I’m close enough to notice the way her body trembles at my nearness, those words, and I pull back, not wanting to give her too much, too soon.
“I think,” she starts, closing her eyes, taking a deep breath. “I think the first rule needs to be no crossing lines in the office. Work is work. When we’re working, nothing else can matter to me.” She opens her eyes again, finding mine. “Okay?”
I peel my fingers away from hers, which takes a second of effort, because she doesn’t want to give them back. I stare pointedly at our still-joined hands, then back at her face, and say “Okay.”
She realizes she’s locked mine into place, and releases me then, one of those adorable blushes on her face.
Before I’ve stepped all the way back from her,anotherinterruption walks in.
This one, much less welcome, much less friendly than the last.
“You two,” snaps Tony’s aggressive, pack-a-day voice, still thick with his Bronx accent he hasn’t lost in the eons he’s been away from there. Insane.
Could you imagine if I still talked like we were in Oklahoma, all these years later? Yee haw, howdy, and all that shit? Come on, man, give it up. Yeah, a trace of your hometown will remain, but he acts like he’s hailing a fucking cab, fighting the rest of the street for it every time he opens his mouth. We fucking get it, you’re a douche. You don’t hear me acting like I’m about to do some mutton bustin’, no because that shit was for-fucking-ever ago. I left it in my hometown, where the past belongs.
My eyes snap to Tony’s reddish ones—like he’s never fully rested, even after a weekend like we just had—ready to snap his fucking head back for that tone.
“Need I remind you you’re in the COO’s office?” I ask him, coolly.
He scoffs condescendingly. “Need I remindyouI’ve been working here since before either of you were born? Been bringing in millions for this place—supportingherfamily’s lifestyle, her fucking dance lessons, putting food on their table and whatever other shit while she was roaming these halls in diapers. Don’t get all high and mighty with me, kid.”
Not lost on me that’s the second boomer that’s walked in here this morning, and the second one who’s called me a kid. My hackles are fucking raised. But Ellie doesn’t let either of us keep the verbal scuff going.
“Enough,” she says with impressive authority, deescalating what I wish she wouldn’t in a single word. “It’s fine, Asher,” she tosses a little more reassurance in my direction, which slightly lowers my blood pressure. Kind of.
“Tony, how else can we help you?” The line is a reminder we’re already doing a favor for him, and to fucking act like it.
He bites down, his jaw flexing, mouth thinning, but gets on with it. “I just heard from Nelson.” The owner of the pizza shop we’ve been working on for him. “He’s pissed he’s not seeing any results from this digital campaign, and you two better fix it, and fast.” One fat finger points between her and me, and I’m tempted to break it for him.
“Don’t we have our first progress meeting on that client after lunch today?” Ellie asks him, knowing full-well the answer to that.
“Yeah,” Tony sneers.
“So you will be getting a full debrief then, but if you think barging into my office is what the situation calls for, then allow me to fill you in early, give you a sneak peek of what you’d find out later.”
She waves a hand toward the seats in front of her desk without looking up, and taps away on her keyboard with impressive speed for a good half a minute or so. The light clacking of the keys is the only thing that breaks the awkward, uncomfortable silence, fraught with tension.
Tony moves closer, but doesn’t sit.
Ellie swivels her iMac around, showing the screen to the entire room.
“See that?” She jabs an elegant finger, tipped in soft pink, at the graph showing there.
Tony grunts, but doesn’t grace her with any words.
“That’s their performance so far. Now I don’t have access to his till, to how much he’s directly made from these ads so far, since this isn’t an e-commerce situation—”
“He says he’s makin’ nil!” Tony interrupts impatiently.
“—and I will be relying on information he shares with his account manager,” she continues on, eyeing Tony pointedly, as that isnothis job. “But from what I can see so far, and this is very early on, mind you—we are still learning what is working best on his campaign and making adjustments regularly—he is getting incredible visibility through this campaign. Look at this,” she swipes on her trackpad and points at another graph. “This shows his cost per impression versus the average. He is gettingwaymore views for so much less than most would spend. Alotis going right on this campaign so far.”
Tony fumes, chest heaving with angry breaths, as Ellie calmly explains all the reasons the client should be doing well so far. She wraps up her explanation, and he’s still seething. Doubt if he listened to a thing she’s said in the past five minutes, probably just over there cursing up a storm at her in his head.
“After the meeting this afternoon, the account manager, Roberto,” again, she looks at him pointedly, “will be getting an email with all of this info, as well as some preliminary questions our team has for campaign results thus far. Roberto normally works with traditional clients, and the data I’m going to ask him to collect may be slightly different than what he’s used to asking, so let’s see how that comes back, then I’ll do an initial analysis, and will send out a report to you, Roberto and Thomas on that by the end of the week.”
Tony doesn’t answer her, so I do. “That sounds great, Ellie, thank you.” The spite in my voice isn’t disguised. At all.
She hides a smirk, folding her lips in between her teeth briefly until she collects herself. “In the meantime, Tony, I’d like to remind you that we areveryearly on in the campaign, yet seeing these promising results already, which bodes very well. It is in your best interest, and the company’s, for you to either let the account manager handle the interactions with the client, or if you insist on being involved, since he is a long-time friend of yours, to keep the client calm and looking forward to the positive results coming his way. If you need anything else before that report is sent to you, please don’t hesitate to send me an email.”
