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I open the door and walk in. My eyes immediately zero in on a redheaded figure sitting at the end of the conference table in one of the chairs across the room from me.
It’s Emma. Everyone else in the room fades away into the background as I stare at Emma’s profile while she talks to a man I can’t recognize.
Upon my entrance the whole room goes silent. It takes a few seconds for Emma to realize the temperature change in the room. When she does, she looks around. When her eyes land on me, she jumps a little in her seat and color instantly rises to her cheeks.
I like that I have that effect on her and it makes me smile.
“Glen.” Marianne Thorpe, chairwoman of the board comes up to me. Decked in her usual pearl jewelry and tweed suit, she maneuvers me in the direction of the strangers. “Come and meet everyone.”
Members of my board are on one side of the conference table, and my new HR team is on the other. They stand up as I approach, and I make my way down the line, shaking their hands.
When I finally reach Emma, I look at her from head to toe. I have to say, I like what I see.
She is wearing a fitted dark emerald pantsuit that shows off her red hair and creamy skin. Her hair is pulled back into a high ponytail that comes down to the middle of her back and her stiletto heels have me twitching in my pants. Although she is entirely covered up and looks professional, she looks sexy as hell.
“This is Ms. Emma Stanley,” Marianne says. “She is going to be working out of our offices and reporting back toLight Consulting HQ. So, we are going to be working a lot with her.”
It’s only when Marianne says this that I remember that Emma is part of the team that is here to ruin my company. The smirk that has been on my face dies away instantly.
Emma notices and balks.
I shake her hand. Then I walk around the table and sit across from Emma and the meeting begins.
“Thank you all for coming today,” Marianne starts. “I’m so glad that both our companies are partnering up. I know we are going to do great things together.”
I scoff.
“What was that?” Emma asks and fixes me with her eyes.
I’m impressed. I didn’t know she could be this feisty. I hate to admit it, but I like it.
“Oh, nothing,” I say. “I just feel that all this is unnecessary.”
“What do you think is unnecessary?” Emma asks as she slightly narrows her eyes at me.
I look at Marianne whose eyes are shooting daggers at me as she tucks a strand of gray hair that escaped her bun behind her ear. I answer anyway.
“Your presence here… I think your presence here is unnecessary.”
Emma chuckles and the sound grates on me. “I think I’m starting to see the problem.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
She shrugs. “Clearly, one of the reasons your company is in the hole that it is, is because leadership refuses to see reality.”
I look around the table for someone to jump in and defend our company, but everyone is looking between Emma and me in silence.
“The company isn’t in a hole.”
Emma laughs. “Really? It isn’t?Med-Fieldshas lost 60% of its market share in the lastfour years. That’s alarming. Do you think those are good numbers?”
“Of course not, but that’s how business works. I have been doing this since before you were even born. So I know how it goes. You go up then you come down then you go back up again. That’s how it is.”
“Wow…” She nods slowly. “Condescension? I love how when all else fails, old people resort to condescension.”
“That’s enough,” says Andrew Moore. He is the man Emma was talking to when I walked in. He is also her boss and the branch manager of their Boston operation. “We are all a team now. We are working toward the same goal. It makes no sense to be at each other’s throats. The ink has dried on all the necessary contracts, so there is no going back. We are stuck with each other whether we like it or not, so let’s make the best of the situation.”
“I like the sound of that!” Marianne says. She claps her hands together and fixes a wide smile on her face.
