Page 14 of One Last Time?
“It’s everything you’ve done over the past year. I’ve read through it and made a lot of recommendations I think you need to work through. You might want to sit down. This is what we’re going to look over for the rest of the week.”
Sit?Great.What the hell was he going to say to me now about my work?
He sat in the chair in front of my desk and returned his gaze to me when he saw I didn’t budge.
“This doesn’t feel right to me,” I challenged. “I don’t agree with you just pulling up my work and making recommendations without asking me anything first.”
“There was nothing to ask. It’s a simple look and comment job. I just made a lot of comments. Are you scared to hear what I have to say?” There was that smile again.
“No.”
“Then sit.” He pointed to my chair.
I bit down hard on my back teeth and moved to sit.
“Miss Cartwright—”
“It’s Taylor. My name is Taylor.” I wouldn’t have had him call me by my first name, but him calling me Miss Cartwright reminded me of being in school. He said my name just like my old principal, who’d hated my guts because I used to get up to all kinds of trouble yet still ace all my exams without a single day of study. That threat of not working hard in school was lost on me.
“Taylor,” he amended, and I really, really hated that I loved the way he said my name. It was with a sort of eloquence of someone well-spoken but with a sexy edge. “Although you seem to have good ideas, a lot of them seem frivolous to me, and the one thing all of them have in common is you’re hemorrhaging money.”
“We are Cartwright PR of Cartwright Enterprises. We come with a certain class that is unrivalled. I spend where I see fit to maintain that quality, and in case you didn’t notice, we don’t exactly have to worry about money.” I would never cut back to make things cheaper. Never. That would be the point where people would notice that quality slipped, and inch by inch, it would be damaging to our rep.
I wasn’t about that, so he could save it if that was what he was going to tell me.
“Taylor, you don’t just spend money because you can. It’s like pissing in the wind. Pointless and fruitless with no result.”
“I don’t piss in the wind,” I shot back. “This company focuses on the image of the whole Cartwright enterprise. My campaigns are well thought out and have been massively successful in bringing this company to where it needs to be.”
“A campaign is an idea. How you go about carrying out your goals for that campaign is another story. I noticed you do the very same things and never outsource other companies or people who could achieve the same or better result for you at a cheaper rate.”
“I use companies that we’ve always used,” I shot back.
“That’s the point. Doing something you’ve always done isn’t the best of things. Same as using a service that is four times more expensive than another and all your paying for is the name. You spent one billion dollars in the last year on your campaigns. In my analysis, I found that you could have saved two million. That is a lot of money. It’s more than anyone can justify for the sake of quality when you could have done the same for less.”
I searched my mind, clutching for something I could argue, and found nothing. I hated being criticized. Hated it like nothing else when I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong.
Andworse when I knew I would pull up my big girl pants and take the criticism if it could help me make improvements. It was just him.
He was getting on my last nerve. First for refusing to forget the other night, and next for finding fault with my work.
“So, what am I supposed to do, outsource the Bargain Bin and find out who does the PR?” I couldn’t hide the criticism in my voice.
He sighed with an edge of frustration and shook his head. “Nope, you do not have to do that. What I’m going to suggest is this: you look over your plans for this year, starting today. Look at the cost of the people you use, and if anyone charges anything over a grand for their services, no matter what it is they do, highlight them, and we’ll go over it. We’ll go over what it is they do and decide if we can get a better deal.”
Asshole. He was saying that because that was practically everyone on the list.
That task was also going to take forever.
“All of that is going to take me a very long time. I have things to do.”
“Your duties were placed on pause as of today. Your father has given me direct orders to focus on this project with you for the next ten weeks. We’ll sit together and go over everything.”
My mouth dropped. “So, I’m just to sit down and look at you for the next ten weeks?”
“Sweetheart, if you want to sit down and look at me for the next ten weeks, be my guest. I won’t complain. I’m not, however, here to sit down and fuck around.” I wished he weren’t smiling. It was like he was toying with me. “If I were you, I’d take note of my recommendations. I’ve already informed Peter of the wastage of money. You have your social media budget presentation next week. I highly suggest you go over all the event budgets before you do the presentation.”
This… was not good.
