Part 4
Part 4 · 2 min read ·
“Don’t let one vendor’s invoices wipe out eight years of my life. I can change.”
“Change isn’t something you say when you’re scared of losing. It’s what you do when it’s going to cost you.”
“Mr. Turner, sorry, I’ll be quick.”
“The plan Lauren presented this morning, I wrote it.”
“Tell Lauren no? All of it, except that 40% page. Nobody in our department tells Lauren no. I just thought you should know.”
“Emma, thank you for telling me.”
“Four o’clock today. Closed-door review. Marketing, HR, and Philip.”
“On it.”
“Afternoon, Mr. Sutton. Kept your spot open.”
“Keep an eye on her for me.”
“That’s his truck? You spent three years with a guy who drives that?”
“Blake, the audit.”
“I know. Relax. Who signed the delivery confirmations?”
“Emma.”
“Then Emma ran the account. You approve forty budgets a month. You trusted your team.”
“She went to his office at lunch.”
“Even better. The girl who signed every single form is the first one running to point fingers. That’s your story.”
“Emma’s not… She’s a good kid, Blake.”
“Good kids sign things. That’s what makes them useful.”
“And the 40%? If they dig into the wrap-up numbers, all that reach—”
“Everybody buys reach, babe. Without that 40%, you wouldn’t be anywhere near VP today.”
[Sighs]
“Go see him before four. A guy who hangs on to a truck like that hangs on to everything. Make him want to protect you.”
“And Friday? If they freeze your accounts?”
“Nobody’s freezing anything. You get the keys Friday.”
“I’ve got a client across town. I’ll text you what to say on the way. Learn it before four.”
“Give them the assistant’s name, and this goes away.”
“You still eat lunch on the tailgate.”
“If something works, I don’t replace it.”
“Remember the weekend we redid the brakes on this thing? It rained the whole time. You said it was the best weekend of your life.”
“It was a good weekend.”
“I was scared back then. You were always building something, and I wanted a life that had already started.”