Page 91 of Love on Deck

“There is something you’d like to discuss?” he prompted.

Really? I sat, stunned that Hal could face me and pretend he didn’t know I had a right to be angry right now. The least he could do would be to acknowledge my situation.

“Yes,” I said tightly. “I wanted to discuss the promotion.”

Hal cleared his throat. “This decision was left to the committee. No one person got to make the call.”

“Did Camila recommend Jerry for the job?”

His side-glance was enough to tell me she hadn’t.

Frustration simmered in my veins. “I have been with Hunnam in events two years longer than Jerry has, and I have been specifically trained for this role.”

“There are other qualifications to consider—”

“Didn’t Jerry come here from a finance job?”

“That is personal information.”

That was side-stepping the question.

Hal folded his arms over his chest. “Jerry has spearheaded the lawyer’s con this week and shown remarkable ability.”

How many events had I spearheaded before that, though? How many times had I held Jerry’s hand through an event? How many emails had he sent me last week alone? I was beginning to see my qualifications meant nothing. They wanted him, and they didn’t want me. I must have been quiet too long, because Hal decided to fill the void.

“You are vital to this company, Lauren. We work as a team to accomplish the many, many events that come through our space here, and that won’t change.”

Vital. Me? Not vital enough. My body became light, like I was floating up above the office looking down on it from a bird’s eye view. Jerry’s promotion proved I wasn’t vital, or I would have been offered the job. All it proved was that they didn’t care if they kept me happy, that there was no more room to grow within the Hunnam Events team.

With no more room to grow, why should I bother staying at all? My mind ran down a list of reasons that might be worth giving more of my life and time to Hunnam Hotels Group, but the list was sadly empty. Camila, gone. Opportunity for growth, gone. The respect to admit that I was an equal contender for the position? Absent.

Well, I guessed that only meant one thing. I stood, holding my computer a little looser to my chest. “You can expect a formal resignation sometime in your email tomorrow.”

“Okay, Lau—wait, what?” Hal looked up, his eyes wide. “You aren’t quitting over this promotion?”

“I am valuing my own worth. If this company won’t do that, then it’s up to me to find one that will.” I turned to walk away, but my deeply ingrained sense of proper business etiquette stopped me at the door, where I turned back. “Thank you for your time.”

Then I gathered my purse from my desk and walked out.

* * *

Jack

I wasn’t sure if Brad was trying to avoid me or if he really just had back-to-back meetings all day. By the time my workday was over, though, I’d only seen him in passing a handful of times, never long enough for a decent chat. Not that we needed to discuss what had happened, but something about the way things had gone down hadn’t felt right to me.

Now, the office was closing up, people were heading out, and Brad was still at his desk. Thanks to the glass walls, I could see he was clearly not in a meeting or on the phone. I slid my laptop into its bag and hiked it over my shoulder.

Time for a chat.

My fist knocked loudly on the glass door. Brad looked up and hesitated only slightly before waving me in. “I’m about to jump on a conference call,” he said by way of greeting.

“I’ll be quick.” I closed the door behind myself and took one of the chairs in front of his desk. “I wanted to talk about the venue.”

His attention flicked from me back to his computer screen. “Have you put together a proposal for next year? You can show the board, but the chances of them accepting it are pretty slim.”

“Why?”

“Because the Dallas Event Center has a longstanding relationship with MediCorp.”

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