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“Summer, let me ask you something,” Jack says. The anger seems to have gone out of him and he’s looking at me with a look that feels more like a concern for me. “Is there something going on in your personal life that’s affecting your work? A bereavement, or some other form of stress?”
I shake my head, hoping the fact that I’m blushing is not something Jack will pursue. How can I tell him the thing affecting my work is Tyler?
“Are you sure? Just from what I’ve seen of you, this is extremely out of character for you, and I know your old bosses thought very highly of you too so I’m assuming your performance to date hasn’t been some sort of act to make Tyler and me think you’re a good employee,” he says.
“I value my career and I enjoy what I do. I’m also damned good at it which is why my old bosses thought highly of me. I’ve made a huge mistake today but let me assure you that is the anomaly, not me performing well. There’s nothing specific going on, but I think I was just flustered with running late today and that’s caused me to forget in my panic to get caught up,” I say.
“Ok,” Jack says. “If you make this right with the client, I see no reason for this to go on your permanent record.”
I nod my head, grateful to him. Reading between the lines, he was debating giving me a written warning, but he has decided against it if I can appease Scarlet. And I really think I can.
“Thank you,” I say. “I won’t let you down again.”
“Please see that you don’t,” Jack says. “And if there is something bothering you, my door is always open, Summer.”
I understand that I’m being dismissed from Jack’s office, and I stand up and nod to him.
“Thank you,” I say again. Although the thought of coming here and pouring my heart out isn’t exactly a comforting one, I know that Jack means well.
I leave Jack’s office and head back towards my own, still mortified that I have let this happen. I would have been upset about any client getting forgotten about like this, but it’s even worse when it’s my biggest and least forgettable client. I need to seriously sort myself out and make sure nothing like this ever happens again.
Unfortunately, I know what that means for me. It means I can’t see Tyler anymore. We have to go back to being just colleagues and nothing more. Sure, his presence will still affect me, but I won’t be late because I’ve been up half of the night having sex and if I’m not thinking constantly of when I can next have sex with Tyler, I might be able to keep my head on my job long enough to remember when I have meetings.
I’m almost at Tyler’s office now and I remember that I was going to knock on his door on the way back to see if he was in yet. I should and let him know last night was a one off, but I decide against it. I want to try and sort this mess out with Scarlet first. Or at least that’s the reason I give myself.
I’m past Tyler’s office and doing my best not to think of him at all when I hear him calling my name from behind me. If I pretend I haven’t heard him, he’s only going to call after me again. I turn around and smile.
“Hi,” he says. I smile wider, not trusting myself to speak at this moment. I’m afraid I will just blurt out that I can’t have sex with him again and the last thing I want to do is blurt it out at work. “Want to grab some lunch in about an hour?”
I should ask him if we can go into his office and say no to the lunch and explain why, but instead, I nod my agreement. Maybe it will be easier to talk to him over lunch, away from the office altogether and hopefully the Scarlet mess is sorted too.
“Sounds good,” I say. “Just swing by my office when you’re ready to go.”
“Will do,” he says.
“See you then,” I say, and I hurry away before he can instigate anymore of a conversation.
I’m soon back in the relative sanctuary of my own office and I sit down at my desk and sigh. I know what I need to do to appease Scarlet. It’s something I told her couldn’t be done. Of course, by that I meant it can be done but it is an absolute shit ton of work for no reason other than to fulfill her whim.
Basically, Scarlet’s need to be different has reached another level. She wants a standard pool at this new holiday home, but she also wants another pool, which is a perfect sphere. As I said, I can design it and I know I can find people who can do it, but they’ll absolutely hate me because the work it will take just isn’t worth it. But if calling in a favor with someone appeases Scarlet then so be it. I’ll do what I have to do.
I type out a quick email to Rick, one of my most trusted contractors and basically beg him to do this. He emails me back quickly saying thank you but no thank you and so begins the negotiation. He ends up with twice the original offered price, which I know Scarlet won’t care about and he also gets a promise of a favor owed from me. I can’t say that went too badly. Now it’s time to get my ass chewed off by Scarlet and then hopefully bring her around.
I pick up the receiver of my desk phone and find Scarlet on the contact list stuck on the phone. I type her number in and wait. It’s her cell phone number. We’ve worked together long enough that I no longer have to go through any of her PAs because she knows I will only call if I need to speak to her about something important.
“Hello,” Scarlet says after a few rings, her voice rich and throaty.
“Hi Ms. Bond,” I say. “It’s Summer Malone.”
“Ah I see. You’ve remembered I exist now, have you?” she says.
Her tone is matter of fact, but her voice is as cold as hell, and I know she’s still pissed off about me missing the meeting.
“I’m so sorry about missing our meeting,” I say. “And I’m not going to insult your intelligence by lying to you about why I missed it. The truth is, it slipped my mind and all I can do at this point is apologize and promise you that it won’t happen again.”
“I’m going to let it go this once because we’ve worked together for a long time, and I love your designs. But don’t think that my time isn’t important. If it happens again, we’re done,” Scarlet says.
I have to swallow hard to stop myself from telling her to kiss my ass. I know I can’t do that, and I can’t even really be annoyed that she’s speaking to me like this. It is my mistake that’s brought us here after all. I do feel like I’ve apologized enough now though and to keep doing so would just be kissing her ass and so I move the conversation on to what I hope will nip this whole thing in the bud.
