Chapter 1 The 100-Dollar Trap

The group chat went quiet for a few seconds before Ryan Foley, the sales manager, finally broke the silence.

"Hold on, Leo. Is that 100 dollars per person or for the whole company?"

I glanced at his message before typing my reply.

"For the whole company, Mr. Foley. Mr. Brant just gave me 100 dollars in cash, and the envelope is labeled 'Thanksgiving Employee Gift Budget.'"

The chat blew up the moment I hit send.

Linda Jones from Marketing was the first to respond. "Wait, we've got 235 employees, but only 100 dollars for a gift budget? That's barely forty cents per person!"

Jake Moore from Sales was quick to jump in. "What can we even buy with that money? Half a cookie each? Or are we going to share one turkey by smelling it?"

"Is the company really that short on money, or did we do something to piss off the CEO?" Eric Winston from IT asked.

Megan Zimmerman from Customer Service wasn't happy about the news either. "Seriously, if money's that tight, they might as well just skip the gifts. This feels insulting."

The messages kept pouring in.

Even people who rarely spoke in the group chat had their own two cents to throw in. Some filled the chat with question marks, others sent mocking laughing emojis, and a few even went as far as to tag the CEO.

"Ms. Dugan, is it true that you've only allotted 100 dollars for Thanksgiving gifts?"

"We're not trying to cause trouble. We just want to know what's going on."

By then, the entire group chat was in an uproar. However, I merely sat back and enjoyed the show, watching everyone else throw a fit. This was exactly the reaction I'd been hoping for.

A few minutes later, CEO Kate Dugan finally showed up in the chat.

"Simon, what's going on with the budget?"

That shut everyone up. All eyes were on Simon, but he didn't respond right away. He let everyone wait a while before finally replying, acting as if he'd just noticed the commotion.

"Come on, everyone. This is just a misunderstanding. Leo must've mixed things up. That 100 dollars isn't the budget for the whole company. I only asked him to get a few samples first."

He went on to explain, "You know, some Thanksgiving treats, nuts, fruit baskets, things like that. We'll approve the full budget once we wrap up our Thanksgiving gift survey. Relax, guys. The company isn't going to be that cheap with Thanksgiving gifts."

His explanation seemed to do the trick. The complaints died down, and the mood in the chat quickly shifted.

"Thank goodness. I was about to say that forty cents for Thanksgiving is just totally ridiculous," someone joked.

Kate said nothing else, and everyone moved on. Just like that, the whole thing seemed to have blown over.

At least, that was how it looked like in the group chat.

…

After all, Simon stormed into my office ten minutes later and slammed his hand down on my desk, demanding angrily, "Leo, what the hell was that?"

He was practically shaking with fury, but he still had the sense to keep his voice down.