Page 116 of Semantics

“I’ll have Monique on it as the project lead.”

“Good. Move everything else off her plate for this one. It’s the only one that matters.”

Hearing that, Stella immediately thought about Violet and her company. They were depending on Monique to help get them implemented. There were other amazing sales engineers and implementation specialists at Cerebral who could work with Violet’s company, but Stella had specifically put Monique’s name in the agreement, and she’d done that for a reason: she’d wanted to protect their account. Stella hadn’t even cared if Violet noticed and called that special treatment; she had done it. The only way she could legally pull Monique off their account would’ve been if she had left the company, and since that hadn’t happened, she now had to deal with this somehow.

“She’s got one client that she owes some hours to. She should be done by our second call with these guys, so I’m not worried about it, but she has to finish this one out because she was named in the agreement per the client,” she replied, telling only a little white lie because she’d been the one to put the woman’s name in the agreement.

“Okay. Fine. Just make sure she’s off everything else to focus on this one after that,” the CEO said.

“I will. She’s still here, so I’ll talk to her now. Then, I’m heading out.”

“Sounds good,” he replied, and Stella left his office and headed back toward her own.

Monique’s desk was on her way out, so she would grab her and let her know the good news then. Monique had been really excited for the company to get this account because it was the largest company they’d work with yet, and she loved a challenge. Stella was excited for an entirely different reason, though. Technically, she was a salaried employee without the opportunity to make commissions because normally, the SVP wasn’t the account owner, but in this case, the CEO himself had asked her to handle the whole thing from start to finish, and since she wasn’t eligible for commission and would miss out on that unless he added it to her quarterly bonus, he had told her that he’d do just that if she could get their agreement in by the end of the quarter and the sales team met their goals.

Her team had met all their goals, so the base part of her bonus, which was sizeable, was already on its way, but with this agreement turned in on time and above the possible discount that they could have offered, she was set to make a lot of money this quarter. It would be the biggest check of her entire career, and that included her previous company where she’d gotten an annual bonus instead of quarterly. It would be so massive, in fact, that had she wanted to, she would have enough money saved for a down payment on a much larger house than her own in the area, and those were going up in price by the day as more and more companies made the place their home.

Stella couldn’t believe it. This account was supposed to take close to a year to lock down, and it had only taken her two months to close. The incentives she’d get from it short-term were amazing, but because of the type of account this company was, she would also receive three percent of their total contract amount annually as long as they were Cerebral’s customer, and their total contract annually was over a million dollars. She’d make an additional thirty-five thousand dollars for the next three years this time of year as long as they were happy and she were still employed here. Stella didn’t have any specific plans to go anywhere else, and that money would be on top of her annual salary, which was already pretty good because of her position and it being a tech company.

She ran some numbers in her head as she walked over to Monique’s desk, and after she let Monique know about the plan, she walked to the elevator, doing some additional math in her head. She had an idea, and she wasn’t sure yet if it was a good one or a dangerous one where Violet was concerned, but she wanted to at least bring it up with her. It didn’t have to be tonight. It could be next month or the month after, and the check wouldn’t be hitting her bank account for another three weeks, so she had time to think further before suggesting anything, but she was excited about the prospect.

Stella liked her job. She had plans to move up to CRO here, and she liked those plans, but she’d joined the company when it had already had over fifty employees. They’d grown fast and had over three hundred employees now, so some of what she’d loved about the company when it had been small no longer applied. They seemed to be hiring more people by the week, too, which meant they’d soon be at five hundred and then a thousand employees, which was their goal by the end of the following year. In fact, this account alone might mean that the number had to go up faster because the client wanted a dedicated support line and twenty-four-seven access to it. When they’d run those numbers, it meant at least two new hires, which she’d have to get the director of support to start working on now.

She missed being part of something like what she had done that one weekend in Violet’s garage, but she knew she couldn’t just ask Violet for a job. For one, they wouldn’t be able to afford her, even if Stella was willing to give up what she had at Cerebral, but she and Violet had also just started dating. Even if she could work for free or a discount, which she couldn’t – at least, not yet, anyway – she didn’t want to risk their relationship, or what might end up being their relationship, by working together so soon.

◆◆◆

“I was wrong… Wear the hat,” Violet said when Stella opened the door.

Stella laughed and replied, “But I did my hair.”

“I know. I’m kidding,” Violet said and walked inside. “Your hair looks great.”

Violet ran her hand through Stella’s short locks.

“Hey, I put product in there.” She laughed.

“I like it better when it’s a little messy.” Violet smiled at her and leaned in for a kiss. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Stella said and kissed her sweetly. “I missed you today.” She pulled Violet closer. “Still can’t believe that’s a true statement. I used to hate having to see you in class because I knew you were going to one-up me every chance you got.”

“Like when you messed up that P&L equation and told the professor that your fake business had only a million point five in losses, and you really had two point five?”

“You just had to tell him that, didn’t you?” she said with a little laugh. “It was a typo.”

“Because your Excel formula wasn’t set up correctly. I could’ve helped you with that, you know? I’m an expert at Excel formulas,” Violet said as she wrapped her arms around Stella’s neck.

“As if you would’ve offered to help me back then.”

“You’re right. I would’ve told you that the professor’s office hours were your friend. I was very mean to you. What ever can I do to make it up to you?”

“I have a few ideas,” Stella said, leaned in, and pressed her lips to Violet’s neck. “But you said you made a reservation for dinner, and we’ll be late if we don’t leave soon.”

“After?” Violet asked.

“After,” she replied.

“Good,” Violet said and pressed her lips against Stella’s ear. “I’m not wearing any underwear.”