Page 99 of The Girl with No Name

“Look, man…” I glance at the time on my computer. “I have a call starting in a few minutes that I need to prepare for. Can we have this talk some other time?”

Hal strokes his beard and blinks. “That’s…not how this conversation goes. I’m your boss.”

“Do you want me to keep doing Lennie’s job for him or not? Someone’s got to close his sales, since he obviously doesn’t.” I turn back to the screen. “Wow, surprise-surprise. He’s sent me three emails already asking for my help.”

I spin my chair around. “I didn’t come in earlier this week because I think the five-days-in-the-office policy is stupid. You’re going to lose employees with that. So why don’t you run that up the chain to your boss?”

“We’re not done here,” he says, then gets up and leaves.

A few minutes later, Jay comes back. “Dude, what the hell did you say to Hal?”

“I told him the truth. His policy is stupid, and I don’t plan on following it.”

Jay sits back down in his chair. “What the hell’s gotten into you?”

“Perspective,” I say. “Life is short. You can’t let people like Hal push you around.”

“Dude, he’s your boss. Sometimes you gotta play the game and just lie down.”

“Jay, my friend...” I grin. “I’ve been lying down for too long. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Nice guys finish last.”

I jump on the Zoom call I have with Lennie and his client, and after a few minutes of small talk, Lennie says, “I’m going to let Mr. Walker take it from here. He specializes in this kind of thing. Reed?”

I let a long pause pass, before I smile big. “You know, I am blanking out on this one. Lennie, why don’t you handle it this time?”

There’s a long, awkward pause, and Lennie finally says, “Err…okay. I, uh, hadn’t prepared for that, but okay.”

Lennie stumbles through an explanation of our endpoint security product line. The client is noticeably irritated by his lack of knowledge.

“Yeah, well, I’ll let you guys know if we want to go this direction,” the client says. “Would have been nice if you were a little more prepared.” He ends the call.

“What the hell was that?” Lennie croaks once it’s just the two of us on screen. “You were supposed to run this call! Why did you do that?”

“Oh, Lennie, buddy. A thank you would have been nice.”

“Why would I thank you for that?”

I click off the call, pull up my email, and type out a long message to Hal’s boss about our sales strategy, the in-office initiative, and Lennie’s insistence that I run his customer calls.

“Hey, Jay,” I call once I’ve finished it. “Can you read this for typos?”

He leans over my shoulder. “Holy shit, bro. You’re sending that to fucking SebastianJones?”

Sebastian Jones is like God in our company. He’s the CEO’s right hand. When you hear his name, it’s never good. It usually means someone got let go.

I shrug. “Why not? I feel like he should know what’s going on in his division.”

“Dude, I wouldn’t send that. Take a walk or something.”

“So no typos?”

“No, but?—”

I hit send on the email, and Jay’s eyes widen. “That’s the ballsiest shit I’ve seen in a decade at this company.”

I lean back and put my arms behind my head. “I don’t know, man. Ever since this weekend, I just think life’s too short to spend your time getting pushed around by people like Lennie and Hal. If Sebastian Jones wants to pick on me for telling him the truth about what’s going on at the ground floor of his company, so be it.”

“Somethinghasgotten into you,” Jay says. “You’re different. It’s kind of cool, but I’m also a little scared.”

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