Chapter 16 #2
It was Celeste. Her boss’s heels clicked on the gleaming floor as she took another step toward Willow.
Despite a very frustrating morning, her hair was neatly pinned back, her blouse crisp, and her posture perfect.
Now that the meeting had wrapped up without any more waste of time and resources, she looked less grim.
She swept her arm toward the paper chart.
“That was very resourceful, and I liked the initiative.” Her voice was matter-of-fact but genuine.
Willow blinked, then stood a little taller. It was the first real praise she had received from their intense boss. “Thank you. I figured going back to sticky notes was better than letting a tech glitch derail our progress.”
“Agreed.” Celeste studied her with a gaze that was sharp but not unkind. “I think you’re ready to shoulder more responsibility. From now on, I want you to take on Barb’s work, while she will shadow you, giving advice and correcting missteps, if needed.”
Willow swallowed hard. On the one hand, she felt ready to do more and was thrilled that Celeste trusted her enough to take over Barb’s job.
On the other hand, she was terrified. More responsibility meant more things could go wrong.
As she had settled in at Kudos, the tech glitches had started to ease up a little.
The added stress might cause them to flare up again.
Celeste sent her an expectant look, clearly waiting for a reply.
“Of course,” Willow said, trying to keep a wobble out of her voice. “Barb…uh, Barbara has taught me a lot, and I’m ready to put it into action.”
“Good. I’ll let Barbara know.” Celeste gave her a curt nod. Then she was gone, the click of her heels fading down the hallway.
Willow leaned on the conference table with both hands, head hanging down between her arms, and sucked in a deep breath.
“Hey, you okay?”
A soft voice made Willow jump. She straightened quickly and looked up.
This time, it was Scottie. Of course she would walk in just in time to witness Willow’s moment of weakness.
“I’m fine,” Willow answered automatically.
Scottie regarded her. “Friends, remember? You could tell me if you’re not fine. I wouldn’t blame you after the morning you had. Things seemed pretty tense when I walked in earlier.”
Crap. Scottie clearly expected more than small talk about the Thorns or the constant drizzle. Willow opened her mouth to change the topic or assure her once again that she was fine but then realized she didn’t want to brush her off. She snapped her mouth shut.
That was a first. She never felt the need to unload with colleagues. She kept her problems and worries to herself or shared them only with her sister.
But under Scottie’s open, nonjudgmental gaze, she found herself saying, “Celeste just told me she thinks I’m ready for more responsibility.”
“You are,” Scottie replied immediately, as if there wasn’t a doubt in her mind. “The way you handled the situation earlier proves it. Even Celeste was impressed—and so was I.”
Heat rose to Willow’s cheeks. Scottie’s praise felt different from Celeste’s.
Her voice was warmer, tinged with admiration, and there was no assessing look in her eyes.
Unlike Celeste, she wasn’t testing Willow, measuring her performance.
Willow fidgeted with a stack of sticky notes, not sure what to say.
“Seriously,” Scottie added, “you’re really good at improvising. You seem to have a backup plan for everything.”
Willow emphatically shook her head. “Not everything. Some things you can’t prepare for.”
She wasn’t talking about what had happened in the elevator, but as the words lingered in the silence between them, they seemed to take on a new, deeper meaning.
“Anyway,” Willow said quickly, “Celeste wants me to take over Barb’s workload, and Barb’s just going to shadow me for her last few weeks at Kudos. I admit it’s a little intimidating.”
“I know it’s a lot of responsibility, but Celeste wouldn’t give it to you if she didn’t think you were ready,” Scottie said softly.
It wasn’t the responsibility that scared Willow.
She could handle that. She also didn’t mind working longer hours.
What she struggled with was the creeping fear that the added stress would be like pouring gasoline on the smoldering embers of her weird effect on tech. But she couldn’t tell Scottie that.
Scottie watched her closely, her head tilted to one side in a way that Willow was starting to recognize as typical for her.
“It’s fine. I’m just a little nervous.” Willow forced a smile. “But I’m sure I’ll manage. Like you just said, I’m good at improvising.”
Scottie studied her for a moment longer as if sensing there was more.
But she didn’t press. Instead, she answered Willow’s half-hearted smile with a more genuine one.
“You are. But if you run into any trouble, there are people at this company who’ll have your back. ” She searched Willow’s eyes. “Okay?”
“Okay,” Willow whispered around the lump in her throat.
But as she gathered her sticky notes and slipped from the conference room, leaving Scottie to deal with the smart board, she already knew that if the real trouble happened, there wasn’t a single person at Kudos she could trust with it—not even Scottie.