Chapter 11 Emma #2
“No offense, but I am at work, and I’m busy. What do you need?”
She huffed, but I knew that wouldn’t stop her. “I’ve found an architect who is willing to meet with us this afternoon—”
“I can’t. I’ve got a backlog—”
“This is the only opening she has for several weeks, and she’s squeezing us in. If we miss it, the contractor will move on to his next project, and we’ll lose our place in his schedule.”
“Mom—”
“It’s at three, and you are required to be there, as the homeowner. After this meeting, I can probably handle most of it on my own.”
“I understand, but it’s impossible for me to get away today.”
“We can’t delay this, Emma. She’s doing us a favor, and if we lose this slot—”
“I heard you the first time, but it doesn’t change the fact that I have consecutive work meetings already scheduled.”
“Very well, I’ll see if she can push it to tomorrow.”
My fingers were already in my hair, so pulling it out would’ve taken little effort. Had she really admitted that today wasn’t the woman’s only opening for several weeks?
“Emma?”
“Yes, Mother?” I snapped.
She gasped.
“Look, I’m sorry. That came out wrong, but I really can’t manage this right now.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’ll talk to Darla and see if she can find an opening early next week.”
The call ended, but I was still ready to scream. If I didn’t already have the lingering effects of a concussion, I’d bang my head against the wall. Instead, I sat up and opened the next file.
Coleman appeared in my doorway. “Ready for lunch?”
“Don’t forget you have Brad at one,” Darla called from the hallway. The meeting had been on my calendar since last week. I’d forgotten it the same way I had the sanctions inquiry and the OMB deadline and half a dozen other things.
Coleman glanced at his watch, then at me. “That’s in fifteen minutes. I can run down to the cafeteria and pick something up. What sounds good?”
“Sorry, and honestly, anything would be fine. I’m famished,” I said, walking him out to stretch my legs.
“Luke’s right across the hall,” he said.
He didn’t mean it as information. He meant it as, “Don’t leave this floor without one of us.”
“Understood,” I responded.
He left, and when I looked over my shoulder, Darla wore the same expression she had the first day he arrived at the office with me.
“Don’t go there.”
She raised both hands. “I didn’t say a word.” She winked as I passed her.
“Brad is here,” Darla buzzed through the intercom.
“Send him in, please.”
He came in with his laptop and the same pleasant, unmemorable expression he wore whether the building was on fire or it was an average day.
On the other hand, his work was solid, and I rarely found fault with any of the reports he prepared for me.
On a day when everyone in this building needed something from me, I could count on Brad to show up with answers instead of questions.
“I have the disbursement authorization summaries you asked for last week.” He set two pages in front of me.
“The quarterly reconciliation numbers are on the second sheet. I cross-referenced them against the subcommittee’s request so the formatting matches what they’ll expect.
The files are in your inbox, but I thought it would be easier to go over any questions you have if they were in front of you. ”
I scanned the pages, and everything checked out. I wanted to hug him. He would’ve been mortified if I had. In fact, picturing his reaction made me smile.
“These look great. What’s next?”
“I also pulled the supplemental budget figures for the OMB revision. You’ll need them by Friday, and I wanted to save you the time.”
He saw what I was up against and had been proactive. A raise was the least I could do, and I made a mental note to give him one.
“Is there anything else?”
He closed the laptop and set it on his knee. “I debated whether to bring it up.”
I cringed. When would I learn not to end a meeting with that question? “Go ahead.”
“Astrid has been accessing disbursement records outside her normal scope. I wouldn’t have noticed, except she requested two of the same data sets I’d been working on, and the timestamps overlapped with mine.”
“That’s odd. She told me this morning that you’ve been blocking her from the BSA variance data.”
“I haven’t blocked anything. She asked for the file Tuesday, and I told her I’d send it when it was ready, because I was still working on it.
She’s pulling raw figures from the source system without waiting for the reconciled version, which means she’s working with totals that won’t match what I eventually verify. ”
“Have you explained that to her?”
“I’ve explained it twice. She doesn’t listen. I’m not trying to make this a bigger deal than it is, but if she sends unreconciled figures to the subcommittee, it reflects on this office.”
I rubbed my forehead and wished I’d thought to take a lunch break between my mother’s call and now.
“I’ll take care of it.”
“I hate to ask you to get involved, given all you’ve got on your plate. Or on your desk.” He motioned to the stack of folders that looked more like it had grown rather than shrunk.
“Can you believe all this accumulated in four days?”
“I can, actually. No one knows how you get it all done, Emma.”
He stood to leave at the same time Darla appeared in my doorway. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I know this couldn’t come at a worse time, but—” She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed her tears.
“Darla, what’s wrong?”
“I should step out,” said Brad.
“No, this affects you too.” Darla blew her nose and tucked the handkerchief in her sleeve.
“I just got a call from Ray, my sister Ruth’s husband.
She’s been scheduled for an emergency surgery first thing in the morning.
Emma, I know what a bind this puts you in, but I have to fly to Atlanta tonight. ”
I got up from my desk, came to her side, and put my arm around her shoulders. “Family comes first, Darla. Isn’t that what you tell me?”
She nodded, and when her eyes flooded, I handed her a tissue from the box on my desk.
“Thank you, Emma. I can’t…”
“Do whatever you need to do. We’ll manage. I promise.”
She half smiled and cocked her head. “You won’t, but I appreciate you saying it anyway. I’ll call tomorrow after the surgery and let you know when I think I’ll return.”
The phone on her desk rang. “I should get that.”
“Go ahead.”
After she left, I leaned on my desk. “Well, what is the saying? When it rains, it pours? I wasn’t expecting such a deluge when I arrived this morning.”
“I may be overstepping, but I might know of someone who can fill in,” he said.
“I’m listening.”
“There’s a contractor currently filling in upstairs, with Naomi, but I heard someone mention that her regular assistant would be back Monday.”
“Naomi spoke highly of her.”
“Again, not to overstep, but given Darla has enough to deal with, I could make a call to HR on your behalf.”
“Really?” I chuckled. “I mean, if you could, it would help a lot.”
“Happy to do it, and if there’s anything else you need that I can assist with, let me know.”
When Coleman returned with a sandwich and a bottle of water a few minutes later, I was on the phone, so he dropped it off and left.
The next time I saw him was when he appeared in my doorway at five thirty.
“Time to call it a day.”
“I have two more things I have to take care of before I leave.”
“It will all still be here on Monday.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” I picked up the personnel assessment I’d been putting off since nine and opened it. “I need another hour at least.”
He came in and closed the door. “You were in a car accident ten days ago, and you have a concussion that isn’t fully healed, and you’ve been in this chair for nine hours.”
“I’m fine, Coleman.”
He rested his palms on my desk. “You’re not, and running yourself into the ground today will only result in a setback, and then what? You think that pile of work will get more manageable? Not to mention the pain you’re in that you won’t admit to. At least not out loud.”
He was right. My left side had been throbbing since my meeting with Brad, and I’d been ignoring it because acknowledging it would mean admitting I hadn’t recovered enough to be here.
“People in this building needed things from me today, Coleman. Astrid alone had three deliverables. Naomi wants a full briefing book before her senate confirmation hearing. My mother wants to schedule a meeting with the architect that I have to be at, as the homeowner. Brad and Astrid both need me to referee a fight I don’t have the energy for.
Darla’s sister is having emergency surgery, and I sent my chief of staff home, and Monday, she’ll be replaced by someone I’ve seen but never met.
I can’t leave. If I don’t finish this now, it’ll hang over me all weekend, and Monday will be exponentially worse. ”
Before he could respond, Luke rapped on the door. “I just talked to Alice—”
“Whatever it is will have to wait. We’re leaving.”
My mouth hung open. One, that wasn’t what I said. I told him I needed another hour. Two, Coleman’s tone was completely inappropriate.
“You need to hear this tonight.” Luke spoke before I could comment on either.
When Coleman stepped aside, he came in, closed the door, and set his laptop on the corner of my desk where we could see the screen.
“Alice finished tracing the monitoring system embedded in the Treasury’s network. She said that whoever built it had top-secret-level administrator access to the security department’s servers. That means—”
“I know what it means.” Derek was the only person with those credentials. But why would he have warned me about it earlier? Was it his way of scaring me off?
My head was pounding, my ribs were on fire, and I’d come close to crying three separate times.
“I need a minute. Ladies’ room.” I walked around both men, rushed down the hall, went inside, and let the door close behind me.
I looked at my reflection in the mirror, then wished I hadn’t.
The only color in my complexion were the dark circles under my eyes.
Otherwise, my skin was gray. I turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on my face.
Maybe that would pinken it up. It didn’t.
I left the water running, gripped the edge of the counter, and closed my eyes. My father’s face appeared.
“You don’t have to carry all of it alone, Emma Grace. Asking for help isn’t weakness. It’s the bravest thing a strong person can do.”
I’d spent my career ignoring that advice, and today was no different.
And rather than dealing with any of it, I was hiding in the ladies’ room.