Page 15 of In Love and War
The cheers and clapping were almost instantaneous outside of my office as people congratulated Zac, patting him on the back. I could see him celebrating with them through the glass. He wore the biggest smile I’d ever seen on him, and all of signs of stress and fatigue were wiped from his face.
I opted to stay in my office and sent a quick email to congratulate him instead of joining them, since it would have been unprofessional of me to do nothing. Then I went about the rest of my day, thinking that was the end of it.
It wasn’t.
“Milly speaking,” I said into my desk phone. It was 5:30 p.m. and I was just about to start wrapping up.
“Hey, Milly, it’s Jasmine. I’m sorry to bug you so late, but your father would like to see you in his office right away. Are you able to come up?”
I tapped the screen of my cell and watched it come to life; no missed calls or texts. How weird. He never got in touch with me through Jasmine.
“Uh, yeah, sure. I’ll be right up. Is everything okay?”
“I don’t have any of the details, dear.” She sounded apologetic.
“Okay, no worries. See you in a bit.” I grabbed my access card and phone before heading out.
A few minutes later, she led me into my father’s office. I walked in thinking it would just be us, but there were two other people already in the room. Margaret was seated in one of the chairs facing my father’s desk, and Zac was standing to her left, his arms crossed.
The glare I got from him when he saw me could have cut through glass.
Uh-oh.
“Thank you, Jasmine.” My father dismissed her before motioning to the second, empty chair in front of him. “Take a seat, please, Milly.”
I did as I was told. No one said anything right away which flared up my already rising levels of anxiety. It really didn’t help that Zac looked like he wanted to flip everything he could get his hands on over and set it all on fire.
“Alright. I’m going to ask you a few questions that I am sure you will answer truthfully and to the best of your ability,” my father said as he looked at me with an expression I couldn’t quite decipher.
He paused, waiting for me to agree. I nodded.
“Were you aware, while working for them, that Yuval Digital was the exclusive advertising and PR agent for Emerson Blu?”
“Um… no, I don’t think so.” I tried thinking back to see if it had ever come up in any discussions or meetings.
“But in all fairness, Yuval is massive. They have a bunch of really big accounts… and it’s not like I kept track of all of them,” I clarified.
I don’t know why I was already getting defensive. I hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Did you know, prior to submitting your application for a job here, that Emerson was looking to expand into the Canadian market and that we were one of the participating bidders for their business?”
“No, I didn’t…”
“So, you had no idea that there would be a potential overlap on this account during your transition? None of your former coworkers mentioned anything about it to you at all?”
“No.” I was so confused.
“Do you know who David Bruman is?” This time it was Zac who asked.
“Dave was my boss at Yuval. Well, technically my boss’s boss. Why?”
“We’re in a bit of a predicament after our first meet-and-greet call with your old firm this afternoon.” My father pursed his lips and thought for a moment before he continued. “We’re supposed to be working with them quite closely over the next few months… Zac is of course the primary owner of the account, but the business and workload is so large that he had selected a senior associate to be part of his team as the secondary contact and to help out with the campaign.”
“Okay, great. What does any of this have to do with me?”
“Well, David Bruman is Zac’s counterpart on the US side. This is his account, and for whatever reason, he is dead set onyoubeing the secondary contact that works with them,” my father revealed.
“Oh.”
