“Ms. Miller.”
My head jerks at the familiar tone of the redhead’s voice, and I stand up. “Coming,” I say, making eye contact with her but caving to Terrance’s silent command that pulls my gaze back to him.
“Call me if there’s a problem,” he says, and it’s an order. “And I mean any problem, Kali.”
“I will,” I assure him, but I am truly lost. I feel as if something has happened that I should be aware of, but I’m not.
He gives me a few seconds more to squirm under his inspection, which at this moment is intense enough to rival my boss’s. I do not look away. Once again I’m being sized up, and I survived his boss, so I’ll survive him. His eyes narrow, almost as if he hears my thoughts, and then he surprises me and smiles. It transforms him into the easygoing guy I met the night before.
“I have a feeling you and your boss are going to be quite the interesting matchup. I might even pop some popcorn to watch.” And with that he turns and leaves. I gape after him, as confused as the Bambi I am not.
* * *
Twenty minutes later I still don’t know the HR person’s name, but my badge has been issued and I’m alone in her office, sitting in the visitor’s chair. And while my mission when I got up this morning was to start a new career, it’s now to write a story about this place that will relaunch me into reporting and help some of the poor employees.
“We need to go down a checklist together,” the HR person says, returning and sitting behind her desk.
My cell phone rings. Her lips purse. “It would be appropriate, Ms. Miller, to turn that off.”
I reach for my purse to retrieve it. “I would, but—”
“There is no ‘but.’ It’s inappropriate.”
I grab my phone and glance at the caller ID, which reads DW. I quickly accept the call. “Hello.”
“I’m surprised you answered, Ms. Miller. I’m told you were a no-show to work.”
How his voice manages to be both sexy and cranky is beyond me.
“Ms. Miller,” the redhead warns sharply, but I ignore her.
“I’m in HR,” I tell him, trying to explain myself. “I’ve been here since a quarter to eight.”
“Ms. Miller!”
“Who’s barking your name?” he demands, and if he was cranky seconds before, he’s thunderous now.
I glance at the redhead. “I, uh, don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” he challenges.
“I haven’t gotten a name.”
“You’ve been in HR for two hours and you don’t know the name of the person you’re with?”
I cut my gaze from the woman to her desk. “I was in the waiting room for most of the two hours.”
“What? You have got to be kidding me,” he mumbles under his breath. “Put whomever you are with on the phone.”
I really don’t want someone else’s job on my conscience, either.
“Ms. Miller,” he says, and my name is a reprimand.
“Yes?”
“Put the person on the phone.”
“Please don’t make me do that.”
“You do not follow direction well, do you?”
“I’m about to head to my desk now.”
“Put the HR person on the phone.”
I sigh and hold my cell out to the now-pale redhead, who has clearly figured out to whom I am talking. She accepts it and presses it to her ear. “Mr. Ward—”
He obviously cuts her off as she goes silent, then says, “Yes. Yes.” Silence. “I didn’t know.” More silence, and she glances at me. “Right. I do know. I’ll make it happen.” She listens another few seconds and then hands me back the phone. “Your turn again.”
“Hello,” I say, placing the phone to my ear.
“This isn’t how we operate, and Maggie is normally amazing. I apologize that your day started like this, but right now I’m going to make it worse. I have an important meeting in an hour, and the computer is saying the documents I need are inaccessible. Tech support is on it, but I need you to pull the hard copies and scan them for me.”
I’ve barely recovered from his unexpected apology when the urgency of his tone has me standing. “Yes. Of course. I’ll go now.”
“Have you been assigned an email yet?”
“No.”
“Tell Maggie you need one yesterday and then call me when you get upstairs.”
“Yes, okay.”
He hangs up and I immediately tell the HR person, “I need an email ASAP, please. Can you call me at Mr. Ward’s desk with the log-in so I can head in that direction?”
“Yes. Absolutely. Do what you have to do.”