Banking on Him

Chapter 19 - Serena

I had planned to workout after I got home from spending the weekend with Reese, but I figured I'd cut myself some slack. I didn't get much sleep when I was with Reese, so I decided to just go to bed early.

I arrived at the bank at 6 am Monday morning, ready to get to work, but somehow not as excited as I normally was to start my day. Reese was showing me that there was more to life than work. It was almost like that fact made work less satisfying for me. Nonetheless, I still had a job to do and a quarterly board meeting to prepare for. Just because I had landed the CFO position, didn't mean that I could slack off. The board was full of men just waiting for me to make a mistake or let me duties slide and I wouldn't give them that satisfaction. With that thought, I got to work.

It was almost noon before I even took a break, finally emerging from my office to see the bank full of employees serving clients. When I walked out of my office, Erica was filing. She whistled, "Someone has been working hard." I rolled my eyes, "I didn't work this weekend, so now I'm playing catch up." She narrowed her eyes at me. "Big weekend with Mr. Sexy?" I laughed, "I wouldn't say it was a big weekend, but yes, I did spend it with him, at his lake house."

She sighed, "Of course Mr. Perfect has a lake house."

"He also has a beach house." 

She rolled her eyes. "I'd like to say you're a lucky bitch, but you deserve it more than anyone I know. I'm glad you're doing something outside of work for once." 

I sat down in her chair. "I've been wondering lately if it's all worth it." 

She gave me a look that told me I already knew her thoughts on that, but instead of saying anything more about it she simply informed me that if I felt that way now, I'd feel even more strongly about it soon because Jack wanted to see me in his office.

I rubbed my temples, already feeling a headache forming. Jack only ever asked for my help with a client if he was trying to find a loophole to skirt around federal regulations or compliance issues. It was like he expected me to be his personal miracle worker, and when I couldn't deliver he sulked for days. This was not what I needed before a board meeting.

I knocked before entering Jack's office. He kept it cluttered and barely ever saw clients in it, he preferred to use the boardroom as his "second office".

"Ah, Serena. Please, take a seat," he said, moving a few coffee cups to the trash can so I had a place to take notes. He knew me well enough to know that I wrote everything down. When you're as busy as I am, you tend to need reminders.

"What can I help you with Jack?" he tended to be a talker, and I didn't have time for it this week, especially not when he was adding something else to my plate.

"We have a board member who would like to do something a little out of the box for us." 

I plastered a smile on my face. This should be good, I thought. 

"He would like to create a fund through our bank for charitable purposes. I know that this isn't something we have done in the past, so I wanted to come to you for the logistics of it all. He can give you more details at the meeting this week." 

I sighed inwardly, thankful that this wasn't an urgent matter. "Great, I will start looking into the regulations." I stood to leave, "Anything else?" Jack smiled, "Nope that's it. Thanks, kid."

I cringed. He had a habit of calling me kid and I absolutely hated it. It showed me he didn't respect me. I didn't figure he ever would. I had done a lot of great work for him, but that didn't matter. He was seasoned, I wasn't.

When I got back to my office I asked Erica to order me lunch and shut myself in my office to continue work on the presentation for Thursday, shutting out thoughts of Jack and his obnoxious attitude. I was still the CFO no matter what the hell he thought of me. He didn't matter.