Page 18 of The Boardroom: Jonathan
Kirk sighed. “Johnathan was using the data from two years ago instead of last year.”
Samantha groaned. “You’re kidding, right?”
I held my head in my hands and tried not to freak out. “I’m afraid so.”
For some reason, my mind was hardly considering how to fix the problem. At the moment, all I could think about was how much Samantha would probably hate me for making her do all that work for nothing.
However, she seemed surprisingly calm. “It’s snowing,” Samantha said, taking a second to stare dreamily out the window.
“Crap,” said Kirk. “What now?”
I tried my best to regain focus, and then remembered how important my leadership was to my company in moments like this. “Kirk, go home. Tell everyone to get home and drive safe. Tell them to bring any important papers in case we have to work from home tomorrow. I’ll email everyone with an update soon.”
Kirk looked at me with concern. “Are you guys sure you’re okay?”
“No,” I said. “But it’s fine.”
Kirk smiled at me kindly and then shut the door.
“Fuck,” I said, burying my head in my elbows. “We’re completely fucked.”
Samantha sighed and kicked off her heels. “So, what do we do?”
I chuckled. “After all this, you’re askingmewhat to do? After I messed up that bad? How are you not completely furious with me right now, Samantha?”
She shook her head and laughed. “I’m far too exhausted to be furious.”
“True…” I said, and a long silence followed as the snow outside turned heavier.
“We can do this,” Samantha said confidently. “We just need a thorough plan.”
“Okay,” I said, fully ready to roll up into a ball and let her do all the work.
“Well I guess,” Samantha said. “We take all this home and stay up late working and emailing back and forth. To be honest, there isn’t much difference in the data between the two years, so a lot of my written portion of the reports can be recycled. And I can use my extra time to make new graphs. If we budget our time correctly, we could be done before midnight.”
“Impressive,” I said, raising my eyebrows. “Now let’s hope it works.”
Twenty minutes later, we were all packed up and ready to go on our way. It would be a grueling evening ahead, but once we had the report in, all the work will have been worth it.
“Have a safe drive, Samantha,” I said as cheerily as I could as I locked up. “And again, I’m sorry about my mistake. I really do owe you.”
She smiled and sighed. “It’s okay. What’s done is done.”
We smiled at each other for a small moment, and it was probably the warmest smile that had ever been shared between us. It was a magically brief bit of friendship because, in that moment, we had shared a whole day’s worth of well…total and utter disaster.
And that was when the lights flickered out.
Samantha turned to me with a look of horror on her face and suddenly began pacing around the office in nervous, frantic circles, holding her head in one of her hands.
“Look, Johnathan, let’s think this through, maybe—”
“Those files are on thecomputer,Samantha!” I raged. “All the writing you already did on the report is on thecomputer.All the data! Everything!” I crumpled up a brochure that was lying on the table and threw it at the table. After everything that had already happened today, this?This?!
Samantha just stared at me, waiting for me to calm down.
“You know,” I said, walking up to her slowly. “If there’s any time for you to yell at me, this is it. If I had done all this earlier, all this…” I threw myself down in a chair. “…I wouldn’t have gotten you stuck in this mess.” I stared at her with a hint of confusion. “By the way, why aren’t you mad?”
Samantha laughed in the kind of uproarious way that only shows itself when life has gotten truly apocalyptic. “It won’t accomplish anything anymore, I suppose,” she said in defeat. “I figure my best shot for the company is to keep the peace.”
