21. Right Direction
RIGHT DIRECTION
The following Monday, Paris hit the button on her phone when it buzzed. “Yes, Molly.”
“Debra Holding is on the line for you.”
She frowned. Her contract was done with MHT Services. She was still getting emails now and again from Debra and answered what she could but knew at some point she was going to have to cut this off.
“Thanks.” She picked the phone up. “Hi, Debra.”
“I’m sorry to bother you, Paris. I know I shouldn’t call and keep emailing. I asked Henry to extend the contract with you for a few more hours and he all but snapped my head off. Michael was even shocked over it, but they agreed that your work is done and I should handle this on my own.”
She held her sigh in. “Your contract is done, that’s correct. I don’t want to be hard, but this is a business and I have no problem with follow up emails, but at some point, I will have to bill for them.”
“No,” Debra said. “I’ll make this my last call.”
The urgency in Debra’s voice wasn’t lost on her. “What’s going on?”
“I’m home today. I had to call in sick. The stress is getting to me.
I never expected it to be this bad when we hired you.
I knew things had to change to keep the business afloat, but it’s just pure rebellion from people.
Morale is horrible. Those who are remaining aren’t really doing their job.
The ones let go weren’t that bad of employees. ”
“Can I ask, who decided on the people let go? It seemed to me it was a complete division.”
Debra let out a laugh. Not funny. Not even forced.
More like she was out of options, and these were the only signs coming from her voice.
“That division was doing fine. Better than the rest. I don’t get it. And all the owners decided together. Todd felt that was the easiest one to get the software working on because it was running so well. Rick actually did a good job with his team.”
“So why was he let go? Why not put him somewhere else where he could organize or get other departments in good shape?”
“I asked that too,” Debra said.
“What did they say?”
“I was shot down. I was told it’s not my decision. I really think it has more to do with the fact that Michael didn’t care for Rick.”
Interesting. “Why is that?”
“Rick has a bit of a temper. He didn’t have a problem speaking up when he didn’t agree with something. He asked a lot of questions, wanted things explained better. The funny part was, most times Rick wasn’t wrong, but the owners didn’t care for that so much.”
“I’ve been witness to his temper.”
“You have?” Debra asked. “I hadn’t been aware you ever talked to him.”
Well, that question was answered.
“Rick showed up here a few weeks ago after he was let go. He wasn’t happy and got a little unruly, but he left.”
“I wonder if anyone knows here.”
She leaned back in her chair and quickly decided to not say much more.
It would be best to downplay it all.
“It’s over with,” she said. “Sounds as if he had a reason for it from what you’re saying.”
“He’s not the only one,” Debra grumbled. “I’m struggling if I should stay or not. I don’t like being blamed for this.”
“It’s part of the job. You should know that HR always gets the blame somehow.”
“I know that. I just, I don’t know. I didn’t sign up for this. There is way too much shady stuff going on and I’m trying to decide if I should leave. Do you think I should? You looked everything over. Did you notice anything?”
She frowned. Did she miss something?
She hadn’t thought so.
“Sorry,” she said. “I viewed what was given to me and I reported back what I had and knew. I can’t really help you much more. I’m sorry.”
“I should leave, right?”
How many times did she have to play the peacemaker? Did she have to ride the line of no answer?
“Debra, you need to do what is good for you. I’m not in your shoes.”
“You’re right. You really are. I’m sorry I bothered you. Don’t take this the wrong way, but maybe hiring consultants wasn’t the thing to do. Everyone is just fighting so much now. Even the owners and they never have before.”
She looked up when Molly was standing in the doorway. “I’m really sorry, Debra. But I’ve got to go. I’ve got someone waiting for me.”
“That’s fine. I appreciate everything you’ve done,” Debra said. “It’s just... something isn’t adding up. I guess I’ve got some thinking to do.”
“You have a good day.” She hung up and looked at Molly. “Yes?”
“Nothing. I heard you trying to get her off the phone unsuccessfully.”
“You’re the best, Molly.”
“What’s wrong?” Molly asked. “You’re twisting your neck like it’s closing around your throat.”
That was what she loved about Molly. She always seemed to catch on without words.
“It was Debra just now. She kept saying things that didn’t make sense. Or insinuating things weren’t right at MHT.”
“Could you have missed something?” Molly asked. “Do you think it’s them that sent the rat? It said to stop looking. Maybe there is something there you missed and they wanted you to be done.”
“There would be no reason to do that. My contract ended. My obligations were fulfilled. I’ve got other jobs. Having some hours left over for follow-up isn’t a big deal.”
“What are you going to do?” Molly asked.
“I can’t go through everything again. I don’t have the time. That’s months’ worth of work.”
“How about Ryan or Jaylen?” Molly asked. “I can double-check some things also if you need. But they are learning.”
“That just crossed my mind. Ryan is going through a few things now, and rather than give him some work on a new project, I could give him an old one, have him go through exactly what I did and how, so he has an idea start to finish. Doesn’t mean he’s going to catch anything.”
“Nope,” Molly said. “But it’s a training tool for him.”
“Yeah. Thanks. I’ll go through it myself and sit with him later on where to start and how to process it. Thanks for everything.”
“Anytime,” Molly said, then turned to return to her desk.
Paris had a million other things to do, but this had to be done.
Even if it was to get that nagging feeling out of her brain.
She pulled up her files for MHT, scanned them to see if anything stood out. She looked at the files, she looked at her spreadsheet with the file names.
Then she jumped when her phone buzzed on her desk.
She’d been less jumpy in the past week.
Since things took a turn in the right direction for her and Fletcher.
Not that anyone knew.
It’d only been eight days since they’d had sex.
Since they’d decided what they had was something to continue.
But they hadn’t had time together for much more than him bringing her to an appointment mid last week because Marcus wasn’t around.
When that meeting was done, the two of them got lunch, then returned to the office.
What she’d wanted to do was suggest they go back to one of their places, but she was positive Fletcher would never do that while on the clock.
She picked her phone up, saw the text from the man on her mind.
What’s your schedule today? Marcus is in the Hamptons getting West.
I’m here all day. London is out but will be back. Then she’s going to Spencer’s for the night.
Her sister had been going home with her, changing, then going to Spencer’s. She knew it was crazy and out of the way.
Even spent last night at home so they could come in together since she knew Marcus wasn’t available.
She hated this. All of it.
No, not all of it.
It led her to Fletcher, but it was still annoying everyone was working their schedules around her.
Her phone rang this time, the smile filled her face and she answered. “You just wanted to hear my voice,” she whispered.
“That’s not the voice I thought I’d hear.”
His was loud, deep, rough, washing over her body like it did every time she heard it.
“Hang on.” She got up and shut her door. “There. Better now?”
“Afraid someone is going to hear you slip up?”
She smiled. “Yep, I am. Molly was in here a few minutes ago. What’s up?”
He laughed. Maybe he wasn’t used to her talking like that.
“Does London go home with you first, then go to Spencer’s?”
“That’s what she’s doing if I can’t get Marcus.”
“Tell her I’ll bring you home.”
Her chair creaked as she leaned back. “Are you just driving me home or is there more to it?”
“Does it matter?”
“I think it does. I want you to be honest with me.”
“Both.”
Figures he’d only give that short answer.
She wasn’t sure why she expected more.
“Then I’ll let her know and be ready to go at five. Or do you need to stay later?”
“Five works.”
He hung up on her after that.
Really? Talk about rude.
Guess she had a date.
She went back to work, checking her facts, then came across a file.
A double file.
One she’d opened many times, but the second one came in two months after she’d started the project.
One from Debra. An HR one.
She clicked to open it after noticing the dates. Jeez, how did she miss that? Was she using an older file the whole time?
But when she clicked, it was password protected.
She went back to the original file with the same name, only missing the (1) next to it. That one opened just fine.
She couldn’t very well call Debra back and ask if there was something different on this file.
That would almost be admitting she didn’t do her job fully.
And one HR file wasn’t going to make that big of a deal.
This was smaller though. Almost half.
She picked up her phone and called Braylon.
“Hi, Paris.”
“Do you have a minute to meet today?”
She heard Braylon clicking around. “How about in two hours?”
“I’ll be there.”
She’d put it from her mind until then. It was probably nothing, but she was going to cover her bases while she was at it.