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“It does, but I love the work. I’ve never had a job that I’ve loved coming to. This has been the first.”
“What were you doing before?” Grady asked.
Glenda, from their production team, came in and waved to Reese. Without interrupting Grady and Daria’s conversation, Reese got up to meet her.
“I know you’re having lunch, but could I steal you for a minute? We got the first samples for next fall’s line, and the colors are not a match. They aren’t even close.”
“Oh, crap.” She turned to Daria and Grady. “I’ll be right back.”
She followed Glenda back to the small production area and to Glenda’s desk. There she saw the original sample Reese’s team had provided to the manufacturer, and the sample products that had come back from them. The colors weren’t even in the same neighborhood. The greens were several shades off, looking almost black instead of forest green. The royal blues were pastels, and the purples were maroon instead of lilac.
“These colors are totally off,” Reese said, her heart sinking. “If we don’t get this right, and get it right now, it could put production back for weeks.”
“I know. That’s why I wanted you to come see right away. This is a major screwup. I’ve already called the manufacturer overseas, but they are closed for the day. I’ve left them my cell to call me ASAP.”
“What sort of contingency plan do we have?”
“I always factor in three to four weeks for things like this. And we’ve had colors be off before, but this… I don’t think this is catastrophic, but we’ll need to move fast and have them send over the next samples right away. I’m sorry about this, Reese. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate and don’t need this too.”
“It’s fine. Things like this happen.”
Reese looked over the samples again. “Other than the colors, the rest is okay? The samples look and feel correct?”
“Everything is perfect otherwise.”
“At least we have that. Anything else while I’m here?”
“Just this small disaster.”
“We’ll make sure it’s resolved.”
Reese headed back to the kitchen area to find Daria and Grady laughing about something. When she retook her seat, she caught herself up with a story Daria was telling Grady about the coffee machine exploding, and how they were finding coffee grounds in the carpet weeks later. Reese remembered. They’d had to have the carpet shampooed three times to get the stains out.
“Everything okay?” Daria asked when she’d finished her story.
“All the color samples for the fall line are off. Some weren’t that bad, but others weren’t even close. Glenda is on it, and we have some leeway, but if we want everything in stores by the end of July, we need to get moving on this.”
“Oh no! How did that happen?”
“Glenda isn’t sure.”
“I wonder if she needs my help. I can put in a few calls.”
Grady checked his watch and stood up. “I hate to disappear, but I have a flight to catch in a few hours. Reese, we’ll talk later? I’ll be back in two days.”
“Sure, of course.”
He kissed on her on the cheek and waved goodbye to Daria, who watched him go.
“He’s really sweet. I can see why you’d fall head over heels,” Daria said.
“We aren’t official. We are good friends playing along for everyone.”
Daria narrowed her hazel eyes. “Come on, the two of you look like you’re in love.”
Love? No, Reese was not going that far, not even close. She loved spending time with him, and yes, maybe at some point she would consider more serious dating, but they were still firmly in the friend zone…well, the friends-with-benefits zone. She wasn’t prepared to let him walk out of her life for the sake of a relationship that had a good chance of failing.
“We aren’t in love. We’re just friends.” She said it with such finality that she surprised herself. “Anyway, we have to get back to work. We have a crisis to avert.”
