The next morning, the party video had already gone all over the company.
The title read:
【Project manager lands the deal, then publicly abuses the client.】
Someone had turned "whoever wrote it goes and entertains him" into a meme.
I'd barely walked into the office when I heard one of the guys call out:
"Here comes Number Seven."
A few people around him laughed.
"Mr. James had no one to walk him back last night. Sleep okay?"
"Isn't Manager Sullivan supposed to see it through to the end?"
I stopped walking.
"You think that's funny?"
The man ducked his head a little.
"Everyone's just joking around."
"I don't think it's funny."
"Anyone who calls me Number Seven again, I'll hand your name and the chat logs to the company together."
The office went quiet.
Jill came out of the conference room.
"What are you throwing a fit about this early?"
"Your coworkers only tease you because they get along with you."
"Nobody wants that kind of relationship with you."
She walked up in front of me, and her voice dropped all at once.
"Where's the task card?"
"I have it."
"Hand it over."
"Why?"
She reached out to grab it.
I twisted aside.
The two of us knocked into the corner of the desk, and a water glass shattered on the floor.
Jill clutched her wrist at once.
"Regina Sullivan, you actually want to hit people now?"
Stuart came out of his office.
"What's all this noise?"
Jill's eyes went red.
"I only tried to talk her into apologizing to Mr. James, and she shoved me."
"She was grabbing my bag."
"Who saw it?"
Everyone nearby lowered their heads.
Stuart looked at me.
"My office."
The door shut, and he put a client complaint down on the desk.
Mr. James accused me of publicly insulting him at the party, jeopardizing further cooperation.
"Mr. James wants a different project lead."
"So?"
"Jill takes over for now."
"I wrote the proposal."
"Company projects aren't personal property."
"What about my commission?"
Stuart picked up his tea.
"Commission can be held until the client signs off."
"You're freezing my commission just because I didn't walk the client back to his room?"
"Watch how you word that."
He pushed the complaint back at me.
"Right now you're the one who offended the client."
"If you want to stay on the project, soften your attitude a little."
I took out my phone.
"Who filed the eight-thousand-dollar special entertainment expense last night?"
His hand stopped.
"Normal project cost."
"Then why am I listed as the one who spent it?"
"Accounting probably keyed it in wrong."
"Then why is the expense number also Number Seven?"
Stuart's face darkened.
"Regina Sullivan, you're a project manager, not an accountant."
"Don't go asking about things you shouldn't."
I walked out of his office and went straight to accounting.
Juliana Hughes saw the reimbursement slip, and her expression turned uneasy.
"This was specially approved by Manager Walker."
"Where did the money go?"
"Entertainment expense. It doesn't go through employee payroll cards."
"Who collected it?"
"There's a signature in the system."
She pulled up the collection form. The signature was mine, right down to the little hook on the last stroke.
But I had never signed it.
A line of live chat appeared in front of me.
【The eight thousand never went into your account.】
I snapped a photo of the slip.
Juliana slapped her hand over the screen at once.
"You can't photograph internal company records."
"It's my name on it."
"Regina Sullivan, don't put me in a hard spot."
"I'm only asking one thing. Who took the money?"
She looked away from me.
"Manager Walker had me do it."
"I don't know anything else."
Back at my desk, my computer access had already changed.
The project files still opened, but I couldn't edit them.
A new notice had gone up in the project group chat:
【Effective immediately, Jill is the project lead.】
Jill had swapped the cover page on my proposal.
The name on the first page had gone from Regina Sullivan to Jill Delgado.
She leaned against the edge of my desk.
"Don't sulk about it."
"In sales, if you can't keep a client happy, it doesn't matter how good the proposal is."
"Keeping a client happy means going into his room?"
She let out a laugh.
"You're the one who isn't clean. Don't assume everyone's as dirty as you."
My phone suddenly buzzed.
Mr. James had sent a voice message.
"Regina, last night's task didn't get finished."
"Come by tonight and make up what you owe."
