Page 22 of An Engagement for Erica

He didn’t hear any encouraging kind words from his father growing up.

If it wasn’t for his mother, he wasn’t sure how he’d be. Not the man he was today.

And when he needed a male role model, his grandfather was there.

There were some things you just couldn’t forget. Things that made you pick up your life and change without a second thought.

Nope, that was a lie.

He’d had a lot of second thoughts, but not enough that he’d turn back now.

Just like he was on the right path with Erica and he was going to continue to break her down to be the way she was before.

He looked at his watch and saw it was only four thirty. Alice was supposed to leave at four, but she came in early and left late all the time.

He made a note to reevaluate her salary when this was all done. It wouldn’t look right to do it now.

He started to go through his emails that he’d been ignoring most of the day. It seemed to never be ending.

An hour later, there was Joel at his door. “Hey, got a minute?” Joel asked.

“I do now,” he said. “What bad news do you have to deliver?”

“Well, the consultant is pleasing to the eyes,” Joel said. “Makes sitting with her better.”

He didn’t want to hear that, but Joel was married and about ten years older than him. “We need to keep it professional,” he said.

“Always,” Joel said. “But no one is here but us. You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed how attractive she is. Very nice and businesslike. She smiled a few times but has a way about her to make me feel as if my voice is the most important in the room.”

Everything he remembered before. “That’s her job,” he said.

“I know,” Joel said, laughing. “And since I was the only one in the room talking, I should feel that way. But she did make a very uncomfortable situation anything but. That takes a lot of talent. Anyway, I hope you get what you need out of it.”

“Me too,” he said, smirking. “Is that all you wanted to talk about?”

“No,” Joel said. “Manufacturing is slow. We are short-staffed and I’m trying to hire, but there is a reputation here. We’ve got orders piling up and our turnaround is more than a week behind on a lot of orders. It’s not good and I don’t want to lose business.”

“Do you have any ideas other than mandating overtime, which is only going to piss people off more?”

“Hiring bonuses,” Joel said. “Bonuses for staff that volunteer to take more shifts. It’s not right to just offer a bonus to new people as the current staff are going to get cranky over that.”

“Agreed,” he said. He knew he was going to have to spend money to not lose business.

“John might wet himself if I tell him this,” Joel said.

“I’ll take care of it,” he said. “Draft me your proposal. Take it to HR and make sure they don’t see an issue with it and we’ll get it going before the end of the week if we can. In the meantime, see if we can get shifts filled prior with the knowledge we are working on rewarding those who volunteer.”

“Got it,” Joel said. “You’re much easier to deal with than your father. I’ll tell you what I told Erica.”

“You don’t need to do that,” he said.

“I have no problem speaking my mind. You’ve got a long road ahead of you. I think you can do it, but many others are going to take advantage of things.”

He knew that. “I’m fully aware,” he said. “I’ve got a good eye for that.”

Joel laughed. “You’re like your grandfather more than I realized. He was well respected, but very few current employees have worked for the first TC.”

“Maybe we can get back to that. Might help if they’d heard that from others in charge.”

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