"Do you have something to add?" Mace asked irritably.
I choked down the laugh. "I mean, it's just… this is a joke, right?"
He glared at me.
"Like, this is the worst PowerPoint I've ever seen. No one makes PowerPoints like that." Mace's brothers were smirking. Adrian looked terrified. But I couldn't stop the critique. "There's so much text. Nothing on the slide is aligned, and is that a knockoff of the Comic Sans font? And what is that picture? Is that supposed to be ground beef?"
"It's a robot inserting a stent," Mace said through his teeth.
"I mean, I've seen a clearer picture of Bigfoot, but okay."
His brothers roared in laughter.
"If we could return to the presentation…" Mace said, his voice an authoritative drone.
I fled the room, mentally berating myself.
Tara ran out after me. "That was rude and unprofessional!" she scolded
I shrank back.Way to go, Josie—getting fired after only a few hours on the job. This must be some sort of world record.
"Do you even want to work here?" Tara asked, hands on her hips.
No, but I need the money, and I owe Marnie for getting me this job, so…
"Sorry," I apologized. "I didn't mean to insult Mace. I have a marketing background, and I have developed hundreds of presentations and marketing packages. If he's trying to sell PharmaTech's services, this is not the way to do it."
Tara's nostrils flared. "I am the director of marketing, and I say this is perfectly acceptable."
"Acceptable is the bare minimum," I scoffed. "You should demand excellence, which is what I provide my marketing clients."
"You aren't here to do marketing. You are here to fetch coffee, book hotels, and answer the phone," Tara hissed. "You are not paid to have an opinion on the way Mr. Svensson runs his business. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am."
8
Mace
Icouldn't believe Josie had the nerve to insult me in front of my employees and the Platinum Provisions representatives. I fumed through the rest of the day's meetings.
"I am so sorry. I don't know what's wrong with Josie. You should fire her immediately," Tara said, coming up to me after I escorted the Platinum Provisions representatives to the lobby.
That was tempting. With Josie gone, life could return to normal.
"Your PowerPoints are amazing. She doesn't know what she's talking about," Tara continued.
I nodded. "She's just a coffee girl. What does she know?"
"You seem really overworked," Tara said, touching me lightly on the arm. "Maybe we should go for a drink? There's a new distillery nearby. I know you enjoyed that one we went to a few months ago." Tara did her fake laugh that always grated on my nerves and was one of the reasons why I had avoided repeating our drink date.
"I can't. I'm busy," I told her and escaped back to my office.
But it was not an oasis of peace. When I walked in, Josie and everything around her was covered in the powdery toner ink used in the laser printer. She whirled around and looked at me, eyes wide.
"I-I-I'm sorry," she stammered.
"Go home," I told her in disgust. Josie slowly collected her belonging as I called the facilities departmentagain.
