Page 11 of Santa Baby Maybe
3
Three months ago
Joy
Istared down at the email and felt my blood pressure spike. That bastard! I looked at the To line and cc line and noted he’d sent only me the email and copied no one else in the company.
That meant there was still time to change his mind.
It had been weeks since he’d made his appearance on the factory floor. To this day I didn’t know why he’d come, but since then it was like he’d gone out of his way to avoid me. It was a five-floor building but there were a couple of break rooms/kitchens. The odds of not seeing him at all for weeks, when up until then I’d seen him nearly every day, were slim.
Unless I’d seriously hurt his feelings when I’d asked him if he had friends, and he was actively avoiding me.
I winced at the memory. I hated the idea of hurting anyone’s feelings. It had just taken me off guard. The idea that there could be any emotions associated with him. Maybe even more surprising was that he wanted me to call him what his friends called him. Like we were friends.
W.B. and I werenotfriends.
To prove that, I read the email again and realized maybe I’d been right the first time. The man was nothing more than a calculator.
“Cheryl, watch the floor. I’ve got to go murder the CFO,” I informed her.
“Have fun,” she called out.
I took the elevator to the fourth floor and didn’t bother checking in with his admin to see if his schedule was clear. He’d known exactly what he was doing with that email, which meant he had to expect my arrival at his office shortly after.
I swung open the door to his office, noting he was one of the few people within the company who shut his door when he was in his office alone, and took satisfaction in the sound it made bouncing off the wall.
Sitting behind his desk, his eyebrows raised. “You got my email, I take it.”
“Four Golden Rings!” I charged. “What kind of madness is this?”
“You’re coming in over projected budget,” he said calmly. “The easiest way to correct that is to downsize the collection.”
“But it’s based around the song!On the first day of Christmas…”
“I know the song.”
“Then you must also know that it’s FIVE golden rings!”
“I’m aware,” he said calmly.
I shook my head. “No, I don’t think you are. Because not everyone knows how many maids were milking the cows, or drummers who were leaping over the pipers…”
“I don’t think that’s correct.”
“But everyone knows it’s FIVE GOLDEN RINGS! Not six golden rings, not four golden rings, but five. You will compromise the entire theme of the line if you cut one.”
His lips flattened. “I gave you a budget. I told you exactly how much money you had to work with. By my calculations, you’re going to overshoot it.”
I threw my hands in the air. “Ugh. Money. By what? Two percent? If you’re going to be like that about it, fine. Raise the price of the ornaments.”
“We can’t do that. Our buyers have already been given the price. The orders are coming in already, so we can’t just hike it up.”
“Wait.” I stopped him. “Orders are coming in now? We’re at least six weeks out from normal buying season.”
That made him fidget in his chair. “Yes, I’m told it’s slightly uncharacteristic, but it could just mean some buyers are getting a jump on the season. And many people start thinking about Christmas immediately after Halloween.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’ve been in this game my whole career and I know exactly when buyers start ordering. If they’re starting to jump the gun, it means they want a guarantee they’ll have stock on what they think is going to be a huge seller. And you know why it’s going to be a huge seller, W.B.…?”
