Chapter 4

WAYLON

"You wouldn't believe how much damage-control I had to do at work this week?" My breath comes out in spurts. "They are hopeless, completely hopeless. How come my dad didn't fire half of these useless assholes?" I stare at Finn's hands as he fidgets with a stress toy sitting at my desk. "I almost wish-I wish I had a calmer head on my shoulders because I can't deal with half of this bullshit."

"Whew, Way, you need to learn how to relax." He throws the duck towards me, and I barely catch it before it hits me in the face. "I know your dad has been cruel to you, keeping you away from partying and women. . .but cut the guy some slack. He knows you better than you do." He clicks his tongue. "That's how he gets to push all of your buttons." Then he centres his gaze over me. "Don't you think?"

"Hey, whose side are you on?" I thin my lips. "Mine or his?" I fold my hands over my chest. "Because from my field of vision, you're blatantly on his side. And I'm not surprised."

"Why doesn't it surprise you?" He smirks, then mimics me, crossing his big veiny arms on his chest. "You never listen to me, ever." Then he shakes his head. "Do you have something to say to me?" He laughs. "Wipe that surly expression off your face."

"Oh, you know, you're a freaking suck-up. You have always been one since we were children. My dad has bought you with his gifts and favours since you were what, like six?" I smile slowly. "No wonder you go behind my back and spill everything happening in my life like a freaking lab rat. One poke from your master, and you spew all of your guts out. You haven't changed one bit."

"Those are some big accusations, my friend." Finn laughs. "Well, at least your dad should pay me more for all the services I provide him." He smiles connivingly. "When he calls again, let him know I deserve a raise since being on his payroll and hearing your indignant mouthfuls isn't enough for me."

"Haish!" I hit him with the back of a file folder. "You giant asshole."

"You still love me."

"No, I certainly don't."

"Tell me you do, honey." He makes googly eyes at me. "Hit me harder. Spank me, won't you, my big, muscular man? I can't wait to--"

There's a loud knock on the door that interrupts us. I mean, it interrupts Finn from being the dick he is.

"Can I come in?" A sweet, soft-spoken voice comes in waves from the other side of the door. "I need to talk-talk to you." 

I find her stuttering cute.

"If you must."

Finn slaps me on the back. He answers for me. "Do come in. We'd love to attend to you."

Then, the small doorknob twists and jiggles before a young, dark-haired woman enters the room. My eyes land on her waist, and it shocks me how tiny it is when compared to her curvy body. Without wanting to, my eyes glide over the hourglass shape of her body, and I can feel the make of my pants stretch tighter against my crotch.

"What is it?" I ask her, my eyes finally stopping at her pretty face. Her eyes are big and dark, and her dark brown hair fits her frame perfectly. It's as if this woman was meant to be a model, but she's stuck in my office partaking in a nine-to-five job. And the job is simply beneath her.

What is she doing here?

The moment she enters the office and makes her way to my behemoth mahogany desk in the centre of the room, her eyes fall on me, and she licks her lips. She appears nervous, fidgeting with the file between her fingers. Then she glances around the room, looking for something to ground her in the new environment.

I clear my throat.

So she talks.

"Do you have a minute?"

"It depends on why you are here."

That gets her attention. Her eyes open wide, but then she places a palm on the back of the leather seat on the opposite side of the desk where she is standing. She stares at the folder in her fingers, and she runs her fingers on the hard plastic edge of the file. The tiny movement situates her in reality.

"I'm here on behalf of the marketing department, and they have sent me here so I can clear some misunderstandings about the information exchanges between the different departments."

"Where is Kyra? Isn't she the department head?" I interrupt her because the complete denial of how the office atmosphere should work for the employees in this building and their blatant disrespect of my new rules set off my nerves. "Did you work on that marketing report?"

She nods, her eyes wide again. She opens her mouth slightly but quickly closes it without saying anything.

"I just asked you something. . ." I pause because I can't see her identity card clearly. She has it plugged into the front pocket of her coat. "What's your name again?"

"Everett Fischer." Her voice is softer than the first time she came into the room. "Kyra said it'd be better if I present the facts to you in person since I worked on the marketing report."

"You have got the percentages of ROIs all wrong for all the products in the new launch line." I shake my head. "It only happened because," I turn my laptop's screen towards her showing her the collected data analytics from the small soft launch we did earlier this week since I was studying the results before Finn came in and went on his annoying rant, "you got all the click-through and conversion rates wrong in the first column, so it messed up all the data on the ROI and so on and so forth."

Her eyes gaze wider as she bends her shoulders down to concentrate on the data, her mouth agape and breathing fast.

"Can you see it?" I ask again when she doesn't speak for a minute. "Are you catching up on the problems with your report, Ms Fischer?"

She straightens up, putting her stare on me.

"Yes." She clears her throat this time. "I happen to see where I am wrong, and I didn't find out that way earlier, and I'm sorry about that." She finally pushes the folder she came in with towards me. "Well, when I was busy redoing the report, I came across the click bots on the PPC part of our data analytics, and I think it was some person on the client company's team who was generating the click-through rates. They were incessantly tapping on the click button repeatedly to exhaust the company's set marketing revenue so they could generate interest in the products during our soft launch." She opens the folder and flips through a couple of pages before positioning the file towards me. "I already checked with our software development team, and they have confirmed this. They generated the clicks from different parts of the same country. Here's a scan of that."

"That scan shows it's somewhere in Europe, but our buying and converting customers doesn't reflect that geographic location. Far from it." I sigh as I run a hand through my head. "That explains the low ROI on the sample products."

She nods, fixing the tendrils that have escaped her bun behind her head.

"Yeah, my point, exactly."

I exhale a harsh breath, staring her down.

"That still doesn't negate that you made a mistake, Ms Fischer. A big mistake, indeed." I smile slowly at the phrase I have in my head. "The kind of mistake I fire people over if you know anything about my management style."

She shakes her head.

"Maybe you like doing that, but I feel like if someone's capable enough to see incoming threats to the company, then they belong here working for the company inside this fine establishment." She smiles gently while she ends her argument. "Other than that, it's completely your call."

Running my hand over the report, I nod at her.

"Your job is safe for now, but don't give me another reason to fire you in the future, Ms Fischer." 

"Thank you for your time."

"You can go now."

She nods her head again, leaving the file on the table for my perusal, not before throwing a look in my direction before leaving.

As soon as she's out of earshot, Finn slaps me on the chest.

"Man, you got to control your red-blooded firing instincts." He laughs. "That poor thing, you had her shaking in her boots."

"Well, she put herself in hot water over her own mistakes."

Finn raises his hands up defensively.

"Just saying, man." He smirks. "Someday, it's going to bring you a hell lot of trouble."

"I don't mind waiting for the day if it isn't today." I brush him off. "You have to leave me alone now." My eyes stare him down. "I have some work to finish and a new project to finalise."

"You're still a giant asshole as when you were a kid."

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

Finn leaves the room after saying something beneath his breath, shaking his head at my words. His behaviour doesn't faze me at all since we have been friends for an eternity. More than friends actually, he's the closest thing to a brother I will ever have.

And he knows that.