“Have a seat,” I said, as I turned the copies of the budget spreadsheets, I had been reviewing towards her.
They were also on my computer, so I could make changes as we went along.
“We’re going to start with a clean slate for the fourth quarter. Afterward, we can build the budget for next year.”
“What’s wrong with the budget we already have in place for the fourth quarter?”
I turned my gaze away from my computer and stared at her for a moment before I decided to speak. “The fact that you had to ask me that question reassures me that you’re not the person that should be in this role.”
“With all due respect, sir. I’m the only team member aside from Claire and Darren that has experience in fiscal management. I’m always a part of the team when they create the budget for the upcoming year.”
“Who taught you how to make and manage a budget? The two of them?”
“No, I learned in school.”
“Mm...and you’ve never spoken up to them about this or were you just out of class the day they taught fiscal management one-oh-one?”
Silver held her head down and stared at her fingers, interlocked in her lap. I could tell I had pissed her off from the reddened tone of her face. But she wouldn’t say a word. For some reason, that pissed me off, too. Everything about this woman was starting to get underneath my skin, and I didn’t even know her.
“With all due respect, sir, I have spoken with them on a couple of occasions about the state of the budget, as well as their process for developing one. Unfortunately, my vision about managing the process does not align with theirs, and as senior managers, they have the final decision.”
She was itching to say more, I could tell. Maybe, I hadn’t given her a fair shot. Perhaps I needed to put my shit about her crazy assed dog on the back burner for a moment.
“What has been their response to you?”
Her eyes flickered up briefly to meet mine. She was assessing me and wondering how much she could trust me. Not at all. I wasn’t here to be her friend, or on her team. I was here to get the job done, and whatever that took, then so be it.
“I...well, I have suggested this,” she said as she turned one of the spreadsheets around. “This line needs to be decreased by twenty-five-hundred. I don’t think account code twenty-five-oh-one should be there at all. At least not when we’re not making the budget. The retreat is beneficial to staff members in terms of bonding and restoration, but it isn’t a necessity. We should either cut it altogether or find alternatives. There are several non-profits in our area that would be willing to host team-building activities for the radio station for a nominal fee.”
“And you’ve suggested this?”
She nodded her head quickly.
“What was their response?”
Again, that brief pause. I needed to know the truth. “Go ahead; it’s critical for me to understand the mindset of the people that I’m dealing with here if we’re going to save this radio station. We cannot continue to operate the way we always have if we plan to see any measure of success.”
“Umm...they said that ‘we just need to massage the numbers, and we could make it happen.’”
“Massage the numbers?”
A chill ran up my spine. I hated that term. Anytime I heard it, I knew unethical behaviors were practiced. I would have to keep my eye on this team a little closer than I originally thought. That included Silver. Because if she could turn on her teammates as quickly as she had, how much could she be trusted?
CHAPTER 5 – SILVER
“You not gon’ get toes done? You get toes done,” my sister, Soo Ah, who simply went by Sue said.
“My feet are fine, Sue.”
“You need toes done.”
“How much, Sue?”
“Thirdee-five.”
“I’m not paying you to do my feet.”
“And I not do them fo’ free. They look like you kick cow dung and scrape with rocks.”
I laughed loudly, causing some of the other customers to look our way. Most of my sister’s regular clientele expected our antics, so I shrugged and redirected my gaze to her filing my nails.
“You’re definitely not doing them now. You just told me that my feet look and smell like cow shit and hard rocks.”
“Silver, I not say that.”
“You might as well.”
She focused on my nails a while longer while I stared at the TV screen overhead. The weatherman pointed to a chart showing that we were getting rain overnight. That meant that I couldn’t run in the morning, and I would have to be satisfied with using our building’s fitness center.
Bear wouldn’t be happy about that. Neither would I because I craved the outdoors. The fresh air, the interaction with other people, and the sunrises. Nothing could compare to the gorgeous sunrises that I viewed every morning.
“Yo’ job, okay? New guy, okay? Any cuts? You come work for me, yes?”
I rolled my eyes. That was an ongoing argument between Sue and me. She thought that I should work for her in the “family business.” I argued that there was no family business, just her business. Two of our cousins worked for her, along with my brother, Seok.
Our parents migrated to the US when I was just six years old for the sole purpose of us having the opportunity to live out our dreams. They encouraged my sister, brother, and me in whatever passion our hearts aspired to, which is why I couldn’t understand Sue’s pressure for me to come and work in her nail salon.
Seok was lazy and didn’t have any aspirations of his own. He was fine working in Sue’s salon and earning meager wages. I kept telling Sue that would change as soon as he found a wife. Her husband, Chung Hee, had been somewhat like Seok until he met Sue. Now he owned a chain of dry cleaners.
“No, I’m not coming to work for you. I still have a job as we speak.”
“As we speak?” she asked, tilting my nail at an angle while examining it.
I lifted my free hand and placed a nail in my mouth and begin biting it.
My sister smacked my hand with the nail file and frowned. I dropped my hand back onto the table.
“Stop that! I told you ‘bout bad habits. Who touch you nails when it’s been in yo’ mouth?” she asked in her broken English.
“You touch people’s nails all the time and have no idea where they’ve been. My mouth is probably the cleanest location,” I said, rolling my eyes and staring at the offending hand.
“Neon nal hwanage hae!” she said.
I hated it when she spoke Korean. Although we grew up in America, we spoke Korean in our household growing up. My sister was eighteen, and my brother was thirteen when we came to the States. Both of them still spoke Korean more often than me. I stopped once I was grown and out of our parents’ house.
When we were visiting our parents, we all reverted to our native language. But my sister only spoke our native tongue to me when she was upset with me.
“You make me angry, too,” I said.
“How?”
“When you speak Korean to me. Sue, you only do it when you’re angry at me. That doesn’t make me feel good,” I said pouting.
Her twisted lips straightened, her frown smoothed out, and her eyes softened. But I couldn’t let up that easily.
“You make me feel bad when you do that.”
“Joesong haeyo.”
I rolled my eyes again. “Don’t be sorry, just quit doing it.”
“Fine,” she said. Sue set the nail file down, crossed her arms on the station, and leaned in towards me. “Why you nervous? That’s the only time you bite nails.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I got a new position today.”
“That’s great news! Especially with all the changes.”
“No, not great news. More responsibility and the pay remains the same.”
She shrugged again and picked up the clear polish that she would be applying to my nails as soon as she finished buffing them. I watched as she plugged in the buffe
r.
“At least you still have job. You could ha’ been fired.”
“Well, it’s not over. The consultant that they brought in to turn things around, I have to report to him, too, now.”
“That not so bad,” she replied as she applied the buffing machine to my nails.
“Well, it wouldn’t be a problem, but he doesn’t like me.”
“How you know? You’ve got to stop being a negative Nancy.”
“I know that he doesn’t like me. He had a run-in with Bear this morning.”
“Oh, sweet baby.”
“Except when he’s trying to topple a full-grown man for his sack of apple streusels. And he ate all four of them in no time.”
Her lips formed an “O,” and her eyes widened. “That doesn’t sound like happy times for you, but for Bear, yes.”
“It wasn’t.”
“But why Bear at work with you?”
“He wasn’t. The guy was coming out of French Toast when we arrived. You know how much Bear loves that place, and especially the streusels that Tiffany sells. He instantly attacked, and the man was so angry. When he walked into the meeting, he was just fine, until he saw me.”
I sighed, recalling his instant change of disposition when he spotted me. I was uncomfortable throughout the meeting. But nothing compared to when I came to his office door, and he realized that I was his two o’clock appointment.
I was a little worried after he convinced me to share what had been going on with the budget. But while I was concerned about him betraying my confidence, I had to admit that something was reassuring about his demeanor. I didn’t get the feeling that he would readily share with them what I said. Deep down, I believed that he would do the right thing by our company. It might not be an easy process, but it was one that we needed to go through, and I was willing to support him.
“You have to make it up to him, Silver.”
“I don’t know what I could do to make it up to him.”
“Oh, something will come.”
She focused her attention on buffing once more. When she finished, she set the buffer aside and looked up at me with a bit of hesitation.
“I think you should take a bag of goodies to work tomorrow. A peace offering.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I offered to buy them when it happened, and that seemed to agitate him even more.”
“That’s because he was upset. It was like pouring salt on a wound.”
“And you don’t think taking them in tomorrow will be? That’s like re-opening the wound. I’m hoping that if I don’t bring it up, eventually the matter will die.”
“Try it,” she said forcefully. “You’ll see...I’m right. And maybe even bear claw as an apology from Bear.”
There was a twinkle in her eyes, and I laughed at her corniness. She meant well, but I wasn’t sure what it would take to get on Kole Smith’s good side.
CHAPTER 6 – KOLE
I plugged in my headset and turned to my favorite playlist. Gunna’s Helluva Price blared in my ears as I started the treadmill. My speed was set at six, a low level for me to get my jog started. I alternated my workouts between the gym and outside. But today, the rain was pounding on the pavement outside, so I knew that I wouldn’t get a workout in if I was waiting to go out.
I eased into my customary flow, the bass bumping in my ears. I felt as if I were becoming one with the music. My mind turned towards the job after a while, and I pushed the speed up to seven point five. The issues at the radio station were deeper than I initially thought.
The conversation with Silver had confirmed the suspicions that I had. Someone was stealing money from the company. I couldn’t prove it yet, but I would. The only problem was that I needed someone inside the company to help me. And I wasn’t sure if I could count on anyone else to help me with it.
I rolled my eyes at the thought of pulling Silver in on it, but what choice did I have? She had already opened up to me and trusted me more than she should have. Putting aside my initial prejudice against her because of that giant, she called a dog; logic said she was the only rational answer to my dilemma.
“Damn!” I muttered as I pressed the treadmill again, increasing my speed to ten.
The last thing I wanted was to be pressed in close quarters with her. There was something about her that got to me. I wasn’t sure if it was her docile attitude or our initial encounter. But I felt like she was always sucking up to me trying to get on my good side.
Whether it was the dog incident or just the problems at the station, I knew she was worried about her job. I was nobody’s fool, and if she thought sucking up to me would help her keep her job, then she was a bigger fool than I thought.
I had no control over who stayed or went. Ultimately those decisions were made by the company, not the consultant. I just needed to get as much information as I could. That was the only thing that would help me figure out what the hell was going on at that radio station. Once I did, I could give executive management and the board the recommendation they needed to make whatever cuts they were going to make.
After that, I would collect my bonus and be on my way to the next contract. None of this shit was personal for me. I just wanted to do a helluva job no matter what company contracted my services so that I could get paid a sweet bonus at the end and keep it moving.
Sweat dripped down my face, and I closed my eyes to keep it from dripping into them. It would’ve been simpler just to wipe it away. But I was in a different zone. It was easier for me to think through problems and find a resolution when I was working out than simply focusing on the issue at hand. I had solved many a problem on a treadmill or jogging through the park.
By the time I finished my run and slowed it down to cool off mode, I had a working plan in my head. I just needed to execute it. Thoughts of changing my attitude with Silver kept running through my head. I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t shake thoughts of her.
It wasn’t just the dog incident. Shit like that happened, truthfully. And people got over it. I wasn’t the type to hold a grudge. I could move past it with ease. Usually. But for some reason, my energy clashed with hers, and that wasn’t good. Because we needed, no, we had to work together.
Damn, was I feeling her?
I turned the treadmill off and wiped down my head, face, and neck. I felt the beginning of a headache setting in. Nah, I wasn’t feeling her like that. I turned my neck left and right, and rotated my shoulders backward and forward, trying to loosen up the tightness.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I decided I would purge all thoughts of Silver from my mind. She was a thorn in my side. That’s what she was. Apparently, my work out was driving me stir crazy.
I’d been going at it for an hour, but it was cool. Nobody was in here at five in the morning. I glanced at my watch and noticed it was a few minutes after six, and I knew people would start pouring in.
My new apartment was located in the downtown section of Summer Cove, and it was close to everything. Although it was a bit pricey, it was worth it because it offered plenty of onsite amenities. Besides, I could afford it. Not to mention it was right down the street from the radio station. I could walk there in ten minutes on a good day.
I had just moved in at the beginning of the week. The realtor had explained the peak times of the gym, and I knew there were few people here this early. That worked out perfectly for me. I walked to the cleaning stand in front of the windows and grabbed the bottle of cleaning spray and some paper towels to wipe the treadmill down with.
I paused in front of the window when I spotted a familiar reflection. Every nerve in my body tensed up instantly. What the fuck?
Grinding my teeth and breathing deeply, I thought about the plan I needed to implement. I knew that I needed Silver. I needed her more than she needed me, but she didn’t know that. And I didn’t plan for her to know that.
But what the hell was she doing here in my building? My gym?
I stared outside; fat raindrops splatter
ed against the plate glass window. It was too dark to see anything outside this early in the morning, which was why I was able to see Silver’s reflection so clearly. But I knew she had spotted me, too.
I could tell by the way she angled her head. She wasn’t sure, but she sensed that I might be familiar. I slowly turned around and made my way back to the treadmill. I sprayed it down and wiped it before tossing the towels in a nearby trash can. I knew once I turned around, she would know who I was.
Her eyes were on me the entire way. She wouldn’t make a move unless I made one first. To ignore her would be downright rude. And while I wanted to respond naturally to her, I knew that I needed to harness some of the frustration I felt towards her. Because I wasn’t sure where it stemmed from, and I didn’t want to intimidate her.
I walked up to where she was standing on an elliptical machine.
A pair of black exercise pants with a green stripe down the sides outlined curvy hips and a small, toned behind. The matching sports top squeezed and pushed Silver’s cleavage up and forward, rather than containing them.
“Kole?” she greeted, forcing my gaze from her cleavage to her face.
“You’re stalking me now?” I asked my face a blank mask as I tried to push aside any inappropriate thoughts and turn the moment into a light, teasing one.
Her thick eyebrows turned down, and she shook her head, her long auburn ponytail swinging from side to side.
“You know, you’re kinda full of yourself. I live here.”
Why the hell that came as a surprise to me, I wasn’t certain. My eyebrows lifted on their own, and a smile tugged at my lips. A chuckle rose within me and fell out with no help from me. My body seemed to be doing its own thing. Very different than what I had expected.
I pointed at her. “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”
“No,” she said, glancing around the room.
We were the only two in here at this hour. And I realized for the first time that my attitude might be intimidating, although I didn’t think it was.
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