Page 182 of His Flash Mate
“And she’s not in marketing, Drake.Why are you letting her do whatever she wants?”
“Reviewing projects, finding areas to improve with the budget given, and redesigning aren’t what she wants to do but what she needs to do to better understand the process, which is crucial if she wants to keep her position.Didn’t you also give her more challenging tasks when she was with you to help her grow her skill set?Those reports were what caught my attention.”
Lianna didn’t say anything, and I heard Konni’s chair creak, a sign he’d leaned forward.
“You seem very focused on Ms.Elmantas, Lianna.Why?”
“I’m not focused.I was coming to talk to you about the Riverfront project and happened to see her in my team’s design application.”
“Again, an application that everyone on my team knows how to use.Basic knowledge of all Steele Corp’s department applications is a requirement for my team.If she learns more while reviewing projects, that’s a benefit to my team, your team, and the company as a whole.”
“Then why isn’t Edi learning it?Or Bomir?Or Marius?”
“They already know it.And Marius is reviewing your team’s latest proposal for the Riverfront project.I’ll have his summary before he leaves today.”
“Already sent,” Marius called.Then he leaned around his screen to grin at me.
The silence in Konni’s office was deafening.
“Was there something specific you wanted to discuss about the Riverfront project?”Konni asked.
“I wanted to see if you had any questions.”
“I’ll let you know tomorrow.It’s late, and my team had to work extra hours this weekend, so I’m not going to keep anyone past five tonight, including myself.”
Again, there was a long beat of silence.
“This isn’t like you, Drake.You’ve always put Steele first.”
The sound of her footfalls had me spinning around to face my monitor.She left our area without a word.
I popped out of my seat and poked my head into Konni’s office.
“You owe everyone breakfast tomorrow.”
Kaya and Momradiated happiness as they made dinner and recapped what they’d done while we were gone.Online shopping, meal planning, which included sending Harlow out with a grocery list, and reorganizing Kaya’s fall closet.
It was like Mom had found her best friend.She’d had friends before the divorce, but they’d quickly stopped talking to her after.
“What’s Konni doing?”his mom asked.
“Reading some emails that he didn’t want to read at the office.”I hesitated a moment, then decided I needed to know where Kaya stood.“I think he wanted to get away from Lianna, who’s been a pain in his ass lately.”
Kaya frowned and looked at me.Her expression conveyed more curiosity than censure.
“Really?How?”
“Usually, by barging into his office whenever she wants, regardless of his schedule or workload.And it’s almost always about pointless stuff, like scheduling client meetings, which she can do through us instead of interrupting him.He pointed that out to her, but she got mad and left.Today, specifically though, she barged in to complain about me.”
“You?Why?”Kaya asked, looking more upset.
“I was redesigning a marketing project that had already been approved.”
“Why?”Mom asked.
“I saw some room for improvement, and it’s a good way to gain experience while I’m still training.”
“Makes sense,” Mom said.
