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“Now,” he continued, ignoring my shock at his revelation. “I want Richard to oversee the financials aspect. He’s in line for Director of Finance, so this is a perfect opportunity for you guys to work together.”
I nodded, playing off the discomfort of his mention of Richard’s name and still trying to process the news. His tone left no room for argument as to who would be the financial contact for the project, even though I had planned on having Braeden do it.
“I’ll make it happen,” I swallowed my thoughts. “Thank you so much for the opportunity to prove myself for this role.”
“You’ve earned it, Blake. You’re the best we’ve got.”
“Thank you, Connor,” I got up from the chair. “Before I forget, I was wondering if it would be okay for me to let my team go at lunch tomorrow. They’ve put in a lot of extra hours the last couple of weeks, and I feel like they deserve some back.”
“Absolutely. Please take the afternoon off as well. You’ve all earned it.”
I shook his hand across his desk and mentally patted myself on the back as I walked out of his office. Tomorrow, I would devise a plan to juggle Connor’s expectations, Amelia’s goals, and my workload.
Chapter Two
Friday morning.
Ten days before.
The metal elevator doors reflected my worn-down image, and I stared at my tired eyes. I tossed and turned all night, my brain filled with ideas for the campaign, unease about the workload, and worries over Richard and Erik. The shiny doors opened to a dark and desolate office. It was incredibly early, but I loved the silence and peace of working on an empty floor before the day started. I flipped on the lights.
I intended to take the afternoon off for the first time in almost three years, but I had much to do.
I pulled up my team’s calendars, opened our shared documents folder, and formulated a complete picture of our workload. My confidence in our ability to effectively handle Project Porcelain and the rest of our projects simultaneously was rattled. I worried that we had bitten off more than we could chew, but at this point, we had no choice but to swallow.
My commitment to the company was as big as it had ever been. I had found incredible success and a career I could not have imagined. I loved what I did and had to make it work to keep growing. Nathaniel and I had proven to be an extremely effective team contributing to the company’s growth. We brought in three long-term contracts and eight short-term agreements just this year. It was only May.
If we had the backing of a national portfolio of accounts, we could pursue larger and longer-lasting deals. With the appropriate resources, we would be unstoppable.
The day I graduated college, my wildest dreams wouldn’t have taken me to imagine this lifestyle. My goal growing up had always been to get a job that allowed me to settle in back in my hometown and, eventually, raise a family with a white picket fence. But then Connor offered me a career and changed the course of my life.
At the end of my senior year of college, our department head had us present a project that involved developing a fake product and formulating a complete marketing campaign for it. We presented it to industry professionals looking to fill positions within their marketing teams. Connor eagerly listened to every one of our presentations. I distinctly remember him filling up pages upon pages of notes. He had a new company and was looking to hire new ideas.
Erik and I were both hired directly after that project.
We worked side by side for two years, helping Connor build Capital Media from an idea to a growing marketing company. Erik focused on market analytics, developing our research methods, and formulating key strategies. I expanded into working closely with sales. Nathaniel and I were so successful locally that we started traveling and pulling in small and medium-sized customers nationwide.
It quickly became necessary for Capital Media to have a presence on both coasts due to the breadth of our customer base. Connor was from the East Coast, so he relocated our headquarters closer to where his family and many of our clients were. Virginia was the perfect place. It was a midpoint between our customers on this side of the country.
He asked Nathaniel and me to move with him and the company. He wanted our help in building the new office. The opportunity would be life-changing and precisely the next step I needed to take in my career. The only hitch in the plan was that New Windsor was over two thousand miles away from our office in California, from my home, and from Erik. It was two thousand miles away from the life I always thought I would live.
New Windsor represented an incredible opportunity for a new life and a stepping-stone to becoming the person I wanted to be. Despite Erik’s vehement objections, I jumped at the opportunity headfirst and moved.
I stared at my name on my locked office door. I fixed the tag that displayed it since it was slightly crooked, and the paper always threatened to slide out. I kept my door closed the entire morning, except when I poked my head out to let my team know they were free to go home at lunch. Putting together the draft of what I thought the timeline for Project Porcelain should be while trying to address my outstanding emails was a bigger challenge than expected.
After noon, my stomach called for my usual Friday lunch at Gabby’s Café. I packed up my bag and locked the door behind me. Lainee, Jamie, and Stephen were already gone for the day. I crossed the floor toward the finance department.
Our accounting manager, Barry, inhaled his lunch in the break area while everyone else seemed to have gone out. It was just another typical Friday around here.
Hidden behind the textured light walls of his cubicle, Richard seemed to be having a staring contest with a spreadsheet. He was losing.
“Lunch?” I tapped his shoulder.
“Perfect timing!” he broke out of the fight with the spreadsheet and spun out of his chair. He stretched and groaned like he hadn’t moved in hours. I suspected that was precisely the case.
“How long have you been staring at the computer?”
“Too long,” he forced a laugh.
