I sit at my desk, and I can feel his eyes on me.
When Bianca comes up to me and speaks, I literally jump.
“Can I make you a coffee?” she asks in her usual professional manner.
“Oh, Bianca, you really snuck up on me,” I giggle, a little embarrassed.
“I assure you, I didn’t. I walked the same way I always walk,” she says, tilting her head to the side.
“Of course, yes, I’m clearly just a bit jumpy this morning,” I smile awkwardly. “I would love coffee, thanks.”
She nods and walks away, and I look up to find Josiah still watching me.
He lifts his hand and gestures for me to come into his office. Dammit. Is this week going to be a repeat of the last, where he constantly pesters me and calls me in for seemingly no reason at all?
Sighing softly, I push away from my desk and stand up, rolling my shoulders gently. I tilt my neck back and try to force my body to wake up properly.
You’ve got this. You’ve been through more challenging things in life than missing out on a bit of sleep and having stressful information looping in your head.
“Kayla, are you okay?” Josiah asks, standing next to his desk. His voice is a low whisper, and his face is lined with concern.
“Um, yes, why?” I ask, knitting my brows and glancing over my shoulder to make sure no one else is in earshot of our conversation.
“Because you look…exhausted.” He cocks his head to the side and studies my face.
I force a smile, opening my eyes a little wider and standing up straighter. “I’m not,” I say confidently.
He takes a slow breath, letting it out while I stand there shifting from one foot to the other, wishing this moment would end.
“Was there anything else?” I ask, trying to hurry him up.
He smiles briefly, then shakes his head. “No, except for the Carter account. I do need that by lunch time.”
“I’m almost done with it. I’ll have it finished in the next hour…if I don’t have any distractions,” I add cautiously.
A low rumbling chuckle bubbles from his chest. “Noted,” he says with quiet amusement.
He nods as a silent gesture to release me from whatever this is.
I turn away from him and hurry back to my desk. I might have just bought myself some peace and quiet for the morning. Ishouldhave said I needed no distractions until lunch.
I don’t know if Josiah sent out a memo or something, but it’s as though I have a giant Do Not Disturb sign on the back of my chair. Absolutely no one comes to ask me anything, and when people walk past, they do so extra quietly. Even Bianca sets my coffee down without letting the cup make a sound on the desk. It’s blissfully wonderful, and I fly through the Carter account and get ahead on a number of others.
It’s quarter past twelve when Josiah comes to my desk to talk to me. I look up at him, and he’s holding the Carter report I sent a few hours ago.
“Come, the client is arriving in five minutes. We have a meeting in the boardroom.”
“What? A meeting?” I stammer. Did I miss something in my calendar? There's no chance. I'm meticulous about tracking things.Usually, Ipreparefor meetings.Usually,I know meetings are going to happen before the client arrives!
“Yes. I looked over your analysis of their account, and it’s brilliant. I want you in there with me,” he says calmly, cocking his head to the side to tell me to hurry up.
At least one thing I’ve become very good at in business is hiding panic. Any kind of panic. Panic when I don’t know how to do something—I quietly research and work it out. Panic when I’ve made a mistake—I go out of my way to ensure the mistake is rectified, and I take full responsibility for it. And panic when I am about to walk into a meeting with one of Josiah’s biggest clients, and I have not had any time to process what the meeting is even about.
Walking behind Josiah, trying to keep up with his long strides and still look elegant in my pale blue stilettos, I fire questions at him.
“Is this meeting about the report specifically?”
“No, the meeting is about convincing the client to increase their budget with us. The report is our negotiation tool,” he replies.
