4. Rick #2
By the way he was acting, I’d wager he was thinking this was a good thing, being called back into the office.
He adjusted his tie, completely oblivious to the storm brewing behind my desk. “You wanted to see me again? I assume you reviewed the hardware store files I stayed up late finalizing last night.”
Another lie. Elizabeth had heard the entire exchange between Leonard and Sofia when she had gotten back from lunch. Everyone in the office knew that Sofia had spent her entire afternoon redoing the work herself.
The man wasn’t even trying to hide his lies any longer. Had my dad been that blind to this man? Why?
I sat back in my chair. On my monitor, his personnel file was open. It was a joke. He’d barely hit his targets in three years, and his previous reviews under my father noted a distinct lack of independent creative output.
That was until Sofia had been put under his wing last year. Then, miraculously, the man had started showing progress and earned better and bigger accounts. He had a list of fresh new clients that he was credited for bringing to the firm as well.
“I did look at those files, Leonard,” I said smoothly. “Fascinating work. Tell me, how long did it take you to develop the SEO keyword integration for that campaign?”
Leonard chuckled, waving a dismissive hand. “Oh, you know, a couple of late nights at the office. I really had to dig deep into the hardware demographic to get those perfect strings.”
“Is that so?” I leaned forward, pulling the printed copy of the Blueberry Bakery ad from earlier and sliding it across the desk. “And what about this one? You told me this morning that you spent months wining and dining the bakery owner to secure their contract.”
“Absolutely.” Leonard lied seamlessly, puffing out his chest. “Hardest client I ever had to close. But my persistence paid off.”
“Remind me again, what is the owner’s name?” I glanced down at the file, as if searching for the name.
“The owner?” Leonard asked.
“Yes,” I glanced up at him. “You said you wined and dined… him?”
“Right,” He nodded and his brows furrowed. “S-s-steven,” he answered, lifting his chin. “I think. You know, I have so many accounts under my belt right now.” He shifted and actually pulled out his phone.
I waited.
“The contact doesn’t seem to be in my phone any longer.” He shoved his phone back in his pocket. “I had to replace my old phone last month. I just had lunch with him last month. Nice guy.”
“That’s funny,” I said, my voice dropping into a dangerous, ice-cold register, “because the bakery owner, Bethany Williams, tells me that she is a close personal friend of Sofia Ferreira’s family.
She assured me, when I was on the phone with her just moments before you came in, that Sofia is the reason she decided to use us for all her business’s marketing needs.
She also claims that she never spoke to or met you during the entire onboarding process with GSM.
And as for the hardware store ad copy you claim to have spent late nights on, the server logs show Sofia uploaded those finalized files at midnight last night, while you logged off yesterday at three in the afternoon.
Then, she uploaded more files around eleven thirty this morning.
You did in fact touch those files. Oddly, you deleted them from the server around eleven forty.
Then, according to several people in the office, Sofia spent the rest of the day recreating the majority of them.
I have asked IT to confirm that you accessed Sofia’s computer at her desk around that same time and remove her backup files.
” I paused and could see the man’s eyes heating.
Thankfully, he remained quiet. “In fact, most days you clock into work around ten and log out of the system around three.” I waited.
“Yet, you seem to have turned in more than thirty hours of overtime in the past month alone.”
Leonard’s smug expression was slowly withering.
I watched the color drain from his face, leaving him looking sickly under the fluorescent lights.
“I oversee the high-level concepts. I, Sofia works under me, she arranges…” He seemed to have dried up, unsure of what to say at this point.
Instead, he just stared at me with his mouth open wide, like a guppy.
“I’m sure there is some sort of misunderstanding with IT. ”
“You take credit for a young woman’s grueling overtime because you don’t have a single creative bone in your body,” I said smoothly, standing up to my full height.
“I’ve heard a few things about you today from the other staff members.
That you micromanage, you plagiarize. Not to mention that you lied to my face on my very first day as your boss. ”
“Now, wait a minute, your father knows my value—”
“My father isn’t here,” I said firmly, leaning over the desk. “I am. And effective immediately, you’re fired. Security is waiting outside to escort you out of the building.” I motioned toward my closed doors.
He opened his mouth to argue, but the sheer finality in my eyes shut him up. He turned on his heel and practically fled the office.
I took a deep breath and felt satisfied I was doing the best thing. The man was shady, not to mention full of himself. Guys like that needed to be knocked down a notch every now and then so they learn that you can’t step on everyone’s toes to get ahead.
When I’d left Colorado for California, I hadn’t used my father’s name or wealth to make something of myself.
Starting from scratch had been hard. I had been a one-man-show for the first year.
I’d hunted down and found my own clients.
Doing everything in my business alone had been tiring.
Then, thanks to my hard work and the skills I had gained working at GSM, I earned enough to hire one other marketing person.
For the second year, it had been Joe Marlow and me.
We scored a few more jobs and found our first small office.
We hired two part-time staff and one more full-time marketing professional.
Currently, I had eleven employees, counting myself. Joe was now my partner in the business, and while I was helping out here he was overseeing as much as possible in my absence.
Coming home to Colorado was definitely proving to be a wild ride, but as I looked down at one the sketches that Sofia had left on my desk, I guessed that taking over temporarily around here was going to be worth every single second.