Managed by Chance Page 9

  She had been so excited about starting this job. Her previous position had become stale and boring. She was really looking forward to the challenge of working for one of the world’s biggest online retailers. Management positions in IT at a company like Zops.com didn’t come along often.

  Realizing that made her stomach clench as she looked at the sliding glass door just in time to see Mel quickly looking away from her. Mel had done everything right in her career. She had jumped on every opportunity she could and she had done everything she could to prove her worth. And after sitting with her all day, she knew Mel was excellent at her job. But she was still so young. More opportunities will come along for her, even if it’s not at Zops.com or even in the coding department.

  “Fuck, she’s so young.” Katie’s head fell into her hands again, remembering Mel was nine years younger than her. “Why did I act so impulsively and sleep with her? I’m her goddamn boss. This is so, so, so bad. What the hell am I still doing here?”

  She shook her head and body as she took a deep breath to compose herself, then walked to the glass door.

  Chapter Eleven

  As Katie sat down, she reached a hand across the table, and thankfully, Mel accepted her silent invitation. She clasped Mel’s hand, and softly said, “I’m sorry for my silence. Your moment of anger at work makes sense now. But now that I have the facts, I’m really torn on what I should do about it.”

  A cold shiver ran down Mel’s spine. Katie wasn’t looking at her like she had over the weekend. She wasn’t even looking at her like she did at work today. She was looking at her like Mel was just a blank wall. There was no familiarity in the look. And it made Katie feel foreign and cold.

  “Based on what I saw today, I know you’re excellent at your job, the team adores you, and even though he didn’t give you the job, Frank seems to really be impressed with you. I need to know if you can continue to maintain your high level of professionalism and performance despite the way we met.”

  Mel slipped her hand from Katie’s as she sat up straighter in her chair. “I don’t believe I was the one who first broke with professionalism today.” Katie’s brow furrowed, as if not understanding, so Mel clarified, “You kissed me in my office, only moments after Frank walked out the door. You initiated every moment of unprofessionalism today, not me.”

  Katie’s cheeks flared red, and she mumbled, “You’re right. I’m sorry. But that wasn’t what I meant. You got angry at me today. Do you blame me for this?”

  “No.”

  “Okay.”

  Katie was quiet for a few moments, then she cleared her throat, and with her voice carrying an uncharacteristic formality, she decided, “I think we should focus on our working relationship for a while. We need to be able to work well together so we don’t damage our careers. We both have worked hard to get to where we are. We…”

  “I get it, Katie. I don’t need a novel-length list of reasons why you don’t want to date me. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

  As she stood up, Katie also stood, saying, “Mel, I…”

  “I said, I get it.”

  She quickly opened the door and walked straight through the living room to the front door and opened it. Katie slowly walked back inside, and when she saw Mel standing with the front door open, she quickened her pace. She stopped in front of Mel, but Mel wouldn’t meet her eyes.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Mel just nodded. Katie stared in her eyes for several moments, hoping Mel would look at her, but she wouldn’t. She whispered, “I’m sorry,” then rushed out the door.

  As soon as Katie’s body was fully out of the way, Mel closed and locked the door. She pulled her phone out to text Layla but decided against it and pulled up an app to order some dinner instead. Since Layla wasn’t here to complain about it ruining her diet, Mel ordered pizza, garlic knots, hot wings, and cheesecake from their favorite pizza joint. It was way more food than she could possibly eat, but she needed comfort food, not a damn salad.

  After she had an estimated delivery time, she went back to her bedroom to change out of her jeans into some soft cotton shorts. But when she looked at the bed, all she could see was Katie – naked, writhing in pleasure, smiling, laughing, and sleeping in her arms. She kicked the bed, then began aggressively stripping it.

  With her arms loaded with her bed linens, which still smelled like Katie, she left her apartment and rushed down the hall to the laundry room to put them in the washer.

  When she got back to her apartment, she sat on the couch with a fresh beer and her laptop and pulled up a job listing website. An adviser in college told her to always keep her resume up to date, even if she was in a stable job and happy in her position. Mel heeded the advice, so even though she hasn’t had to look for a job in over six years, she was ready to send her resume if she found something interesting.

  But after twenty minutes, not a single listing appealed to her enough to earn her resume. She exhaled hard as she closed the laptop and went back to the laundry room to move her bedding from the washer to the dryer. When she started walking back to her apartment, Alice’s apartment door opened and Alice walked out. Mel hung back, hoping she wouldn’t look in her direction, but as Alice was closing the door, her head snapped around and she gasped as she placed a hand on her chest.

  “Shit, Mel, you scared me. What are you doing?”

  The door quickly opened, and Layla walked out and looked between Mel and Alice, then she quickly stepped out and repeated the question. “What are you doing?”

  “Laundry.”

  She tried to quickly walk past them, but Layla grabbed her arm, and asked, “What happened?”

  “It’s over.”

  She tried to get around Layla, but Layla sidestepped, blocking her path. “Did you…?”

  “No, she did.”

  Alice leaned in to hug Mel, and said, “I’m sorry, Mel. I’ll be right back. I have to go meet the delivery guy downstairs.”

  After Alice walked away, Layla took Mel’s hand, and softly said, “Come eat and hang out with us and tell us what happened.”

  “I ordered food too. It should be here in ten minutes. I need to be able to answer the door.”

  “Okay. We’ll come over when Alice gets back.” She wrapped Mel in a tight hug and kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry. She’s an idiot. Did she say why?”

  “I’ll tell you about it when you get home. I don’t want to talk about it out here.”

  Mel started walking towards their apartment again, so Layla said, “Okay, I’ll see you soon.”

  When she sat down on the couch, she started thinking about everything that happened today at work and tonight when Katie came over. Katie’s reason for ending things was that she didn’t want to damage her career. But given Katie’s actions at work, that didn’t make any sense. Katie kissed her multiple times, especially within the first couple of hours of the day. And while Mel was training her, Katie had placed her hand on her thigh and squeezed her knee a few times. Katie didn’t seem worried about their relationship damaging her career till after she told her about not being awarded the promotion.

  When Layla and Alice walked in, Layla was carrying their bags of food, and Alice was carrying a bottle of whiskey and a few shot glasses.

  They plopped down on the couch on either side of her, and while Alice started pouring shots of whiskey, she asked, “What happened?”

  “I honestly don’t know. I’m so confused.”

  She grabbed one of the shots, and after clinking glasses with Alice and Layla, they drank them back in one big gulp.

  After setting her glass down, Layla started pulling food containers out, and asked, “Why are you confused? Start from the beginning.”

  While Layla and Alice ate salads, Mel told them about work today, then about tonight. When she finished, she filled the shot glasses again.

  With her face pinched from the hot liquor stinging her mouth and throat, Alice said, “Sounds like she feels threatened by you
or feels guilty, or maybe both.”

  “Why the hell would she be threatened by me? Her resume is way better than mine. She got the damn job above me, even though I’ve been doing it for seven months.”

  While chewing a bite of grilled chicken, Layla said, “I think feeling guilty is probably right on the mark. She was all over you at work. And it sounds like she was happy to be here when you first sat down to talk. But as soon as she knew you had been up for the same position, she shut down.” She tossed her salad around with her fork, and added, “I think she’ll come around though,” before eating another bite.

  Alice wiped her mouth with a napkin, and after swallowing, she asked, “Do you still want to date her?”

  “I thought I did. But maybe Katie is right. If it doesn’t work out, it could kill our careers or set us back if either of us has to find a new job. I looked at job listings after she left, but didn’t find anything worth applying for. It could be awhile before I find something worthwhile somewhere else. If it got too weird or difficult to work together, I’d probably be stuck settling for a shitty job just to get away from it.”

  After swallowing a bite of food, Alice said, “It really is shitty luck that she would turn out to be your new boss. How do you feel about dating again? Are you still open to it, even if it never happens with Katie? Maybe if you start dating around, this whole situation won’t be as difficult.”

  “Oh, come on! Why are you guys so obsessed with me dating?” The intercom buzzed, so Mel jumped up to answer it. She pressed the call button, and inquired, “Hello?”

  “Marzetti Pizza for Mel.”

  “I’ll be right down.”

  After patting her pocket to make sure she had her wallet, she pointed at Alice and Layla, and sternly said, “No more talk about me dating when I get back. Or about me getting laid. Or about Katie. Have a new subject when I get back.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Not once in the six plus years that Mel worked at Zops.com had she ever considered calling out just because she didn’t want to go to work. And she could probably count the number of times she had to call out for legitimately being very sick on one hand. But when her alarm went off on Tuesday morning, she was seriously considering calling Frank and telling him she had food poisoning or something. Katie would know the truth, but if she used it against her, she would have to out herself and their inappropriate personal relationship in the process, which could possibly get her fired. But Mel didn’t want the drama and she definitely didn’t want to get Katie fired, not unless she really deserved it anyway.

  Every step she took felt like she was dragging giant iron chains behind her. And when she saw the door to Katie’s office was open, she nearly turned around to go home. The impulse felt like a slap across her face though because it felt like she just validated Katie’s concerns. If she wasn’t mature enough to work with her after just a weekend of great sex and conversations, how would they be able to work together if they actually fell in love and broke up?

  That’s all it was – a great weekend, nothing more, nothing less. And if she set it aside, Katie was just her new boss. She could do this. No problem. Or at least she could fake it.

  She had to walk by Katie’s office to get to her own, so to prove to herself that she could do this, she stopped and lightly rapped her knuckles on the open door. Katie looked up from her computer, and as her eyes locked with Mel’s, her lips twitched into a pained, embarrassed sort of forced smile.

  “Good morning. Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to let you know I’m here. You mind if I run down to the café to get a coffee before we get started on training?”

  “Good morning, Mel. That’s fine. I actually have a meeting at a quarter after, so I won’t be joining you till after nine.”

  “Oh, okay.”

  Mel’s entire body was painfully tingling with disappointment. What meeting would Katie have that she wouldn’t also be going to? Katie has only been with the company for one day!

  As if she could read her mind, Katie explained, “It’s basically a meet and greet and information gathering meeting with the rest of the department heads – other managers and directors.”

  “Oh, okay. Well, good luck.” She started to walk out, but quickly stepped back into the doorway, and asked, “Oh, uh, did you want anything from the café?”

  “No, thank you. I’ve already had my morning cup.”

  Mel nodded, then quickly left. She felt so raw, like she had just been dragged by a truck over gravel for miles. Okay, maybe she was being super dramatic, but it was still rough. Learning how to see Katie as nothing more than her boss was going to be hard.

  She looked so good today. She was wearing a nice light gray blazer that made the gray in her eyes glow like the full moon on a super clear night. And the royal blue blouse made the bits of blue in her eyes sparkle like glitter. Her skin, with just a hint of natural blush, looked as soft as a flawless peach at the peek of ripeness.

  Fuck, she had it bad for the boss.

  She dumped her laptop bag in her office, then walked straight past Katie’s office without even a glance at the open door. She still felt disappointed that she wasn’t invited to that meeting when she had been doing that job for so long, but maybe it was a good thing she wasn’t going. She could barely say good morning to Katie without stuttering. She didn’t want to make a fool of herself in front of anyone else.

  Just as she sat down behind her desk with a very tall mocha cappuccino in hand, Dan walked into her office. “Hey, good morning. Uh, I have a problem.” He had his cellphone in his hand and she could see from her seat that he was on an active call.

  “Yeah, come in.” She motioned to a chair for him to take a seat across from her. “What’s going on?”

  As he walked over to sit, he lifted the phone to his ear, and said, “Stay on. Hang on a minute,” which made her very concerned. After he pulled the phone away from his ear, he explained, “Jessica was in a car accident on her way to work. It’s really bad. Car was totaled.”

  “Shit, is she okay?”

  “She thinks so, but she’s going to the hospital to get checked. Can I…?”

  “Yeah, yeah, go. I’ll shift some things around to cover your work. Keep me posted and let me know if you’ll be back today or if you’ll need off tomorrow.”

  “Thanks.” He stood up, and added, “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Let me know if you need anything.”

  He nodded as he lifted the phone back to his ear to tell his wife he was on the way to meet her ambulance at the hospital. She started to walk out to the floor to talk to the team, but as she was about to pass Katie’s office, she realized she should probably fill her in first.

  She knocked on the door, then walked in to sit across from Katie without waiting for an invitation. “I know you have a meeting in ten minutes, but I wanted to let you know about a situation before I have to shift some work around. Dan just had to leave. His wife was in a bad car accident and is on the way to the hospital to get checked out. She thinks she’s okay, but she’s going just to be sure. I don’t know yet if he’ll be back today or if he’ll need off tomorrow. I asked him to keep me posted. I didn’t know if you would want to address the team or not.”

  Katie’s soft lips curled into a genuine smile. “Thank you for telling me. I’ll walk out with you, but since you’re more familiar with what tasks everyone is working on and trained in being able to complete, you should make the decision this time of who will manage his work today.”

  This time rang over and over again in her head like the reverberation off of a gong. This was the beginning of the end of her near total independence. She was not the manager any more. Everything would have to be run through Katie before she could make any decisions.

  As Katie stood up from her desk, bringing her trim waist and beautiful legs into view, Mel’s body warmed and her brain shorted. She just remained in her seat and watched Katie walk out from behind her desk to stand next to her chair. Katie smiled do
wn at her, then subtly jerked her head towards the door, reactivating Mel’s brain. She quickly stood up and cleared her throat. Without looking at Katie, she walked out past her and didn’t look back to make sure Katie was following.

  As they came around the corner to their department, Mel said, “Good morning, team.” They wheeled out from their desks to face her and Katie, and Mel continued, “Dan had a personal emergency and had to leave.” She spent a couple of minutes delegating tasks and deciding which projects to prioritize and shelf till Dan returned. Then advised, “Katie has a meeting,” she looked at her watch, “in five minutes, then we’ll be training. But feel free to come see us if you need anything. Any questions?”

  Everyone looked between each other, then at Mel and shook their heads. She nodded, then looked to her side at Katie, and asked, “Do you have anything you want to discuss?”

  Katie looked out at the team with a warm smile, and added, “Please let us know if any tasks are falling behind so we can jump in to help if need be. Okay, that’s all.” She turned to face Mel, and with that same formality she had the night before when she broke off their personal relationship, she asked, “Will you show me where Conference Room H is?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Mel jerked a thumb backwards. “It’s this way.”

  As they were about to pass her office, Katie stopped, and said, “I just need to grab a pen and notebook.”

  Mel nodded and waited, then they walked down the hall side by side and in complete silence. When they were outside of the conference room, Mel said, “Here you go. I’ll see you later.”