***
It took several weeks for Sarah to get all of herself and her parents situated. Her mother was doing better, and she was sure that it had something to do with the fact that Sarah was home. Sarah tried not to be resentful about it. She knew that she wanted to be there for her mom, but the month before, on her own, had felt right. Sarah liked that feeling of depending on herself and no one else. She wanted to feel that way all the time. She didn’t want to go back to being dependent on them. Even though her mom was bad off and she wanted to be near her, Sarah missed her freedom in the middle of the night.
Not letting it get to her, Sarah did her best to make the most of the new situation that she was in. She liked Seattle and even found out that one of her best friends had just moved there. It was a good coincidence, and it was one that Sarah hoped would let them see each other more. Many miles had been between Sarah and Ashley, and Sarah really wanted to believe that they could get a similar connection back now that they were close to each other. They’d texted and talked for a couple of years daily, but only seen each other twice. Sarah wanted to change all of that.
It wasn’t as easy as Sarah would have liked for her to secure a similar job in her field. She was into business management, specializing in efficiency. She wanted nothing more than to use her skills in that way, but it took longer than she anticipated. She had an interview with an e-commerce company that Sarah had high hopes for. She was sure that it would be good and was hopeful that she would get out of working with Ashley.
Ashley had helped her get a job at the bar she was at and after working there a couple of weeks, Sarah was sure that destiny did not include that in her life. It wasn’t for her and as soon as she could get into a boardroom and make some real decisions that would help, Sarah wasn’t going to be happy. She certainly wasn’t happy pulling drinks for drunks or people that were quickly on their way there. She was definitely getting enough male attention, but Sarah wasn’t focused on that right then. She was far too worried about her career, her mom, everything else that was bothering her and wreaking havoc on her brain.
She had an interview with EBTKS Inc. and Sarah was optimistic. She left her shift at the bar and went right to the interview, hoping that she didn’t still smell like the vodka that had spilled on her earlier in the shift. A lot was banking on the job. Her sanity could have been one of those things.
Chapter 3
Sarah
“So, what do you think your greatest strengths are?”
Sarah always got a little stumped in the interview. She would prepare herself for one set of questions and then they would ask her something like that. It was a typical question, but what was she supposed to say to it? What was her greatest strength? At the moment, Sarah felt like her greatest strength was the fact that she hadn’t completely lost her shit. She wanted to, needed to even, but she was holding it together.
That wasn’t the sort of answer that the interviewer, Eric, was talking about. He was looking for something that had to do with work, something great that was going to flip him over to the side that wanted to hire her. Sarah just couldn’t think of the words.
“Well, I am a team player but like to add in my own contributions as well.”
“That is good to hear, Sarah. A lot of people come in here and want to change everything. We would like things to go as smoothly as they have been going. I can’t say that any of us like change all that much.”
Sarah didn’t know what to say. That wasn’t the sort of team player that she was thinking of. What he had described, well, that sounded like a slow death, and she had no desire for anything like it. However, she also didn’t want to pull pints for the rest of her life, either. It wasn’t the sort of job that was going to let her shine, but Sarah told herself that she didn’t need it. She needed to be in her field and maybe, they would see that she had something to contribute, and they would find a way to let her have some say. She wanted to believe so, anyway.
“Yes, I can go with the flow. I will have to learn your ways and all of that. I can work well with anyone.”
The man chuckled and said that he had some good people on his team.
“It isn’t the team members that you will have a problem with. It will be outside forces.”
Sarah repeated the last two words but didn’t know exactly what that meant. What were outside forces?
***
She found out quickly that the outside forces were that of Harold Glasgow. He was a man that she was told she had to work with. She didn’t know what exactly his relationship to the company was. He didn’t work there, but she was on conference calls with him a lot. It looked like the company that had hired her was going through some changes, but she didn’t know what kind of changes. Sarah just knew that it had something to do with Harold.
The man was gruff on the phone and though she wasn’t sure why he had to stay apprised of everything, she knew that he was important. Sarah did her best to hold her tongue when he was rude to her. He had gotten short with her several times on the phone, and Sarah had put on her sweet voice and tried her best to smile right through it. It was harder than she would have ever imagined. She was especially thankful that she only had to talk to Harold on the phone. In person, he would have seen her reaction to his comments and Sarah wouldn’t have been able to control it.
After one particularly rude comment, Sarah thought that she’d had enough. She looked over at Kelly, her partner in crime in her new place, and sighed loudly.
“What is up with him? Do you know who he is and why the hell I have to talk to him every day? I didn’t know that he would be part of the job. I don’t know if I would have been okay with it.”
Kelly smiled and said something about how she was glad that she didn’t have to deal with him at all, anymore.
“Once you came here, I think that was the best thing that you did. They gave you that project and I am happier than ever that they did. He is definitely not the most pleasant person I’ve ever met.”
Sarah sighed. She knew that she didn’t have much choice. This was what there was and since she was a ‘team player’ she had done what she was told. They wanted her to pretty much echo back everything that was going on to Harold. That’s what she was going to do. She was just looking for more sympathy from her friend. She wanted someone to feel bad about it, not be happy that it wasn’t her.
“Who is he?”
Kelly said that she didn’t know much about why he was with the company or what his role was, but she knew who he was on a business level. He was rich above means and he was the type of guy that was so driven. He would set out to do something that no one else had ever done before and he would do it. Sarah liked that about him. She liked drive in people because she herself had so much.
“I just don’t understand why he has to be so rude.”
Kelly shrugged. “I don’t know. It seems like the really smart ones are like that. And he is hot as hell, so he is probably used to women falling all over themselves. I bet it kills him that you get snippy right back.”
