Lost and Found (Growing Pains #1)(27)

And apparently he wasn’t planning on enlightening her or the clients, because he stood there, staring at her. No change in posture except for being slightly more rigid. Not very helpful.

Fine, if he wants me to do his job, he can eat the repercussions.

She put on a confident expression that she had perfected in college in order to hide the complete bullshit she spewed at a professor, and lied. “To date, with this type of product, we’ve been working mostly in the twenty-five to thirty-five demographic.” She used a cool, level voice. She was desperately trying to hide the crippling lack of knowledge. “Now, however, that market has changed, and we’ll be using our cutting edge approach to graphics, advertising niches, and already established connections in the sports world to aim lower. Aim for a younger crowd. We already do this with a number of our other products, so it is just a matter of tweaking our system, integrating your product, revamping the look, and inundating all those impressionable young minds with our message.” She smiled brightly as she said the last few words, aiming for humor to cover the tide of rabble that fell in clumps out of her mouth.

The man nodded once and looked toward Sean. The other two men were still gazing at her. So was Creep-O salesman. She was starting to feel a little self-conscious about the whole situation.

“Great,” Sean said, pushing away from the wall. The other sales guy stood up and conferred with Sean for a second before Sean sprang into action, no longer sparing her a glance.

Krista figured her time was up, and that she should exit the podium, when Sean introduced the art guy. With a ragged sigh, she grabbed her computer and headed toward the table where the rest of her team waited. Before she made it, she was intercepted by Creep-O. Confusedly, she let him usher her out of the room, making sure he didn’t touch any part of her person.

Once outside, the guy said, “Great work Kristie. Really good stuff. You’re excused.” He turned to go back inside.

Kristie? “But… what if they have questions?”

He closed the door again. “We’ll handle it. You’ve done enough. Thanks.”

And just like that he briskly walked back into the conference room, leaving her standing in the hallway alone, clutching her computer. She was the geek who was laughed out of the cafeteria by the cool kids. First the loser that has to sit on her own, now the unwanted geek.

The bitch of it was, she was a cool kid in school, and was always nice to the geeks. She did not deserve this karma.

With teary eyes she slowly walked back to her desk, everything she did and said tumbling through her mind. She came to one conclusion: She should have waited for Sean to answer that question. Obviously she messed up there. She’d done her presentation for the clients exactly how she’d gone over it with Sean. If there were any problems, he would have pointed it out then. It had to be that question. That was the only missing link!

And what was with the sexual overtones? What was with staring her down like she was supposed to take off her clothes and dance around for dollar bills? That wasn’t professional, it wasn’t cool, and it made her so angry and frustrated she wanted to find where he lived and set fire to his bushes. She hadn’t deserved that. No one deserved that. This wasn’t 1940. There were rules against that behavior in the workforce!

Krista’s anger, once ignited, now fumed. If Sean hadn’t been daydreaming about the best way to get her into bed, maybe he would have done his job and answered that question so she didn’t have to make something up. Maybe this was exactly how he got ahead. He made sure everything was ready and foolproof then waited for the right moment to let an up-and-comer hang themselves.

Krista’s resolve crackled. She did not quit. Not for her own mistakes, and certainly not those of others. She wouldn’t go down without a fight for this. If her boss talked to her about it, she would tell him exactly how it all played out. It wasn’t her fault she had to step in and do Sales’ job! And she knew that Mr. Montgomery, despite his faults, would have her back on this one!

If only she could pin sexual harassment on them, too. She’d have to think about that. Assholes!

The remainder of the day was a blur. The rest of her department was working on the thing for Dell, so they weren’t around, and she didn’t hear a peep from her so-called team about the presentation. All she did, then, was stew. Stew, and plot revenge.

When 5:00 rolled around Krista was seething. She shut down her computer and headed out with a scowl.

She walked the three blocks to the pub where she would meet the girls for Friday happy hour. She’d been there before a few times, and every time Kate had gotten there first she chose to sit in the miniature booths. Usually Krista would sit there until Jasmine came in, then they would all move to the bar. This time, however, Krista went straight to the bar.

“I’m over here,” Kate called from behind her.

“I know that. I saw you. But we are going to end up at the bar anyway, so I’m heading there now.”

“Wow,” Kate said as she changed locations. “You’re in a mood.”

“My day sucked!” Without further ado, Krista launched into an account of the specifics, starting when she got to the conference room, ending with why she thought it had to be that last question. Kate listened without saying a word until she had finished, then finished her beer and looked for the bartender.

“Well?” Krista prompted. Sometimes Kate had A.D.D.