Fifteen minutes later, Suzette is moving past me as she exits Aaron’s office.
“Shut the door behind you,” he tells her, which she does.
I move to the long, boardroom-sized table at the far end of Aaron’s office, since that’s where our usual meetings occur instead of his desk.
“Let’s start with the updates on Cypress,” he starts in immediately, which I expected.
I give him the rundown on everything I have to update him on concerning the merger.
“According to Ms. Hinkerson, the counselors at Cypress are overworked and underappreciated, but they’re a committed group.”
Aaron’s jaw clenches. “Why do they stay?” he questions.
Uncertain if he was just asking out loud or speaking to me directly, I launch into a response. “Many of them have been with the company for years. They’re committed to the cause of serving others.”
“How noble,” he responds, staring at the open files in front of him. “And Ms. Hinkerson?”
A ripple of some unnamed emotion moves through me. My eyebrows dip into a V. “Yes?”
“How committed is she?”
Swallowing, I look my boss in the eyes, trying to discern whether or not he’s picked up on the energy exchange between Jackie and me. It’s not hard to notice the hostility between us whenever she’s around. At least, the anger coming from me whenever she’s around. Jackie, herself, gives off an almost apologetic vibe, which pisses me off even more.
Yet, I can’t stop thinking about her even when she’s not in the damn office.
“She shows up,” I answer.
He angles his head to the right and peers down at me from his standing position. “Simply showing up is far from enough for this merger to work out the way I desire it to. If she’s not up to the task, I can give Jase a call now.”
“She’s up to it,” I say before I think better of it. “Ms. Hinkerson knows the numbers and the legal ins and outs almost as much as I do, which is impressive, considering she just started her job at Cypress a month and a half ago.” It burns in my chest how true those words are.
I hated to admit it, but I’m impressed with how well she performs in her role. However, I shouldn’t be surprised. Jackie has always been a performer of sorts.
“You’re meeting with her today, correct?”
“Yes. At four.”
He nods. “My afternoon meeting with the Lockhart Group will take me well into the afternoon. I’ll likely go home straight from the meeting to finish up the workday from my home office. You know how to reach me if anything comes up.”
I nod, knowing when I’ve been dismissed. I assort all the files back in their rightful place and move to exit when Aaron stops me.
“Mark?”
I turn to look at him. “Yes?”
“It’s the end of the year. The holidays are right around the corner. The tendency is to ease up on the gas, but this Cypress merger is important to the company, to me. It’s the reason I put you in charge of it and not someone else. Don’t let the temptation of the holidays, or Ms. Hinkerson, get you off track with this.”
Words stall in my throat. I have no response to what he just said. Though my brain shouts for me to tell him that there was absolutely no temptation on my end to slack off or of being distracted by Jackie fucking Hinkerson, that’s where those words died—my brain because my mouth refused to utter them.
What I say instead is, “The job will get done.”
Aaron nodded. “See that it does.”
Gritting my teeth, I silently exit his office, even more determined not to let any personal nonsense between Jackie and I get in the way of business.
“Didyou see the report that I had Nolan email you this morning?” I question from across the table at Townsend Industries.
Mark nods, still peering at a file in front of him.
