Deals with Doug

My day had only gotten more chaotic after my half-hour up in the calm of the administrative floor. Meeting with Vanessa had brought me an opportunity, sure, but it had also been a little cathartic and validating. She wasn’t in the thick of it like Dayana and I, and she trusted the two of us to be able to handle shit. She wasn’t going to ever need to deal with Vera Angeloff or her friends or employees, but she knew enough to understand how ridiculous things were already getting.

Vanessa knew the stories of other VIPs who had caused problems - the rumours and stories circulated throughout the staff constantly. New hires would hear about them like mythic legends. So far, no one had asked for anything like what I was dealing with.

I’d gone from Vanessa’s office back down to meet with Dayana and give her the heads up on the Pitch Package we needed to work on - she’d literally growled when I’d told her the timeline, but otherwise she’d been on board immediately, and also bought into the little ideas I had for being ‘not just a hotel’ for the musical acts. Scheduled ‘family dinner’ times where we shut down one restaurant to the public so the acts and crew could eat buffet-style and intermingle. Boxed meals for them to grab and go on their way to the festival grounds or while leaving altogether. Private spaces, with food and drink, for gambling and around the pool. All of it would build into good will and word of mouth that the Vaso took care of not just the VIPs, but also their people. We weren’t just a hotel, we were a destination.

From there I went back upstairs to check on the ballrooms, then cycled up to my office and shot off a couple of emails to clients before heading down the hall and knocking on Doug’s office door.

“Enter,” he called heavily.

“Hey,” I said, stepping in and leaning against the inside of the doorframe. He was standing behind his desk, leaning over and typing furiously, which meant he was only in there temporarily as he went from one Conference-related task to the next. “I need your attention for two minutes.”

“About what?” he asked.

I waited, and after a moment he glanced up and saw the look on my face and grimaced. Then he went back to typing, finished whatever email he was writing, and clicked to send it off before resting both hands on his desk and staring at me with a heavy sigh. “About what?” he asked again.

“Two things,” I said. “First, I need you off my back on the little piddly bookings. I just got word that I might have the chance to hook a monster whale, but it’s going to take a lot of effort, and I need the time and space to make it happen.”

“How monster are we talking? What is it?” he asked.

“It’s ‘release the kraken’ big, Doug,” I said. “Look, you know I’m the best person on the team to chase this sort of opportunity. You’re swamped in conferences every weekend for the next, what, four months? No one else can manage something big without shitting the bed or pissing off someone important. Let me work without getting too many bodies in the kitchen, and when it’s done, either way I’ll have a story for you, OK?”

My boss let out another heavy sigh, his eyes narrowed. We’d already had it out a little bit over the ‘piddly bookings’, and now here I was coming back around trying to get out of them again.

“How long do you need?” he asked.

“Two weeks, but I’ll make it less,” I promised. “And it’s not going to affect day-to-day, I just need to not be messing around with Sorority luncheons or Sweet 16s that only book half of a small ballroom and bring in their own cake.”

He grunted, and his shoulders slumped slightly. “Fine, Robbie,” he said. “But you know this means that Jonas is the star fucking employee unless you come through with this, right?”

“Fine,” I waved him off. “If things shake out like you’re hoping, and I don’t land this sucker, feel free to promote Jonas if you think that’s what would be best. I wouldn’t even take it personally.” I’d still quit, but I didn’t tell him that.”

“That it?” he asked.

“Second thing,” I reminded him. “Just a heads up - Vera Angeloff. Have you seen the expenditures yet?”

“It’s not from our budget, so no,” Doug said after a moment of hesitation. “Where’s this going?”

“It’s going wherever she wants, right now,” I said. “Because that’s what you told us got passed down. I need you to put that in writing in an email, because I’m not going to do anything illegal, but I also need to know what I can and can’t say no to outside of that. Put whoever told you’s name on it if you have to to cover your own butt.”

“What does she want?” he asked me.

“Let’s start with the fact that I had to ask her friend to put on a top at the pool this afternoon after she charmed her way into not being removed by the first two or three staff members who talked to her,” I said. “And that I’m working with Ash to set up a private sunbathing area somewhere for Angeloff and her guests so that they can be topless or however naked they want under the sun. Do you really want to know more?”

Doug's mouth worked a few times as he tried to find the words to put with what he was thinking, but they failed him, and he just let out another heavy sigh. “No,” he said. “I guess I don’t. I’ll send you that email so we can all cover our butts on this one. Just… how bad is the damage going to be to the budget?”

“For now? I’ll try to keep it under control,” I said. “But I don’t know if that’s going to be containable or not. I’ll keep you updated on numbers.”

He nodded, but also shook his head at the same time, which meant he was more doing circles with his head than anything else. “OK,” he finally said. “Email for you, you’ll keep me updated on expenditures, then I need to head back downstairs. Are you able to pull some extra hours tonight? I’m supposed to have Tan helping me out, but…”

Maybe you should have given a little more pushback on hiring him, I thought. Or given him appropriate feedback or progress reports so you could actually fire him.

Tan wasn’t a bad kid, and maybe he didn’t deserve to be fired… yet. But the kid was walking around like he was floating on air. He wasn’t hungry for anything, and I doubted he’d ever worried about being fired from a job before, or the repercussions that came with that. He needed something to drive him to be better.

“Sorry, I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m already meeting with Angeloff after my regular hours, then I'm booked up all evening. You could try Jonas - he seems to have plenty of time in his regular work hours with all the little events he’s been finding for you.”

The look Doug gave me could have curdled milk because he knew I was taking an underhanded shot at him for that ‘Jonas will be the star employee’ shit from a minute before.

“Good luck with the conference stuff,” I said, knocking on the doorframe, and then made my exit.

My ass was covered, or would be soon. Now I just had to finish out the rest of the day without getting burned.

AMA
Breakthebar erotica is powered by Patreon, where AMA chapters are releasing 5+ chapters ahead. PM if interested in making a Commission.