In Over Her Head (Corporate Chaos Series Book 1)

by Leighann Dobbs

  "Come up to my desk. I want to show you something." Sarah grabbed Marly's arm and led her to the elevator. Marly let Sarah lead her. There was no way she was going to let Sarah get into trouble for her, but she might as well see what she had to say.

  "Before I decided to follow my real passion—food—I got my degree in accounting. That was boring, so I took some classes in fashion design before I realized I should really be going to culinary school. I did an internship here for design. That's how I met Jasper. I have all the software still loaded on my computer from when I interned downstairs with the design team," Sarah explained as she clicked on various icons and files on her PC.

  "Umm… okay?" Marly raised her brows at Sarah.

  Sarah gave her a "don't you get it?" look and lowered her voice to a whisper. "We can take your existing designs and modify them, and you can give those to Tanner. They won't be the same designs Draconia is launching. Just tell me what changes you want me to make, and I will do it."

  Marly's mind raced. What was Sarah saying?

  "Wait. So if I give you my finished designs and mark them up with what I want changed, you can change them with this software? Just like the in-house design team does?"

  "Exactly. Tanner would never know. They will have the Draconia seal on each one. There's no way he could know they aren't current designs. And our design team won't know, either, because all they will have are the final ones you've signed off on. You just mark out on each one what you want me to alter, and I can do it, and then you can print them out. No one but us will ever know." She clicked on the print button, and her printer started to spit out the designs Marly had already finished for Draconia.

  Hope bloomed in Marly's chest. She could take her designs for the plus line and have Sarah alter them, making them for smaller sizes for Tanner. Of course, the designs for the plus line were geared toward flattering a larger woman's curves, hiding certain flaws, and accentuating what curvy girls had in common. These styles wouldn't look good on a size two. In fact, they would look horrible. But that wouldn't be Marly's issue. She was supposed to deliver designs to Tanner, and that was what she would do. And if people thought he simply did a cheap rip-off of Draconia's new line and it flopped, then so be it.

  "I could kiss you!" Marly yelled, hugging Sarah. She pulled back slowly. "Wait. Sarah, no. I can't let you get involved like this. You could lose your job. This is serious stuff."

  "Marly, I already am involved in a way. And, really, I want to help you. No one will ever know. Let's just do this, and then you can move on, okay? I mean, technically, you aren't stealing designs. You're changing the ones you already made. Kind of," Sarah said, laughing.

  "Okay. But I will repay you. I don't know how or when, Sarah, but I will!" Marly grabbed the folder of designs. It was already late, and she needed to mark them up tonight so they'd be ready for Tanner tomorrow. She gave Sarah another quick hug and bolted for the elevator.

  18

  Marly looked through the designs for Tanner for the hundredth time, her eyes bloodshot and tired from lack of sleep. She and Sarah had spent hours on these fake designs for Tanner, and she was exhausted. She was riddled with guilt over doing this, but at the same time, she was relieved they were done so she could now focus on finishing her real project at work. She put the designs in a folder and placed them in her laptop bag, focusing her attention on her project.

  Feeling famished and realizing that she hadn't eaten any breakfast, Marly decided to head down to the cafeteria to grab some lunch. She walked quickly through the maze of cubes to the elevator, keeping her head down. She knew she looked like the walking dead and just wanted to avoid making eye contact with people for fear of getting stuck in some ridiculously long, unnecessary conversation.

  Her heels made a loud clicking noise in the mostly empty cafeteria. The lunch crowd had dwindled, the fake-wood laminate tables with their uncomfortable plastic chairs mostly empty. The smells of grilled beef and onions lingered. Marly's stomach growled. She hurried over to the grill and ordered a steak and cheese.

  "Extra mayo, hold the onions?" the grill cook asked her, smiling. Marly suddenly realized she ate the same thing there way too much.

  "Yes. Thanks," she replied, smiling back while taking the sub from him. She paid and sat down at a small table by herself and bit into the warm sub, cheese oozing out of it. She knew she should have gotten a salad instead, but nothing beats having a nice gooey steak and cheese when you're stressed out. She took a few more bites and then wrapped the remainder up, the clock on the wall in front of her reminding her she had a meeting with Tanner soon.

  Stepping off the elevator, she was headed toward her cube when she noticed a familiar head over the top of the cubes. Jasper! No! She almost said it out loud, and made a beeline toward the ladies' room. Rushing inside, she flew across it to the opposite side, as if she were afraid Jasper would come in looking for her. She stood at the sink, her reflection reminding her she still had the sub in her hand. She was standing there looking at it when one of the bathroom stall doors opened and Veronica came walking out.

  "Are you eating in here?" Veronica asked her in a disgusted voice while eyeballing her up and down. "That is so unsanitary, Marly. You really should eat your food someplace else. Unless you don't like people to see that fat-bomb you are eating." She smirked, drying her hands off with a paper towel and then sauntering out of the ladies' room before Marly could think up a witty reply.

  Dammit! Of all people to be in here, why the hell did it have to be Veronica?! Marly peeked out the door to make sure the coast was clear of Jasper and scurried to her cube, cursing Veronica under her breath. Didn't Veronica have her own bathroom on her floor?

  She sighed as she sat down at her desk, tossing the half-eaten sub to the side. Why was Jasper wandering around this floor anyway? He never ventured far from his office unless it was to go to one of the meeting rooms, the cafeteria, or the gym.

  Was he coming to see her?

  No, that was a stupid idea. Why would Jasper be lurking around her floor to see her? If he wanted to talk about the project, he'd just call a meeting.

  Turning to her computer, she opened her presentation up and spent the next few hours forcing herself to focus on it while her eyes strayed to the clock every five minutes. The time passed agonizingly slowly; she just wanted to get this thing with Tanner over with.

  Then, all of a sudden, it was two forty. Time to go. She printed out her final papers for the presentation so that they would be ready to go. Hopefully, the printer wouldn't get stuck and make her late for her meeting with Tanner. How ironic would that be after she clock-watched all day?

  She stood up, scanning over the cubes to make sure she didn't see the top of the head of anyone that she wouldn't want to run into, then made a beeline to the printer. From the end of the aisle, she could see pages being spit out one by one. Good, no paper jams.

  Things were starting to go her way, and the papers had printed perfectly with no paper jams. She grabbed them and headed back to her cube, skidding to a stop when she saw someone walking down her row.

  Jasper? No! Why would he be down here twice in the same afternoon? Wait. Was he at her cube?

  Marly ducked behind a large potted tree and peeked around the side to see what the hell Jasper was doing. He turned around, and she ducked down so fast she lost her balance and stumbled away from the plant, out into the main aisle.

  She scrambled to gain some balance, knocking into the tree, her heart hammering as she caught it just before it tumbled over and alerted the entire floor to her stupidity. Having ninja moves at her size was impossible! She noticed that the supply closet door was ajar and scurried inside, pulling the door closed behind her so Jasper wouldn't walk past and see her inside. The last thing she needed was to be trapped in the supply closet with him.

  "Are you following me?" A nasty voice demanded from the dark depths of the room.

  Veronica.

  Could things get any worse? Marly glanced at t
he clock on the wall, her stomach swooping. It was two fifty. If she didn't leave for the meeting with Tanner right now, she would be late.

  "No, I am not following you. I needed… Wait, why are you even in here?" Marly asked, realizing there was no reason for Veronica to be in that supply closet. Just like the bathroom, Veronica had her own supply closet near her desk on her own floor.

  "It's none of your business, but I ran out of toner." Veronica held up a square container of printer toner as she bumped the door with her bony hip. The door opened a crack.

  Veronica turned to scowl at her. "Why are you here?"

  Marly leaned on the door handle, trying to pull it closed unobtrusively.

  Veronica shifted her position, her body now preventing the door from fully shutting. Marly tugged a little harder. Veronica was so skinny, Marly felt sure one good tug on the door would dislodge her from keeping it open.

  "I'm… I'm, ah, out of toner. I mean the p-printer was… is…" Marly stuttered through her answer as little beads of sweat started to form on her upper lip.

  Pull yourself together!

  Veronica looked bewildered. Probably because Marly was acting as if she were hiding from the Mafia and was unable to answer a simple question.

  Veronica reached for the handle then noticed Marly's hand was on it. "What are you doing?"

  "Me? Nothing. I was just getting toner, like I said." How long did she need to stall Veronica from opening the door? Jasper would have to walk right past the supply room to get on the elevator. Hopefully, he was already gone.

  Veronica rolled her eyes and pushed on the door harder with her butt. It opened further. Marly pulled on the handle.

  They both were opening their mouths to say something when the door flew open to reveal Jasper standing on the other side.

  Jasper blinked into the dark supply room. He thought he'd seen the door moving strangely and wondered if someone had their arms full of supplies and needed help. He hadn't expected to see Marly and Veronica in there together. And why was Marly sweating and Veronica's face red? "Hello, ladies. Is everything okay?"

  "Of course, Jasper. I just needed toner for our printer. We're out upstairs," Veronica replied cheerfully then slid her way past him into the hall.

  Jasper had been trawling the floor all day trying to catch up with Marly, but now that they were in the supply closet alone, he felt awkward. And embarrassed. Suddenly, he felt like a schoolboy finally getting up the nerve to talk to his crush and then not knowing what to say.

  He had butterflies in his stomach, a feeling he wasn't accustomed to. His mind wandered back to when they had kissed. Marly had seemed to enjoy it. Hell, she was the one that had kissed him first! Now she was staring at her watch and looked like a caged animal wanting to be set free.

  "I just needed some toner too," Marly mumbled, trying to shuffle her way out the door.

  Really? She didn't have a bottle of toner in her hands. He decided not to ask her about it and instead ask the question he'd been trying to ask her all day.

  "Oh. Well, there must be a lot of printing going on around here. Everyone is out of toner," he joked. "Maybe we can go to dinner tonight to talk about it?"

  Real smooth. Couldn't he have come up with a better line?

  "Tonight? I can't tonight. I have… I'm busy." Marly made her way around him and hurried down the row of cubes, leaving Jasper standing alone in the doorway of the supply closet.

  Jasper watched Marly walk away. It actually seemed more like a sprint than a walk. She couldn't wait to get away from him. His stomach plummeted. Apparently, his father had been on to something about not getting too friendly with the employees. And maybe he should have stuck to his previous relationship mantra about putting himself first and just using the relationship for his own needs, because it appeared that Marly West was definitely not interested in him the same way he was interested in her.

  Veronica was lucky that she was so skinny, because her small size allowed her to wedge herself in between the gap in the cubicle wall and the wall next to the storage closet so she could eavesdrop on Marly and Jasper's conversation.

  And she did not like what she'd heard.

  Had Jasper just asked frumpy Marly out to dinner?

  And had Marly actually said no to him?

  She wasn't sure what she had expected to hear, but this certainly wasn't it.

  Jasper emerged from the closet, and she shrank back further, terrified he might see her. But he didn't. He walked on toward the elevator, looking down at his shoes as if he were deep in thought. Or depressed. It couldn't be because Marly had turned him down.

  Speaking of Marly, she'd been acting awfully strange all day. First she'd eaten her sub in the ladies' room, and just now in the storage room, it had seemed as if she wanted to hide in there. But then when Jasper came, she'd hurried away as if it were on fire.

  Did Marly's odd behavior have something to do with her clandestine meetings with Tanner Durcotte?

  Veronica removed herself from her hiding place just in time to see Marly rushing out of her cube, her big purse banging against her hips, a large folder under her arm. She was clearly in a hurry, but where was she going? It was only three in the afternoon.

  Veronica tossed the toner she had been holding back into the supply closet and hurried to the stairs just as Marly got in the elevator. Marly was up to something, and Veronica was determined to find out what it was. This could be her chance to get rid of Marly once and for all.

  A million thoughts battled for attention in Marly's mind as she rode down in the elevator. Had Jasper just asked her out? Talk about the worst timing ever. She must have sounded like an idiot saying no. Imagine—Jasper Kenney asked her out, and she actually said no. She felt like an idiot. An idiot, a liar, and a cheat who was screwing Jasper over.

  Why was this elevator so slow?

  She pushed the lobby button over and over, knowing that wouldn't make it get her there any faster.

  She was going to be late for her meeting with Tanner, and she just wanted all of this to be over. The anxiety was killing her. She calmed herself by thinking about how her mother would finally be getting the operation. That was all that mattered.

  But what if Tanner saw through the designs? What if Jasper found out about it? Since the designs wouldn't hurt Draconia, Jasper might never know. Tanner would never tell that he bought stolen designs, and his company could quite possibly go under. It would actually be a good thing, and Marly hadn't technically screwed Draconia over—she'd helped them.

  She and Jasper had a connection. She knew he felt it. But it was stupid to think she could continue to work there and even continue her friendship with Jasper after this. She had to quit, didn't she? Or would Jasper ever understand why she'd had to do it?

  19

  Tanner Durcotte sat at the restaurant alone, tapping his finger impatiently on the table. Marly was late for their afternoon meeting. He'd texted her with the deadline—three p.m.—and now it was five past three, and she wasn't here. Tanner didn't like tardiness. In fact, he had grown tired of this whole situation. It had taken her far too long to get him these designs. As it was, his staff would have to work twenty-hour days, seven days a week, to get the line out for the Fall Fashion Week show, and that was a huge "if." His company was on the brink of disaster. This line would either save it or put the final nail in the coffin.

  He leaned back in his chair with a sigh. He was weary of all of it. Maybe it was best to fold up the fashion company and focus on growing his line of small restaurants. What would Emily have wanted him to do? Images of his late wife threatened to soften his hardened heart, so he pushed them away. Emily was gone. The good times were over.

  "Here you go, sir." The waitress placed a small salad in front of him. "Can I get you anything else?"

  Tanner shook his head and asked for the bill. He wasn't even hungry, and he didn't care if Marly was, assuming she even showed up. He just wanted the drawings. The waitress placed the bill on the table. />
  He looked at his watch again and was pulling his phone out to call Marly one more time when he spotted her walking over to the table.

  "Well, how nice of you to show up, Marly," he said dryly, leaning back in his chair again and looking at his watch dramatically.

  Marly sighed as she sat down. She looked exasperated. Figured. Stupid bitch didn't even appreciate everything he was doing for her.

  "Here's what you want, Tanner. All the designs are here. Twenty, to be exact." She slid a folder across the table to him.

  Tanner looked over each design, painstakingly. One by one, he reviewed them all. They were exactly what he had hoped for. This was what he needed to keep his company afloat. And by the looks of things, his design team wouldn't need to do a lot to them, either. Change materials or colors, yes, but the measurements must be fine since Draconia catered to the same clientele.

  After looking at the last one, he reached into his suit coat, took his checkbook out, and wrote a check to Marly for the agreed-upon amount: one hundred thousand dollars. He slid it across the table to her then stood up and left without saying a word.

  Veronica St. James didn't know what she had just witnessed from her spot behind the elm tree on the sidewalk where she could peek unseen into the café, but she knew it was something. Following Marly had been a genius idea. This meeting with Tanner proved Marly was up to something.

  What was in the folder? Was that a check that Durcotte had just handed Marly?

  Thanks to smart phones and the great picture-taking capabilities they had, Veronica had captured it all. Jasper would want to know about this. Try and talk your fat ass out of this one, Marly.

  20

  Marly was too busy looking at the check in her hands to care that Tanner had left without saying a word. The smug smile on his face had said it all, anyway. Hopefully, this would be the last time she'd ever see him. Good riddance.