Leah
"Well good morning, darlin'," Norma drawled as I entered her domain and looked around. In the days after Bernard had died, Norma had draped the office in black bunting and mourned openly. It was disconcerting, but she explained that her southern roots run deep and that a proper period of mourning was essential to completing the rituals surrounding someone's death. Having come from an Irish Catholic family, I understood the process of mourning all too well, but I still thought it was a little over the top.
"Good morning, Norma," I said as cheerfully as possible. "The office looks different. What did you do to it?"
"I pulled down all the decorations, sweetie," she smiled as she finished storing the last of the black bunting in a box that she covered and then ran a strip of packaging tape around before sliding it into the storage space in the corner. "It's time to stop crying and start looking forward again! We've got a lot of work to do, and very little time to do it, darlin'!"
"You're a piece of work, Norma," I said, shaking my head as I walked to the area where each of the mailboxes for the team leaders was kept. I checked mine and found that there was a brand new stack of orders in my box. "Where did these come from?"
"Where did what come from, sugar?" she asked as she worked on opening a tall stack of envelopes. She'd pick one up, slip the letter opener in one side, and slice the envelope open befo
re pulling out the contents and stapling the envelope to the innards. She worked quickly and efficiently. In the few minutes that I was in her office, she must have sorted thirty pieces of mail.
"Where did this stack of orders come from?" I asked as I flipped through the papers. None of the names on the top of the sheets looked familiar, and I wondered if my mail hadn't gotten mixed up with someone else's.
"I don't know. I didn't put them there," Norma said as she looked over her shoulder toward Jack's office. "He did."
"This makes no sense," I said as I walked toward Jack's door, knocked lightly, and then before Norma could stop me, opened the door. "Jack, I . . . oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were busy."
"It's okay, Leah," Jack said as he looked up at me and then back at the icy blonde who was leaning over his shoulder looking at something on the computer screen. "This is Sloan Morgan. Sloan, this is Leah Walsh. She runs the warehouse operations with incredible efficiency, and she's also got a mean skull."
"I see," the woman said as she straightened up and walked toward me with her hand out. "It's nice to meet you, Leah."
"It's nice to meet you, too, Ms. Morgan," I said as I took her hand. She was wearing what looked like a designer dress that fit her perfectly, and I suddenly felt very out of place in my much more casual scoop neck t-shirt, cotton skirt with leggings, and work boots. I'd found that working in a skirt made the warehouse guys treat me more like their boss than their sister, but it wasn't conducive to all the bending and climbing. So I'd put together a mishmash of clothing that seemed to signal my supervisory status while still being practical.
"Please, call me Sloan," she said smiling. Her eyes were blue, like mine, but she had a layer of chilly reserve in them.
"All right, Sloan," I said hesitating a little before turning to the matter at hand. "I've got a whole batch of new customers I've never seen before. Do you know where these came from and how do you want me to deal with them?"
"Ah, yes," Jack said as he ran his hand through his already messy hair. He looked rugged and wild, and I had a hard time meeting his gaze as I listened to him discuss the way the business was going to change. "So, we're going to solicit more online business via omni-channel marketing. That way we'll be able to target the market most apt to use, and reuse, our services. What do you think, Leah?"
"Huh? Oh, right, that sounds like a good plan to me," I said. "But the problem is going to be that we don't have enough warehouse workers to meet the demand if it increases substantially."
"We're going to work on that next," Jack said as he looked at Sloan. "I should have a plan for you by next week. It might mean increasing hours or hiring temps to fill the gaps."
"Very well," I said as I turned to leave. I knew that whatever he was going to propose was probably going to go for efficiency rather than preservation of the company traditions or ethos. I also knew that temps in the warehouse would not be taken kindly to. However, I bit my tongue and decided to wait to hear what the final plan would be before I protested.
"It's nice to have met you, Leah," Sloan said. I nodded and waved without turning around.
"How'd it go, sugar?" Norma called as I rushed past her desk. "Stop and talk to me sometime, why don't ya?"
"Okay, it went okay," I said as I swiftly moved toward the door, avoiding all the questions that hung in the air between us. I didn't want to talk about our bet, not after having been blindsided by Jack and Sloan.
I marched back to the warehouse, feeling uneasy. I didn't like the fact that Jack unnerved me this much, but aside from quitting my job, which I would not do, I couldn't see how I was going to be able to avoid dealing with him. So, once I was done scolding myself for being so weak-willed, I set my jaw, squared my shoulders, and told myself that there was no way on Earth that Jack Yates was going to throw me for a loop.
Chapter Fifteen
Jack
"She's cute," Sloan said after Leah had left my office. "Young, but really cute."
"She's a good warehouse manager," I shrugged. "Hadn't noticed much else. I'm trying to run a business, Sloan."
"Mmm-hmm," she said as she leaned down over the back of my chair and rested her hand on my shoulder, pointing out some notable figures on the screen in front of me.
"Sloan," I warned. "Knock it off."
"What?" she said as she leaned in close enough that I could feel her breath on my cheek. The sensation sent my body into overdrive.