Coming To Reason (A Long Road to Love)

by O'Connor, Liza

  A pin drop could have been heard in the conference room.

  “As of now, the commission allocations have changed.” He passed out documents to each side of the table and soon everyone silently read.

  “This isn’t right,” Scott grumbled.

  Dan’s stern glare silenced the jerk.

  “These new rules are far less generous if you place people who do not intend to stay in the job. If you take the effort to fit the right person to the position, your commission might improve.”

  Carrie noticed three of the people nodding in agreement. Only two seemed angered by the changes. The others seemed nervous and uncertain.

  One of the uncertain ones raised his hand. “Can you tell us what happened?”

  Dan shook his head. “Due to the criminal case being brought against Sandra, my lawyer says I cannot. An investigator will arrive today and, when you are called to this conference room, please arrive on time and give him your full cooperation.”

  “What if I want a lawyer?” Scott asked.

  Dan stretched his hands across the table as if he contemplated strangling the jerk. “If you have actively committed crimes with Sandra then, by all means, bring a lawyer.”

  “What if it takes a few days?”

  “Take it up with the investigator. I have no idea how they’ll handle the situation.” He turned to his terrified staff. “The rest of you, who did not knowingly commit crimes, are not at risk of being charged with anything.”

  The tension dropped like a rock, with several people releasing it through nervous laughter.

  Dan continued. “Last week, I fired three employees for placing too many people who did not stay beyond one month. I offered all three their jobs back. Two have accepted and should be starting today.”

  “Which two?”

  “Kayla and Shubert.”

  “Shoe box. All right!” the guy who loved Tall and Tiny declared.

  “And one final note. I gave Carrie permission to fix up her office over the weekend. I offer the same deal to anyone else. If you wish to spend your money and your effort and work over the weekends to upgrade your office, you may do so. If you wish to paint your walls, you must clear the color through my secretary beforehand, or risk repainting. Any artwork or photos hung on the wall must pass Helen’s approval or be taken down. Plants must be kept alive and in good condition.” He stared at his people.

  “We have no budget for redecorating and refurnishing this year. However, Carrie’s request made me realize some of you might wish to improve your offices, even if you have to do it yourself. So, you may, as long as the results are professional.”

  Scott snorted. “You call the systems office ‘professional’?”

  Dan sighed and leaned back. “Helen is now the style police. And when I put her in charge, she informed me Systems would have to repaint the walls.”

  “Nobody sees the room other than us,” Claire complained. “I need cheering up when I have to go to Destiny.” She grimaced. “I meant to say the only reason I stop by is when I’m having computer problems.”

  Dan smiled. “I understand. But this is Helen’s call. We will not argue with her and plead other people’s cases. We will accept her rulings. The appearances of all our offices matter to our clients and candidates as they walk through the halls.”

  He rose and left the room.

  They grumbled a bit about their new space-Nazi when Scott yelled at them. “Who gives a fuck about the offices? You should be on the phone looking for a lawyer!”

  Jeff spoke up before the others became terrified again. “Scott, you sound like the only person who needs a lawyer. I’m dying to find out what has you scared shitless.”

  “Fuck you!” Scott grabbed his pad and stormed from the room.

  With the meeting over, Jeff walked Carrie out. “May I see your office again?”

  When they reached it, on the door Helen had taped her assessment of the room.

  “Did she assess my room by looking through this tiny window?”

  “Helen has a key to everything,” Jeff explained and pulled the assessment off the door as they entered. Carrie sat down and read it.

  “The throw on the chair knocked my grade to 96 percent.”

  Jeff rolled his eyes and sat in her guest chair.

  Darn it, she’d planned to reupholster the piece, but forgot to bring in the stuff to do so.

  Jeff moved about a bit in the chair and focused on her. “As a newbie, if you brought in a client who agreed to sign a long-term exclusivity agreement with our company, you would have to turn the client over to me and I would get a commission for the pre-work I do to ensure the client gets the people he needs.”

  She nodded, having sat in a few of those this week. “You earn the commission.”

  He smiled. “Thank you, but in a case in which you bring in a client, I can assure you, they’ll want your involvement. Nor can I blame them. So I’ve cut a deal with Dan. You and I will split the commission 70/30.”

  “How much is the commission?”

  “It depends upon the number of people in the company. For example, if you had brought in Top Value, they have fifty thousand employees, so the commission is $50,000, thus you would have received $15,000 and I would get $35,000.”

  “Wow. And you get this before they even hire a person?”

  “Yes. And it’s something you won’t find at other resource firms. However, Dan believes getting long-term exclusivity contracts and maintaining the relationship is critical to our success. He calls it his farm of clients, to be nurtured and grown.”

  “I think he’s right.”

  “Only if the consultant can add value to the process. And most of our consultants, I’m sorry to say, do not. They are not even aware the farmer’s commission exists.”

  “What happens if they bring someone in?”

  “The firm will be given to either me or Dan, the consultant will be recognized in the Monday meeting, and thrown some key openings at whatever level they are competent to place.” Jeff shifted forward. “If you agree to this relationship, no one else here can know. You are unique. You think like an executive and clients trust you. You bring significant value to the table.”

  “It’s possible I won’t be a consultant long.”

  “I know, Dan told me he’s going to make you our change specialist. You’ll have two titles.”

  “And Dan’s okay with this?”

  “He thought it a great idea.”

  She breathed out in relief. “Then I would love to be your secret partner.”

  Jeff frowned.

  She hit her forehead. “That didn’t sound right.”

  He stood and moved to the door. “Yeah, let’s call you a senior associate.”

  “Sounds much better.”

  “Great, then make a list of businessmen you think you might be able to bring in, then check it against our data file and determine which we don’t already have.”

  Carrie smiled. She had a real job now.

  ***

  Dan entered carrying both a bowl of nuts and blueberries and two iPads.

  She squealed with delight and reached for the tablets.

  He handed her the blueberries instead. “Sit and eat, while we talk.”

  Carrie returned to her chair. The tension in his shoulders warned her their discussion would not be a happy one. But he couldn’t intend to fire her. Dangling iPads before a firing would be beyond cruel. Giving her nuts and berries would be a strange dismissal technique as well.

  He sat down and frowned.

  “Sorry, I forgot to bring the upholstery stuff this morning.”

  He leaned forward. “You haven’t yet read the Gossep article have you?”

  She grimaced. “No. I’m quite certain it’s going to upset me, so I intend to read it on the train home. I want to be productive and optimistic at work today.”

  “Jeff said he told you he wants you involved with bringing clients for the farm.”

  “Yes, I’ve a
lready listed a bunch of horses I wish to cull.”

  He responded with a faint, but sad, smile. Now she worried. Dan normally liked her humor. She set the berries aside and leaned forward on her desk. “Dan, what is it?”

  “Would you do me a favor?”

  She nodded, trusting him not to ask something insane. She never agreed in advance with Trent, because he’d ask for crazy things, like wanting her to get a full body wax.

  “Stick with your plan of not reading the article during working hours. But at the end of the day, read it here, in the privacy of your office. Destiny will work late tonight, so if you need a shoulder to cry on, you’ll have it.”

  She groaned. “I knew it. Angela massacred me, didn’t she?”

  His eyes saddened. “Will you wait and read it this evening before you leave?”

  With a heavy sigh, she nodded. “Your request would be like not thinking of gold monkeys, if not for the interesting task Jeff gave me.”

  “He mentioned it to me. And while I think it’s a great idea, be aware if you call these men today, they might wish to talk about the article.”

  “Eckh!”

  “I suggest you spend today creating the list of potential clients and providing backgrounds on each.”

  “Excellent advice. Thank you.” She then eyed the iPads. “Did you also bring me another distraction?”

  He placed the tablets on her desk. “Mine and yours. Make them useful.”

  “I’ll try to have them so by the end of the day.”

  Dan rose, but stopped at the door. “If you want to talk to me, I’ll be here as well.” He left, closing the door behind him.

  His sadness made her curious as to how bad Angela had slaughtered her, but the two fabulous iPads that lay before her needed life breathed into them.

  A lot of life.

  More than she anticipated.

  Jeff brought her half his sandwich for lunch and scowled when he saw her playing with the tablets.

  “Dan wants them useful, but it turns out I have to write an application to connect it to our system.”

  “Tell him to send them back to the store,” Jeff suggested.

  “No, I’m working with an Apple geek, who is very interested in helping me do this because our data software is what most companies use and this could open up a whole new market for them.”

  “Are you getting the code copyrighted?”

  “Not interested in making money. Just want a happy boss.”

  Jeff shook his head and left.

  The application proved to be very easy with the help of the apple programmer. He offered her a five cent royalty per application sold or a free iPad.

  She took the royalty.

  After she got off the phone, she realized the royalty should belong to Dan, not her. She hurried to his office. As she took a seat on the bench in the outer office, she could hear his angry voice resonate through the closed door.

  Helen kept glancing at the door when Dan’s voice would rise. After one rather loud outburst, she did something completely out of her comfort zone. She conversed with Carrie.

  “So is the tablet thing good for anything?”

  “It is now.” Carrie walked over and showed Helen all the things she could do. “You can read company emails, examine spreadsheets, and, thanks to me and a guy named Guy who works at Apple, you can download data from our system. For example, let’s see how much time our consultants have been on the phones today.”

  She pulled up the report.

  “Whoa.” She wondered if they all wanted lawyers or if some needed counsel from friends or a therapist. Not even salespeople should spend 98 percent of their time on the phone.

  Dan opened the door. He looked worried, until Helen shook her head. “Carrie’s showing me all the things your new toy can do. It seems very useful now.”

  He ushered Carrie in. By the tension in his neck and the deep crease between his brows, Dan’s day had gotten worse.

  “I wanted to bring you your now useful iPad and ask you something. I had to write an application to tap into our system, and, to do it, I needed the approval and assistance of Apple, so I called and told this guy named Guy what I wanted to do and while I understood our system, I didn’t have a clue what needed to be done on his side, but together we could build the application. I explained how extensively this system is used around the world and what a great marketing point it would be if executives could pull down reports. He bumped me up to his manager, who loved the idea and bumped me up to a senior V.P. who, upon listening to my idea, patched in Guy and his manager and told them to make this top priority.”

  Carrie smiled with pride at her achievement.

  “Wow,” Dan stated.

  “So we wrote the preliminary code and you and I are the limited test bunnies. However, after many months in quality control, Apple plans to market the product worldwide. They asked me if I wanted a free iPad or 5 cents royalty on each application sold.”

  “I hope you asked for the royalty.”

  She nodded. “But then I realized I did this while working for you, so the royalty should go to the company, but you’ll need to share your tax ID and legal name with Apple.”

  He shook his head. “Legally, I believe you are correct, but you should profit from this. Not me.”

  “But it could be a significant amount of money.”

  Dan walked around the desk and took hold of her hands. “Carrie, if it makes you a million dollars, I’ll be nothing but happy for you. You deserve something nice going your way. I’ll have my lawyer draw up the papers releasing any claim to the application.”

  Wow, whatever Angela wrote must really be bad.

  She breathed in and pushed the thought away. “Do you have time to learn how to use it?”

  He nodded and they sat side by side on the couch as she taught him all about his useful iPad.

  Chapter 16

  Apple had legal documents they wished Carrie to sign, as well, which Dan had his lawyer look over. Evidently forgetting Carrie remained in the room, the lawyer yelled at him for giving his rights away to a valuable copyright property.

  “I don’t know what this girl holds over you, but—”

  Dan yanked up the phone, cutting off his voice.

  “Enough! Just do your job or I’ll find someone else.”

  After he hung up, he rubbed his neck.

  Carrie grimaced. “He doesn’t seem to like me, but I don’t think we’ve ever met.”

  “You haven’t. Charles refuses to meet or talk to you because he’d be forced to change his mind.”

  “How can someone who has never met me dislike me so much?”

  He sat on the edge of his desk and stared at her, still seated on the couch. “As you know, all candidates are investigated, which includes people I hire for my own firm.”

  “Oh….ewwwww!” She grimaced as she contemplated all her bad luck in the last year. “I wouldn’t like me either, if that’s all I knew about myself.”

  “I told him I thought you one of the finest people I’ve ever met. Your bad luck comes from Trent.”

  “I don’t regret going to work for him. I learned so much.”

  Dan moved to the couch and sat beside her, his intensity almost alarming.

  “You did. You basically ran the place with far more leeway to spread your wings working for an idiot than—”

  “He’s not an idiot!” she snapped as she pushed herself up. “I know he’s being a jerk to you, and I understand why you’re angry with him, but underneath his prickly exterior is a good man…a man I love. I will try my hardest not to speak of Trent, but I need you to refrain from disparaging him to me. Otherwise, I’ll have to find someplace else to work.”

  Dan stood and stared out the window. “I apologize. Before either of us says more about this, perhaps it is time for you to read the magazine article.” He turned to face her. “And before you decide Angela made the story up, I’ve checked out every single allegation. They’re all true.”


  A sickening worry filtered into her heart. “The person you yelled out earlier, was it Trent?”

  “Yes. I get very angry when people I care about are mistreated.”

  A heavy lump formed in her stomach. “I should go now.” She ran from the room and down the hall to her office where several people crowded at her door trying to peek in the narrow window.

  Two of the three of the voyeurs she didn’t care for.

  “Excuse me.”

  They stood back. Doris held the Gossep magazine in hand. “You gotta read this.”

  She unlocked the door, slipped in, and locked it before they could follow. Upon testing the door, one of them knocked, but she ignored them.

  She threw herself in her chair, almost sending it backwards then made a quick note for a larger leg base.

  Then with a deep breath, she extracted her copy of Gossep and turned to the featured article.

  The first two pages showed Trent with a myriad of women, many of whom Carrie knew. She wanted to believe the magazine had culled these from his past, but seven of the young women worked on his new sales team and one was Jon’s wife.

  The salesgirls pressed up against him like he’d turned into their favorite ice cream. They had pulled this shit at work, as well, but Trent always seemed repulsed by their actions when she walked in on them. However, he didn’t look repulsed in these shots. Damn it! She knew those sultry eyes and slight smile. He wore them when he had sex on his mind.

  Unable to look any longer at women she didn’t like being admired by Trent, she focused on the shot with her friend Patty. She first thought they had cropped Patty’s husband, Jon, from the picture, but the adoration in Patty’s eyes as her palms pressed against Trent’s chest gave Carrie strong reason to doubt Jon had been anywhere around when someone took this one.

  While the salesgirls had angered her, this hurt. How could Patty flirt so blatantly with Trent? How could she do it to Jon? And Trent, did he for one moment stop to consider how these pictures would hurt those who loved him?