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Glad you’re now going to sully it by enacting revenge.
I had chosen to let this go, to move on, and now we’re back to this?
“So anyway, that’s done. And we did get the pricing down quite a bit from it. But when we passed on the new HTS codes to get the correct duty on the first cost, our pricing team might’ve… fibbed a little.” Her smile is more mischievous than any kind the Cheshire Cat could come up with. “We gave them the wrong codes, which had amuchlower tariff attached to each material. And to be fair, it’s not an unlikely mistake. They change the damn duties and codes every couple of years—it’s really annoying—and you now know that theslightestchange in composition for an article of clothing can completely change the duty import rate.” She rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her coffee as if she thinks messing with our customer’s orders’ Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes isn’t a big deal. But of course she knows it’s bad. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have enacted a whole revenge plan around it.
“Anyway, so we input the orders, bought everything, started production, and now we just got notice that the duty is much higher despite our promise to Stevenson to deliver on a lower price. And we—Stevenson, actually—might be getting fined by the government if we don’t fix it soon. And since all roads lead to Jenna not being on top of things, it will make Stevenson hate her and want nothing to do with her. Then, we’ll get them to want to work with us because of all the time and effort they know we’ve put into their account. Jenna’s time at Sartoria will be over. And our time has finally come.”
I inhale a low gasp, because trying to pull a fast one on customs is incredibly bad. And finding out they have to pay more after everything we’ve gone through is going to be the last straw for Stevenson. I doubt they’d be down to stay with us after all of this. To be honest, Lena’s “solution” sounds more like a delusion than anything else.
“But we negotiated based off of that new duty number. And this entire deal has been like pulling teeth because the finance department at Stevenson have been unreasonable dicks who wouldn’t approve our prices, and when they finally do, it’s because we lied? This is fucked. You’re going to blow up this deal. To throw all the progress we’ve made out the window, Lena.”
I want to cry. I want to cry because I loved this job in practice, but oh my god, what the hell? What iswrongwith people? Betrayal and revenge plots? This isn’t medieval times! It’sjustclothes.
She rolls her eyes once more. “You’re exaggerating, Bridget. And you need to relax. Today is going to be perfection, you’ll see. Now finish your coffee, girl. You’re going to need the caffeine for what I’ve got planned. We’ve got someone’s job to destroy.”
* * *
It doesn’t take longerthan a few minutes for all hell to break loose once we get to the office. Stevenson has been emailing and calling for the past half hour, freaking out—as they should.
Lena walks away, cool as a cucumber, into her office, and I take a seat at my desk in a numbed-out state while I wait for the inevitable moment in which Jenna’s wrath will rain upon us.
I don’t work. I don’t talk to anyone. All I do is hold my phone in my hands, wondering whether I can even text Will. This is… a serious problem between both of our companies. And while it’s not my fault, I don’t want to put him in a position where he would need to lie to his bosses about what went down and why. Not just because I feel the need to call him to vent and freak out. Even if heisputting in his notice today. It would be extremely selfish of me, wouldn’t it?
And while I fight the superhuman urge to text him, I come to the realization thathehasn’t texted me in a few hours either. Which… makes sense, actually. Maybe he’s doing the same thing I am. Maybe he’s trying to avoid puttingmein an uncomfortable situation. I’m still hoping to keep my job here, after all.
I jump with a start when the two front doors of our floor burst open, a seething Jenna walking through them, calling out for Lena at the top of her lungs. She can’t see her yet, so our lovely VP misses the smirk on my boss’s face as she hears her approach. My blood runs cold because I know shit’s about to go down.
I watch Jenna stalk toward Lena’s office, a murderous look in her eyes, right as my phone rings.
“Can you come in, please?” she asks, without so much as a greeting. “Pretty sure we’re about to get bombarded by a few questions. Need you here to field them, to be a witness in case HR is involved, and to hold a united front.”
“I…” How exactly did I getsoinvolved in this revenge plot? Why does Lena needmefor this? I mean, aren’t I a junior employee? Why am I being used as a scapegoat? “Sure. Be right there.”
Jenna and I reach Lena’s office at the same time. When she looks at me, I truly wonder how it’s possible I’m still alive—surely one glance from her should’ve been enough to kill me.
Once all three of us are inside, door closed behind us, Jenna doesn’t spare another second to make herself heard.
“What the hell was that? I thought I told you to handle this whole operation. This is a massive fuck up and now Sascha is losing her mind becauseshe’sgetting calls from Stevenson’s CEO. Over a tariff problem. How the hell am I supposed to tell our CEO that we gave our client—our biggest fish that we managed to reel in but have been struggling to keep before even delivering our first season—a wildly different price for every single SKU they ordered of every single style? Do you have any idea what that means? I think you do, given how many years you’ve been with this company.”
Lena smiles innocently. “I’m so sorry, Jenna. I thought we gave them the correct duty codes and based them off of the weight of the new, more efficient die cutting process. I guess there was some mistake there.”
“I had a meeting last week with Sascha, and she asked about this account. I told her everything was handled and that I made sure our client was happy and nowthishappens? I have Stevenson threatening to not just cancel our orders, Lena, but to sue us. Unless we pay for the difference, they’re going to send their lawyers after us for ruining their collection. Not to mention what this will do to Sartoria’s reputation. Tomyreputation. This is a small industry. Word will get around.”
Jenna’s phone vibrates in her hand and all three of us look down to see it’s our CEO calling. I’m speechless as all three of us watch Jenna, wide-eyed, ignore her boss’s call.
“I… Are you going to get that? Because I think it’ll be worse if you don’t,” I ask.
I. Am. An. Idiot. Why did I think it would be okay to say anything at this point? Both Lena and Jenna’s heads whip in my direction to shoot me equally terrifying glares.
“You.” Jenna points a very sharp fingernail in my direction. “Why areyouhere? You have nothing to do with any of this.”
“I—I—” But my mind has gone blank, the only thing that penetrates my brain is the awareness that Jenna’s phone has finally stopped vibrating.
“She was the one who came up with the ideayoustole as your own. I thought she should see you finally getting what you deserve.”
Jenna gasps. “So youdidplan this.”
“Of course I did.” A disturbing smile spreads across my boss’s face. “And it was about time, too.”
