Chapter 26: The Mail

Everybody in the room turned to look at Cash, Luna could feel their eyes on her as they slowly turned to look back at her too. Luna’s eyes remained on Cash, she stared without saying a word, waiting for him to look at her. After a few silent seconds, he did. His eyes skittered away for a moment when they met her direct ones, he looked back at her, he shrugged.

“That’s just my opinion,” he said. “I’m sorry-”

“No, you’re not,” Luna interjected.

Cash blinked, he shifted a little in his seat, his gaze flitting away from hers again.

“I’m just saying-”

“If you want to, you will sit up when you do it,” Luna cut him off again. “I am not your buddy.”

The authoritative tone in Luna’s voice was like a slap. Her gaze intentionally remained direct and fixed on Cash’s face. He blinked again, he cleared his throat, and sat up in his seat. The boardroom was quiet now.

Cash opened his mouth to speak again, Luna interjected smoothly.

“I did not hire you, Mr. Brooks, for your advice on the events I choose to take on in my company,” she said, her voice as smooth as silk, and laced with steel. “I did not hire you for advice, period. You will do best to stick to your job and learn some manners when you approach me. Are we clear on your job specifications now, Mr. Brooks?”

By this time, a pin could drop in the boardroom and it would ring out loud and clear. That flash of anger streaked through Cash’s eyes again, his jaw ticked, and even from the far end of where she was seated, Luna could see he was embarrassed and miffed at her chastisement.

Again, Luna didn’t care. She continued to stare at him, clear that she was expecting a response from him. His jaw ticked again, he shifted in his seat, and his colleagues stared at him.

“We’re clear,” he finally said.

“Good.” Luna turned back to Tariq. “Start on the screening for more drivers, make them as thorough as you’ve always done, and Janine,” she turned to the female executive, “increase the current employees' salary by ten percent while they muddle through this period until we hire new drivers. I’ll be by sometime this week to address your men, Tariq, and tell them I appreciate their efforts.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tariq responded.

“Now, on to labs,” Luna continued, considering the Transportation case closed. She turned to the executive in charge of the laboratory sciences division. “What do you have for me, Sheila?”

***

Luna blew out a breath as she slumped in her chair. It was the end of the workday, she was in her office, Rita walked in, holding a tablet.

“I feel like a truck had run right over me,” Luna said, exhausted to her very bones.

Rita gave her a small smile and walked over to the small cabinet in a corner of the office. It was where Luna’s favorite drink, brandy, was kept. She poured some from the snifter into two glass cups and turned to walk back towards Luna’s desk. She put one of the glasses on the table and slid it to Luna’s front.

“You look like you need it,” she said.

Luna scoffed and picked up her glass.

“It’s quarterly meeting’s day, those are always stressful, you know that,” Rita said.

“I do,” Luna replied, tipping her glass in acknowledgment. “But it would have gone smoother if Pretty Boy hadn’t reared his rude egoistic head,” she added curling her lip in displeasure.

Rita’s eyes narrowed as she took her seat in the chair opposite Luna’s.

“Cash ran his mouth again, huh?” she asked.

Luna nodded. “Hmm hmm.”

Rita shook her head. “It’s like he can’t go a full meeting without being a jerk. He thinks just because he has those good looks of his, he can say anything he wants and get away with it. I bet it’s his type that spends way too much time in front of a mirror. Hope you put his rude ass in check.”

Luna curled her lip and gave her friend a sly look. “What do you think?”

Rita raised her glass to Luna. “My woman.”

Luna blew out a breath. “I say this at the end of almost every work day, but I don’t pay my industrial employees enough.” She shook her head. “I mean, if I’m seating my ass down in my office all day and I am still getting this tired at the end of it, then they must be superheroes.”

Rita chuckled. “Like I said, it’s only because it’s quarterly meeting day, every day is not like this. Besides, you make important decisions too, and that’s not easy sometimes either.”

Luna cocked her head in agreement and sipped her brandy again.

“Speaking of difficult decisions,” Rita said. She sat up in her chair, placing her glass cup on the table and picking up the tablet as she looked at her best friend. “I’m afraid you have a very difficult one to make. This came in the mail.”

She turned the tablet to Luna. Luna stared at her friend for a few more seconds, the look on Rita’s face could only mean bad news. Luna wondered what she would see before turning to look at the tablet’s screen. The company’s Gmail was opened on it, Luna read the invitation that had been sent to it.

“Moira’s inviting me to a party,” she said after reading.

“I’m afraid so, honey,” Rita replied, her voice gentle. “You know she has an agenda, and you know whatever it is, it’s not going to be good for you. What are you going to do?”

Luna gently placed the tablet back on the desk. She looked up at Rita, she met her friend’s concerned gaze.

“I’m going,” she replied, her stomach sinking.