A week before their high school graduation, Ellie's boyfriend walked her to her door and kissed her goodnight, just like any other night. But there was nothing ordinary about what followed. Austin disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again...
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The meeting with Peter was uncomfortable, but necessary. He was defensive at first. More so than what I'd expected. He took what I was saying as a personal attack instead of constructive criticism. I get it's never fun to be reprimanded, and in all honesty that was what it was. Regardless of how much I didn't want to, I had to tell him to step it up or his job would be on the line.
I was sweating and uncomfortable and he was angry, but at the end of our meeting we had reached an understanding. Numbers don't lie. There wasn't much for him to argue about once he saw the reports. His sales were way down compared to his previous months, but also in comparison to his coworkers.
When he walked out of the room, a couple of hours later, we'd come up with a plan. It wasn't a solid one, but it was a start and something we could work with and change as needed. We agreed he could be more flexible with his hours and days, as long as he was able to contact the doctors' offices during their working hours. To me, it didn't matter if he went there at nine in the morning on a Tuesday or six at night on a Thursday as long as he got the numbers he needed.
I drew in a shaky breath when he left and closed the office door behind him. I hated confrontations. It was the one part of the job I didn't care for.
So when there was a knock on my door a few minutes later, I groaned, assuming it was Peter who was back with another question.
"Come in," I called out, sounding somewhat defeated.
The door opened slowly and Linda peeked her head around the door frame. "Hey, is everything okay?"
I nodded.
"You got a second?"
I took a sigh of relief and waved her inside. "Yes, come in."
She stepped in and pulled the door shut behind her, which made me raise an eyebrow. She did not report to me, and while it wasn't unusual for her to visit me, it was uncommon that she did so with the door closed. An unease stirred in my belly as I wondered what could be wrong.
"Why weren't you at the meeting?" she asked, referring to the monthly department meeting that had taken place that morning.
That wasn't what I'd expected her to ask.
"Um, I had another meeting."
"Oh." She sat down in the visitors' chair across the desk from me and nodded like she knew exactly why I'd missed the department meeting.
"It was important," I said, like I had to defend myself from having missed the department meeting. "I didn't skip it on purpose."
"Wouldn't have blamed you if you did," she said with a grin, which made me smile as well. We both knew how dull those meetings usually were.
"So, what brings you in here?" I asked, and she laughed.
"Way to make a girl feel welcome. I can't just come visit?"
