Page 100 of Crazy for this Girl

I nod. “It’s nice to meet you, Marie. I need the HR manager’s emails sent to me, and could you please tell me where Mr. Abners is.”

“He’s on the floor below us in a meeting. And I can find those email addresses for you right away, sir.”

“Thank you.” I begin to turn toward the elevator, but she stops me.

“It’s nice to have you here.”

I nod, feeling the exact opposite. “Thanks.”

Taking the elevator down to the floor beneath us, I walk out to a floor full of employees walking around aimlessly with their cell phones in their hands and talking amongst themselves. It feels like Wall Street with how loud it is and the bustling of bodies going every which way. I look for a conference room, getting bumped into on my way.

The best way to describe this floor is that it’s a madhouse. It smells like the floor above with stagnant cologne and perfume, mixed with too many words and not enough action. If this is the sales floor, I’m officially disturbed that there are this many people and no ideas to bring up our dipping revenue.

Finding the clear windows to one of the conference rooms, I see my COO standing at the end of a table, his hands flaying around at each side of his body as he speaks animatedly at his employees.

My employees.

I owe my COO more than he’s worth right now with my needing to leave my home and come to this crowded ass cesspool of people that aren’t passionate about their jobs.

Flinging open the door without knocking, I receive the unwanted attention of the room, while my COO immediately stops talking.

“Well, there he is,” he says with a shit-eating smile. “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Harper. Your new CEO of Grand Regent Hotels.”

A bunch of hellos and welcomes are thrown my way, but I don’t receive any of them. I’m too fucked up to deal with other people who I couldn’t give less of a shit about and will more than likely not offer me any solutions to why I’m here.

“Mr. Abner,” I greet flatly. “What kind of meeting did I interrupt?”

“Housekeeping.”

I cross my arms over my chest and nod. “A section of the company that I haven't had any problems. In fact, I’ve never seen an issue when I was going through all the reports. Please tell your employees that they’ll receive a bonus as a token of my gratitude.”

A bunch of thank yous and other pleasantries fill the air, and I gesture for the door.

“If you don’t mind giving us the room, Mr. Abner and I have some things to catch up on. Anything else he didn’t get a chance to mention, I’ll have him send it in an email.”

The pack of men and women file out, giving me more grateful words as they do, and I shake a few hands as the room clears and a chuckle from my COO sounds behind me.

“Is this how you make your employees in Cali like you?” he jeers, taking a seat at the head of the table and kicking his feet up. “I thought you weren’t supposed to be in until tonight.”

“Tonight was yesterday, Elliott.”

He checks his phone and slides it across the hard surface he’s perched upon. “So it is, cousin.”

I ignore his too comfortable persona, aware that all the employees outside this room can see their boss sitting at this table looking like he’s about to watch a football game.

“Why is it that we have two sales managers? Is this branch in that much desperate need of help that I don’t know about?”

Elliott shakes his head, pushing out his lips as he does so. “No. I just liked them both.”

“Let me rephrase…which one are you fucking, then?” I give him a hard stare that he matches with an unamused glance.

My cousin is an attractive middle-aged man, with dark locks of hair and even darker eyes. I’ve heard women in the past call him someone that the devil made, someone that has no right to look that good, and a man that made their panties dripping wet from just his stare.

The latter is what makes me believe that the two attractive sales managers are for a side piece of ass during or after working hours, as well as how I’ve seen him pick up women off a wink alone.

“Still didn’t deny it,” I impart sternly through the blaring silence of the room.

“I don’t need to,” he counters, folding his hands along his stomach. “Because you can get fucked with that comment. I’m not purposely double hiring people to deplete your funds when you take over Friday.”

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