by Susan Wolfe
To her surprise, she did have a response. His B.A. from USF was confirmed, although the date was off by a couple of years. No record of his PhD in Economics from the University of Washington, though. Really? She must have entered the wrong data, which she couldn’t check because she’d already taken the resume folder back to the office.
But no record of his high school diploma, either. She must have uttered some surprise, because Katie-Ann shot her a quizzical glance and then settled back to her reading.
Well, this was weird. No record of graduating from Klamath Union High School, Klamath Falls, Oregon, 1979? How was that possible? She hadn’t gotten both the high school and the PhD data wrong, and nobody would ever make up a degree from some random public high school. So either the service was about as useful as headlights on a bathtub (which seemed likely), or else somebody had gotten sloppy and put bad data in Roy’s resume, in which case they’d been reporting bad data to the SEC since the dawn of time (unfortunately, also likely). Great. Now she’d have to think up some excuse for questioning his resume data, and then figure out how to correct it with the SEC. Assuming she still had a job.
And suppose they didn’t turn up evidence that Sally had fabricated the email from Georgia?
She resorted to playing online sudoku.
Her cell phone rang an hour later. She could feel Katie-Ann’s stare boring into the top of her skull as she snatched it up.
“Georgia, it’s Ken Madigan.” As if she wouldn’t know which Ken it was. Honestly. “The company owes you an apology, and we’d like you to return to work tomorrow morning.”
So they’d found proof that Sally had faked the document. She began breathing deeply to counteract the blood rushing out of her head. Important to sound matter-of-fact in front of Katie-Ann.
“Great, though you don’t owe me an apology. You figured out what happened?”
“I think we understand mechanically what happened, but we surely don’t know why. You were right. She apparently doctored a document that came to her personal email from a lawyer at Woodrow, Mantella, though it wasn’t one of the lawyers who works with us. Our lawyers knew nothing about it. Those minor differences you noted were updates to their general template because of recent changes in the law.”
“And the email that supposedly came from me?” She ignored Katie-Ann’s little gasp.
“They’re looking at the metadata now.”
“Honestly, this is quite a relief. It was all kind of creepy.” She swore she could see Katie-Ann’s ears growing. “I’ve made it through the documents, by the way. There are three I’d like you to look at before I produce them.”
“Georgia Louise Griffin,” Katie-Ann demanded the minute she hung up, “what was creepy? And what email was ‘supposedly’ from you? Are you in trouble?”
“Precisely the opposite, Katie-Ann.”
“Kate,” she corrected her.
Georgia rolled her eyes. “Kate. An executive was trying to deceive our CEO, and I helped Ken prove it. Done and dusted, as Gramma Griffin would say. And you know what? I’m pretty done and dusted myself right now.” She shut down her old Mac, stacked the Lumina documents back in their box, and set the box by the front door. Then she went and stood under the hot shower for a long time, letting her tension gurgle down the drain along with the shampoo.
Jesus H Bull Guano Christ, that was scary! Yuck. She shuddered. Triple yuck. Fucking miracle it hadn’t come out the other way. Overconfidence was a terrible trait, really. (Just look what it had gotten Robbie.) Standing under the cascade of hot water, she renounced it firmly and forever.
And totally not worth it. Lumina Software could have limped along indefinitely with Sally Kurtz in full, eye-scorching regalia. Of course, it probably wouldn’t have to, now. This probably qualified as a public crack-up, or at least an insurmountable moral failure. Hard to see how Roy could protect her from the board now, no matter what she had on him. Assuming she had anything on him. Probably overconfidence to be so cocksure about that, too. And she surely wasn’t going to snoop around and find out. Even if it was pretty interesting. She began scooping the water over her head with both hands to rinse out the conditioner.
No. She was darned lucky, lesson learned with her job still intact and Katie-Ann—make that Kate—with a roof still over her head. She might even be back in Ken’s good graces, where she intended to stay. She was well and truly done with using special talents for any purpose as long as Kate depended on her. Might even think about a social life, which reminded her she still hadn’t returned that message from Eddie Fallon. She turned off the shower, and groped beyond the plastic curtain for her towel.
Her father had been right as usual. Saved her bacon for sure. Here she’d been tempted to shrink back, just when bold action was most called for. But what about that predicted “exhilarating professional satisfaction” at seeing Sally defeated at last? Did she feel any of that? She punched her pillow and slid her bare feet luxuriously down into her warm sleeping bag.
Well, yes really, she did feel pleased. Quite pleased. And surely there was no harm in that. Well, except it might be hard to get to sleep. In retrospect, it had all been quite satisfying. Had they told Sally yet?
Har!!
There was just no substitute for the old adrenaline pump, when she got right down to it. And since she was prudently locking her special talents away in cold storage, why not acknowledge that this whole Sally thing had ended up being one big, glorious hoot?
She lay on her back in the warm, dark room, elbows spread wide on the clean pillowcase under her wet hair, her whole body bobbing on a sea of exhilarating satisfaction.
CHAPTER 28
The next couple of months were exciting for Lumina Software. Shortly after the abrupt (and widely celebrated) resignation of Executive Vice President Sally Kurtz, the much-awaited 6.1 was launched at the beginning of March with the finest fanfare that could be mustered by a marketing team newly released from the challenge of “Management Is Listening.” It was a testament to Andrea and her team that it also launched to exceptional acclaim in the technical press.
Readers of eWEEK and PC Magazine and virtually every other geek publication of Silicon Valley could learn from cover stories that “despite its recent revenue losses to the competition, and therefore the tremendous pressure to release yet another premature product, Lumina’s Chief Executive and Chief Technical Officers have shown the integrity and maturity of focus to Ship When Ready. And is this product ready! Long-suffering and skeptical customers are about to experience genuine delight in Lumina software of the kind that created so many ardent, wedded-for-life fans in its early days.”
Armed with these glowing reports, the sales team bounded forth to customer sites like parched gazelles bounding to a fresh watering hole. The exhausted, dusty Lumina Software caravan was pulling into a lush oasis.
Georgia wasn’t trying to conceal from Eddie Fallon the fact that she lived with her little sister. How could she, when he’d been standing right beside her as she’d answered that terrifying 2 a.m. phone call a few weeks back?
Still, she saw no reason to emphasize her peculiar domestic situation the first time she met Eddie outside of work. So even though Kate went with her to Gap and helped her choose the black dress with the short swingy skirt; and even though Kate was the one who found the perfect earrings at the Now & Again shop to set off Georgia’s blueberry colored eyes; and maybe because Kate wanted to “seriously inspect this dude,” Georgia persuaded her sister well in advance to disappear into the bedroom as soon as the doorbell rang.
So when Eddie arrived to take her to dinner at Reposado and rang the doorbell, Georgia paused just long enough to hear the reassuring click of the bedroom door behind her. Then she opened her front door and saw that Eddie had been as careful about his appearance as she’d been about hers. Too careful. He’d forced his unruly brown hair into submission, and his ultra-neat checked shirt was almost worthy of Mark Balog. Uh-oh. This date might be as lively as a blown-
out candle.
“Hi,” she said stiffly, her voice a little strangled down in her throat, “You found it okay? Let me get my sweater.”
He gestured with his head toward the space over her left shoulder. “Introduce me?”
Georgia whirled to see Kate standing about one foot behind her in complete violation of their explicit agreement.
“Oh! Of course. Eddie, this is my sister. Kate, this is Eddie Fallon.”
“Hi,” Kate said with a little wave. Turning to Georgia she added solemnly, “I don’t think he has too many freckles.”
“What?!” Georgia said with disbelief as Kate let her smile widen into a wicked grin. A flush began to spread across Eddie’s freckled cheeks.
“Sorry,” Kate said, “bad joke. That was mean.” She turned to Eddie. “Georgia never said one word about your freckles. The only thing she did say was . . .”
“Katie-Ann!” Was that a snicker she heard from Eddie, or was he choking on embarrassment?
Kate pressed her left hand to her mouth in mock horror and extended her other hand palm down, inviting him to take it. “My!” she said with a pronounced Arkansas twang. “What I mean to say is it’s a right pleasure to meet you, Mr. Fallon. I do hope you have a lovely evening with my bi-yutiful sister.” Georgia almost bumped against Eddie’s retreating back in her haste to get out of the apartment. She threw a furious glare at Kate’s mock-sweet smile and pulled the door closed between them.
Near the bottom of the stairs she said to Eddie’s back, “Wow! What the hell was that?”
He turned, and she saw with relief that a strand of brown hair had popped up and his gorgeous, slightly asymmetric smile had appeared. “Well, you’d know better than I would, but I’d say it was your gutsy teenage sister seriously jerking your chain.” He held the passenger door of his dark blue Mini Cooper while she climbed in, then went around and climbed in the driver’s side. “And is she ever your sister!” he continued, laughing as his gray eyes considered her face. “Not just the daredevil personality, but even her looks. She’s a blond version of you.”
“What makes you think my personality is daredevil?” she inquired as he started the engine.
Georgia was eating her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in her cube and researching requirements for sales tax collection in all fifty states, when a company-wide email from Roy appeared in her inbox:
Dear Colleagues,
As you know, it is essential to the vitality of the business that we . . .
Well, okay, not the whole email. She skipped down to see if there was any substance.
Giuseppe Coppola, who recently joined us as our Director of Business Development, is hereby promoted, effective immediately, to Vice President of Business and Product Development. He retains all previous duties, and now adds the crucial role of understanding our evolving market and leading our product development in the direction that will maximize our competitive advantage in the marketplace.
This change in responsibilities will free Andrea Hancock to focus more fully on managing the R&D team in a manner that maximizes their effectiveness and brings our products to market in a timely way.
Please join me in providing full support to Giuseppe and Andrea in their new roles.
Roy
The second reading confirmed her impression from the first. Part of Andrea’s job—the creative part—had just been given to Giuseppe Coppola. All that grumbling about “amateur hour” and “SallyMan” when Coppola took over biz dev with no biz dev experience seemed rather to have missed the point.
Ken said Andrea was the crown jewel of the company.
This probably wasn’t as bad as it seemed. She printed a copy of the email and headed down the corridor to Ken’s office. His door was closed.
“Maggie,” she asked, “is Ken going to be free for a minute sometime this afternoon?”
Maggie glanced at her watch, then pulled up his schedule on her computer screen. “Hard to say. He’s supposed to be free right now. This is an unscheduled conversation he’s having. I might be able to get you in for five minutes before his one o’clock call.”
“Great. Can I ask who he’s talking to?”
“Andrea.”
“Thanks, Maggie. I’ll be in my cube.”
“Georgia,” Ken said a few minutes later. “What’s goin’ on?” He was seated at his conference table, his body strangely still as he raised his gaze from the empty, polished table top to meet hers. In fact, the only visible motion in this usually lively room was through his window and beyond the parking lot, where the tops of sun-dappled eucalyptus trees undulated in the gusting April wind.
“I just saw Roy’s email,” she said, “and was hoping you could tell me it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.”
“I would love to do that, Georgia Griffin, but as a one-time Eagle Scout and Catholic I am not permitted to lie.” His rueful smile above his cherry red bow tie told her he was proud of her for spotting disaster as quickly as he did. Sort of a two-edged skill for both of them.
“Is she going to quit?”
“I am not at liberty to tell you that, either, but I will say she was just in here asking me whether a written resignation requires public disclosure.”
“Oh no. Does the board know?”
“I don’t know whether they know about the demotion. They don’t know about a resignation yet, because there hasn’t been one. She’s waiting until quarter end.”
“Won’t they stop it when they find out?”
“I’m sure they’ll try. I just doubt they can succeed. Andrea has decided this is one insult too many for her to keep working with Roy.”
“Will she leave right away?”
“She’s thinking of giving a month’s notice. In a way it doesn’t matter. She’s irreplaceable, no matter how much notice she gives.”
“This is bad.”
“It is bad, Georgia, but don’t get too upset about it. The way of the world, really. Just be glad Roy Zisko is the CEO of a two-bit software company and not the leader of the Free World.”
Two-bit software company.
“Ken, are you going to quit?”
“I don’t really know, Georgia. I don’t see how the company can survive without Andrea, much less flourish. I’m not usually a quitter, but I can’t remember ever feeling quite like such a fool for just showing up every day and taking my job seriously.”
“It’ll be horrible if you leave. For the company,” she added quickly.
“Nobody’s indispensable around here. Well, except Andrea. How’s that for laughs? Certainly not me. I don’t know what I’m going to decide, but you shouldn’t let it influence you one way or another. You’re doing a great job here, and the job lets you support Katie-Ann. You certainly don’t want to jeopardize that on my account.”
“Thanks, Ken. I’ll look out for myself. And I’m sure you’ll make the right decision.”
“Thanks, Georgia. It’s great working with you. Would you mind closing the door on your way out?”
For the rest of the day Georgia kept reminding herself that he hadn’t said ‘It’s been great working with you.’
“You go ahead and start your homework,” she told Kate after dinner. “I’ll clean up, and then I’m going down to my car to think a while.” She began spooning the leftover ground beef in mushroom soup into a plastic container.
Kate, who was bundled up in her favorite red hoodie, lifted a book from her backpack and let it drop with a satisfying thunk onto the rickety card table. “Did you return Eddie’s phone call?” She shook her head disapprovingly. “Can’t believe you’re giving up SFJazz with the Eddie dude just to think. Must be serious.” Eddie dude. Kate’s assimilation was complete.
“It is, sort of.” She’d told the Eddie dude she had to work late, and it was only their second time out.
“Okay, but why your car, Georgia? It’s cold out there tonight. Think in the bedroom, and I’ll stay out here.”
She shook her head and pointed a finger
skyward. “Need celestial consultation for this one. You know the car’s my thinking place. I sorted out some important things when I lived in it, and I no longer decide anything without my buddy Orion.”
A few minutes later she left Kate hunched over her geometry book, descended the drafty cement steps and locked herself in the passenger side of the car. She wasn’t going to see Orion tonight. The moon was a pale glow behind thick clouds, and rain began to patter on the windshield. She pulled the old wool blanket from the back seat, tucked it around the front of her body, then closed her eyes and focused on her breath. At least, tried to focus. After a few minutes she gave up, opened her eyes again and looked up at the light in their living room where Katie-Ann was hard at work.
Andrea was leaving the company, and when she went, Ken would go, too.
Ken thought there was one crown jewel of the company. Georgia knew there were two, and now they would both be gone. The company wouldn’t survive this, especially when the stock was still recovering. It would become a takeover target for sure, and how secure would her job be then? Without Ken to look out for her. She expelled a sigh against the back of her hand. So much for those stock options and Katie-Ann’s college money. So much for achieving escape velocity from her no-account life in Arkansas. She’d be lucky to avoid living jammed up against Katie-Ann in the backseat of the Subaru. Good thing she wasn’t the sort of wimp who cried.
Not to mention that when Ken quit, she’d never see him again. That was the difference between a business friend and a real friend, wasn’t it? You could lose them in a heartbeat, and weren’t even supposed to care.
It was amazing how recently her dreams of a long-term job in a successful company had seemed not just possible but secure. She’d been the finest paralegal she knew how to be, and for what? She’d been delusional to think a paralegal could ever really make a difference.