Page 14 of The Boardroom: Jonathan
Chapter 5
“Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is…so delightful,” Kirk sang with a flourish as I got into the car. “And since we’ve no place to go…”
I rolled my eyes as I shut the passenger seat door against the wind. “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, Kirk. You know I do all my holiday shopping online specifically so I don’t have to hear the speakers at Nordstrom’s spewing out sentimental crap months ahead of schedule.”
Kirk smiled and shook his head as he pulled the Jaguar out of my driveway. “First of all, Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is my favorite holiday, so you’re going to let me have this, and more importantly, when it’s going to snow this much, this early, I’m allowed to break out the carols.”
“I should have told everyone to work from home today,” I groaned. “I just checked my weather app and the predictions are only getting more and more dire.”
“Eh.” Kirk shrugged. “It’s not supposed to start until seven, and everyone should be home by then. If it starts looking worse, we can let people off early.”
I turned down the car stereo until it was barely audible and leaned my head up against the window. “Only we would get stuck with a historically bad blizzard during the most critical stage of the Wordsworth acquisition.”
“Oh yeah…” Kirk said. “I almost forgot, you told the investors that you and Samantha would have the report about the acquisition tomorrow, correct?”
I frowned. “Correct.”
Kirk raised an eyebrow. “So…it’s almost done, right?”
I stayed quiet and shrugged.
“Johnathan!” Kirk scolded. “That’s way too much work to be done in the course of one day, especially when a blizzard could hit at any moment. What, was Samantha slacking off or something?”
I looked down. “Not…exactly.”
“Johnathan, youknowthat if that report is a day late, or is lacking in our usual quality at all, we could lose a lot of business.”
“I know, I know, I just—”
“What has been up with you lately, man?”
A more truthful answer, one even I was still uncomfortable admitting, nearly flew out of my mouth, but I paused just in time. “Stuff has been busy.”
Kirk looked at me skeptically. “If you say so.” He turned the radio back up as a weather announcer came on. “Shit, now they’re saying ten inches,” he said, pretending to seem concerned, but hiding a hint of a smile. Kirk hailed from Buffalo, and any amount of snow filled him with hometown nostalgia. I’m glad Kirk was happy, but I sure wasn’t. Seattle doesn’t usually get this much snow, and never this early. You would think a city so close to Canada would know how to handle its snow, but the unfortunate truth was that even a couple of inches could drive the city to a standstill. Seattle was filled with steep hills which made driving within the city limits on slippery surfaces incredibly dangerous. This blizzard would turn the city into a ghost town. I might have to force my employees to work from home for the rest of the week.
I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair as Kirk parked his car. Today was beginning in the worst kind of way. I already had severe anxiety because of Samantha and the report deadline approaching, but now this blizzard was making everything far worse.
I trudged into the office, gripping my coffee cup with unusual force. I walked right up to Sabryna’s desk and stared at her blankly.
“Johnathan?” she asked, looking extremely concerned. “You alright there?”
“Uh, yeah,” I said, suddenly coming back to my senses. “It’s just um, that report that Samantha and I were supposed to give to the investors is due tomorrow, and we’ve barely made any headway on it, and there’s this blizzard, and I already have a headache, and—”
“And you’re wondering if there’s anything I can do?” Sabryna said with a hint of mockery.
“Uh…” I broke into a bashful smile. “Maybe?”
Sabryna shook her head. “I can make you some tea or get you an aspirin, but I can’t control the weather, Torver. Or write that report, unless you give me a raise.”
I sighed. “I know, I’m just grasping for miracles here,” I joked.
“This is on you and Ms. Doyle.” Sabryna stopped to think for a minute. “Actually, given Samantha’s penchant for punctuality, I’d say it’s more on you.”
I felt myself blush a bit. “No comment.”
Sabryna rolled her eyes and smiled. “Earl Grey? Chamomile? Matcha?”
I smiled. “Chamomile sounds great right now, thanks.”
