Page 37 of Catalyst

CHAPTER18

Adam

“What’s our game plan?”Matthew asks, propping his foot on his knee and relaxing back into his chair. I’ve always envied his ability to remain calm in any situation. Nothing truly affects him in the same way it does me. I’ve had to perfect the art of remaining stone-faced no matter what’s happening around me, whereas Matthew has always had the ability to stay collected.

I glance at Ellie, who’s sitting in my other visitor’s chair across from my desk. She has her tablet out, working on something while Matthew and I talk. We’re about to have our final chat with Linda, and I think we’re all dreading it.

“I’d like to try to get a read on how she’s feeling about her work up to this point. It would be ideal if we can avoid firing her.”

“I have a feeling that’s not going to be an option. Her designs with Ellie Beans’s drawings was a straight-up insult to both Ellie and us,” Matthew says.

I grimace. He’s right, of course. I just hate this part of my job. I know I have a reputation for being a bit exacting, but I don’t revel in being harsh.

“Then I’ll start by asking her to explain her thought process behind the recent designs. Whatever her answer is, we’ll go from there. I have a feeling her reasoning will not be satisfactory, and as much as I don’t want to piss her off, we may need to in order to get to the bottom of this mess.”

Matthew nods. “Understood and agreed. Ellie, are you okay with being our witness? We can ask someone else to be here if you don’t feel comfortable. We’ll be talking about your designs, after all.”

“I’ll be okay. Thank you for checking in with me, though.” Ellie’s smile is bright, lighting up the room and giving me a needed boost. “I plan on staying over here to observe and take notes, just in case.”

“I appreciate you sitting in. It’s not going to be a pleasant meeting, of that I am sure,” I tell her.

“These never are,” Matthew adds.

“How many times have you had to fire someone?” she asks me.

“Too many to count, unfortunately.”

She cringes and nods her head. My sentiments exactly.

A few minutes later, Linda enters the room, a black folio in her hand. Matthew and I both stand from our seats and move toward the conference table. Ellie stays in her visitor’s chair and prepares her tablet to take notes.

“Linda, thank you for joining us,” I start.

“I don’t think I had much of a choice.”

Already off to a rough start. This is going to be painful. “Right, well, we’d like to start by discussing your latest campaign strategy. Will you walk through your thought process?”

“I’ve worked for this company for six years and never once have you questioned me. Let alone sent me someone else’s designs to attempt to market.”

“While that’s true, Linda, I am still the CEO of this company and have the final say over what we’re putting our name on. I asked you to use your well-earned marketing skills on a brand-new campaign, and from what I can see, you made a mockery of it. If you have a better explanation for what you’ve done with these drawings, I’m all ears.” I try to keep any anger out of my voice, but the blatant disrespect she is giving me is a little hard to ignore.

“These drawings are immature and childish. I thought we were taking this company in a new direction, not backward. My goal was to show you how silly this idea is and how allowing someone with no marketing experience to create a campaign is idiotic.” Linda’s glare at Ellie is frosty enough to drop the temperature in the room a couple of degrees.

“What’s funny about that is I’m the one who gave you the ideas for the campaign. While I won’t deny that Ellie drew the images, I’m the one who sent you the potential ad copy to go along with it,” I tell her. Her eyes widen with the realization that she insulted me instead of Ellie.

“So, let me get this straight. You sabotaged the entire campaign because you knew Ellie was the one to create the drawings?” Matthew asks, incredulity lacing his voice.

“I’ve been in marketing for almost twenty years!” Linda practically screams. “I refuse to be replaced by a girl who uses what’s between her legs to get ahead.”

Matthew’s jaw drops while mine clenches hard enough to crack a molar. After a moment of stunned silence, I take a deep breath to return to being the CEO when all I want to do is defend Ellie’s honor. “Linda, it seems as if we’ve come to an impasse. I won’t tolerate any of my employees being degraded as you’ve just done, and I don’t believe you have the best interests of this company in mind anymore. At this time, I think it would be best for you to move on to a new opportunity. We will offer you a month of paid leave to find a new position, and I will ensure your reference discusses your previous work ethic without mentioning this unfortunate end to your time here.”

Linda bolts out of her chair, and for a second, I think she’s going to take a swing at me. “You can take your paid time off and shove it. I quit.”

“Very well.” I stand from my chair and button my suit jacket. “I’ll have HR draw up the paperwork for you to sign. Please gather your things and head there now. I appreciate the work you did for this company and wish we were ending on better terms.”

“Fuck you.” Linda storms out of my office, her cloud of negative energy lingering in the air.

“Weeelll,” Mathew draws out. “That went worse than I expected.”

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