Syd Rowen was in his late forties. But his hair was already graying. Still, there was something about him that cast a youthful air. Or perhaps it was all the twenty-somethings he employed in his company. Mr. Rowen and Kylee were easily the two oldest people in the entire building.
In the two weeks she’d been here, she’d only met him once. That was on her first day. He’d been behind closed doors ever since.
There could only be one reason he was coming to her now. She’d messed up somehow. Great. What had she done wrong now?
Kylee pressed her palms to her office chair preparing to rise and head into his office for a private word that could be a reprimand or a termination. But instead of waving her to his office, Mr. Rowen pulled up a spare chair and sat down beside her.
“I was looking through your file and saw that you’re from the city of Saint Judith.”
“Yes. I was born and raised there.”
“Do you know much about Clara Barton Elementary School?”
“I… uh... Yes. I went there as a child.”
He frowned, scratching at the hair on his chin. “So, a few decades ago. You won’t likely have kept in touch with anyone there.”
A few decades? She hadn’t even been alive for a few decades yet. He was wrong about her age, but he was right about her not keeping in touch. “I just moved back there. My daughter is enrolled at Barton Elementary.”
Mr. Rowen’s frown lifted a bit. Kylee supposed that was his rendition of a smile. “You might be able to help me out with something.”
“Of course,” Kylee offered. Since they were sitting out in the public area of cubicles, she assumed she was safe from a pink slip. She was game for anything that could guarantee her continued employment.
Mr. Rowen leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “We are looking to win a contract with the school system in Saint Judith. Do you know any of the administrators there at the elementary school? Perhaps your child’s teacher?”
“I… uh…” Kylee didn’t want to have any more chats with Mrs. Steen. She felt bad she had to send Molly to that class every day. Luckily, she also knew an administrator. If there was anyone Kylee wanted to reach out to and see again, it was Ron. “Um, I know the principal at Barton. He and I went to school together.”
Mr. Rowen’s brows raised. The movement of those facial muscles in the upper part of his face lifted the ones in the lower part of his face. He looked like he was kinda, sorta smiling. “Do you think you could set up a meeting with the principal?”
“Um, sure. I just met with him yesterday.”
“That’s excellent.”
“We hadn’t seen each other in a long time, so we’d said we’d make plans to go out to dinner. He suggested we go to an old restaurant that we used to go to as kids called-”
“That’s excellent, Ms. Bauer. Follow up with him. See if you can work your angles.”
Her angles?
“If we can get the elementary school on board with our company to offer the test prep for the state exam that gives us a leg up to contract with the entire county.”
Kylee looked to the screen where she was just starting to make headway with the test prep and back to her boss. He wanted her to use her angles to get her old best friend to agree to use Thrive as their test prep company. Was that ethical?
“Can I count on you to take care of this, Ms. Bauer?”
“I… uh…”
Mr. Rowen’s mouth thinned into a definite frown. “This would be a big account for this company. If you were the one to get the account, there would definitely be a promotion in your future.”
“A promotion?”
“Crafting your own curriculum and assessments with the college prep side of the company instead of the elementary and secondary levels. You could begin working on our SAT and ACT prep courses.”
Kylee had never liked back-scratching. She’d always gotten by on what she knew, not who she knew. But for the last decade, she’d been held back because of who she’d chosen to associate with.
And Ron did say he wanted to see her. And help her. They were friends. He would certainly hear her out.
“Can you handle this, Ms. Bauer?”