April's Surpise Meeting

Tapping her pen on a pad of paper as she thought of what to write next April read through what she had already written down for the third time. She was creating a list of jobs to get done around the office for the interns, many of the things to be done were standard, but she wanted to come up with more projects beyond digitize all the paper files. A herculean task by itself, but she wanted to prove she could not only handle being in charge of the interns, but do much more. Movement on her screen caught her attention and saw an email marked urgent with a read receipt. It said she needed to report to conference room 1E right away and to not tell anyone what the meeting was about. “Impossible to do that Max, when you don’t say what the meeting is about.” The email was from Maxamilion White, who oversaw all operations at the Nevada Mega Corp office and April did not feel good about getting called down to the first floor by him for an unknown meeting. Did things fall apart? Was Amanda in trouble with her scheme unraveling and she was going to go down with her? Was this just some normal macho male bullshit because she turned down, well shot down really. Some man in a suit she didn’t know because he wanted to take her out for drinks? Shit, I really should have been softer than telling that guy fuck off. Of course that he hadn’t taken the polite no and instead of asking her name he called her honeybuns. God why were there so few decent men!

Her train of thought bounced from station to station, considering checking her latest attempt at using a dating app and then to checking on Amanda who was still on the same conference call that was supposed to end forty minutes ago. Scratching something down on her pad of paper, April ripped the bottom off before quietly going into her bosses office. Coming into the room she saw Amanda looking down into a binder she had created the week before as two voices she didn’t recognize tried to talk over one another on the call. On her desk was an open bottle of aspirin, an empty coffee cup and a mostly gone bottle of water. When Amanda looked up to her, April handed her the piece of paper that said I have to run to a meeting with Max, it said urgent.

Hitting the mute button and then turning off the mic itself by raising the mic up so that they would not be heard, Amanda looked at the torn piece of paper again before looking at her friend. “Are you okay? Do you need me to go with you?” The normal calm that surrounded her friend was gone and she was pretty sure her hands were shaking.

“No, I will be fine.” I hope April added mentally as the more she thought about a meeting being called for her and marked as urgent and to be on the first floor it made her think more about how she had no idea who the man was and what if he was a prospective client and her verbal bite had caused a problem. “Do you need more coffee, or more water before I head out?”

Amanda pursed her lips and shook her head, she didn’t really need anything other than to get off this call. Roger and Stan had been arguing the entire meeting and if they could get their heads out of their asses they could see they agree on mostly everything, but she couldn't say that. She hadn’t seen anything about this meeting, but seeing her friend's demeanor she could tell she was worried. “Forward your phone to Roxie, she can handle the line while you are gone.” Amanda paused for a second, looked down at her Best M<3M Ever mug. “When you get back she can hold the line a little longer and how about the two of us get lunch together for a change. It has been too long.”

If she wasn’t clearing out her desk, then that sounded like a good idea. “Absolutely and if we bring back something for Roxie I doubt she will have a problem with a few extra phone calls.” With that April left her boss to her extended meeting. Cleared the call forwarding with Roxie and headed off downstairs with her purse, just in case security wouldn’t let her go back up. This morning she had been racking her brain about new ideas to help Mega Corp. She wasn’t just going to be in charge of a few interns assigned to her department, but for every department. While that opened up a lot for her to be able to help, it also caused her to go around talking to different department heads to see what their needs were. That is when she ran into the man she believed this meeting was about and why she was worried. Taking the stairs to give her an extra minute to clear her head helped, and she let out a long breath as she looked at the frosted glass door to conference room 1E. Opening it up she was surprised to see Derrick Connors sitting in the small conference room and not Mr. White. “Good afternoon Ms. Gates, thank you for coming with such short notice.”

“Mr. Connors, I was expecting Mr. White and…” April paused for a second as she remembered a conversation from that morning with Amanda. “I thought you weren’t coming in till this evening?”

She watched Derrick laugh and motion for her to take a seat. “Flying in tonight was the plan, but I thought I would come back a little early and surprise Mandy.” He motioned to the corner of the room where a thick suitcase, and a clear vase with a dozen roses sat.

“Oh she is going to love that!” April said happy for her friend and a bit jealous.

“I hope so, and to answer your other question. Mr. White sent the meeting request for me to talk about your pending promotion. I would have sent it myself, but last night I seemed to have locked myself out of my email and I find myself without an assistant to help.”

“Pending promotion? Wait so I am not being fired and we have moved from me possibly being promoted to a promotion is pending?” She said, cocking her head at the man. This was not what she was expecting when she came in here. “And one more question, why are we meeting down here?”

Thumbing each of his fingers on the table Derrick thought about how to unpack all of that. “Did the meeting invite not say this was about your promotion?” A shake of her head confirmed that and the way she pushed out her jaw made it clear she wasn’t happy about that and considering she mentioned being fired he could see why. “Okay, let's start with this, it will help us get out balance I think.” He slid a manila folder across the table to her.

Opening the folder she saw an offer letter for Amanda’s currention position, pending her vacating the role and a transition period where she would be handed more and more of the jobs responsibilities till it was fully hers. If she was looking at this, that meant Amanda got her promotion, it made her so happy to know they were both able to fight through the glass ceiling. It wasn’t unheard of for females to move up, but it was much rarer than it should be. Looking up at the man across from her, seeing his warm smile and green eyes looking at her she could understand why some woman swoon. “So no, you are not being fired and I hope you are not looking to leave us. It is hard to find people as talented as yourself and in fact if you take the role Mandy. I mean Ms. Best has you will be starting at a higher salary than she started with. Mr. White and I had a disagreement about where you should start. He said a lot of things about how this was his office and to stay in my lane.” Derrick said rolling his finger in the air like this was an argument that never ended. “In the end we both compromised, neither of us happy. What do you think?”

It wasn’t a massive salary, but she did recall Amanda talking about how when she started her position she was paid less than others, specifically the men that also ran departments. It sounded like Mr. White wanted to make that a tradition, it wasn’t even a battle she considered she would have to fight. “Is this the final offer or can I negotiate?” She said with a small predatory smile.

Slapping the table Derrick laughed, he loved the shrewdness of this young woman. An old word came to mind, gumption. “You should always try to negotiate, but if you wanted to go that route I would wait till you get that little project you will be working on with the interns. I would love to be able to pull up a client's file on my laptop instead of having to have a paper copy. Something like that could be a real feather in your cap.” His smile dwindled a little, he needed to sell this correctly to try and get what he wanted. It would have been easy to not push Max at all so he could have April Gates, but that wouldn’t have been fair to her. “That is one route, the other… go to the second page in that folder.”

Feeling the paper from the offer letter it wasn’t just some regular printed piece of paper, it was much higher quality, something she would have expected to be sent in the mail to welcome some executive to the company. Under it was another such piece of paper with a different job title, this one to be the executive assistant to the West Coast Regional Manager of Mega Corp, Derrick Connors. “I don’t understand.” The listed pay was a significant raise from what she made now, but not as much as she would make taking the first offer.

Leaning forward in his seat, Derrick looked the young dark haired woman in the eye. “Mandy didn’t get the job she applied for.” He paused to let that sink in before he continued. “I called in a few favors and honestly gave out a few. After I’m done seeing you, I am going to offer her the position of Director of Finance for the west coast.”

April felt many things at once, excitement, confusion and was a bit in awe that he would put her forward for a position like that, let alone get her the job. Mega Corp didn’t like employees moving up more than two rungs on the payscale, she knew that her getting Amanda’s current position would depend on a lot of things, including office politics. Amanda had never brought up her going with her when she got the district manager position, but Mr. Connors was asking her to take up the role for him. If she was going to stay in her same role she would rather stay working for her friend. “I have a few questions.”

“I can’t imagine why.” He said with an easy smile.

“In this order. Who is getting the district manager role? I wasn’t even aware Amanda had interviewed for it yet. Why this person over Amanda? Can you give me some good reasons why I would work under you than take this management job, or say continue to work under my best friend?” There seemed to be a lot going on here and even more left unsaid. This was a massive promotion, why would Amanda be turned away for a lesser potion and then given the unless that was his doing.

“I can’t really go into why she didn’t get the position with you, I hope you understand. When I tell you who got the role, I imagine you will understand why the offer to continue here even as a manager might be less appealing.” He hadn’t had much interaction with the man, but the way he did business on this promotion told him a great deal about what it would be like to work for him. “One of the men that work under Ms. Best got the role. A Greggory Aldrich will be the new District Manager out here starting in three months.”

“Greg Aldrich? Greg Finger guns Aldrich? Mega Corp is passing over Amanda Best for him? They are promoting him over her and she didn’t even get an interview? That man is a sexisit…” She trailed off as Derrick motioned with his hands in a hang on, stop now type motion.

“I understand you are upset, but you cannot talk about another employee like that.” He could see the anger poorly concealed on her face. “You are right, it wasn’t fair and was done over my head. That is why we are here talking about these different offers. Ms. Best can stay on here if she wants and will continue to report to Mr. White, but the District Manager still will work out of this office. Or she can take the role I am going to offer her, it will allow her to move up, but she will have to move to California. Personally I would rather have you come with her and work under me. She has helped you grow a lot, or at least given you what you needed to help yourself grow. If you wanted to continue to work under your friend, I would understand and she will have no problems appointing you to that position. What you have to understand is her new role is going to be narrow, an important lane, but a narrow one. You working under her will meet important people, but if you come to work for me. You will meet people from across the company, in different fields and regions. I see a lot of potential in you April Gates, and I think it would be squandered staying here in Nevada.”

April slumped back in her chair, letting out a slow breath. She could stay here close to her family, have the job she had been hoping for and at a higher pay, but to do so would be to work under that slimeball, maybe not directly under him, but considering the rumors he once tried to spread about Amanda when she wouldn’t open her legs for him, she knew he would be trouble. Staying here would also mean her best friend leaving, because she would have to be crazy not to accept a job as a director. If she went with her she would work for Mr. Connors or her. It sounded like he wanted to groom her for something bigger, but she would have to be patient longer. She smirked a little thinking about something he said when this meeting first started. “Are you offering this to me because you want my help getting back into your email?”

“I will have you know that I started working on this long before I was locked out of my email, but also yes. Very much so. I texted Monica and she just replied with three words. On Vacation, NO. The no was in caps and everything. She isn’t going on a honeymoon, her boyfriend, well husband to be has something with work, but when she goes for her honeymoon…” She watched Derrick frown and already had a good idea that Monica wouldn’t be coming back. “She is abandoning me, and said we had to break up. It wasn’t me, but I have been told that is a line girls use to soften the blow.”

As he went on his frown curved up, his smile growing more and more. “If I had something to throw at you I would.”

“**** is never the answer when it is directed at me, but does that mean you are willing to come work for me?”

“It means I will consider the offers, and then we can negotiate, but I will put in a ticket with IT so you can get back into your email.” She had a lot to consider with everything he had told her. “Oh, you never said why we had to meet on the first floor? Honestly that was what made me think I was going to be let go.”

“I was told that the office I used upstairs was currently being used to organize old files that had been pulled up from records and that this was the only thing available with zero notice.” April nodded, he had lost his temporary office because of her as she tried to get things organized for her project. “Scheduling an office is easier when you have an assistant I hear, maybe you should get one of those.”

Derrick motioned to the manela folder in front of April, trying to contain a chuckle. Working with her wouldn’t be boring. Monica was a great help and she never let him get away with anything. Working with April made him think he would be getting plenty of sas along with her substantial skillset. “Take your time and consider, but if you have to meet with anyone else about moving positions. I highly recommend you stick with calling her Ms. Best and not Amanda. Plenty of guys are happy to promote a friend, but if they think for a second that is happening with you, well. The word hypocrite comes to mind.”

She knew he was talking about Maxamillion White, the man was old and thought dames should be in skirts, mouths closed and typing up memos. Not running departments and she knew Amanda wouldn’t have gotten where she did without the help of her old mentor and it seemed the kind, handsome, if a little smug man wanted to do that for her. “When are you going to see her?”

“Soon as her gatekeeper tells me she is available.”