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Ryan didn’t get fazed at all. “In effect, you were hiring someone with very little experience, and then expecting her to perform at the highest level imaginable. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Glen stared at Ryan. Now he could see where this was going, and he didn’t like it.
“I gave her an opportunity – ”
“And you also hired someone with very little experience, and then expected her to perform at the highest level imaginable. Yes?”
“I wouldn’t characterize it that way.”
“I would,” Ryan said with the coldest of stares. “And I would suggest it was a monumental error in judgment on your part.”
Glen gritted his teeth in anger. “She assured me that she could do the job.”
“Actually I said ‘no’ and walked out on you,” I reminded him.
“But then you said yes!” Glen yelled.
“This isn’t about her judgment. She was a young journalist presented with a fantastic opportunity. Of course she was going to say yes,” Ryan continued. “The question is, should you have given her the opportunity in the first place? And having given it, should you have placed such unreasonable expectations on her?”
Damn, Ryan sounded like a lawyer. And a good one, to boot.
“She was the only way to get to Derek Kane!” Glen snapped.
“Which is why you hired her.”
“Which is why I hired her!”
“Not based on her journalistic background.”
Again, it hurt to hear, but I saw the trap he was laying.
So did Glen. “I – of course I took her journalistic background into consideration.”
“Really? So you took someone with no national level experience and put them into the most high-pressure situation imaginable, and expected her to deliver at the level of one of your very best writers? That was your choice as an editor?”
“I – I just expected her to – ”
“To what? Get you access to Derek Kane? She did that,” Ryan said coldly. “That’s why you hired her.”
“But I need a fucking article out of it!”
“Then maybe you should have hired one of your top writers.”
“But they couldn’t get to Kane!”
“So you hired someone based solely on her ability to get to the lead singer of my band, and then expected her to perform at the level of a twenty-year veteran, knowing full well the history she had with Derek, and knowing that she might get entangled in that again. But all you care about is your goddamn article.”
I looked over at Ryan.
He’d said ‘goddamn.’
He was
maaaaaaad.
“This isn’t my fault,” Glen shouted.
“I’d say this is entirely your fault. I wouldn’t hire a rhythm guitarist straight out of music school to tour with the band, just because he was friends with Killian Lee. And I certainly wouldn’t berate him and threaten him when he didn’t perform up to Killian’s level. That would be completely idiotic and unprofessional of me. Wouldn’t you agree?”
BOOM.
I didn’t like that I was the rhythm guitarist straight out of music school in that analogy, but… still.
BOOM.
Glen was gnashing his teeth in frustration. He’d had all his asshole arguments turned back around on himself.
So he decided to go with another one.
“She owes us money,” he hissed, stabbing the desk. “Plane tickets – ”
“
One
plane ticket,” I said.
“Hotel rooms – ”
“For, like, a
week.
”
“And meals, and expenses, and – ”
“For a week!”
“We covered your expenses!” Glen raged at me. “You
owe
us that article!”
“Wait,” Ryan said, holding out his hand. “Did you ever pay her?”
“We covered her expenses – ”
“But did you
pay
her?”
“We – I – ”
“Did you write her a check or deposit any money into her bank account in exchange for all the time she was spending researching?”
“I wouldn’t call what she was doing ‘researching,’” Glen said nastily.
“HEY!” I shouted, almost getting up out of my chair.
Ryan put out his hand, though, and I stayed seated.
“Did you or did you not pay her? Yes or no,” Ryan said calmly.
“
