Page 46 of Driven By Desire
“They were quoting lower prices.”
“Did you do a quality check before you gave them the order?”
The short silence told him what he needed to know. “I want to see you and your reporting manager in my cabin once this situation is controlled. Where are we on recalling the units?”
“Sir.” His Vice President Sales, Ramesh Subramanyam, spoke up. “It looks like there is only one consignment with the defective pieces. We don’t need to recall all of them.”
“Yes, we do. I want every single piece back in the factory for a quality check.”
“The revenue loss-“
“Will be nothing compared to the loss of our reputation.” The harsh interruption had the room falling silent. Suit jacket off and tossed over his chair, shirt sleeves rolled up, he yanked his tie completely off before pushing back from the table to pace the length of the room. “I want all our clients, big or small, to get a personal visit from one of our managers. Apologise, do what you can to make up for the inconvenience caused and make sure they get fresh stock in perfect quality as soon as possible.”
He continued to pace while the rest of the room burst into frantic activity that involved calls and notes and enough chatter to make him feel like his head would burst.
“What’s our timeline on replacements?”
“A week at the least. I’ll speak to the vendor-“
“No.” The firm order stayed the manager’s hand from reaching for the phone. “They will never do business with us again. Get estimates from the other players in the market by EOD today. And I want timelines on how soon they can provide us with the part.”
It took hours and hours of wrangling and organization to start the process of recalling the machines, soothing irate clients and organizing fresh stock. He was just ending a handholding conversation with one of their biggest clients when he saw Mrs. Sharma signal to him from the doorway. Walking over he took the phone from her hand and barked, “Yes?”
“Mrs. Sharma just briefed me. How bad?” Chirag’s calm voice had him modulating his own.
“Pretty bad. The numbers are still coming in. I don’t think I’ll make it home tonight. I’ll crash on the couch in my office. Is everything okay at home?”
“Yes. I’ll handle everything here. You take care.”
Disconnecting, he handed the phone back to Mrs. Sharma and made his way back into the controlled chaos that awaited him.
---***----
He made it home late the next evening. He was doing a fairly good impression of the Walking Dead by the time he reached. Shouldering the front door open, he called out a greeting that was met with complete silence. Frowning, he peeked into the drawing room and found no one there. Swinging into the kitchen, he found both his brothers huddled around the kitchen table. Raising an eyebrow at Adi’s buzz cut, he refrained from comment and clasped Chirag’s shoulder in a silent, tired thank you. His brother covered his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze before saying, “Pooja’s in her room reading a book.”
Krish dropped the bottle of water he’d just been raising to his lips. Quite conveniently on Adi’s almost bald head.
“Ow.” The resultant glare made him feel better. Tossing him a napkin to wipe up, he asked, “Since when does she read?”
“Since yesterday when Max introduced her to Nancy Drew.”
Max. Taking a deep breath, he moved towards the sink and rinsed out the bottle he’d just dropped. Grabbing another one, he uncapped it and drank more than half in one swig. The first thing he’d done when he’d finally wrapped up the whole mess was check his phone. There hadn’t been either a call ora message from her. Adding that up with her strange behavior when he’d been leaving yesterday, he knew something was wrong. He knew his above average IQ would come in handy for something, he thought with a wry grin.
“You might want to wipe that grin off your face.” Chirag advised. “Every time your name comes up in conversation she looks like she’s sucked on a lemon.”
“When did she leave for home?”
“She didn’t.”
Freezing with the bottle to his lips, Krish turned towards the window that looked out on to the backyard. Lights were blazing in his garage and if he contorted into quite the most uncomfortable pose possible, he could see her legs sticking out from under the car.
“You think it’s safe to go out there?”
“Only if you can separate her from her tools.” The two knuckleheads chuckled and fist bumped each other at that. Although asinine joke or not, they had a point. Max did have a tendency to go for her tools when she was angry. Not that he was scared of her. No 5’ 2” sprite who smelled of grease and machine oil was going to intimidate him. Eyeing the bright red sneakers that traitorously beckoned him forward, he stayed in the safety of the kitchen and drained the bottle of water.
“All okay at office?” Chirag came to lean by the sink near him as he continued to stare out the window.
“It’s handled. Will take a while for things to settle down completely but for the moment the storm’s settled.”
