Mending Heart |18+|

Chapter 21

Bitch Mode

"You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously." – Sophia Bush

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Picking up the landline phone in my office, I impatiently drummed my nails again the desk. "What's up Kenzie?" Kate chippered on the other end.

"I need to see you in my office," I replied. "Now."

A few moments later when Kate poked her head in, I motioned for her to come in. "I'm going over the project details on AstraTech and I'm having a hard time understanding what you guys tested for. You were the project lead on it."

"Oh – " Her smile flattened. "We just tested for the basic internal controls. How soon do terminated employees have their access revoked, how often are passwords changed – that sorta thing."

I nodded, continuing to scan the file opened on my desktop. "There were only five different scenarios tested. This is a big client – we can't just half-ass the work they tasked us with doing."

"We didn't – "

"If you can't supervise and ensure that the proper work is being done, tell me from the start and I will assign another senior consultant on the project." I snapped.

"I'm sorry," Kate shifted her weight from one foot to the other, refusing to look me in the eye. "I'll do better next time."

"And get me the first-year consultant who did the actual testing." I dismissed. "That will be all, Kate."

"Right away." Kate nodded before scurrying away.

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning and seeing the subpar work I was reviewing wasn't helping to improve my mood.

The whole point of having other people work for you is to make your life easier – not harder. I understand we all make mistakes, and maybe I was a little too harsh on Kate, but she should know better. She's worked with me long enough to know I don't accept half-assed work.

It's been almost two weeks since I found out Ethan was married, and I've done everything short of hiding under my desk to avoid him. So far I had been successful, but that was in part to him being out of town last week on business.

This morning, when I saw him by the elevators, I pretended to have forgotten sugar for my coffee so that we wouldn't get in the same elevator cart. I know he saw me because from the corner of my eye I saw him shaking his head in disappointment.

Perhaps it was childish, but what he did was much worse.

.........

It was just after three in the afternoon when I got out of a client meeting. Going over all of my to-do's in my head, I didn't even notice that there was someone already in my office when I entered.

"McKenzie," Ethan said when I walked in. My head whipped to the sound of his voice, and I was met with his wild sea-green eyes already trained on me.

"Get out of my office." I curtly replied, breaking eye contact and walking past him.

"No." He said, standing up to close the door which I had purposely left open. "We need to talk."

"No, we don't." I coldly replied, taking a seat behind my desk and pretending to busy myself on the desktop computer.

"Yes," He gritted, trying to keep his cool and failing miserably. "We do."

"Ethan." My eyes flickered to meet his. "Fuck off."