Saving the Company Ch. 05

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You figure out!" I sighed and turned to leave. I stopped just before the door and added, "I love you, but I'm not willing to let it stand at that. I want more. I want you. I want to wake up with you in the morning and go to sleep with you every night."

"Can't we just..." she began, but I cut her off again.

"No, we can't," I said succinctly. "We'll talk on Saturday."

***

"So, how was your night?" Bethany asked Judy as they both stood in front of the coffee pot waiting for the machine to finish brewing. It was Friday and Bethany hadn't slept well the night before at all, but she still forced herself to get up early. This was the last day before Brad returned and there was still so much to do.

"Great!" Judy grinned. "I finally got Bradley to use the camera! I even took a couple pictures of him. Want to see?"

"You are so bad!" Bethany laughed. She also blushed slightly. She didn't think of herself as a prude, but compared to some of the stories Judy told her, Bethany might as well have been a nun!

Over the last week the two had become good friends. So good in fact, that Bethany was surprised. It helped that they had Bradley and Joe to talk about. Judy was just as in love with Bradley as she was with Joe, but the younger woman seemed to have no problem with the relationship being so serious.

"So, when is the wedding?" Bethany teased her friend.

"Oh, he's going to ask me right after you and Joe finally figure things out," Judy replied seriously.

"Plan on waiting that long, do you?" Bethany asked in reply, trying to keep the mood light.

"Not too long," Judy replied. "After all, you only have one more day to decide."

"I know," Bethany sighed, no longer feeling like joking. "I had problems sleeping last night because I couldn't stop thinking about it."

"Well, that was a waste of time," Judy said with a shake of her head.

"Pardon?" Bethany asked in surprise.

"Bethany, you've already thought about this as much as humanly possible," Judy replied. "It's not about understanding. It's about faith."

"Faith?" Bethany asked, sounding confused.

"Not faith in God," Judy explained. "Faith in Joe. You have to trust him and you haven't trusted a man in so long that it scares you to death."

"I think..." Bethany began, but Judy cut her off.

"You think too much!" she said, smiling to take the sting out of her words. "Don't tell me what you think. Tell me what you feel!" Bethany looked at her friend silently for a moment.

"I love him," she finally sighed.

"Enough to trust him with your heart?" Judy asked.

"Yes! No! Maybe," Bethany said, surprising herself as the tears started to well up in her eyes.

"That's the crux of this," Judy sighed. Bethany confusion and fear were so obvious that Judy almost felt sorry for her friend, but that wouldn't help Bethany face what she had to do. "You have to decide to trust Joe or not."

"I'm trying," Bethany mumbled.

"Trying isn't enough," Judy said unmercifully, but she knew it was for Bethany's own good. "You have to give him your heart and trust him. If you do, he'll give you his. That's no easy feat for Joe."

"I know," Bethany said softly.

"But if you really can't give him your whole heart, then you have to let him go," Judy said sadly.

"I know that too," Bethany replied, even softer. A single tear fell down her cheek.

"There you are!" Helen said as she walked into the kitchen. "Joe's been looking for you. He wants to talk to us ASAP."

"Tell him she'll be there in a minute," Judy said. Helen frowned as she realized she interrupted something. Bethany turned her back toward the redhead. Helen raised an eyebrow pointedly at Judy. She liked Bethany and hoped the woman was okay. They'd worked closely together this past week and it turned out to be a better experience than Helen expected.

"We're just waiting for our morning coffee," Judy added with a look of her own. Helen nodded in acceptance if not understanding.

"I'll let him know," she said and left. She went back to Joe's office. He was sitting at his desk, thumbing through papers.

"Bethany is getting a cup of coffee. She'll be right in," Helen said.

"Good," Joe said, without even looking up. "I need to talk to you both. I'd like to do it before Gerty drops by this morning."

"She's not done with her investigation already?" Helen asked in surprise.

"No, but she has some preliminary details she wants to share with us," Joe replied.

Helen sat down at one of the chairs and started jotting down notes while they waited for Bethany. She was working on a new specification template for the product development area. Joe had given her and Bethany the task of reviewing all of the specification templates. The two women spent a few hours the day before meeting with the designers in each area and getting their input. It was interesting. Helen liked the way Bethany kept the conversation moving during the meeting. She didn't let anyone get too bogged done in details.

They decided that Bethany would handle the business portion of the layout while Helen took care of the technical. They realized after the meetings that all of the different areas couldn't have identical layouts, but they were trying to keep them as uniform as possible.

"Sorry I took so long," Bethany said as she walked in. "But I bumped into Ms. Hannon in the lobby."

Helen saw Gerty follow Bethany into the room and smiled. The two women did not like each other. That was obvious. Everyone called Gerty by her first name, everyone but Bethany.

"Yes, and Bett was kind enough to escort me here," Gerty replied. Helen saw Bethany flinch slightly at the name. Trust Gerty to find a way of retaliating for Bethany's forced professionalism. Bethany obviously hated the nickname Bett, yet she refused to say anything about Gerty's use of it.

"Good morning," Joe said to both women.

"Sorry about having to meet so early, but this is the only time I have all day. I have a meeting across town in an hour," Gerty said, obviously sounding rushed.

"That's okay Gerty," Joe replied. "Why not just tell us what you've found so far and we can set up a longer meeting next week. I want you to meet Brad anyway. He should be back from vacation."

"Oh good!" Gerty smiled. "I've always wanted to meet him. We go to the same club. He has a very good reputation as a businessman and an equally good one as a golfer. I hope I can get him to play a round with me." As always with Gerty, it sounded like she meant more than just golf.

"Over Cherie's dead body," Bethany mumbled just loud enough for Helen to hear. The small woman fought hard to suppress a laugh.

Joe hadn't heard what Bethany said, but he exchanged a look with her and they both smiled. Gerty was something else, but even she would be hard pressed to deal with Cherie. Joe thought that from Bethany expression she was thinking something similar, only in her case, she was probably hoping to witness the encounter.

"So, what have you found out so far?" Joe asked Gerty. "And nothing would be a very satisfactory response."

"Come now, Joe. You don't think I'd come by this early if my people found nothing?" Gerty asked.

"No," Joe sighed. "But I was hoping."

"Well, one of your employee's if having an affair with her brother in law, while another is wrestling with the fact that he's probably gay. A third is working hard on a novel during lunch, but I wouldn't worry about loosing her. My people say that it's not very good."

"Gerty!" Joe said in exasperation. The big-breasted woman laughed causing her chest to shake enough that her blouse had problems containing everything. Helen shook her head. It was definitely a sight to see. Bethany shook her head and looked away. Joe did his best to do the same, but he was a man after all.

"Okay," Gerty finally said between laughs. "I just love what people will do and say on their computers. You tell them that they're company property and can only be used for company business, but they never listen."

"So, tell me about Sara-Jane and Tim," Joe asked.

"So far, other than staying late one day and logging onto a porn sight, Tim is clean," Gerty replied. "In fact, I'm not even sure he did that on purpose."

"That's good news," Joe replied, and it was. Of course, that didn't help with the fact that Tim was just so inept. Gerty saw his expression and decided to give him a little more information on Tim. It wasn't something she normally did, but she liked Joe and he obviously already knew he had a problem with Tim.

"We don't normally comment on the actual business of our clients, but one of my people suggests that you get someone involved with the Anderson project. Tim is close to making some agreements that you might want to review."

"We're supposed to be meeting on it with him at ten this morning," Bethany sighed. "Helen and I have already reviewed most of his projects. You're going to have to do something about him soon."

"Not me," Joe replied. "You."

"Pardon?" Bethany asked. Joe sighed.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you and Helen about earlier," he said. It should probably wait until Gerty was done, but now seemed like a good time to tell them.

"I've decided to make you the vice president in charge of customer support," he said to Bethany, and then turned to Helen and added, "And you'll be the assistant vice-president under her." The two women looked at each other.

"You're serious," Bethany said with a shake of her head.

"Of course," Joe shrugged. "I told you I was going to promote you. You haven't come up with an area you'd like to run and this is where I need you most."

"It might just work," Bethany said grudgingly. "I can deal with the business people and paperwork while Helen keeps the technical area moving in the right direction."

"That's what I thought," Joe nodded. "I put you together this week to see if you were compatible. You seem to work well as far as I can see. Do either of you have any issues with each other?" Bethany shook her head.

"I think that's a great idea!" she said enthusiastically, but then she looked back at Joe and added, "I do have one question."

"Helen, we'll talk money after Gerty is done," Joe said with as grin.

"Okay, two things," Helen laughed. "Does product development fall under our control?"

"In the long run, no," Joe said. "But for now you'll have to help out. You are the only two I trust to put in place right now. You'll have to put your heads together to help me decide if we need to hire from outside the company or promote someone else."

"I like to promote from within," Bethany frowned.

"Not Tim!" Helen said emphatically.

"I don't think you have to worry about that," Bethany smiled, but then she grew more serious and added, "In fact, we may have to fire him if he doesn't shape up."

"Agreed," Helen sighed, and then she forced herself to ask, "How about Sara-Jane?"

"Not likely," Bethany sighed. "She's good, but I agree with you initial assessment of her. She not particularly likable and I don't trust her."

"That's a good thing," Gerty put in, drawing the other three's attention back to her. "Because it looks very likely that this Sara-Jane has some crooked deals going with a couple of your clients. Kickbacks and such."

"Shit," Joe sighed. He knew it was coming, but he had hoped. "Was Karl involved?"

"In the kickbacks? No," Gerty replied. "However, he was aware of what was going on."

"What?" Joe asked in confusion. "If he knew what didn't he say something?"

"Were they screwing each other?" Helen asked with her normal bluntness. Gerty shook her head.

"Blackmail," Bethany said. It was the only explanation left.

"Exactly," Gerty smiled. "Karl spent half his day in the office working on his privately owned website."

"What kind of website?" Bethany asked.

"About what you'd expect," Gerty shrugged.

"A sex website?" Bethany asked.

"Right again," Gerty laughed. "Some of the stuff is actually pretty good, but then again some of it isn't."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Helen asked.

"Let's just say that I'm not sure of the ages of some of his models," Gerty replied, no longer laughing. "In one or two cases, I'd be willing to bet a decent amount of money that the models are underage by quite a margin."

"That bastard!" Joe growled. "We have to do something!"

"Already done," Gerty said seriously. "I turned over what I found on his computer to the police last night. Karl should be getting a visit sometime today."

"I thought his hard drive was reformatted?" Bethany asked in confusion.

"It was," Gerty replied. "But whoever did it, and I'm guessing it was Sara-Jane, was in a rush. They did a quick format instead of a full format. It was ridiculously simple for my people to access the data."

"What do we do about Sara-Jane?" Helen asked.

"Why fire her of course," Gerty shrugged. "It will take a while for us to complete our investigation, but we already have enough for her to need a very good lawyer, if it comes to that."

"If it comes to that?" Bethany asked. Gerty didn't answer. Instead she turned toward Joe. He was frowning.

"I think we'll press charges, but I want to talk to Brad first. Our clients are already aware of the changes that are happening. Judy says that some of her sales calls are as well. I don't know if it makes sense to add another lawsuit," he sighed, but then he smiled and added, "Although the news about Karl's blackmail will give us the leverage we need to get him to drop his lawsuit."

"More than that," Gerty smiled.

"Maybe," Joe said, but he nodded in agreement.

"Well, that's all I have as of right now," Gerty said, standing. "Unless of course you want to hear about the guy who orders a lot of women's clothes in his rather large size or the woman whose has fun on one of the more well known dating services?"

"Gerty, I'll set something up with your secretary for next week," Joe sighed. Gerty laughed and said her good byes.

"How do you want to handle this?" Bethany asked Joe once Gerty left.

"Can I be there when you fire Sara-Jane?" Helen asked before Joe answered.

"You really don't like her!" Joe laughed. Helen shrugged. It was the truth.

"Have you talked to Bradley about our promotions?" Bethany asked.

"I told him about it last night," Joe replied. "He didn't have a problem with it, but we should probably meet with him before we let everyone else know."

"We need to tell Judy and Clark as well," Bethany said.

"Actually they're both getting promotions of their own," Joe smiled. "Judy is going to be made a senior vice president and Clark a vice president."

"When?" Bethany asked.

"This morning," Joe replied. "Bradley and I will meet with Judy, after which I will leave them to their mushy youthful behavior and go let Clark know."

"They're not that bad!" Bethany laughed.

"Of course they are," Helen grinned. "But there is nothing wrong with that!"

"Afterward," Joe said, growing serious. "It's probably time to deal with Sara-Jane and then have a staff meeting."

"Makes sense," Bethany sighed. "Just make sure to have security there with you."

"And me!" Helen cried.

"Helen, you know that you can't be part of this," Joe said with a shake of his head.

"Okay," she sighed. "But you don't mind if I hover behind the security guards?"

"Hover away," Joe laughed.

"You shouldn't do this alone," Bethany frowned. "I'll sit in with you. I've done it before as the human resources representative."

"Thanks," Joe replied. Bethany nodded, remembering the lack of sleep from the night before. It was going to be another long day. Yet, instead of feeling tired and stressed, she found herself smiling.

"Okay, now that you've got that settled," Helen grinned. "About my raise." Joe and Bethany exchanged a look. This was going to be interesting.

***

"Okay, I know that by now, all of you have heard that Sara-Jane is no longer with us," I said. The room was packed and there were a lot of concerned faces.

"It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but things should start settling down after today."

"So, we're not going to have layoffs anytime soon?" someone called from the back.

"Layoffs?" I asked in surprise. "Is that what you guys think is going to happen?"

"It's a rumor that going around," the same person said. I looked at Sally.

"I didn't start this one!" she said defensively. This caused quite a few people to laugh.

"Well, there are no planned layoff at this time," I said. "In fact, we are planning to hire a couple of new people in the next month or two." This seemed to satisfy more than just the speaker.

"Why did you fire Sara-Jane?" a woman asked.

"I'm not at liberty to say," I replied, and then quickly added, "But what I can say is that there are a few other changes that need to be announced. I hope these will be greeted positively."

"First off, Judy has been promoted to senior vice president of Sales and Marketing," I said and there was some polite clapping. "Also, I recently promoted Clark to Director of Implementation. This week I restructured the department and that role no longer exists. Instead, he now has the title of vice-president of Implementations." Again, there was polite clapping. So far, the changes I made were really in title only. The next one should be interesting.

"I've also promoted Bethany to vice president of Customer Service with Helen as her assistant vice president," I said. There was a stunned silence for a moment, and then just about every one in the room clapped.

"It's about time!" Sally joked. "She's been half running the company for years already." There was laughter as Bethany blushed. I did notice that Tim didn't look particularly happy, but he was Bethany's problem now.

"What about product development?" someone asked.

"Well, the management team already met on this issue Wednesday," I answered. "There have been changes and a lot more of them will be coming soon. We're shifting the focus quite a bit, but I think you'll like what we're going to do with it."

"To begin with, we are going to focus the next two months on correcting all of the known bugs," I continued. There were smiles on people's faces from both Sales and Marketing and Implementation areas. They were both tired of dealing with the problems left over from product development. Of course, the people from product development didn't look particularly happy.

"After that, we're going to focus on finishing the next release by the end of the year," I added. "Some of you may think that that leaves us plenty of time, but we have quite a list from the Sales and Marking area and the Implementation area that we want to add to the next release."

"Anything interesting?" Simon, one of the lead designers in the product development area asked.

"Oh, there's one or two that you'll find interesting," Judy put in with a grin. "In fact, some of them you and I have had conversations on a couple of times over the years. One particularly comes to mind."

"Not..." Simon began, but Judy cut him off.

"Yes!" she laughed.

"Halleluiah!" Simon cried. I laughed. I didn't know him very well, but Judy had positive things to say about Simon. He was one of the people I had in mind for vice president of Product Development, but I needed to see how he was with people. The next couple of months would tell.

"So, who is going to be in charge of product development?" someone else in the area asked.

"I don't know yet," I answered honestly. "I'll handle it now with help from the rest of the management team, but eventually I do want to put someone in the role."

"One of the new hires?" the same person asked.

"Maybe," I shrugged. "Although all of the management team seems to be in agreement that we'd prefer to promote from within."

"Look, this company is growing. There are going to be plenty of opportunities for career advancement for those of you who have the interest and the ability. For instance, I expect that by the end of the year, Helen will not be the only assistant vice president."