Page 94 of Breaking All The Rules
Yep, if she ever were to get back into this world again, it would be somewhere like this. Where everyone worked together and every contribution was valued. And she didn’t have to wear high heels and tight skirts.
But for now, she was finishing up a few things and heading home.
…
By nine, Bea was all done. She’d sent her last email and shut down the desktop and was heading out of her office—the office, not her office—to say goodbye to everyone when her cell rang. The name flashing on the screen was Charlie Hammersmith.
She frowned. What the hell? Why was her old boss calling? And why the hell hadn’t she deleted him from her contacts?
Bea’s finger hovered over the button to decline the call and she almost tapped it. Had she been pressed to afterward, she couldn’t have said why she did answer.
“Charlie?”
“Bea. A little birdie tells me you’re in LA.”
Typical of Charlie not to bother with preliminaries or niceties. “You have me LoJacked now?”
He chuckled heartily like he had a mouth full of marbles. “You know what LA’s like—word gets around.”
Unfortunately, Bea did. Word of her departure had spread like wildfire. “Is there something I can do for you?”
“I’d like to take you to lunch.”
Bea blinked. She’d rather dine with a rattlesnake. “No thank you.”
“You’re not available? I can fit in with your schedule.”
Well, that was a first. But it didn’t change her mind. “I’m available. I just don’t want to.” Her voice was perfectly polite, but if Charlie thought she’d be gracious and forgiving, he was sorely mistaken. There was no need to play nice anymore.
“Okay,” he said, his voice irritatingly reasonable, “you’re still upset.”
Bea stiffened, the vertebrae in her spine snapping together like LEGO. She gripped the phone, her cheeks warm. “I’ve moved on.”
“That’s a shame. I wanted to offer you the executive position. The one you wanted. The one with the corner office.”
Bea breathed out a slow breath as all she’d ever once wanted was offered to her on a platter. A few months ago, she’d have grasped it with both hands. Now, standing in this beautiful, innovative work space, she wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.
“The one you gave to Kevin instead of me?” Her voice shook more than she’d have liked, and she knew she’d kick herself for that later.
“Clearly that was an…error of judgment.”
Bea laughed out loud. “I’d say that’s an understatement.” She could almost hear him squirming, but there was no way she was going to let him off the hook.
“Irregardless—”
“Regardless,” she interrupted. Normally, Bea ground her teeth at Charlie’s incorrect usage of that word, but today, she was done wrecking three years and ten thousand dollars of her father’s hard-earned money in corrective braces. “Irregardless is not a word.”
She was pretty sure she could now hear Charlie grinding his teeth. “Quite,” he said, obviously determined to continue as he plunged on. “The board would like to offer you the job. You are clearly the best person for the role. You have an exemplary work ethic. You had a long list of clients who valued your expertise. And a unique insight into marketing to millennials. We both welcome and value the experience and the diversity you would bring to the agency.”
Right. So…interpretation. The scandal with Kevin was costing them financially. Clients were obviously walking. They needed a quick diversity hire with a good track record and a high profile who could steady the ship and help prove they weren’t the cast of Mad Men.
She gave a half laugh at the audacity of Charlie to even offer her the job. “Ahh, that would be a no.” A big, fat no.
“It’s a lot of money, a lot of prestige,” he pressed, as if he’d known she’d be resistant and already had his counterarguments lined up. “There’s partner’s dividends and bonuses, and you can call your own shots. Hire your own staff.” He paused and took a breath, injecting a faint note of reproach. “It’s what you wanted, Bea.”
Yeah, she had. It was like that damn high-rise had been misting the air with company happy juice and providing company Kool-Aid in the drinking fountain.
But she was out now and her perspective was twenty/twenty.
