Page 49 of Icing on Top
“Back to the office,” Grant instructed.
“That’s the last fucking place I want to be,” Ben spat.
“Hey!” Grant replied, stopping Ben from getting into the Jeep to make him look at him. “I’m not happy about it either, but we have to go back to finalize our plans. We need something to prove to Nova that this will never happen again, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Ben nodded. The drive back to the office was silent, as was the elevator ride to our offices.
Once we exited the elevator, I snapped my fingers at Joel as we passed his desk. “Send roses to Nova. As many as they have. Now!” I ordered as I pulled out my phone. Grant may have told me to let her go, but I couldn’t bear the thought of Nova thinking that we didn’t care at all.
Lincoln: Sugar, I know you’re upset, and I know you need more than words from us, but please don’t give up on us just yet. We love you so fucking much, and we’re going to prove it to you.
My hands shook as I sent the text. I didn’t expect a reply from her. I didn’t deserve one.
“Ok. Let’s get this shit figured out because I’m not going to be able to function until we fix this,” I said as I closed Grant’s office door behind me and locked it. We spent the rest of the night reviewing employee files to find the people we would promote to take on our day-to-day responsibilities.
“We should have done this years ago,” I said as we worked.
“We didn’t have anyone worth leaving the office for then,” Ben reminded me.
“The important thing is that we do now,” Grant said.
We worked through the night, barely noticing the time as it went by. Our sole focus was on completing this task to make it right with Nova. At some point, we must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, Joel was waking us up.
“Did you guys go home at all?” he asked as he set coffee and a paper bag of breakfast sandwiches on Grant’s desk. He looked around at the files scattered all about. “What the hell is going on?”
“Did you get the roses sent to Nova?” I asked as I took the lid off my steaming cup of coffee and took a large burning gulp.
“Yes. You said all of them, so I had them send all of them. That’s going to be a pricey bill,” Joel replied.
“It’s worth it,” Grant replied as he dug into the bag and tossed sandwiches to Ben and me before taking one himself.
“Thanks for breakfast,” Ben said to Joel.
“Anytime. Now, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Joel demanded.
“We fucked up,” Ben replied, taking a bite.
“Because of those fuckwad sponsors, we were late to the gingerbread contest, and we let Nova down,” I explained. “So she broke it off with us because she doesn’t want to be a second priority.”
“So this is?” he asked, gesturing around the office.
“This is how we’re going to make sure that it never happens again,” Grant said. “We’re restructuring the day-to-day operations and promoting people.”
Joel looked at us in stunned silence before a slow grin spread across his face. “You’re serious! Holy shit. I never thought I would see the day when you three would take a step back and focus on your personal lives. I have to say, it’s about damn time!”
“You realize it means that we’re going to rely on you more to be our go-between,” I told him. “Which will, of course, come with a salary increase.”
“I’ll do whatever it is you need me to do if it means you’ll get a life,” Joel laughed.
“Good,” Grant said, handing him a sheet of paper. “You can start by arranging meetings with everyone on that list.”
“I’ll take care of it now,” he replied as he headed for the door. Before he left, he turned back to us. “I hope you get her back. She’s good for you.”
We spent the rest of the morning in meetings, and by the time we finally left to go home and try to sleep, we had our new department heads and branch managers. Everyone on our list had accepted the promotions, which would be announced at the New Year’s Eve party the next day. On our way home, we drove by Nova’s house. Her car was in the driveway, and as tempted as we were to stop, we continued past. We’d give her space for now, but she’d find out soon that walking away from us would be far more difficult than she thought.
Making Moves
Nova
