“Expensive.”
“Yeah, expensive is not in the miracle budget at the moment. Unless you have someone interested in a Deal?”
“No.” She said it flatly. “We’re going to get you back into the phone room, send you home, and both forget this ever happened.”
When they returned, Kelly was back in her own fish tank of an office, giving them a clear shot at the phone room. Handing out coffees gave them an excuse not to sit down. Ronaldo opened his mouth when she passed him, but Luke’s eyes flared and Ronaldo’s phone rang, so they slipped on by. Triumphantly, she flung open the door.
Her stomach fell.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Luke muttered. He knelt and poked at the remains of the salt circle. As she had expected, no one had cleaned it up. But that was where their luck ended. The Post-It notes were more crumpled than she’d remembered, until she thought about the EMTs andthe gurney and realized they had to have walked all over things. Two of the notes were in the trash can, and she was pretty sure at least one was missing completely but couldn’t remember which.
She sagged against the doorframe. “This isn’t going to work, is it.”
“It was never going to work,” he replied with a grimace. “I told you it wasn’t going to work.”
“New plan,” she said, and then paused. “Be good at our jobs until we think of a new plan.”
“That’s not a plan,” he said. He looked around, and his eyes flared.
She sucked in a breath. “Luke, what did you do?”
“Oh, Morgan, that’s where you went,” Hayley called. “Can I grab you for a moment?”
Morgan tried not to panic as the HR head pulled her straight into Kelly’s office.
“So, as I’m sure you understand, we have an exciting challenge at the moment,” Hayley began.
Morgan froze. “Exciting challenge” was usually HR-speak for “we’re about to screw you over.” What had he done?
“Look, replacing executives usually takes several months,” Kelly said bluntly. “We need someone to hold down the fort until we find a new marketing head.”
Oh, no. “What… What would have happened if he’d quit?”
“Well,” Hayley faltered. “There’s usually at least a couple weeks’ notice.”
“There are some folks who can pinch hit as a temporary marketing head for a while,” Kelly said, her eyes sliding to Hayley. “But apparently there isn’t any budget for that.”
“I…” Morgan wasn’t sure what to say. She’d been interested in moving into marketing, yes, but not like this. Not at Tim’s expense, and certainly not as part of a demon’s ploy. Could she turn it down? Should she? In a burst of probably ill-advised honesty, she blurted, “I don’t actually know how to do Tim’s job.”
“No one expects you to do Tim’s job,” Kelly said. Her tone made it clear that she didn’t expect Morgan to beableto do Tim’s job. “We’ll stick with the strategies he’d already put into place. There’s an ad agency and a PR agency to handle the big things. All you need to do is keep the lights on and the plates spinning. If any big decisions need to be made, you’ll come to me.”
Not exactly a vote of confidence. But still. She felt a flutter of hope and quashed it. Deals with the devil always came with drawbacks, and she hadn’t even agreed to this Deal. She’d read enough blogs about navigating corporate bullshit to be cautious. “I’m honored to be taking on new responsibilities. Would there be any change in salary to go along with the additional duties?”
Kelly didn’t flinch, but her face did stay awfully neutral. Hayley piped up, “I’m afraid all salary discussions will have to wait until after the next review cycle, but we appreciate you being such a team player!”
By “team player,” she clearly meant “total sucker.” There wasn’t any way to turn it down, no matter how they phrased it. But still… it could be an opportunity. Even if they kicked her back to SDR when the new guy got there, she’d still have the skills to put on her resume. A way out of cold calls and into something that she might enjoy. Maybe even something the other parents at the reunion dinner wouldrespect. Well, not her parents’ reunion dinner. An office job was never going to compete with saving the world from arcane forces. But maybe something someone mundane, like Gisele’s abuela, might congratulate her on. “And what about my current duties?”
“Well,” Hayley said slowly, as her brain tried to jostle around information that hadn’t been there before this morning. “You can work with the intern, Lu—Le—it’ll come to me in a moment.” She brightened again. “Now, isn’t that lucky timing!”
Kelly looked less enthusiastic. Morgan wasn’t sure whether that meant that she was less influenced by Luke’s magic or merely less convinced this was all a good idea.
“So, what do you say?” Hayley asked.
Really, did she have a choice? Even if she tried to escape, Luke might hex her straight back in. She might as well get the points for being a good sport. “You’ve got yourself a” —she flinched away from using the D-word at the last moment—“plan.”
Kelly smiled, an expression that didn’t reach her eyes. Morgan knew she could do a proper fake smile: she was too good a salesperson not to. She didn’t know whether Kelly didn’t respect her enough to try, or actively wanted her to see the falseness. She wasn’t sure which was worse.
“What did you do?” she hissed at Luke as she retrieved him from the kitchen.
