Wynn rubbed her eyes, glanced around the room, and sighed. The same day was beginning again, and she had no idea why, but she was grateful for another chance. She’d fucked up royally at the restaurant last night. When she and Jordan had started sparring, firing insults at each other like children, she saw the disapproval in Carly’s eyes. It was evident that she’d said something wrong, if not crossed the line completely.
When Carly had called last night after she’d gone to bed, she’d tried so hard to stay awake. She’d had a bit of false hope during the night when she’d dozed briefly and the phone had gone silent. She’d immediately called Carly’s name, and she’d responded—her soft, sleepy voice came through the line and she’d said she was still listening. She ached to see her face as she slept, wanted to bolt out of bed and go to her, so she could wake up next to her this morning.
She’d tried talking until dawn to get through this crazy day. She wasn’t comfortable talking about herself, but Carly had asked, and she’d honestly give Carly anything she wanted. She’d rambled on about herself until she heard tiny little snores coming through the speaker, which made her love Carly all the more. Somehow, the universe had given her a second chance. If she could just put all the correct pieces into play, maybe—just maybe she could change her destiny with Carly.
Her phone buzzed on the nightstand, so she picked it up, hit the button, and said, “I’ll call you back.” She knew exactly what Jordan wanted. She now realized the opportunity it presented with Carly. She would be at the fund-raiser later, but she had to accomplish other things during the day to make this weird time loop turn out right. She immediately sent a text to Carly.
I could use your help today. Are you free for a couple of hours? That should be enough time to go to the shelter, adopt Buttercup, and hopefully convince Jack and Maria to adopt her.
Hi. I can probably make time if it’s important. The smiley face at the end made Wynn’s smile broaden more than it should have, but spending time with Carly made her ridiculously happy.
You’re awesome! Can you meet me at my house at noon? She dropped a location pin into the message. Wear jeans.
Okay. I’ll see you then.
She immediately called the office and talked to Jack, told him to meet her in Evelyn’s office in an hour. He was curious just like the last time, but he didn’t question her once she said she wanted to discuss his improvement plan. There would be no ass-hauling involved this morning. She was fully prepared for what would come this time.
Now she had to get to work and make sure no one got fired, including herself. She went to her closet and pushed through the suits until she found something different to wear today—something less “I mean business” and more “I care about my people.”
She ordered coffee on her phone and zipped in and out of the shop, narrowly escaping Sally again. Once she got back to her Jeep, she sent her a text acknowledging what an ass she was and apologizing for the way she’d handled things. She received an unexpected and unwanted response letting her know that Sally was open to letting her apologize over dinner. But that wasn’t going to happen, because it would put her right back in the same shitty situation.
When she arrived at work, she was, again, prepared for the security guard this morning, her badge around her neck and visible. She held the badge up to the card reader by the door, and the light changed from red to green. She smiled and said, “Good morning, George,” as she passed the security desk. He smiled and waved her on. Stopping before she reached the elevator, she spun around and walked back to talk to George. “I might need your help.”
“Sure. What can I do?” He glanced at another employee who was entering and waved.
“I need to play a harmless practical joke on a colleague.”
He immediately grinned. “Whatcha got in mind?”
“It’s Joe Davis’s fortieth birthday, you see, and I’d like to decorate his office. Maybe rearrange the furniture. You know, just for fun.”
George’s eyes widened. “What do you need from me?”
She glanced at her watch. “Can you call him at, say, quarter to ten and tell him his car alarm is going off? That should give us enough time to get into his office and set everything up.”
“Sure. I can detain him longer if you need me to.”
“I might take you up on that. If he comes back in less than fifteen minutes, keep him occupied until I give you the green light. Better yet, send him to security to get a new badge.” She would need George to detain him. She’d have Evelyn notify security to deactivate his badge long enough to keep him sidetracked. Davis parked in the back lot, where the mantrap was installed, so she hoped that would be enough time.
George took out his phone. “Quarter to ten.” As he set an alarm, he grinned as though he’d been included in the surprise party of the century. “Got it.”
“Thanks so much, George. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” And she didn’t at this point. He’d just taken a huge task off her plate.
“Always here to help.”
She turned and rushed to the elevator. Evelyn would be waiting, getting angrier by the minute that she wasn’t already in her office. When the elevator doors opened, she raced across the floor and pushed open the door to Evelyn’s office. Jack was there, ahead of her, like he’d been before, and Evelyn was both pissed and confused. Not a good look for her.
“Where the hell—?”
“I’ve been working on a presentation I think leadership will accept.”
Evelyn rounded her desk and whispered, “I already have a presentation.”
“But it sucks. We have to fix it.” She set the coffees on the table before she pulled out her laptop and turned it on. “They’re not going to go for anything that doesn’t reduce cost immediately, and in a few hours Davis is going to present a proposal for a considerable staff reduction.”
“How do you know that?”
“Just trust me. I know.” She didn’t want to disclose much more for fear Evelyn wouldn’t listen at all.
Evelyn put her hand on her hip. “Have you been working with him to undermine me?”
“Not exactly, but I’m fully aware of his plans, and since you won’t listen to anyone else, he’s going to make his own.” She couldn’t tell them it had been hers to begin with, or they’d both lose all faith in her.
Evelyn took a cup and opened the top before she drank.
Wynn looked up at Jack and then pointed at the remaining cup. “That one’s for you. Sweet and light, right?” She’d remembered how he liked it today.
He seemed confused as he picked it up, pulled off the top, and examined the cloudy contents.
They both stood frozen, watching her.
“Well, sit down. I need your help. I can’t figure this all out on my own.” She tossed printed copies of Evelyn’s presentation, the modified plan they’d come up with before that leadership had rejected, and Jack’s improvement plan in front of each one of them. “We have to combine these to save money.” She also handed them each a list of areas she’d identified as possible money savers.
“Listen. I know you didn’t want me in this position, and I know you don’t trust me. I’m young and smart, and you think I want your job. That might have been true a year ago.” She blew out a breath. It was absolutely true. “But now my only goal is for this company to succeed and keep everyone employed.” She glanced at Evelyn, whose narrowed eyes indicated she still didn’t trust her, and then to Jack. “Isn’t that what we all want?” They both nodded. “Then we all win, right?”
Jack started writing on Wynn’s list. “We can outsource PC purchases, change them to leases, and have a vendor distribute the new ones.”
“That’s a great idea. We’ll be able to provide better customer service then too.” She retrieved the easel from the corner, balanced the oversized pad on it, picked up a marker, and wrote down Jack’s first idea. “How much savings will that give us?”
“A couple hundred thousand.”
She wrote the amount in a column next to it and then glanced back at Jack. “By the way, there’s a sweet chocolate Lab at the animal shelter I’m going to bring home later, and you’re going to adopt her.”
“Probably not. My wife’s not a fan of dogs, was bitten when she was a kid.”
“Buttercup is the sweetest dog, ever. I have a friend who can help Maria get past that fear.”
“I’d love that, if she can. I’ve always wanted a dog.”
“Okay, what next?” She had complete confidence that by working as a team they were going to come up with a great plan. They would need to include a few more substantial savings ideas for leadership to approve it.
Evelyn jotted something on her notepad. “Start charging for food in the canteens. To avoid handling money, we could pull a monthly fee from everyone’s paychecks, like we do for benefits.”
“Acceptable.” That was a huge savings. “I think everyone would agree that’s a minimal price to pay for keeping their job.”
“Can we get enough buy-in for that?” She glanced at Jack, since he worked with a lot of the staff.
“If it was at a discounted rate for those that sign up. We’d have to give them the choice to opt out.”
“Of course.” Evelyn added to her notes.
“What about letting people telecommute? We’d save on operating costs and overhead.”
“Awesome idea, Jack.” She wrote it on the board. “Employees would save on gas and get their commute time back.”
“My whole team would be on board with that.”
“We seem to waste a lot of time on useless meetings. Let’s cut a lot of them and bring the remaining necessary ones online. At the very least, leave out the people who aren’t needed in them.”
Jack wrote something on the paper in front of him. “What about moving to the cloud? That would save on onsite servers and storage.”
She added the suggestion to the list. “Jack. You’re on fire.”
Evelyn spoke up. “We can take on more interns. They’re a minimal expense and are considered an investment in the company’s future.” She scribbled on her notepad. “And cut back on the expensive office supplies.” She held up her gel pen that had the Sexton Technology logo printed on the side. “Go back to off-the-shelf stick pens and also forced default to black-and-white copies.”
They continued naming items until they had enough savings to interest leadership. Their brainstorming session had really paid off. The only thing left was to make sure Davis was detained long enough for leadership to realize it.
She exited the elevator into the lobby and sped to the security department. She’d brought Evelyn along with her because she wasn’t sure they would disable a badge without her authority.
She and Evelyn laid out their plan to detain Davis by deactivating his badge. Getting him outside would be easy, since George was already on board with calling him down and telling him the alarm on his car was going off. Once out of the building, he’d have no way of reentering any of the secure areas of the building without a new badge and permission from Evelyn. George would send Davis to security badging, and they’d be conveniently down for a few hours. George was all in. Thankfully, he loved a good prank.
* * *
Carly was surprised to receive a text from Wynn this morning, and after their short exchange she immediately called Suzanna. She’d just agreed to meet Wynn at her house at noon for help with something she had no clue about.
The ringing stopped, and she didn’t wait for Suzanna to speak. “What’s going on with your sister?”
“What? Which one?”
“Wynn? She sent me a text that said she needs my help for something.”
“I don’t know.” A sigh came through the phone. “You didn’t ask what or why?”
“No. I figured she didn’t want to go over it on the phone or she would’ve called.” She’d been so caught off guard by the message, she hadn’t thought to ask why.
“She’s been really focused on work lately. Maybe something’s going on there.”
That was disappointing. She’d hoped it was something more personal. On second thought it was probably better for it not to be personal. She didn’t want to be a counselor for any relationship issues Wynn might be having. That would end any chance she’d have of developing anything more than friendship with her.
“Maybe so. I thought it might be important, so I cleared my schedule.”
“I’ll call her and find out.”
“No—absolutely not. I don’t want her thinking I called you for advice.”
“But you did. Wait. You cleared your schedule for her?” Suzanna chuckled. “You like her.”
“That’s still up for discussion.” She envisioned the goofy smile on Suzanna’s face and bit her lip in an attempt not to get all giddy. “But I would like to get to know her better.” She was sure the excitement in her voice made her sound like a ridiculous fifteen-year-old.
“Okay.” Suzanna chuckled again. “So what do you want to know?” Something whirred in the background as Suzanna spoke.
“What are you doing? Tearing down the house?”
“Blender. Making a smoothie.”
“Always the healthy one.”
“Running after two kids all the time, I have to do something to keep up.”
“So what’s Wynn’s relationship status?”
“Definitely single. She never lacks companionship, but she always keeps her options open.”
Carly wasn’t sure what to think about that. “So, she sees a lot of women?”
“I wouldn’t say that. I think she’s testing the waters. You know, waiting for the right one.” The blender whirred again. “That might just be you.”
“Don’t even think about it.” She was now regretting making this call.
“What? I won’t do anything except maybe give you a little push. Tonight at the fund-raiser.”
“That will depend on what she needs my help with today.”
“I’m going to put my money on work. Wynn doesn’t open up much about her personal feelings.”
That isn’t good either. “Just what I need—another closed-off control freak.”
“Stop. I didn’t say she’s closed off, and she’s definitely not a control freak. That’s Jordan. Wynn just has to warm up to people first.”
“Okay. I’m trusting you on this.”
“Have I ever steered you wrong?”
“There was that one girl in college.”
“Not my fault. She gave off all the vibes.”
“For you, but not me.”
“Can I help it if I’m irresistible? It’s not like you didn’t benefit from any of those crushes.”
“Total rebounds.”
Suzanna laughed loudly. “Are you seriously complaining?”
“Nope. I knew exactly what they were.”
“Listen. I have to go. The kids are running around like maniacs, and I just heard a crash in the other room.”
“Okay. I’ll see you tonight. Don’t call Wynn.”
“I won’t, but I’m going to give you that push later. This has been a long time coming.”
“Plan on being my lifeguard if I start drowning.”
“I’ll bring the life preserver.”
She heard the kids squealing in the background, and the line went dead. She took in a deep breath and blew it out.
Right after she’d received the text from Wynn, she’d called Stephanie and had her clear her schedule this afternoon. Being totally distracted throughout all her sessions wondering what she could possibly need help with wouldn’t be good for anyone, especially her clients.
Normally she wouldn’t have been so accommodating, but she’d been wanting to get to know Wynn better for a long time, though she’d always seemed out of reach. Suzanna had just laughed. It seemed she’d always thought the two of them would make a good couple. She shook her head. How had she never seen that? Suzanna had apparently put that scenario together long ago and was just waiting for it to happen. What had she gotten herself into? It might be less than she anticipated, but then again it might be more.