11. Collide #2
“Cassie?”
“Alex?” Cassie said at nearly the exact same time. “What are you doing here?” she asked as she stood up and took a step forward. Kellan stood behind her, their eyes widening almost comically as they darted back and forth between the two.
“Oh my God! You’re that Alex,” Kellan gasped out. Before they could say another word, Cassie had rounded on them and smacked their arm.
“Kellan,” she hissed, her cheeks flaming as she turned back to face Alex.
“I’m going to make sure everything is set up in the conference room,” Kellan said, their voice a little higher than usual as they darted as quickly as possible out of the office. “We’ll just be waiting whenever you’re ready,” they called over their shoulder and swiftly disappeared down the hall.
“You said your name is Alex,” Cassie’s tone now sounding confrontational, her arms crossing her chest protectively.
“I-it is. I mean, I go by Alex. I-it’s my middle name,” Alex stuttered out. Cassie’s eyebrows crawling higher up her forehead.
“Your name is Kimberly Alex Sharpe?” Cassie asked, doubt and anger coloring her voice.
Alex glanced down and then let their eyes wander a bit, unable to look directly at Cassie when they responded.
“K-kimberly Alexandra Sharpe, actually.” They noticeably swallowed as they remembered the way Cassie had spoken about her new boss.
“I didn’t know I was taking someone’s promotion,” they said quietly, finally looking Cassie in the eye.
“T-they swore it was perfect timing for me to move over… a Senior Director position was opening up and I could make a lateral move.”
“And you didn’t think to ask if there was anyone else in the department that could take on the role?” Cassie could feel the prick of tears at the back of her eyes. I will not cry in front of them.
“They said there wasn’t anyone else they were considering for the role.
I-it was mine if I wanted it,” Alex said, keeping their voice quiet.
They could see the emotions flashing in Cassie’s eyes.
Confusion. Anger. Hurt. “I-i’m sorry. I really didn’t know.
I… I wouldn’t have taken the job if I’d known. ”
“Right,” Cassie said harshly, rolling her eyes. Without looking at Alex, they continued, “Well, I guess we should get to your introduction meeting.”
Alex could feel the pain and fury radiating off Cassie when she walked past them and out the door.
Sighing audibly, they slowly followed her out of the office and into the conference room down the hall.
They plastered on a smile and shook everyone’s hand as Kellan introduced them to each of the team members one at a time.
They all seemed to enjoy the coffee and sweets as they welcomed Alex, some catching up on the events of the weekend before the official start of the meeting.
After all the introductions had been made and everyone had settled at the table, Kellan called for everyone’s attention.
“I know we have our project status meeting this afternoon, but I thought we could each give Alex a quick breakdown of what our roles are on the team and what you are currently working on. You can give your full update later. I’ll go first.”
Alex spent the next 20 minutes taking notes (even though Kellan said it really wasn’t necessary).
But that was just how their mind worked.
They knew if they wrote it down, it would be easier for them to remember later.
They also jotted down brief descriptions of everyone.
They tried to pick something very specific to each person.
It was a trick they learned a long time ago to help them associate faces and names.
It also helped them to not focus on the death stare that Cassie seemed to give them for the entirety of the meeting.
When it had been her turn to speak, Cassie said as little as possible, her voice clipped.
Kellan acknowledged the end of the meeting and dismissed everyone.
Cassie was the first to leave with nary a look back.
Some of them grabbed another pastry on the way out and one of the coordinators cleaned up and took the tray of leftovers to the kitchen next door.
When it was just Alex and Kellan remaining, Alex spoke, the pain obvious in their voice. “She hates me.”
Kellan looked around a little nervously, sitting in the chair next to them. “She doesn’t hate you… I mean… not exactly. She seemed to really like Alex.”
“Really? ”
“Really. She said she had an amazing—” Kellan quickly clamped their mouth shut, their eyes flicking quickly away from Alex to the open door of the conference room.
Clearing their throat, they continued, “Anyway, yeah… um… But she was pretty pissed when they didn’t even post the job opening and announced you were coming from New York to take over as head of the department.
Leah told her she had been campaigning to get her promoted; that she was fully capable of handling the job.
So when we heard… Anyway, yeah,” Kellan’s words drifted off, unsure what to say next.
“I don’t really blame her for hating me.
I would probably hate me if the same thing happened to…
me. That’s not. I mean…” Alex shook their head and sighed.
“Well fuck… um… I guess I’ll go back to my office.
I’m going to try to get myself caught up so I’ll have at least some kind of idea of what’s going on for the status meeting this afternoon,” they said, collecting their notes and heading out of the conference room with Kellan behind them.
They turned to Kellan when they reached their office door.
“Thanks for setting that up. I really appreciate it.”
Kellan returned to their office with an offer to help with ‘anything’ as Alex sat down at their desk. This was the first time since accepting the job and moving back to California that they had felt any doubt. The more they thought about it, the angrier they grew about the situation.
Their mom had been begging for them to come home for years, ratcheting up her efforts since they broke up with Cheryl.
But they had insisted they had a good job in New York and couldn’t just leave it all behind.
When their dad had called several months later with news that there was a “perfect opportunity” in the LA office, they had asked unequivocally if there was anyone else under consideration.
Even after he had sworn there was no one, they had called their mom to confirm .
Alex spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon going over each of the team’s current projects.
They jotted down any key milestones coming up as well as notes and questions for each.
The team had several works in progress, in varying stages of completion, and Alex wanted to be as prepared as possible.
They were comfortable with their knowledge and experience, but now they felt that they would need to prove themselves all over again.
They didn’t see Cassie again until the status meeting.
She remained distant and while her update had seemed thorough, she didn’t acknowledge Alex but rather spoke to the team.
Alex had learned from the chat with Leah that morning that Cassie had been leading the team for a number of weeks, even before Frank had officially retired.
It was obvious the team respected her as a leader. Great . How much worse could this get?