“Good. They were a mess. I think we can get rid of those old desks too.”
“Buddy down the street has a shop where he repurposes old furniture and stuff and turns it into other things. Rather than dump it, do you mind if we give it to him?”
“Of course not. I’m adding that to the plan right now.”
“He’s going to be your biggest fan.”
“I could use a few of those right now.”
“You’re gonna be okay,” Bill said. “Anything else, boss lady?”
“No, thank you. Call me if anything pops up that I need to allocate time for.”
“You got it.”
The line went dead, and she put her phone on the table. At this rate she could be out of here by Christmas. She and Anna could fly somewhere else to finish celebrating.Maybe Paris?
“How are you doing over there, Misty?”
“Great. I like this tool. It makes things so much easier. I found a few other things that needed to be simplified and one that there was no way to know when it was complete. I think I have that fixed.”
“Go ahead and find a stopping point, and print out what you have and we’ll go over it together.”
The printer chugged out a copy of the project plan as Vanessa walked over to the window to look outside. The town looked pretty all covered in white.
“I’ve got the reports.” Misty sat back down at the table.Vanessa joined her and they went through each line, double-checking resource and capacity along with timelines.
“This looks really good.” Vanessa tapped the pile of pages back into one neat stack. “Why don’t you call it a day?”
“You sure? I don’t mind staying longer.”
“I’m sure.” The last thing she needed to do was lay her own bad habits on Misty. Maybe she could help her have life balance from the beginning of her career, because it sure felt near impossible to do it once you were already in the unbalanced side of the equation.
Lilene’s and Misty’s voices carried down the hall as they left together.
She reviewed all of the entries and made sure there were no overlapping steps between the two projects she had going here. The warehouse prep, and the upgrades and reduction of footprint for Porter’s. From her calculation, the changes would result in more than a 30 percent lift in revenue with the smaller number of employees. The rest of the employees would be the ones that would be re-skilled to the warehouse team at Outdoor Sports Pro.
She texted Anna to let her know she was still going to work late tonight, but she’d see her tomorrow.
At nine o’clock the retail store closed and the holiday music that had played all day suddenly fell quiet. Silence whispered in her ears.
Vanessa stood and stretched. Her body cracked and popped with each movement. With her hands clasped behind her back, she slowly leaned forward, thankful she’d taken the time to learn yoga last year after dealing with backaches that no amount of pain reliever soothed. A few stretches each morning had changed her life, but tonight she needed a double dose.
She gathered her things to leave. She locked the front door of Porter’s behind her and began to walk toward the corporate apartment. The exercise would do her good.
A horn tooted twice from across the street.
She recognized Jimmy’s car and walked over. “Did Lilene call you? I’m sorry, I had no idea—”
“No, ma’am. I didn’t have anything else to do and it’s cold out. I thought I’d just hang out here and wait to see if you needed a ride. Did some studying.” He lifted a hefty college book. “I’m trying to finally finish my degree.”
“That’s not easy when you’re working full-time too.”
“You’re telling me, but I can do it.” He looked pleased with himself. “Hop in.”
She climbed into the backseat, and Jimmy pulled away from the curb. The tires slid a little beneath them when they turned.
He dropped her off at the door, and then pulled away.
