priority. Anyway, that’ll be done. I’m doing an inspection now to see if there are any building repairs that need attention.”
“Good job. Were those offices part of the repainting plan?”
“Sure are.”
