Disruptive Audience

"Oh, Hannah's told me all about your magic coin pouch. Well, both of them." Taking a quick look around and seeing everyone's eyes on Hannah, Lindsay dropped her voice down to whisper in my ear "...master."

The quick nibble of my ear lobe rendered me unable to quell the groan that came out of my throat. Lindsay was quick to resume her professional appearance, I was left faking a cough to try and explain the interruption. It seemed to work. Hannah shot me a knowing smile before going into what needed to be done to prepare the spring line. Based off the look we were getting from Dana, I'd say it was pretty clear that she wasn't fooled either.

"Heh. Real smooth, master. Looks like we have an audience. Speaking of our mutual annoyance, Hannah told me that you're making her jump through some hoops to atone for her sins against her coworkers?"

"Yeah, nothing too mean, but she did her damnedest to nuke my job. Speaking of..." I pull my phone out of my pocket and gesture to Dana to mute hers. Once she did, I started texting her.

Me: I hear you arranged a truce with the coffee shop?

Dana: I did! Who's next?

Me: I'm impressed. How'd you do it?

Dana: I had to promise to make them a couple dozens muffins every day for a month. So who's next?

Me: Lindsay.

Dana: WHAT?!?!?! She wasn't on your list before.

Me: I did say that list was a bit fluid.

Dana: Aww...come on, that's not fair!!!

I showed the phone to Lindsay. The smirk that came across her face was down right sinister. She leaned over to whisper in my ear again. I'm pretty sure that I was then displaying the same smirk.

Me: Lindsay says I should remind you about the holiday party last year.

Dana: ...

Dana: What does she want me to do?

Me: We'll talk about it after the meeting.

I timed that pretty well too. At that moment, Hannah was just ramping up into announcing my promotion.

"I know there have been some rumors about a pending promotion. Well, I'm happy to say that I am promoting Mike to be our new vice-president. Mike, would you please come up here and say a few words?"

I kind of blacked out as I went back to Hannah. I know I gave some spiel about looking forward to the challenge of the new role and about being excited about expanding sales online, but I could not tell you a single detail. It must have gone over well, as Hannah was all smiles and everyone else seemed to be applauding. I did notice, with a bit of a chill running up my spine, that Dana and Lindsay were nowhere to be seen.

This can't be good.