Page 84 of Reply All
IT’S LIKE GUERRILLA WARFARE—JUST REPLACE THE COMBAT BOOTS WITH STILETTOS, AND THE CAMO WITH A FLORAL PRINT (IT IS SPRING, AFTER ALL)
“You’re freaking me out,” I tell Lena while we wait for our orders at a coffee shop nearby.
She looks around nervously, checking our surroundings as if we’re five seconds away from being invaded by aliens. Or the FBI. Or something.
“I have a plan,” she whispers, despite the fact that no one from the office is around. “A plan to take down Jenna. To have her get her just desserts.”
I’ve never really understood that expression before. I mean, dessert always sounds amazing. How is it used synonymously with justice being served?
Regardless, I sit up straight in my seat, interest peaked.
“You’re finally going to tell HR? Or you’re going to let me go to HR? Did you find all the evidence we would need to get her in trouble?” The need to be vindicated is clear in the speed and enthusiasm with which my words pour out of me.
Lena smiles—but something about it is unsettling. It’s the smile of someone in the know, yes. But in the know of something almost… nefarious? It can’t be, though.
Just a couple of months ago she agreed she had been way too hard on people. She agreed she would be making an effort to be less harsh on her coworkers and subordinates. And shehasbeen—for the most part. It’s been a minute since I’ve seen anyone leave her office in tears. She’s also kept the passive-aggressive comments to a minimum in meetings. And I know this all sounds awful, but itisan improvement.
I narrow my eyes at her. “What are you talking about? A plan to take her down?” I don’t like this. I don’t like lying or manipulating people, and something about the look on her face tells me it will somehow involve this and more.
Lena’s smile falls. “It’s not bad, I promise. I just mean that I’ve come up with a way to vindicate ourselves after what happened. Jenna made us look like we screwed the pooch in front of Stevenson’s Chief Merchandising Officer and our CEO so… I came up with something. To show that she took your idea. Our ideas. And claimed them as her own. I have a plan.”
I don’t like where this is going. Jenna may be a shitty person, but I’m not one to fight fire with fire or to play dirty.
“What sort of plan?”
“Well, after everything went down I realized she must still be pulling the same shit she used to back in the day—especially with all the rumors flying around that corporate hadn’t been happy with her in a while. Meaning, she’s probably been making a lot of waves in the office with everyone, taking credit for other people’s work, kissing the CEO’s ass, making everyone think she’s hot shit off of the work from other people’s backs. And the other day she asked for me to follow through on your idea and manage the implementation process. Which, like, whatever. She’s a VP so I get that she’s not gonna get into the details of a project whether it was her idea or not, but you can understand my frustration. So I?—”
A waiter comes by with our coffees and sets them down in front of us, cutting her off. Lena thanks him with a smile so bright, he flushes. She checks him out as he walks away with a small smile on her lips.
How diabolical can you be to be talking about revenge and get sidetracked by a waiter at a coffee shop mid-conversation?
She flicks a Splenda packet a couple of times before pouring it into her coffee and continues once the waiter is out of sight. “As I was saying, I decided to speak to people around the office, to see whether she had ruffled any feathers recently. And it turns out she has. And the people I spoke to were more than willing to work with me on this. They were more than willing to fib on a few things about the so-called implementation process to create chaos. They are much more than willing to help bring her down.”
I suck in a breath, my stomach dropping. “I don’t like this at all.”
Lena sighs. “Bridget, it’s fine. It’s just a little revenge.”
“You don’t think that’s a bit?—”
“It’s not a big deal, alright?” Lena snaps, her eyes blazing.
“But what’s going to happen to Jenna? I don’t like her, but I don’t want to ruin her life. And what about Stevenson? You seem awfully sure whatever it is you planned is not going to make them angry enough to fully cancel our contract. I mean, this has all been super hard work. We’re close to meeting our first delivery of items for the pre-season. And you want to risk it all at the one yard line?”
Lena rolls her eyes at me with a sigh. “Jenna will get fired and she’ll find another job, but she’ll be fine. We’ll come out looking like heroes to the client after the clusterfuck that’s currently going down now—don’t check your email just yet, by the way; not unless you want to read some seriously messed up threats as a response to what’s going down?—”
“Wait, you haven’t even told me what’s?—”
“—and we’re not going to lose the account. I already have the fix and a plan. So many others are already on board with this. Just stick with me today and all will be right in the world.”
“I… don’t know what to say.” I gnaw on my lip because this is insanity. What the hell? A revenge plan? Andseveralpeople are involved? What the hell is this? This can’t be normal. I know that Will often tells me I settle for less than I deserve when I focus too much on the silver lining of things and don’t fight for what’s mine. But this isn’t right, and I’m sure he’d agree. Revenge does not seem like an acceptable response to something as mild as stealing credit for an idea. We’re not saving lives here, people; we’re just making clothes.
“Can I at least get some more details?” I ask. The Oscars should contact me for how cool I’m acting right now, when in reality there’s a storm brewing beneath my skin.
“Of course,” Lena tells me with a smile. “So, as you know, we had that plan to cut costs for the client by working with the factories and reselling materials leftover, correct?”
“Among other things,” I mumble, annoyed.
“Well, obviously we had to go through the whole ordeal of adjusting our die cutting processes for our factories in Asia and creating a new strategy to resell the materials—which,god, is so fucking genius because it gives us even more clout around being sustainableandmakes them even more money. Seriously, Bridget, what an amazing job.”
