Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3)(66)

Ron smiled, a big crater forming in his lined face. He seemed mildly put out that she wasn’t intimidated. “I underestimated you.”

“Join the club. All the boys from my region think I don’t belong.”

“It must be tough being the odd one out.”

“I am a woman in a boys’ club. What do you think?”

“But you’ve held on. You’ve kept a level head all weekend. You are competing like your male counterpart, and what’s more, you are winning. Impressive for one so young.”

“More so for a woman? Look, Ron, I know what I’m up against. Truth be told, I hate it. I’ve hated being here this weekend. It is not impressive to me. I know what I can do, and I strive to do a good job. It sucks that I have to prove it time and again, and still people think I shouldn’t be here. I don’t play the ‘my penis is bigger than yours’ game. In fact, in life outside of work, I judge that game. Maybe that freaks men out. But you have another think coming if you think a bunch of sexist, racist homophobes are going to get the best of me.”

Krista was getting heated, fueled by equal parts frustration and alcohol. She figured she might as well push her luck since her soap box was so firmly in place. She almost started with, and another thing!

Instead, she said, “You’ve been here a long time, Ron, as you said. And that is awesome. You molded things the way you liked them. That’s a great feat. But it’s a different world out there now. Your mold might not fit as snug as it once did. To keep your self-proclaimed empire, it might be time to reassess and flex. Move over bacon, something leaner is coming through. Know what I mean?”

Krista stopped talking and had a sip of her drink. Would she have been so bold sober? No way. Going a step further, she would probably regret all this tomorrow. She still had yet to find out what the guy wanted.

After a pause Ron said, “You are pretty blunt to your superior.”

Again with the intimidation tactics. It was irritating.

“You are a higher level than me, but you aren’t my boss. Nor my superior. And this isn’t company time. Maybe my edge has worn off dealing with this garbage en force all weekend. Regardless, I don’t make excuses for it, and I’m not planning on apologizing for it. Your ego is your problem, not mine.”

Ron’s eyebrows shot up. She was getting a little too reckless, perhaps. It was undoubtedly bedtime.

“Aren’t you worried that I can make your life hell?”

Had this man not met Sean McAdams? When it came to manipulation tactics, Ron Powers took a backseat.

“Worried? No. You want to battle on the work field, bring it on. That battle I will meet head on. You know what worries me? The comment Blake made today. Men that make comments like that, and get other men to think it’s okay, are men that date rape. All you’ve ever worried about is your job. Can you imagine also having to worry about your safety? That’s the game I am forced to play this weekend. So no, you don’t worry me. If I get fired, or fed up, I’ll just get another job. Like I said, it’s a different world out there now.”

“This conversation isn’t really going the way I thought it would. I still find you intriguing. And you are right, of course, it is a different world. Blake, though…”

“I don’t want to talk about that, if you don’t mind.” Krista cut him off firmly.

“Just know that he is not the norm. Anyway, I am impressed on how well you work with McAdams. You’re close?”

“We work well together, yes. Always have.”

“It surprises me because I have heard a lot of rumors that might say a girl as smart as you would be careful where she treads. Sean has a reputation, after all.”

“He does, yes. I only agreed to work with him if he would cut out the womanizer rigmarole. After he did, we’ve got on really well ever since.”

“So you worked with him before?”

“At my last job, yes. Marcus, too. A couple others that are in the L.A. branch. We all worked exceptionally well together. You just haven’t seen Marcus and me in action because he is off with the admins this weekend.”

“Didn’t Marcus meet Sean at Dexico? Did you work there, also?”

“I did. We were the team that handled our account—this company’s account, I mean. Tory brought Marcus, me, and a few others on, a couple years ago.”

Ron leaned forward with a puzzled expression. “I should have heard of you, then. There were two women in that team—an older one and a Marshall, if I am not mistaken. Were you more behind the scenes?”

“Ah, no—I am the Marshall girl. I had to change my name.”

Ron looked at her empty ring finger. He was clearly not connecting the dots.

“Long story short, I had a run-in with a crazy ex-boyfriend that had a habit of following me around. I had to move and change my name. I turned Tory down on the job offer, but then he offered me to work the L.A. branch. So…”

“And Marcus with you?”

“Yeah, and Ben. You don’t know him. But yeah.”

“I’ve heard of Ben—he’s a part of your assessing team, am I right?”

Krista was sipping her drink, so she nodded instead of answering. This guy was well informed.

“But not McAdams?”

“They had their own thing going.”