Greeting Cards For Exes

Chapter Twenty-Three

K ERRIE

I sat in my office after a meeting with the marketing team. Our new line of cards was going to launch in November, and the early number predictions were looking good. A smile curved my lips. We’d been working so hard the last couple of months to get this ready.

Mr. Dancy poked his head in my office, reminding me of turtle peering out from its shell. “Kerrie, I need to meet with you for a few minutes.”

My mouth went dry. Oh God, had he finally decided to fire me? The stint jail was a while ago now, but maybe he’d been waiting for the right moment to let me go. Wringing my hands together, I stood.

“Sure. Should I bring anything with me?” Like pack up my desk? My purse?

“No, just want to talk.” He led me down the hall and into his office. “Go ahead and have a seat.”

I did as he said, my gaze searching his face for some sort of clue as to what this meeting was about. Had I used too many salt packets? Did I clock in too early? Crap, I wish he’d get on with it. My brow furrowed.

“You might be wondering why I called you in here.” He leaned back in his chair, nearly falling out of it. But he caught himself and readjusted as if nothing had happened.

I wet my lips. “Yes, the thought crossed my mind.”

He chuckled. “Don’t look so scared, I’m not going to attack you. In fact, I wanted to talk to you about a promotion.”

Wait, what did he just say?

“A promotion?” I repeated his words as if in disbelief.

“Yes. To be honest with you, my wife’s been sick these past couple of months, and I’m thinking about taking some time off. But in order to do that, I need someone trustworthy to step up and run things for a bit. Someone with a good mind in regard to sales and such. Someone like you.”

“I, um, I’m not sure what to say. I haven’t really been here as long as some of the others.”

He waved me off like he was swatting a fly. “You are great with numbers, and you get along with everyone. You come to your meetings prepared. I’d like it if you could step into the new position I’m creating. Vice President of All For You Greeting Cards. Of course, I’d still be in charge, but I’d leave a lot of the day-to-day decisions to you. Also, Maude will assist you. I was going to offer her the job, but she said she’s too old, and not that I’m age discriminating, but I’d prefer to have someone on board who isn’t thinking of retiring in the next few years.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, waiting for the punchline. Maybe Mr. Dancy had lost his mind. It definitely wouldn’t be the first time.

“Very. So, what do you say? You can try it out in the interim if you’d like, see how things go. Eventually, I’d like to hand over all the operations of the company to my son with you as his assistant, but I don’t think he’s ready just yet. He’s got too many pokers in the fire.”

“Of course, I’ll help in whatever way I can.” This meant I could put more money away, maybe help Sophie with college, and eventually get a place of our own. Although, right now, it made sense to stay with Maude but, at some point, she might want her house back to herself again.

He slapped his desk, causing a loud thud to reverberate, and I jumped. “Great! I’ll start having you shadow me this week and part of next. However, the one thing I want you to know is that you can’t play favorites. You’ve got to treat everyone the same, even Piper and Maude. If they’re misbehaving, you need to reel them in. And you need to make sure everyone adheres to the policy on keeping lights off when they’re not in their offices, as well as making sure the heat is kept at sixty-five, and that no one is wasting supplies in the cafeteria. Money doesn’t grow on trees, or if it did, I’d have them planted all over the lobby.” He laughed to himself as if he’d just told the funniest joke.

I had to keep from rolling my eyes. Leave it to Mr. Dancy to include that in my training. “You can count on me, Mr. Dancy.”

After he went over several things with me, he excused me for lunch.

“Hey, where did you disappear to?” Piper asked, sipping an iced tea at a table in the cafeteria.

“You’re not going to believe this,” I said, hands still trembling from the news. “Mr. Dancy is promoting me.”

“What? That’s awesome!”

“Although, I feel like Maude might’ve pulled a few strings.” I glanced at her as she took a seat with us.

“I didn’t pull any strings, I promise. But when Mr. Cheap Pants asked me who in the office I felt might make a great VP, I said your name. And trust me, if that man didn’t agree, he wouldn’t have offered you the job. Which leads me to ask, did you accept?”

“I...yes, I did. I’m still in shock. I thought he was going to fire me.” I spread my sandwich and cottage cheese out in front of me.

“Girl, if Mr. Dancy let us stay here after he found out about our night in the slammer, there’s no way he’d ever fire us.” Piper grinned. “Wow, I can’t believe it. Can I call you Madame Vice President?”

“No.” I groaned. “Also, he told me I can’t play favorites with you guys.”

Maude snorted. “Of course, he’d say that. But don’t you worry, Piper and I won’t take advantage of your position, unless it’s to get some new food items added to the cafeteria menu.”

“Or salt and pepper that hasn’t been stolen from other restaurants by Mr. Dancy,” Piper added.

I laughed. “I love you guys, seriously. Cheers. I can’t wait to tell Sophie. She’ll be so happy.” And I hoped, proud, too.

Things were finally starting to look up. I never imagined myself being given this opportunity after Hal had asked for a divorce. Whether Maude truly had urged Mr. Dancy or not, the position was mine to either soar with or fail at.

Either way, I looked forward to the challenge.