“Let me talk to her first,” I sighed. “We really can’t afford to lose anyone—especially since we’re having a hard time hiring people.”
“I’d rather have an empty desk than someone that fucks shit up like that.” Damien leaned forward and stood. “But you’re the boss—so, it’s your call.”
Yeah—and I know I’d be thinking the same thing if it was anyone else.
Things had been rather peaceful during Melanie’s first two weeks at Alcott Inc.—until Damien walked into my office. I really thought everything was headed in a good direction before that. At least a screw up at the office was all we had to discuss—it certainly could have been worse considering everything else that had been circling us since we met. Leo had reported back to me and said that Jackson’s card was used in the city—so it appeared that he had left Carson Cove. I wished I could share that news with Melanie, but I didn’t want her to know that I had been investigating him. Plus, he could always come back—and I still planned to handle it if he did. If I was lucky, I would get him before he ever got a chance to pay her a visit if he did decide to return.
My issue with the Carnation Club, and whoever was sending me letters wasn’t going to progress any further until the wedding when I got my next clue and hopefully exposed whoever was behind them, to begin with. I had been finding carnations in random places, like my mailbox and on the hood of my car, but they didn’t come with any clues—whoever was behind it just wanted to make sure I didn’t forget they were still around.
Meanwhile, I was moving further away from being a valid target for them, to begin with because my feeling for Melanie were getting stronger every single day. We actually got to spend most of the weekend together—and were planning to have a private party for the two of us at my place after she graduated on Saturday. If everything went as well as I hoped, it wasn’t going to be long until I got to meet Charley and possibly got a chance to tell her how much I adored her mother—if Melanie was comfortable with introducing me as more than just a friend—or her boss. There were a few details to work out before that happened, and I was going to have to actually be her boss when she arrived for her performance review because losing the Martin Construction account was a really big deal.
“Gina, you can leave early today if you’d like.” I walked to the door of my office. “I’m going to be here late finishing up some work.”
“Are you sure?” She turned towards me—as vibrant and cheerful as ever. “I’ve got plenty to work on—I don’t mind staying until you’re done.”
“Nah, it’s fine. I’m going to need you to stay a little later on Thursday—remember? We have those clients coming in from the city.” I pointed towards the presentation that was sitting on her desk. “Why don’t you take that down to Damien on your way out, and then you can call it a day.”
“Okay, Jon.” She nodded and bounced to her feet. “Whatever you need. Oh, don’t forget you have the performance evaluation with Melanie today.”
I haven’t forgotten—and I was planning to send you home early even before I found out about the Martin Construction account.
“Right…” I pretended like it had slipped my mind.
“I can reschedule it if there’s a problem.” She reached for the phone.
“No, it’s fine.” I waved off her concern. “Tell Damien to send her up now if he doesn’t need her for anything else today.”
I’m sure he would rather collect her badge and send her out the front door instead…
“Will do!” Gina gathered the presentation and walked to the elevator.
It took a little finagling to get everything in order, but my new hands-on approach with our new hires was appreciated by the department managers. Melanie was the only one I actually put my hands-on, but I was willing to go through a few meaningless performance reviews with the other new hires in order to get some alone time with her. We certainly made the best use of our time when we got it and didn’t talk about work at all during our previous meetings, but our next one was going to be much different.
I flipped on my computer and read through Damien’s email one last time to make sure I had the context right. Normally, I would have left things like that to him since he was the manager of her department, but I told him to bring any issues to me first—under the guise of making sure all of our newest employees were given a consistent message about our expectations at Alcott Inc. I heard the elevator and turned off my screen. I was waiting at my door when the elevator finally opened, and she stepped off.
“Damien said you were waiting for me—our meeting isn’t sup
posed to start for another twenty minutes.” Melanie walked up to me; I could tell she was nervous. “I guess he told you about the Martin Construction account.”
“Yeah.” I motioned to my office. “Let’s have a talk.”
“I feel so freaking awful about it.” She hung her head and groaned, and she walked in.
“We still need to discuss it.” I stepped into my office and pointed at the chair across from my desk. “You’re lucky I’m talking to you about it instead of Damien.”
“I kept waiting to get called to his office,” Melanie sighed and sat down.
Martin Construction was still a fairly new account, and it took a lot for us to get their business. They were the premier construction company in Carson Cove, and the materials they needed for some of the custom homes they built were quite expensive—which meant we got to charge a premium price for the distribution and transport that brought those materials to Carson Cove. The employee that landed it got a nice commission and a promotion at the end of the year because of all the work they put in.
Normally an account like that would have gone to one of the senior members of the team, and the fact that it went to a brand new employee was Damien’s fuck up in my eyes—but he wasn’t the one that caused them to decide they didn’t want to renew their contract. I needed answers, even if I was dating the employee that cost us the account. It was one of those situations where I would have normally lost my cool, but I couldn’t do that with Melanie. I cared about her—my feelings were too strong. I did my best not to have an emotional response—a rational discussion was needed, but I wasn’t going to lash out the way I might have done if someone else was sitting in that spot across from my desk waiting to find out just how much trouble they were in.
“Tell me what happened.” I sat down behind my desk and kept my voice calm—the one in my head was much louder, but I didn’t use it.
I already have Damian’s version, but he’s too pissed off to do anything other than blame the last person that spoke to them…
“I’m honestly not sure.” Melanie looked down and swallowed hard. “I got all of the information and filed it—just like Lisa taught me—but something went wrong. Our driver picked up the wrong materials. The entire purchase order was different…”
“The purchase order was for another account.” I nodded, and my jaw tightened. “That’s why it was wrong.”