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“I have to get to work, but really, Grandmother, stay out of this. I don’t need you interfering with Jill and me.” He hoped his use of the word grandmother would help to convey the seriousness of his message.
Andrew never called Nora anything other than Nora, but the effect was lost. She sat looking as unflappable as ever.
“Yes, dear. Have a nice day at work,” Nora said.
Those two were incorrigible. Andrew rolled his eyes, kissed Nora and Lydia on the cheek and walked back out to his car.
Debbie and Andrew leaned over the stacks of papers in front of them, checking to be sure everything was in place for the quarterly finance meeting the following day. Jennie stood next to them, ready to help if they needed any last-minute items. Although Jennie was usually out on assignment working with companies that hoped to gain the financial backing of Sutton Capital, when she was between outside jobs, she floated the office, helping out with secretarial support as needed.
The quarterly meeting would include all the board members of Sutton Capital and a handful of the larger investors. Although there was always a flurry of activity leading up to it, by now, the groups had the process down to a science.
“Let’s add a printout of the estimated costs of the Haynes Project, just in case we have time to discuss that. If not, we’ll push that to the next quarter,” Andrew said. “Other than that, everything looks great. I think we’re ready.”
“Perfect,” Debbie said. “I’ll set out everything in the conference room tonight and lock it. We’ll be ready to go in the morning. I’m planning to be here a couple hours early.”
He knew she’d be there by six o’clock the next morning. She and Andrew were always the first in on a quarterly meeting day, both of them arriving early and not leaving until late evening. Andrew looked at his iPhone.
“I’ve got a meeting with Chad and Jack in a few minutes but then I’ll be free for the afternoon if anything comes up,” he said.
“I’ll print the Haynes estimates,” Jennie said and took off toward her desk down the hallway.
She quickly printed out the report and then went to the photocopy room to make enough copies for everyone attending. She would make two extra copies in case they were needed.
When she got there, Theresa was counting stacks of papers. Jennie had known Theresa before she came to the finance division, and for some reason, the woman always rubbed Jennie the wrong way.
It was odd, actually. Jennie usually got along well with everyone. It was one of the reasons she was good at her job. She was able to go into a wide variety of companies and make friends quickly and easily during her time there.
Theresa struck Jennie as insincere somehow. There wasn’t any one thing she could put her finger on. But for some reason, she always felt uneasy around Theresa.
“All done with the copier, Theresa?” she asked.
“Yup. All yours,” the other woman said. “What are you working on?”
“Oh, just getting some things ready for the quarterly,” Jennie replied lightly and was surprised to see Theresa scowl.
“I thought everything was finished for that.” There was a bitter tone to her statement and Jennie fought the urge to roll her eyes. She’d seen this kind of weird competitiveness at some of the other companies she’d worked in but it wasn’t something that happened a lot at Sutton.
It was something fostered in the environment there. They all pitched in and helped out. If something needed to get done, you did it.
“Oh, this is just a last-minute report.”
“I told Andrew I was available if there was anything he needed. He should have asked me,” Theresa said. Her tone was off. Cold.
Jennie offered a shrug, not sure how to respond to Theresa’s odd comment and behavior. She decided to make light of the situation and brushed off the woman’s discontent because Andrew asked her for help instead of Theresa.
“Oh, well. He probably forgot. Andrew’s head has been all up in the clouds lately. He’s got a new girlfriend so he’s in lala land a lot of the time right now. You know, excitement of a new relationship and all,” Jennie said.
Shit. She shouldn’t be talking about his personal business at work, but the woman had her flustered. Not to mention, Jennie knew the contrived excuse wasn’t true. Even though Andrew was happier than Jennie had ever seen him since he started dating Jill, she had never seen him drop the ball at work.
He was just as focused and on top of things as ever, but Jennie was grasping at straws to try to diffuse Theresa’s absurd anger. She thought if she could explain away Andrew’s actions, it would calm the angry attitude.
Boy was she wrong. Theresa stiffened, pressed her lips together in a line so they all but disappeared on her face, and waltzed out of the room without a word.
Wow. Scary.
Jennie turned back to her copies, relieved at least that Theresa had gone away. If the woman kept that kind of attitude up, she would find herself losing more and more assignments.
Theresa focused on breathing as she walked back to her desk. Her hands clutched the stack of copies too tightly, creasing the once neat pages.
