Chapter One #2
I look up, fixing him with a narrowed stare. He knows I’ve seen it. “Did you get a chance to read my reply?”
He makes a face, a sort of arrogant smirk, which suggests he did. Damn it. I should’ve added a read receipt. “Unfortunately, I haven’t had the pleasure. I’m sure it was incredibly insightful.”
Bastard!
Before I can load a useful response on my tongue, the rest of the team starts filing in. There are five main departments at The Starr Agency: Events, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance and HR. HR is literally Mel in her own little office where people go to be fired or hired.
They take their seats, sipping on their drinks whilst I watch my nemesis across from me.
We smile overly politely. The room is too hot, or at least I am, so I remove my cardigan and hang it on my chair.
James has gone back to making notes on his pad.
What’s he writing? Does he have a plan for this meeting?
He often comes prepared with his irritating ability to woo people.
Except me, that is.
I see right through his appealing front door, past the lavish exterior, the dark blue eyes and toned arms – tight against his sleeves, and see the arse that he really is.
He knows the consequences for me and my team if we don’t hit our targets for ticket sales.
We don’t earn as many bonuses as the sales team.
In fact, we earn only one a year and our success is hinged on this event he is trying to ruin for us.
“Good morning, Dream Team,” Michael sings in his jubilant way as he enters the room, walking round to take his seat at the head of the table.
Admittedly, Michael’s a strange one. Some would call him quirky.
I value his input and calm leadership here.
But he does have this tendency to sway between marketing and sales like one of those old-school gameshows with the spinning wheels.
He could land anywhere. It makes me both tense and agitated, whilst also maintaining a sense of hope that I have a fifty per cent chance of taking the enemy down.
He’s pretty reliable in some ways. He always wears a white shirt, no tie – a few buttons undone at the top and a pair of standard grey work trousers.
Even when this office is verging on chilly, he’ll only wear the shirt.
And yet, he’s also the most unpredictable decision-maker I’ve ever met.
It makes him hard to work for. Never really knowing what he’s going to do next.
I try not to grind my teeth when he touches James’ shoulder as he passes. “How were your weekends?”
We all look around waiting for someone to speak first. It’s one of those frustrating moments because none of us actually care how each other’s weekends were. However, it is an unwritten rule that we should at least pretend to.
“I went fishing with my cousin,” Rajesh offers.
I inwardly sigh. Rajesh is in his late forties but looks older.
He’s lovely, but frustrating to communicate with when his stress levels peak at ten, yet mine can launch well over a thousand in a matter of minutes.
It’s hard to get him to understand the sheer depth of importance of some tasks.
For example, branded signage being positioned in the correct places for maximum visibility.
Or sponsored merchandise being worn by our event staff.
I suspect he thinks we’re all a bit mad.
“Marvellous,” Michael grins, his teeth glinting.
Michael, the man behind this whole enterprise, comes from money, I think…
Actually, I only assume. We don’t know very much about him at all.
With his silvery-dark hair and spookily pale eyes, he’s a mystery to me in many ways.
He never seems to be tired. I regularly receive emails from him in the middle of the night and I’m still yet to see him eat.
Obviously, there are rumours. I don’t involve myself in them. But I know people around the office joke that he’s a vampire. Or a ghoul. Someone once suggested he was a cannibal.
I silence my mind in case he can read it. At that exact moment, he turns his head to smile at me in his eccentric way, full mouthed, stretched cheeks, as if he heard me thinking. I open my mouth to say something, but James beats me to it.
“How was your weekend, Michael?”
Slimy git.
“Exactly as you’d expect it to be, James. Kind of you to ask,” he replies. Ever the mystery.
James gives Michael a polite nod before turning to me with a slightly less enthusiastic grin. “What about you, Felicity? Get lots done?”
I laugh in polite corporate. He knows I did.
The reason he knows is because we were the only two sad fools to be logged in on Saturday afternoon, replying to Michael’s many emails.
“It was sublime, thank you, James. And how was yours? Did you manage to get away from your laptop for a few hours?” I round this off with a pity face.
“Hilarious,” he mutters, his grin faltering. “Yes, thank you, Felicity.”
There’s a moment of strained silence. I physically feel it in my chest but force myself not to fill it with some unhelpful nonsense. No. We need to get to the heart of the matter. I, however, will not be the one to cause the friction in our first meeting on a Monday morning.
James purses his lips before finding his stellar grin again, leaning towards Michael in his typical flirtatious way. “What did you think of my idea then, boss?”
Let’s bloody go…
I say, “If you had gotten to my email before this meeting, James, you would have seen that it is far too late to be incorporating changes…”
“As I said a moment ago, Felicity, unfortunately the sales team were very busy this morning, so I was unable to make time for your reply. However, if you had fully read the email thread, you would’ve noticed my idea has already been endorsed by the ops team.”
He means Rajesh. He means he walked up to Rajesh and told him to write a response.
My smile is corporate cyanide as I lace my fingers together on the table.
“That’s really great. I’m so glad you took the initiative to get this project signed off by Rajesh.
And I did see that part of the thread. Thank you for highlighting it to me again.
The trouble is, you have forgotten that you need both Marketing and Finance to sign this off too. ”
Michael looks between us, as James blinks at me. I notice the quiver in his cheeks and along his rigid jawline. He knows he’s got to play his best cards to win this because I’m not going to budge.
He talks quickly, clearly. “As Marketing will remember…” I’m Marketing now – hilarious.
I’m not a person, I am an entire department.
“… we’ve almost sold out of hospitality places for the final event of the summer.
We could easily close out another marquee.
The profit would absolutely annihilate anything VIP tickets can achieve.
Although I admire and support all the work Marketing have done to bring this about, Marketing should be realistic about the way business works. ”
The way business works? What a patronising…
My smile is making my jaw ache, but I must win this battle now.
Time for some swift blows. “Of course, Marketing is very aware of how business works. Thank you for your concern in this matter.” I cringe as I say, “It would help, however, if Sales were more aware of the work that goes into the last efforts of organising the events, as it mostly comes down to the dedication of the other departments to achieve this. For example, where would you put the kitchens?” I ask, tilting my head in a patronising way to mirror James’ tone.
“What about the menus? Sales have less than three weeks to finalise it. And the sales team aren’t always as reliable as we would like—”
James laughs with volume to interrupt me.
“Don’t go for my team,” he says, his pitch raising slightly, his teeth gritted.
Ooh, he’s protective of his aggressive slime bags.
I’m yet to meet a salesperson in his team who has any kind of office-kitchen etiquette.
At work events they’re always the loudest, rudest and most inappropriate.
Annoyingly, Michael tends to turn a blind eye.
We, being my lovely marketing crew, are usually trying to have a pleasant evening of laughter and food whilst they’re mashing it up with shots, shots, shots and glugging beer back like it’s going out of style.
“Sales needs to consider the fact that there’s absolutely no guarantee you can sell the tables in that timeframe,” I reiterate.
“And even if you can, what about the sixty people who’ve already paid for the VIP tickets?
Marketing sold another twelve last week alone.
We’re at seventy per cent capacity. Marketing can easily get this to the one hundred per cent. ”
Gosh, even I’m talking about myself as if I’m an entire department now.
“The sales team deserve the chance to exceed their bonuses, and this would allow them that,” James says directly to Michael, not even bothering to include me now. He gets straight to the heart of the matter. Money. That’s all he cares about anyway.
“Erm… excuse me? When making business decisions, please consider all the departments it will affect,” I say. In other words, stop being a selfish prick.
“Thank you for pointing this out, Felicity,” James says. “Unfortunately, when you look at the bigger picture success of the company, you’ll know the bonuses your department achieve are incredibly minimal compared to Sales so—”
I scoff. “Marketing deserve their bonuses too.”
He makes a face. “Sorry, I wasn’t aware the middle of my sentence was interrupting the start of yours.”
Ugh. Shots fired. I have no response to this. I glare across at Gloatman. In fairness, I did interrupt, but he’s done it to me too.
After a moment, he continues, “And besides, you’re only marketing. You don’t mind working on your salaries. My team require bonuses for motivation.”
“Isn’t selling their job? Like marketing is ours?” I ask through the last shreds of my cheek muscles.
James gives me one of those oh-you-poor-thing expressions, wrinkling his nose. “You don’t understand how this works.”
I laugh, frustration lacing the sound. “Although I appreciate your concern about my understanding, sales are in constant need of financial incentive. Their motivation levels are lacking, and it may be time for their leader to look inwardly at this challenge. They’ve already hit their bonuses. Why do they need to exceed them?”
James turns back to Michael again as if I haven’t even made an iota of a point. I notice I’m clenching and unclenching my fist on the table. The line between professional behaviour and physical violence is sometimes scarily thin.
“The profit target has been met. Sales can exceed it. Let us do this. It will look so, so good to the board. You know it too. Rajesh has already endorsed my idea. The kitchens can be extended. The furniture can be hired. It’s all ready to go.”
“No, no, no…” I say, leaning in towards our leader too.
“What about our clientele? We can’t just let them down.
I thought your vision, Michael, was to bring joy to local communities.
If we continue to remove affordable options in lieu of expensive corporate stuff how does that impact our long-term goals? ”
“Our long-term goals don’t mean shit unless we’re driving a steady profit,” James retorts.
“Which we are…”
“No thanks to Marketing. You’ll find the real profit is achieved through Sales.”
“Which is consistently supported by Marketing,” I grin, but my teeth are set together.
“Entirely against the point. That is the purpose of your department.”
“As is Sales to… erm… What is their role again?” I make a show of tapping my chin. “Oh yes, that’s it. To. Sell.”
Gloatman is giving me his full attention now, nervous energy seeping from his pores. Maybe it’s the way he’s gripping his pen. I have a feeling he’s already committed to his idea. I have a feeling he’s already sold some of the tables. I have a feeling he’s not going to let this one slide.
Well, hard luck for him. Neither am I! We stare each other down as if the other might crack.
“I see this is quite the debate,” Michael intercedes. “I support both your points of view here. You make very strong arguments. As you know, I like to be led by my team, and if Fiona is in support of Fliss, then it means we are split down the middle.”
We all turn to Fiona for her wide-eyed nod of confirmation. She’s an angel. Always has my back. I’m convinced I hear James curse in response.
Michael is no longer smiling but watching us with a worried expression. At some point during the discussion, he’s rolled his shirt sleeves up, and I notice his arms are completely hairless.
Vampire…
“I think the whole team needs a break,” he says calmly. “A nice corporate away day to boost morale and rejuvenate.”
Oh, absolutely not. We’re three weeks out from an event. There’s so much to do. He’s done this before, dragging us to some random event in Paris for a “learning experience”, and it was a nightmare. I ended up working through a whole night to get everything done.
“No. No, it’s fine—” I say, as James says, “I would advise against—”
Michael holds up a hand. “I think we all need a break.” He smiles again in his unnerving way.
“You are my team. I can’t have you disagreeing like this.
I will make a decision about James’ idea after our…
away day.” He nods to himself as if he’s having his own internal discussion about this.
“Yes. I think some team building will be good for all of us. An adventure. Somewhere different… Yes. Somewhere but nowhere.”
“We really need a quick decision,” James pipes up.
He’s silenced with a calm but stern expression. “No decisions should be made in such a rushed way my fearless leaders. You require time to choose wisely.”
James opens his mouth to object again, but Michael goes on. “Don’t worry. I think we should go away imminently. Clear your calendars for the rest of the week. No exceptions. I’ll let you know the details by end of play today. Team dismissed.”