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“This is going to be ugly.” Caroline figured she should just pack the contents of her desk. It was over.
“And your guy was here. Actually, I don’t think their meeting has ended.”
“What?” Josh had been there? She knew he wanted to have another meeting, but she didn’t realize it would be so soon. Was he in the building? She was tempted to find him just so she could get a hug. She could really use it.
“Mr. Tall, Dark and Beautiful? He had a meeting with Mark and Gary. No one looked happy when they went into the meeting room. You didn’t tell me he was a client. How are things going with him? I need deets.”
“Awesome. He’s a doll.” Caroline paused and looked down the hall. “Could you hear anything with Mark and Keith? Should I be boxing up my stuff?”
“Not sure. Mark wasn’t happy that he was putting out two fires at once, especially since you seem to be at the center of both. I did hear Keith say things like ‘obnoxious bitch’ and ‘undermined my authority.’”
“Why is it they always resort to calling us bitches?Hewas a bitch.”
Mel laughed. “Was he? Seriously?”
“Completely. You should have heard the way he talked to everyone and he’s the one who caused the problems.”
“Caroline?” The voice was deep and angry. Looking up she saw Mark, standing about ten feet away. His hands were planted firmly on his hips, and he looked pissed. Really, really pissed. “Conference room. Now.”
Mark turned and walked away. He didn’t wait for her. Didn’t say another thing. His stride was long and purposeful and by the time she reached the conference room, Mark was already seated at the large table with Keith, Gary and two of the partners. Damn.
“Close the door.” Mark was at the head of the table and was leaning forward, his hands folded on the dark wood. When the door clicked shut, Caroline felt trapped.
“Sit down.” Mark motioned to the chair next to him and it was clear that he was running this meeting. He was the boss. This was bad.
“You have some explaining to do. First regarding this morning. You completely undermined the confidence and authority of one of our senior engineers. Second, you second-guessed a colleague on a site assessment, forcing us and the client to begin expensive and unnecessary testing.”
“It’s not unnecessary.”
“Look, that’s a matter of opinion...”
“The right opinion. How can they proceed with the purchase and the development of the land if they don’t know what they’re buying?”
Gary jumped in. “They don’t have time. They need the assessment done so they can present to their investors and lock down the sale. There’s a window they have to get through if they’re going to have their permits filed before zoning changes.”
“I know all this,” Caroline shot back. “But their permits won’t be worth anything if there’s a problem with the site. If the EPA has to come in, forget it.”
No one around the table had anything to say. For the second time that day, she’d contradicted a superior and she fully expected fallout. It didn’t matter if she was right. Sad, but not unexpected.
“The client asked us to get this done quickly. We had to work within a specific time frame.” Gary was still trying to justify the report to Campbell Holdings. Unbelievable.
“But at what cost?” she asked.
“You still shouldn’t be going behind the firm’s back and making recommendations to yourboyfriend.It’s unethical.” Mark was still calm; it was almost scary. But the way he said “boyfriend” with a sneer in his voice, made Caroline take notice. He was jealous.
“How is being honest unethical, Mark? I would think not doing a complete assessment is more unethical when the firm could profit from that kind of failure.”
That shut everyone up. Caroline had called them on their bullshit. Again. She was on a roll. Thank God she had a different job lined up. Mark took a deep breath and calmed himself. He must have figured he wasn’t winning this argument.
“It’s put us in a bad spot, Caroline.” She started to say something, and he held up a hand to halt her. “You made Gary look incompetent and put the firm in a bad light.”
In her head she heard a little voice go“Well, duh.”
“Then this morning? With Keith? With the inspectors? What the hell were you thinking?”
Keith was still raging. She could see it—his face was all scrunched and he was clenching his fists so tight his knuckles were white. “You had no right to undermine my authority.”
“Dear Jesus,” she whispered, hoping her prayer would save her from this stupidity, but she wasn’t holding out much hope. “Are you saying it was okay for you to blame everyone for your mistake with the water system? That was acceptable?”
