章 50: Chapter 50 - Take The Lead

I was nervous but a small part of my heart felt excited to meet him. Maybe he was who I was waiting on.

I shook away the thoughts to refocus on work and settling everything before my vacation time. Only a few hours had passed before my secretary Zhavia informed me that the Charter Magazine head editor was calling non stop asking for me.

"Oh brother. Fine. Pass his call to my line." I sighed knowing that the man would not stop otherwise. I grabbed my phone after a few rings. "This is Celeste speaking."

"Miss D'Angelo its Thomas Rudd. Thank you for taking my call." He sounded as if he ran a marathon. Out of breathe. "Yes I will get straight to the point, I first want to profusely apologize for how my employee behaved during your interview. It was completely out of line and I want you to be aware she is going to be punished accordingly." He paused to gulp more air. I closed my eyes and held the bridge of my nose.

I knew he was just doing damage control but whether the apology was genuine, it was a fact that he wanted to see if the bridge could be fixed. "I appreciate the apology." I did not to spoon feed him what he wanted.

"My call was not just about my condolences though that was a major reason I called. I wanted to see if I could negotiate having you re-interview for the piece again but with a different interviewer. This piece truthfully did not belong to Ms. Banks but rather a different reporter named Raya Porter. She is on medical leave which is why Ms. Banks took over."

"I see." So it was just bad luck I got Sol. "I propose having Ms. Porter do the interview again once she returns from her leave. I will scrap everything and email again to have her come in at your earliest convenience."

He breathed heavily on the other end of the line. My usual business practice was to not make enemies when I could avoid it. After all I was a victim to business related retaliation. This also was not a fight I did not want to engage in. It was simply not worth my time. So I decided to see it through.

"I was very displeased with the level of professionalism your employee showed me. I will be frank, working with your team again makes me nervous. How can I be sure that this will not occur again when even an iron clad contract was not enough of a deterrent."

I fake sighed into the phone. If I was going to let it slide I planned on at least getting more than what we initially signed on.

"I can understand your concern. I will have Sol write you an official apology, she will not be allowed near you for the interview, your team will approve every step in the publication process down to the rough drafts. And we will honor the initial penalty for the breach of contract and double it if this occurs again. Which I can assure you, it will not. I will personally supervise the entire event from start to finish. You have my word both verbally and we can have this in writing."

That was enough. I did not need for a grown man to grovel.

"I am willing to consider doing this again. However, I will stress that I am only considering this again because the topic was one I was interested in and passionate about. I hope your team the next time around does not fumble again. Otherwise I will not be very lenient."

The sounds of books and papers falling were heard loudly on the other end of the line. He was clearly very happy I was willing to give another chance.

"I promise you will not regret your decision. I will inform the team and send updates of a rough timeline. Again I appreciate you agreeing I will not let you down."

"Ok. Well I must get going. Until then."

I hung up. I wanted to rub my eyes but my mascara and contacts stopped me. So I settled on rubbing my temples instead.

"One step at a time. Let's take this one step at a time." I focused again on my work and soon enough the day came to an end.

As my driver took my home I drifted to the views of the city and the lights as they glittered in each building. Like little stars. I thought back on the editors words.

I was unsure of how I felt about Sols punishment.

"I should not feel bad." I said to no one in particular. She decided not to do her job so I had no reason to feel bad.

But a part of me did. And I wasn't sure why. I was certain I did not like her. And I have always felt she seemed to be more than she shows. But I still felt bad.

"Whatever I need to let it go."

I rolled my head away from the window and looked back at my phone instead. Surprisingly Dean had not gotten back to me yet.

I don't recall him having read receipts turned on so I could not tell if he saw my message and chose to ignore me or if he simply hasn't had the time to respond.

"I will assume he is busy."

I tossed my phone to the empty seat and slept a little before arriving home. My mom was cutting up some fruit while my dad sat beside her helping out.

"Hey sweetie welcome home!" They both spoke up at the same time. I waved back and sat down on the chair and took a bite from the fruit that was chopped and cleaned.

"Honey you mentioned that the boy is planning to come in the next couple of days. How is that going so far?"

My mom spoke up first. My father eyed me from his seat but let my mom take the lead.

"It's going well. He will visit soon and we shall see if he is a good match. While I would love to debrief on this I am exhausted so I will head up now."

I cut the conversation short because knowing my parents they will request for my plans to effectively take over. And I was just too old for that.