In Over Her Head (Corporate Chaos Series Book 1)

by Leighann Dobbs

  10

  Marly arrived at the office early, her stomach in knots over the presentation. Why in the world had she ever spoken up in the first place?

  She should have just kept her big mouth shut. Now she would have to stand up in front of everyone and give this presentation.

  She had spent over an hour picking her clothes for the day and had settled on a black skirt and blazer with a gray blouse underneath. She had pulled her hair back at her neck and wore several silver bracelets and a large chunky necklace as a statement piece. She felt good with what she had on. She felt confident.

  The outfit made her look professional, and that was all she was dressing for. To appear professional in front of the executives.

  She dropped her purse off at her desk and headed to the conference room, avoiding drinking any coffee. She was jittery enough.

  As she opened the door to the conference room, her heart skipped a beat. Shit. It was empty. Where were all the binders she'd carefully placed at each seat?

  She ran over to the credenza that was against the wall and opened the doors. Empty.

  She stood there in shock. She ran back to her desk. Maybe someone had put everything back on her desk, and she just hadn't noticed it earlier.

  There wasn't anything there. She looked under her desk, checked drawers. Nothing.

  Her head swam with dizziness. She picked up her phone and called the woman who was in charge of the conference room upkeep, Charlene. Charlene was an older woman, friendly, and her only job was to reserve all the meeting rooms within Draconia, and to ensure the food was taken care of and that they were cleaned up after each meeting.

  Marly let the phone ring, drumming her fingers impatiently on the desk. Answer!

  "Hello?" Relief swept through Marly as Charlene's voice came through the phone.

  "Hi, Charlene, this is Marly West. I had placed some binders in conference room 1226 late last night, and they are all gone now. By any chance do you know where they are?" Marly's voice was tight with panic.

  "Hi, Miss West. No. No, I don't know anything about that. I had that room cleaned yesterday around noon, and no one has had it reserved again until today," Charlene said cheerfully, unaware that her words caused Marly's chest to tighten so hard she could barely breathe.

  "Oh. Umm, okay. Well, if you hear of anyone finding some binders, can you let me know? Thank you so much." Marly hung up and logged onto her computer. She would have to print everything out again. Ten sets!

  How would she be able to get that all printed and bound in less than an hour? It had taken her two hours to do it all, and another hour just to do the final review. The printing alone was time consuming, as it was all in color and the color printer was an older one, always getting jammed.

  She couldn't believe this was happening to her. She started to print, praying that she would somehow pull off getting everything done in time for the meeting. But she had no choice. She got started running through the tasks as quickly as possible.

  "Ahem. Everyone is waiting for you." Veronica's snotty voice filtered through the air over to Marly, who was immersed in collating papers.

  "Oh my God!" Marly gasped, and her eyes jerked to the clock on the wall. It was nine a.m.

  She had been so busy trying to get everything done she had forgotten to set the alarm in her phone for eight forty-five. She wasn't finished! The printer had jammed two times and had then run out of ink. There was no ink in the supply room, and she'd had to run around to two separate floors to find some, which had eaten up a good twenty minutes.

  This was a disaster.

  She grabbed her blazer, which she had taken off to assemble the papers, and her laptop, leaving all the half-finished handouts behind. She ran after Veronica, pulling on her blazer haphazardly. As she entered the room, she immediately saw Jasper sitting at the head of the table. She felt disheveled and ran a hand over her skirt in an attempt to smooth out the wrinkles that had appeared from sitting so long. This was not how she had wanted to make her entrance. All her careful hours of planning were wasted. She was pissed.

  "Now that everyone is here, let's get started. Marly, I would like you to present first." Jasper's face was impassive, but Marly sensed a note of irritation in his voice.

  "My apologies for being late, everyone," Marly said, deciding to leave out the part that all the handouts she had spent so much time on had somehow disappeared overnight. She hooked her laptop up to the screen and started with the presentation.

  "Sorry to interrupt, Marly, but are there handouts for this? So we can follow along and make notes at our seats versus having to look at the screen the entire time?" Bill White, VP of Sales, asked smugly.

  "I'm sorry, Bill. Unfortunately, there are no handouts now, but I will be happy to send you a copy afterwards." Marly forced down the annoyance that was bubbling up inside her. She didn't want that tainting her presentation.

  "Not really helpful, but thanks, anyway." Bill smirked.

  Marly ignored Bill's rude comment. What a jerk. She had assumed that Bill and Steve Henderson, the VP of Marketing, would be coming after her in this meeting, since she was pointing out mistakes and weak spots they had each made in their departments.

  She had made sure she knew the data inside out, so she wasn't fumbling around for answers. She sailed through the rest of the presentation, going through all the numbers and the marketing campaigns to show the weaknesses and then suggesting areas for improvement.

  She ended the presentation with the plus-size line, citing several facts regarding the sudden surge of plus-size models, pointing out how Vogue and Marie Claire were both using plus-size models in their editions. She had waited for Veronica to laugh when she had started to talk about plus size, or to make a comment asking if Marly wanted that line for herself, but it never came. Veronica was quiet the entire time.

  When Marly finished, Jasper stood up.

  "Thank you, Marly. That was very informative. You broke it all down for everyone, so I am assuming there aren't any questions. Bill, you're up next." Jasper poured himself another cup of coffee and then sat down again.

  The tension drained from Marly's shoulders as she took her seat. Hopefully she hadn't let on how nervous she'd been during the presentation. The truth was she'd been terrified the others, especially Bill and Steve, would eat her alive.

  Her gaze flicked to Jasper. She couldn't tell whether he'd been happy with the presentation or not. She was grateful he hadn't opened the room up for questions—had he done that on purpose to protect her from Bill and Steve?

  No, she was overthinking. Jasper would never change his business tactics to protect her. Even though it seemed like he respected her opinion, this was all business to him, and if he thought a Q and A was needed, he would have said so. Make no mistake about it—Jasper Kenney was her boss, not her friend.

  As Bill droned on, she couldn't wait for the meeting to be over so she could finish her work for the day and cut out early. She had something much more important than sales numbers and fashion lines to tend to, and she didn't want anyone from Draconia Fashions to know about it.

  Jasper was having a hard time focusing on that blowhard, Bill Henderson, while he rambled on about pie charts and sales numbers at the front of the conference room.

  He had been extremely impressed with Marly's presentation. She had pulled together a lot of information that he hadn't even thought about analyzing. And judging by Bill's lame slides, none of his overly paid executives had thought of analyzing it, either.

  Jasper's lips quirked in a smile as he thought about how Marly had deftly handled Henderson's rude comments during her presentation. She had the makings of a true executive.

  He already knew he wanted Marly to work on a sample plus-size line. He planned to work closely with her on that purely for the benefit of the business. Nothing personal about it. He didn't get personal with the employees.

  He'd set up a meeting with her later, though. He didn't need to get the other executives up in
arms about it. And he certainly didn't need Edward to hear about it right now. Something with the word "plus" in it would make Edward lose his shit.

  When it was finally over, Jasper asked Veronica to stay back. She trotted back to him, a hopeful look on her face.

  "Can you book some time on my calendar with Marly West? We will need about two hours. Not this afternoon. I have my weekly appointment tonight. Book it for later this week."

  Veronica's hopeful look turned to suspicion. What was going on with her? Jasper had clued in to the fact that Veronica didn't like Marly. She was probably jealous of Marly's good looks as well as the attention she was getting.

  "Of course, Mr. Kenney," Veronica murmured.

  "Thanks." He shot the word over his shoulder as he brushed by her on his way out. Veronica was a good assistant, but if her attitude didn't change, he might have to consider getting rid of her. It was affecting her work.

  He didn't have time to think about that now. He had a stack of paperwork piled up on his desk that needed his attention before he could leave for the night to attend his weekly appointment.

  The appointment was something he wouldn't miss, no matter what came up. He knew the appointment was the object of much speculation amongst the executives, but he would never reveal where he went. It was his personal business, and no one at Draconia needed to know what he was up to.

  Veronica's heart hitched as she watched Jasper disappear down the hallway.

  "You're welcome," she muttered to herself. Was she imagining it, or was Jasper getting more and more distant?

  Of course she wasn't imagining it. It was all because of Marly West. Why did Jasper think Marly was so damn good, anyway?

  Maybe she should try to set them up. It would never work out, just like all of Jasper's other girlfriends. And then he'd run off just as he always did when things turned to crap. And when he ran off, the only person he communicated with was her. She'd have him all to herself then. But no, that might backfire. Marly West was different, and she didn't want to take a chance.

  Veronica stomped to the elevator, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for it. Marly had somehow pulled off the presentation, despite Veronica's effort to sabotage it.

  Veronica frowned at the memory of the previous night. She'd known Jasper would be working late, and she'd purposely gone home and changed into her most seductive—but still appropriate for work—dress, then returned to the office to try and capture Jasper's attention.

  Imagine her surprise to find him holed up in his office with Marly West. She knew they didn't have a meeting, so what had they been doing in there?

  Veronica sat behind her desk, eyeing Jasper's closed door. From what she'd seen when she'd walked in, whatever they were doing had very little to do with business. She jerked her middle drawer open. Inside sat a brown package of M&M's. As a rule, Veronica avoided anything high in calories—she had to keep her thin figure, at least until after she got her claws into Jasper. The M&M's were for emergencies. Like now.

  She slit the package open with a perfectly manicured cherry-red fingernail and slid out one M&M. Just one wouldn't hurt, would it? She sucked on the confection to make it last. The hard sugar coating gave way to the creamy chocolate inside. She had to admit, eating the M&M did make her feel better.

  She tipped another one out into her palm. How many calories were in an M&M? Not many. She could probably work it off in ten minutes on the treadmill. She popped it into her mouth as she thought about the previous night.

  After Jasper and Edward had gone to dinner, she'd made her way to Marly's office. Marly had already left for the night. Veronica had noticed the conference room light was on, and when she'd looked in, she'd seen the nice binders Marly had placed there. Marly was trying way too hard—what was she up to?

  Veronica had gotten rid of all the binders, chuckling to herself at the time. Now it seemed that the joke was on her, and she didn't like that one bit. She had pictured Marly fumbling around, stuttering, unable to answer questions and bursting into tears. Instead, Marly had been organized and calm, fielding the comments with ease.

  The M&M package crinkled as Veronica clenched her fist in frustration. She poured three out into her palm and shoved them in her mouth. Something would have to be done about Miss West. The picture she had of Marly and Tanner Durcotte eating together would come in handy for that.

  She could show those to Jasper right now, but what did they prove? Nothing. She needed to know why they were together.

  Marly was up to something, and Veronica needed to figure out what it was before she showed Jasper the pictures. That way, Marly wouldn't be able to come up with any excuses, and Jasper would see her for the conniving bitch she was. As an added bonus, he would see Veronica as the one who saved him. Win-win!

  Veronica looked down at the empty M&M pack in her hand. Had she eaten them all? Damn that Marly West! She had to speed up her plan to get rid of her before she ruined everything, including her size-zero figure.

  She shoved the empty M&M wrapper inside her Styrofoam Starbucks cup and tossed it in the trash. She didn't want anyone at work to see that she'd eaten a whole pack of M&M's. Then she spun around to face the computer. She had a lot of work to do, not the least of which was speeding up her plan to show Jasper just how wrong he was about Marly West.

  11

  The glass-paneled Draconia building loomed over Marly as she walked past it on her way to the hospital. It was four p.m., nearly quitting time, but she still felt guilty leaving early. It wasn't as if anyone noticed, though, and besides, she had worked so many hours over the past week she'd put in more than her share of time.

  She had to admit she was enjoying the work—especially the special presentation she'd done that morning. A feeling of regret washed over her. If things were different, she wouldn't mind staying there, maybe even making a career out of it. But that wasn't going to happen, not after she stole the designs.

  Marly sprinted up the steps to the hospital, wondering if she should cut down her hours. She needed to spend as much time at the hospital as possible—her mother was getting worse.

  The hospital corridors were bustling with nurses. A few patients lay outside their rooms on gurneys, waiting to be transferred back to their beds. Probably returning from a scan or tests done deep in the bowels of the hospital. Those things always seemed to take forever, and Marly was painfully aware that getting the patient back in bed could take a bit of maneuvering.

  Her shoes clacked on the shiny green-and-white industrial tile as she weaved her way through the halls. The antiseptic smell of bleach and rubbing alcohol stung her nose. The constant beep beep beeping of machines ticked like a metronome in her ear.

  Her stomach clenched with the familiar feeling of doom as she entered the cancer wing. What condition would she find her mother in today?

  Marly turned into the room, her eyes falling on the impossibly tiny figure that lay under the blankets in the far bed. The room was a double, but no other patient had been placed in there, so Marly's mom had it all to herself. Marly liked that.

  She crept closer to the bed. Her mother was resting peacefully, and Marly felt grateful that she could get some respite from the pain and anxiety of her cancer diagnosis. She hoped her mother was dreaming about better days. Days spent in the sunshine, healthy and full of joy.

  Marly stood silently beside the bed. Despair squeezed her heart as she looked at the dozens of purple bruises that surrounded the IV line that fed through the parchment-like skin into her mother's frail hand, delivering fluids and various medicines.

  Her mother's skin was pale, her once full pink lips now thin and dry with almost a blue tinge to them. Marly kissed her on the forehead gently so as not to wake her and then sat down.

  The blue vinyl hospital chair was surprisingly comfortable, and Marly sank back into it, her eyes drifting to the window. Outside, horns honked and people made their way down the sidewalks in a bustle of activity. The world still went on for everyone else, ev
en though Marly's world was crashing, dying with the woman who lay in the bed beside her.

  Marly rested her head against the back of the chair. She'd been burning the candle at both ends with trying to spend so much time here and working at Draconia. She was mentally and physically exhausted. She knew she had to get the real designs to Tanner soon, but once she did, that would be the end of her job at Draconia.

  As her eyes fluttered shut, Marly wondered if there was a way to satisfy Tanner and keep her job.

  Marly's eyes flew open. Had she fallen asleep? It was dark outside now. She looked at her mother, who was still asleep. A nurse was checking her IV.

  "How is she?" Marly whispered as she stood up and stretched.

  "Oh, hi. I hope I didn't wake you. She's okay. I gave her some morphine. The doctor increased her dosage earlier. She will be pretty much out of it until … I mean, for now." The nurse's tone was sympathetic.

  Marly knew the nurse had started to say that her mother would be out of it until she died. The doctor had said that without the operation, she was unlikely to last more than a few weeks. Even with it, it was a long shot.

  Marly felt a pang of sympathy for the doctor. He'd apologized to her over and over about insurance not covering the operation because they considered it experimental. Marly had told him she would get the money. She needed to make a plan now to get the drawings for Tanner.

  A feeling of desperation shot through her. She couldn't bear to see her mother like this. Tears pricked the backs of her eyes, and she screwed them shut. She wished she hadn't started to like the job at Draconia so much. The swell of pride she felt that the CEO had singled her out to make suggestions was tainted with bitter regret. She mentally pushed the gnawing guilt at having to steal the company designs away. She knew it could cause Draconia to go out of business, but what choice did she have?