Page 14 of Watch Over Me

Eddie grimaced. "This is what you get when you're letting the higher-ups make all the decisions, I guess."

"We'll have a chance to ask them more about it during the meeting." Jeremy took a note on his copy of the documentation. "How about we go over what we have and then come up with a list of issues to address?"

"Sure." Eddie pulled his feet up and sat cross-legged on the wide chair, ready to work. He pushed aside James and that clusterfuck from earlier and threw himself into the task at hand.

Everything else could wait.

CHAPTER SEVEN

James lasted forty minutes, tense and probably driving Ryan to the brink of sanity with his inability to sit still. Finally, after completing the latest report in approximately twice the time it should have taken, he couldn't take it anymore.

He got up.

"I'll go talk to him now."

Ryan gave him an assessing look from his desk before nodding.

"Good luck."

I'm gonna need it, James thought as he headed out. There were some voices coming from the kitchen, and for a second he was tempted to go check if they were talking about him acting like an asshole earlier, but he discarded the idea right away. It wouldn't do anything except maybe make him angrier at himself.

Then, as soon as he reached the stairway, he ran into Kalei.

"Boss."

"Just the person I wanted to see," Kalei said. "I need to talk to you about something. Do you have a moment?"

"Of course."

The question was perfunctory, anyway. James's need to make things right with Eddie wasn't a good enough excuse to tell his boss no, no matter how awful he felt about the situation.

On his way to the office, James nodded at Vic, whose official title was Kalei's executive assistant, but unofficially, he also ran the field operatives division, since he was handling a lot of their crap before it could ever reach Kalei's desk. Now, he narrowed his eyes slightly, but then his face smoothened out andhe nodded back.

Had James managed to piss off everyone today?Fuck.

"So," Kalei started once the door was closed and they took their seats on the opposite sides of the desk. "You know how important the atmosphere in the company is to me. I don't always get things right, but I strive for my employees to feel good about coming to work and about the things that they're doing here."

James had no idea where this was going. It couldn't possibly—

"Most of the time, we don't break up teams that have been working well together," Kalei went on, "because the more you work with the same people, the better you can know and anticipate each other's needs. But it's not impossible to do, if there's a situation that calls for a change. On that note," he said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his desk, "I wanted to ask you if you had any problems working with your current team."

Fuck it all to hell.

"No, sir." James hoped his tone conveyed how sure he was of his answer. "I'm more than happy with my co-workers and I have no problems with them."

Kalei sat back, straightening in his seat. "So if I told you I overheard someone stating that you do, in fact, have an issue with Edward—"

"I would've told you that it was a misunderstanding." James rubbed his forehead and sighed. Kalei was a good man and a considerate and fair boss. James might as well tell him the abbreviated version of the story. "This morning, I put my foot in my mouth and said something that sounded like I didn't respect Eddie's abilities. That wasn't my intention at all, but in hindsight, that's how it came out. I was about to go and clear things up with him when I bumped into you."

"I see." Kalei's face was blank, so James had no idea what he was thinking. "So there's no issue on your part?"

"No, sir. Absolutely not." Then, since he had nothing to lose at this point, he decided to hammer his point home. "I've never had a problem with Eddie on personalorprofessional front. I actually find him exceptional at what he does. Aside from handling his part of the job, he also goes out of his way to make it easier for us to do ours."

Kalei nodded. "That's what I've been seeing and hearing as well before today. However, it's worth noting that reorganizing a team is possible, so if you ever feel like there's a need for that, come talk to me. Someone may be exceptional at their work, but the interpersonal issues still come into play, and, as you know, a big part of the job is the ability to trust the people on our six."

"I know, sir. But I assure you, that's not a problem in this case. At all."

"Very well." Kalei stood up and James followed suit. "Thanks for talking to me. I'll clear this up with Edward as well and hopefully put the whole thing to rest."

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