One
“This is your last warning, Barnes,” Megan Lambert said in a voice that made her subordinate shift uncomfortably in his chair. “To say the client was upset is putting it mildly. He said you hadn't even mentioned the country-music special to him. He would have bought as many commercial spots in that hour-and-a-half program as we would let him.”
The young man squirmed uneasily and averted his eyes from her steady gaze. He cleared his throat nervously. “I just didn't think—”
Megan's palm made an unexpectedly loud crack in the still room as she slapped the top of the fruitwood desk. “That's precisely my point. You haven't been thinking. This is the third time I've had to reprimand you in as many weeks. Every time you pull one of these incompetent stunts, it costs this television station thousands of dollars.”
She rose from her chair and went around the corner of the desk, propping her shapely hip against the corner and crossing slender ankles. “More than that, when you foul up it makes me look bad. I have to report to the station manager that we aren't meeting budget and then he chews me out. Do you get my drift, Barnes?”
“Uh, yes.”
“What's the problem?” she fired at him.
Her sharp tone wasn't that of a concerned parent or a sympathetic teacher, but more closely resembled that of a drill sergeant who really didn't care what the problem was, but only wanted it rectified.
Barnes looked up at her with a hopeful expression. “Well, I've been having trouble with this girl. She—”
“Spare me the details, Barnes,” Megan cut in briskly. “I don't care who your current love interest is. I don't care about the status of your personal life except as it relates to your work.”
She leveled her eyes on him, and he quailed under the impact. “I'll review your sales report at the end of this week. There had better be a vast improvement. And I suggest you take Mr. Thornton of Countrytime Records and Music stores to lunch and between now and then put together an advertising package that will cost us revenue but will soothe his ruffled feathers.”
“Okay,” he muttered.
Megan circled the corner of the desk and sat down again. Unnecessarily she thumped a stack of papers to straighten them, and said, “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other things to do.” Taking his cue, Barnes left the office, with the relief of a man being granted a stay of execution.
Rather than feeling satisfied with the scene she had just played so well, Megan sighed wearily and slumped back in her high-backed leather chair. A well-manicured hand reached up to sweep back a wayward strand of auburn hair. She hated having to play the heavy in situations like this last one, but it was often required of her.
Standing, she walked to the wide window and opened the blinds a little wider. The skyline of Atlanta came into sharp focus, but she hardly saw it. Like all the salespeople under her supervision, she cared about Barnes, his happiness with his work, and his general well-being.
But what she had told him was true. As local sales manager for WONE TV, she had to make weekly sales reports to the station manager. If one account slipped, it cost the televi
sion station thousands of dollars in commercial time. Doug Atherton would apply the pressure expected of him. She in turn had to come down hard on her staff. It was perpetual buck-passing.
Her sympathies were with Barnes. He was heartbroken over a woman in the newsroom who had dumped him for a cameraman on the studio floor crew. Instead of complicating his life further, Megan wished she could console him, give him an opportunity to confide in her.
But she couldn't afford such a luxury, especially since she was a woman holding down a man's job and everyone more or less expected her to think with her heart instead of her head. When it came to business, she put aside her sensitive instincts and reacted to everything with pure professionalism. She didn't let personalities influence her business decisions.
Turning on the high heels of her snakeskin sandals, she studied her tastefully decorated office. She hadn't acquired it by being soft and generous. It was always difficult to let a salesperson go if he wasn't making the grade, but she had done it before and would do it again if necessary. The station management had never enjoyed sales records like the ones she'd set since becoming local sales manager, two years ago.
She hoped Barnes would come around. Not only did she want to maintain that tremendous growth in sales, but she'd always found it hard to back down once she'd taken a stand. She'd told Barnes he'd be fired unless he shaped up, and she intended to keep her promise. Many people would call her stubborn. She would have amended that definition to steadfast.
The light on her intercom panel lit up and beeped softly. She returned to her desk. “Yes, Arlene?” she said after pressing down the button that allowed her to communicate with her secretary.
“Mr. Bennett is asking to see you. Are you free?”
Instantly her body tensed into immobility. Her heart seemed to skip a beat and then pounded at double time, sending the blood roaring in her ears. For a moment she forgot to breathe, and then gasped in air until she felt dizzy. For what seemed a small eternity, she remained poised motionlessly over her desk. Then gradually she sank into her chair.
“Mr. Bennett?” The hard knot of distress that was lodged in her throat made the name sound hoarse.
“Mr. Joshua Bennett, of the Bennett Agency.”
There was an undertone of puzzlement in Arlene's well-modulated voice. The Bennett Agency was responsible for a large percentage of the station's advertising clients. The largest and most prestigious in Atlanta, the agency handled clients from all over the southeastern quarter of the country. Megan knew to the cent the revenue the agency funneled into WONE's coffers, but since assuming her job, she'd never worked with Joshua Bennett directly. He knew why, and, after making a few attempts to see her, he hadn't pressed her for an interview. His agents had always worked with one of her salespeople.
Why was he asking to see her now?
Her first instinct was to make an excuse, but she squelched it. That would be cowardly, and she couldn't tolerate the thought of Joshua Bennett's considering her a coward.