Ugh. That was even worse than making the mistake in the first place. Now the rash around her neck itched. “I’m fine. Really, this is just a onetime thing.”
Call-waiting chimed and Rachel glanced at the screen to ensure she hadn’t messed anything else up for another client that morning.
It was Kaiya.
She’d call her back later.
Rachel declined the call and turned her entire focus back to Cassie. “It absolutely will not happen again.”
It wouldn’t, because Rachel responded to all client emails within hours and handled everything that came up immediately. She wouldn’t slip again. This was the kind of service her clients had become accustomed to receiving. The kind of service she’d become accustomed to giving. She considered herself something of a concierge when it came to her company, that’s why she had three select clients instead of filling her schedule with multiple smaller clients like she’d done when she first started out.
Cassie’s change request for the coupon code had a time stamp of three a.m. that morning, and Rachel had been getting handled by Travis at that time. Then she’d had breakfast with her kids. Thus the advertisement didn’t get switched out before seven, as Cassie had requested.
Which meant, the previous version of the ad ran with the old coupon code.
Rachel’s lungs had gotten a little heavier and the air in the room denser when she’d checked her email and realized that, while she was eating a strawberry toaster tart with her kids and her ex-in-laws, the timeline had come and gone.
The old ad ran, Cassie’s request had fallen by the wayside, and the strawberry toaster tart turned sour against Rachel’s tongue.
To be fair, this was the first screwup of this magnitude. Rachel kept lists of her lists to ensure that nothing fell into cracks. There were no cracks when it came to her company.
Travis emerged from the shower wearing only a towel.
She pressed her finger to her lips and mouthed, Client.
He nodded and went to pull on boxers and a pair of jeans, which was a shame.
They’d become a little bolder in their time together—still ensuring that the kids were out of the house when they were together during the day. And the locks were always firmly engaged. But they’d started seeing each other intimately throughout the day instead of only at night when everyone else was asleep.
“Rachel?” Cassie asked.
“Yes, sorry…again.” Rachel turned her focus to the notepad in front of her, pointedly not looking at Travis and his abdominal definition.
Cassie sighed. “You’re very distracted.”
“I am.” Rachel frowned, but it was the truth, so she might as well fess up. “The family summer trip has definitely diverted my attention a little, but that ends now.”
Travis scowled at her at that declaration. His scowl added to the heaviness she was already feeling in her shoulder blades.
She stood to pace as she wrapped things up.
Cassie seemed to take Rachel at her word, and the rest of the conversation turned to reconfirming future deadlines, which wasn’t necessary given that this was a one-time situation. Rachel tolerated the inquisition because Cassie was clearly perplexed about the situation.
She and Rachel had been working together for three years, and this was the first time Rachel hadn’t addressed an issue within the given time frame.
Although, if Rachel really thought about it—as she was right then—Cassie had consistently started asking for more and more on tighter timelines. Rachel had always delivered, so she hadn’t thought much of it.
Once she hung up the phone, Rachel fell back on the bed, dropping her cell to press the heels of her hands against her eyelids.
“Didn’t go well?” Travis asked, pulling on his tee.
Rachel nodded, hands still against her face. “I really screwed up.”
“How bad?” he asked.
“The old ad ran, but Cassie changed the coupon code. So now, she says, customers want both deals, and she’s really worried she’s going to lose money over the whole thing.”
“How much money are we talking?” Travis’s baritone was not soothing like usual.
