thirty-one

THREE MINUTES AFTER ALLISON WALKED into the office after her lunch with Richard, Derrek appeared in her doorway, his face blank.

“Allison, do you have a moment to discuss an important matter?”

Have a moment? No, given the extra work he’d dumped on her the previous Friday, she’d have to clone herself to get it all done, and plus, Derrek’s “moments” were never three or four minutes, but at least fifteen-plus.

“This really isn’t the best—”

“Good, good, thanks for taking time. It’s minor and won’t take long, but I’d like to get clarity on it right away, get your input, so we can incorporate it into our company culture immediately.”

“I really can’t, Derrek. I need to . . .” She trailed off. If Derrek had heard her—and there was nothing wrong with his hearing—he would continue to ignore her protests. Better to simply get it over with.

Allison followed Derrek down the hall. He stopped outside his office and let her step through his door first. As she walked in, her jaw tightened. Three chairs. One for him, one for her, and in the third chair rested Linda’s ever-present notepad—a relic from another generation that still thought pen and paper were the only tools for taking notes.

“How is your day going, Allison?” Derrek asked.

“Fine, thanks.” She pointed at the chair Linda’s notepad rested on. “We’re waiting for Linda?”

“She should be here any—”

Before Derrek finished, Linda strolled into the room with a plastered-on smile and said, “Good afternoon, Allison. Good afternoon, Derrek.”

“Good afternoon, Linda.” Derrek motioned toward Allison. “Allison was just about to tell me about the first part of her day.”

“Oh, lovely.”

Allison glanced at her watch. “I’m sorry, but I have a set of drawings that are due in ten minutes and I need fifteen to review them. So can we cover this quickly?”

“I’m sure they’re fine. You do excellent work, Allison.” Derrek nodded. “But in light of your time constraint, we will get right to the subject at hand.”

Derrek stood, shut the door, then took his seat, back straight, eyes distant.

“Linda and I have been talking about a number of recent mistakes that have cost the company money. We’ve decided to change our policies on how to handle these losses.”

“What kind of mistakes?”

“As an example, when a budgeting error is made on a client’s account.”

Derrek stopped as if that was all the explanation needed.

“Such as?”

“If we get a defined budget from a client and it is allocated for a certain amount of billable hours for a project, and it turns out that a clerical error was made in the execution of that budget, the company suffers.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“I can see how it’s not easy to understand,” Derrek said, but the mocking twinkle in his eyes suggested she was too stupid to comprehend what he was driving at.

“Let’s say one of our clients gives us $15,000 to develop a set of plans for a vacation home. But due to an error during the planning stages on our spreadsheet, the client actually gave us only $12,500. We have lost $2,500 by overspending in error. Do you understand now?”

Allison held his gaze and didn’t respond.

“Good, good, I knew you’d be able to grasp the idea.”

Allison glanced at Linda. The woman smiled at her as if congratulating a fourteen-year-old on figuring out how to tie a shoelace.

“What does that have to do with me? I don’t set the budget. I don’t enter them into the spreadsheet.”

“Yes, but you do handle the account.”

“And?”

Derrek glanced at Linda, then out the window before focusing on Allison again.

“We feel it’s only right to let you know that when you are issued your paycheck next week, it will be a bit lighter than usual.”

“What?” Allison’s face went hot. “You’re taking money out of my paycheck?”

“Yes.”

“You are not going to do that.”

“In this particular case your check will be reduced by thirty-five percent, as the mistake was sizable. But the pay period after that will only be fifteen percent. We wanted to give you the benefit of having it spread out over two paychecks to ease any discomfort that could potentially arise.”

Allison blinked as a squeak of disbelief escaped her lips. “You’re going to do what?”

Linda cocked her head. “I think you heard Derrek. The money lost due to the accounting mistake is going to come out of your next paycheck.”

“You are not going to take money out of my paycheck.” Allison gripped the armrests of her chair and glared at Derrek.

“Oh really?” Linda gave a mock frown. “And why is that?”

“I didn’t make the mistake.”

“That’s a good point, and I acknowledge it.” Derrek folded his arms behind his head. “You did not make the mistake. However, it is your account. Entrusted to you. So ultimately, you are responsible.”

“No.” Allison shook her head. “This is insane. I don’t have a problem taking responsibility when I should, but I haven’t been shown the full budgets of any of the clients I’m handling. I don’t have anything to do with setting up budgets or billing clients or running numbers.”

“I’m sure you faced this type of situation when you were running your own company.” Derrek tapped his fingertips together. “When you and Kayla made an accounting mistake, it ultimately meant less money for you and her. Even if Kayla was the one who made the mistake, you still shared in the loss.”

“This is different!”

“How so?” Linda leaned in, a thin smile glued to her face.

She glared at Derrek. “Because with Kayla, I was a partner. Here? Still waiting.”

Derrek sighed. “Allison, this isn’t the time or place to have that discussion.”

“Fine. Then let’s talk about now. At this moment I don’t have the control I did when Kayla and I were together. I don’t send out the budgets. Dianne does.” She stared at Linda. “And you are the one who approves all the budgets before they’re implemented.”

Linda’s eyes went dark, and she slowly tilted her head to the right as if deciding how to fillet Allison.

“Allison.” Derrek undid his hands and leaned forward, elbows now on his desk. “This company is not in the habit of blaming others.”

“I’m not blaming. I’m simply pointing out that I had no control over whether that mistake was made. So I don’t see how—”

“This isn’t a debate, Allison.” Linda’s eyes narrowed. “We are simply explaining to you how we will conduct this part of our business going forward so there are no surprises when you open your next paycheck. This is a courtesy conversation. And hopefully it will spur you to check the budgets from now on.”

“This is flat-out wrong. You know it. I should not have to bear the responsi—”

“Do you think we should take it out of Dianne’s check?” Linda snapped. “She makes far less than you. She can’t afford the loss to the degree you can.”

“How do you know what I can and can’t afford, Linda?” Allison’s voice rose, and she struggled to keep from shouting.

“We have been paying you generously,” Linda said with sticky syrup in her voice. “But whether you can or can’t afford it doesn’t matter. What matters is doing what is right. And this is how we’ve chosen to have things rectified when errors are made.”

“How are you paid, Linda? A percentage of profits?” Allison turned to Derrek, her cheeks hot. “Dianne and I are on a fixed salary. You, and I suspect Linda as well, take a significant percentage of the profits of this company every month.”

Derrek chuckled. “I’m not sure if you understand—”

“Before I came here, you explained that the company has been extremely profitable, and since I came here, we’ve added five new clients. Five. In three months. I had a minor hand in two of them, and a major hand in three. How can you laugh at me and tell me I don’t—”

“I’m not laughing at you, Allison.” Derrek betrayed himself instantly with a broad smile. “But there are factors you are not comprehending. There are a great many elements that go into a company’s profitability. Ones I haven’t taken the time to explain in detail, but trust me, there are months Linda and I barely take any money home at all.”

“Barely take any money home at all” meant what? Derrek had told Allison before she’d come that he was making $490,000 a year. What was “barely”? Twenty-five thousand a month? Twenty? What was Linda scraping by on? Fifteen grand a month?

“It’s not right.” Allison glanced from Derrek to Linda, then back to Derrek. “I’m being penalized for mistakes I had no hand in making. And despite what you think, Linda, I can’t afford to lose that money.”

Derrek nodded, a look of deep understanding on his face, and for a moment Allison thought he would agree with her. “I know it can’t be easy. And I feel bad things had to come to this, but it’s the way it’s going to be for the time being. Linda and I have talked about this extensively. Sought God’s counsel. We know this is what he is directing us to do. Please know we did not enter into this decision lightly or without extensive time spent in prayer.

“Once we get our feet back under us, we can revisit the policy. Odds are we’ll go back to the way it was, with the company absorbing mistakes such as this one. And I wasn’t going to tell anyone this, but due to your consternation, I’ll let you in on it early. We’ve already talked about a long-term solution. There is a strategy in place for everyone in the company to become part of a profit-sharing plan at the end of the year. Likely before. So there is an excellent chance you’ll be able to make up the money and more.”

Derrek smiled at her like he’d just told Allison that her mom’s financial tsunami would be taken care of, that she and Parker would connect again like in the days before Joel died, and that a wonderful man would come into her life—all in the next thirty seconds.

“An ‘excellent chance’ doesn’t take care of my finances right now.” Allison tried to hold down her voice, but it rose in volume. “I have obligations that must be met now, not from money that might be coming at the end of the year. It doesn’t work that way!”

Allison slumped back in her chair and shoved down the tears trying to force their way out.

“Linda?” Derrek asked. “Might I have a moment with Allison alone?”

Linda nodded. Allison wanted to slap the smugness off her face. Derrek waited a few moments after his office door had closed. He folded his hands and unfolded them. Fold. Unfold.

“As much as I would like to help you, and as much as I sympathize with your position, my primary responsibility is to this company. I must keep it healthy so all of us can stay healthy. There are eighteen people on the payroll. I want to keep them on the payroll. To do that, sometimes difficult measures must be taken. This is one of those times. It won’t be the last. But trust me, good times are coming as well. And you’re a big part of that. You’ve been doing excellent work. I believe in you, possibly more than you believe in yourself.”

“Derrek, please, I can’t—”

“Have you considered that this might be a very, very good circumstance for you, Allison?” Derrek stared at her, a somber look on his face.

“How could this possibly be a good thing?”

Derrek picked up a Bible off his desk and set it on his knee. “God’s Word says that he works all things together for good. It also says we are to count it all joy when we go through trials and testing. If you are going to consider this a trial, then you might also consider looking at this temporary condition as joyful even, and trust that your heavenly Father knows what he is doing.”

She stared at him. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not at liberty to say why, but reducing the salary we agreed on is not an option. I must have that money.”

“Be patient, Allison. God is at work.”

He turned to his laptop and began to type.

“Derrek, this is wrong. You know it.”

He looked up. “Perhaps you don’t trust me. That’s fine. But make the choice to trust God. Provision is coming. Soon. I promise. We will find you other accounts. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work that must be finished.”

Allison staggered back to her office, her mind reeling. How could she fight this? Once again Derrek had played the God card. If God had told him to do this, then how could she argue against it? It was brilliant in its simplicity. Despite how obvious the ploy was, if delivered with deep conviction, she could play no trump card against it.

And yet the blaze stirring inside shouted the truth. She could speak out against what Derrek had done, right now, God or no God, but once again she hesitated and soon convinced herself the time for that wasn’t now. But at her core, she didn’t believe the lies she told herself.

Allison stared at the drawings she needed to review without an ounce of strength to do so. But she had to. Deep breath. Move forward. After reviewing the drawings faster than she liked, she sent them off and slumped back in her chair. Allison glanced at her watch. One forty-three. Still a long slog till the end of the day. She had to get out of this office, get some fresh air, clear her head. Ask God if he really was in the business of stealing money out of her paycheck.