3. Kristoff Is Demoted
3
Kristoff Is Demoted
I ’m accosted by Laura, the head of HR, as soon as I walk into the building on Monday morning. I’m here two hours earlier than the normal start of the workday, which means Laura must have gotten here at the crack of dawn. She already looks frazzled, her curly hair coming out of its bun to float around her head in feathery wisps and her lipstick is nearly bitten off.
“Laura, why on Earth are you here so early? I thought HR was physically incapable of getting out of bed before eight in the morning.” I can tell immediately by her sour expression that my attempt at humor has fallen flat on its ass.
She glares at me then plasters a fake smile on her face. “I’m here to get you settled into your new position here at Minola Corp., Kristoff. Welcome to the team.” She tries to manufacture some fake enthusiasm, but her heart clearly isn’t in it.
“Uh, Laura, you are aware you’ve known me since I was sixteen, right? What the fuck is going on? What do you mean by getting me settled? If I’m not settled by now, I never will be.”
“I’m just doing my job, Mr. Minola,” she grits out. “Follow me. And please refrain from using profanity.”
You can tell how rattled I am by me dropping an F-bomb at work. I’m usually far more in control of my emotions. I’ve got to get my shit together. This rigmarole with HR has to be Peter fucking with me. Or Father. Probably both of them. “Ah, yes,” I say to Laura. “Page twenty-three, third paragraph down. I sincerely apologize for forgetting myself. Things seem a bit confused today.”
Laura narrows her eyes at me but otherwise doesn’t acknowledge that I spoke. She leads me to building security. Automatically I take out my badge to be scanned in, but Laura ignores it. “I need a badge made for a new employee,” she tells the receptionist behind the desk tonelessly. “I’ll need you to set up a hybrid access. Can you do that?”
The girl nods her head, looking bewildered, but not half as bewildered as me. I don’t know the security receptionist’s name, but then I’ve never had cause to interact with her. I’ve had full executive privileges in the building for more than a decade. What the hell is going on?
I raise my hand like I’m in class. “Um, I already have my badge and security key card.” I wave it in such a way that either woman can’t ignore it. “See?”
“I’m afraid that card is no longer active,” Laura says. “Like any new hire you’ll need a new one.”
“This is ridiculous! I’m not a new hire. I’ve worked here for almost two decades! My name is on the goddamned building, for fuck’s sake.” Oh, hell. There I go again. Dammit.
“I’ll ask you again not to use profanity in the workplace. That can constitute a hostile work environment. This is your final verbal warning. If it happens again, your supervisor will write you up.” Laura refuses to look at me as she says this.
A beefy security guard steps over. “Is there a problem over here?”
“Yes!” I say in relief. “I don’t know what the… what’s going on here today, but I require it to stop. I need to get up to my office so I can get to work. These… silly games are a waste of my time.”
Laura gives the security guard a hard look. He glances between her and me uneasily then says, “Ma’am, is this man harassing you?” Before she can answer, he turns to me. “We don’t tolerate that kind of behavior here. I’d really hate to have to call the authorities.” That last sentence sounds completely sincere. The last thing this man wants to do is call the cops on me.
I open my mouth to ask to see his superior then shut it. Treating me like a new and unknown employee has to be my diabolical stepbrother’s idea. It’s too clever to have come from father, who lacks imagination. First shot fired, and much more quickly than I’d anticipated. “Fine,” I say. “I’ll play along with this ridiculous game. Give me a new security badge so I can actually get some work done today.”
“Look at me and smile, please,” the receptionist says.
In confusion I swing her way and she takes a picture of me with a digital camera.
“Make sure that’s sent up to his new desk as soon as it’s processed,” Laura tells the receptionist. “In the meantime, I’ll take him up in the elevator and get him situated.”
She leads me to the executive elevator and uses her keycard to call it. Because it’s so early in the morning, we get it to ourselves. Once the doors close, I round on her.
“Seriously, Laura, what the actual—what is going on?”
She closes her eyes, and her lips move like she’s counting silently in her head. “I’m just following orders,” she says. “Yelling at me isn’t going to help you, trust me. At least you didn’t swear directly at me. Then I’d have no choice but to write you up.”
“I wasn’t yelling—never mind. This has got to be my evil stepbrother’s doing. Please tell me what’s going on.”
Laura crosses her arms over her chest. “I was given a script to follow by the new COO and I’m following it. I treat you like a new hire and show you to your new desk. Your office has been cleaned out. The small items are at your desk and the larger ones are in temporary storage. You can have them released into your custody at the end of the workday and then arrange for someone to pick them up.”
“I… what?”
The elevator dings and the doors open onto the sixty-seventh floor. This is the floor that has all the C-level executive offices. My office is—or was—one floor down. It’s been my goal for as long as I can remember to work my way up to this floor, but not this way.
Laura stops at a tiny desk just outside the glass walls of the COO’s office. “This is where you’ll be working for our new COO, Mr. Verona,” she says.
“No,” I say. “No no no. This is unacceptable.”
“Yes yes yes,” says a cheerful voice. I look up and see my stepbrother standing in the open door to the COO’s office. “You’re late, but since it’s your first day, I’ll make allowances. Don’t be late tomorrow, however, or I’ll have to write you up. When I tell you to be here at six, I don’t mean six-thirty.”
A sick feeling of dread fills me. This is all real. Father wasn’t bluffing. He’s put a completely green baby MBA in charge of Minola. I want, in the worst way, to throw my coffee at him.
I think Peter must read my thoughts because he shakes his head at me. “Remember, assault is against the Code of Conduct. Keep yourself and that coffee under control if you wish to remain employed here as my assistant.”
I put my coffee cup down so I’m not tempted to take my chances. It’s just for a year, I tell myself. Not even a full year. Then it’ll be my thirty-fifth birthday, and I can throw this little usurper out on his fucking ear, right next to dear old Dad. I take a deep breath in then let it out slowly. “Fine,” I say. “And if I run into any problems, I can have HR look into them.”
“Ms. Prentess,” Peter says, “can I call you Laura? Laura, tell me. Is your daughter excited about being able to study abroad?”
Laura shoots me a look that’s half-guilty and half-defiant. “She’s thrilled,” she says stiffly.
“Of course she is,” Peter says expansively. “And we here at Minola are happy to sponsor her time at Oxford. Isn’t that wonderful, Kit? It’s one of my new initiatives for the company—scholarships and sponsorships for deserving young people.”
He says this like he’s fifty and not half that age. And why is he calling me Kit? “My name is Kristoff,” I say. “Or Kris, if you must shorten it.”
Peter rolls his eyes at Laura. “I see why he’s so popular here at the company,” he says to her, his tone dry as dust.
What does he mean by that? Of course people here like me.
She lets out a short laugh—one that’s not fake this time—but cuts it off when she sees me looking her way. “He doesn’t mean to be unsociable, I’m sure. Let me know if you have any problems.”
“Excuse me? I’m sociable!” I protest but they both ignore me.
“Oh, you can be certain you’ll be the first to know if I have any problems with Kit here,” Peter says. “I’ll allow him some leeway today, but I do have high standards I’ll expect him to meet. I think we’ll have his first evaluation in a month. Please plan to attend.”
“Let me know the date and I’ll clear my calendar, sir,” Laura says. To me she adds, “Hopefully there won’t be anything I’ll have to address at your first evaluation.” Then she turns on her heel and walks out.
“I see you’ve managed to bribe the head of HR to your side,” I say to my stepdemon.
He smiles just like the devil he is. “It’s a scholarship for her daughter, not a bribe. A scholarship for a bright young lady who is the daughter of one of our best employees. At Minola we’d never stoop to bribing our employees.”
“What about retaliation?” I ask meaningfully. “How does my company feel about that?”
Peter chooses to misinterpret me. “You do need to be aware that if you give anyone in security or HR a hard time because of your new position and restrictions, there will be consequences. Also, Minola isn’t your company. It’s presumptuous to call it that.”
“Presumptuous? Did you get that from a ‘Word of the Day’ calendar? And I was referring to retaliation against myself. Isn’t that what I’m being subjected to?”
“Think what you want, Kit, but remember that whatever goes down between us, seeing as you seem full of hubris, HR will back me and not you.” Peter turns and walks away from me before stopping and saying over his shoulder, “Feel free to get settled. I will expect you in my office by six a.m. so we can discuss what my expectations are of you in this position. I’ll tell you ahead of time, though, that I will not tolerate lateness. No exceptions, no excuses. I hope that’s clearly understood.” Then he walks through his office door and closes it behind him.
I feel like I did on my first day of being sent to boarding school. My legs are shaky and it’s hard to catch a full breath. Abruptly I sit in the chair behind my new desk. This is real, I know it’s real, but it feels like a dream. Or more accurately, a nightmare.