Earning Yancy (2 page)

I sighed and resolutely put Charles Faulkner out of my mind. While I couldn’t control what he did in response to our disagreement, I could control my reactions and I had work to do.

W
hen I checked
my email the next morning, I discovered a politely worded message from Charles Faulkner regarding a discrepancy in an account our departments shared. I assumed that was why he wanted to meet with me last night. A discussion of this discovery would have only taken twenty minutes or so and we would have had time for that meeting had he come to see me a half hour earlier. I shook my head as I downloaded the attachment he’d included.

I spent the next hour going over the Excel file with careful attention to detail until I found the reason for the inconsistency. There was an error in one of the spreadsheets and, while it wasn’t a large mistake, it did affect the rest of the workbook, which then became a sizeable error on one of the largest accounts handled by our company. The entire twenty page workbook would have to be corrected and double checked, then proposals and business plans would have to be rewritten. This was suddenly a huge problem.

Unfortunately, I knew why the mistake hadn’t been caught before. Darla McQueen, the woman who used to be in Charles’ position, had issues with addiction. Though the company offered her a leave of absence while she went through rehab, she decided it would be best to resign and start fresh elsewhere once she was further along in her recovery. I knew she had been the other supervisor in charge of this account and it was very likely she made the mistake before her personal problems were discovered.

While I only handled half the information in the workbook, I should have checked her work. That was why Judith paired us up. Typically, I only skimmed the material until all the information was compiled and collated, then I would double check everything. Unfortunately, the project was still incomplete, which meant I hadn’t done my detailed review.

What a mess. I continued to make notes as I completed my analysis of the file. Charles explained in his email that he had scheduled a meeting with Judith later this morning to go over his findings so there was no reason for me to contact her as well. However, I would definitely touch base with her tomorrow when I was back in the office. Since Charles was new, it was unlikely he knew much about this account and Judith would not like the fact that this mistake had been missed by the rest of us. I assumed a staff meeting for all the project managers involved with this account was imminent. Judith was a tough, brilliant, demanding boss, but she was also fair. While I would catch hell for this, she probably wouldn’t put an official reprimand in my personnel files. However, that could easily change if this mishap wasn’t fixed ASAP.

The growling of my stomach interrupted my concentration around noon. As I emerged from my home office, I smelled something delicious cooking. I walked into the kitchen to find Kathy at the stove with a pot of soup simmering on one burner and a sandwich browning in a pan on another.

“Wow, that smells great,” I said, rubbing my stomach. “What’s for lunch?”

This was another thing I loved about Kathy. She cooked lunch for Carolena and I on the days I worked from home and often made us dinner. Sometimes I would throw something together in the slow cooker or put together a casserole in the morning before work, but I didn’t always have time.

“Hot ham and cheese sandwiches and vegetable soup,” she answered, expertly flipping the sandwich she was making with a spatula.

“Sounds perfect.”

I walked over to Carolena, who was settled in her high chair, banging a couple of toys on the tray.

“Hi, baby.”

She grinned up at me, her tiny teeth shining. “Mama!”

I gave her a kiss on the top of her head and helped Kathy finish lunch. I loved this part of working from home. I got to eat a meal with my daughter and listen to her jabber nonsense as she ate half her food and then made a mess with the rest. Another upside was that I didn’t have to clean up afterwards.

When we were all done eating, I thanked Kathy for lunch and kissed my baby girl before Kathy took her to the bedroom for a breathing treatment and her afternoon nap. I went back to my office and sat at my desk, staring at the wall and thinking about the crazy direction my life had taken.

Cooper Stevens seemed like a great catch when I met him four years ago. He was sweet and funny. Maybe he’d been a little goofy and flaky too, but everyone had flaws. He swept me off my feet. Within six months, we were engaged. A year after that, we were married.

Since we didn’t want to have a family for a few years, I tried the Pill, but the hormones made me violently ill. Then, a couple months into our marriage, one of our condoms broke. Nine months later, Carolena was born.

That’s when the cracks started to appear in Coop’s facade. At first, I thought it was typical guy stuff and he was having trouble adjusting to an infant in the house. Still, he just didn’t seem interested in Carolena. I literally had to force him out of bed if I wanted him to change a diaper in the middle of the night, which I didn’t do often because his payback would involve pouting about it for days after. The few times I left the baby with him while I ran errands, I returned home to find her screaming in her crib with a dirty diaper. I quickly reached my limit over his complete disregard for our daughter’s welfare and, when I yelled at him for leaving her to sit in a shitty diaper yet again, he outright refused to ‘babysit’ her again. I had been so furious that I slept in her room for over a week and didn’t speak to him the entire time. After six days of that, he brought me flowers and apologized. He seemed to be making more of an effort, getting up a few nights a week to feed her or change her, but I could still see that he was emotionally distanced from our daughter.

I didn’t leave Carolena with him again. If I needed to go out, I took her with me or hired a babysitter. I hoped that he would come around as the she got older. A little voice in my head told me I was wasting my time, but Coop and I were married. For better or worse, we needed to try to work through our problems.

It wasn’t until she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and the doctors told us what we could expect in the coming months and years, that Coop completely revealed the fact that he was an utterly useless shitheel. Within a week of her diagnosis, he was spending less and less time at home. A month later, he told me he couldn’t deal with a sick kid, his exact words, and he wanted a divorce. Though it broke my heart, I was glad he didn’t fight me for full custody because I knew that he wouldn’t take good care of our baby when he had her. Hell, the diaper incidents proved that.

For the first two months, he paid child support right on time. Then he moved and gave me an excuse, claiming the moving expenses were enormous and he needed an extra couple of weeks before he sent me another payment. I didn’t mind. His salary was a little less than mine and I knew that moving could be extremely expensive. While the money did help with her medical bills, I made more than enough to cover her day-to-day care.

Then the next three months, his checks started to arrive later and later until eventually he missed one completely. When I called him, he apologized and sent me a check within a week. I never got another child support payment after that. I called, but his number had been disconnected. When I went by his apartment, I discovered he moved again, without telling me. That was when I knew that the father of my baby was not only a shitheel, but a deadbeat as well. Six months after our divorce, my ex-husband dropped off the face of the planet.

I called his parents, who wouldn’t tell me anything. They saw Carolena at holidays and her birthday and that was it. Unlike my parents, they didn’t call to talk to her every week or ask to take the baby for a day. Though they bought expensive presents for her, their displays of affection felt obligatory. Apparently, the apple that was Coop didn’t fall far from the parental tree.

I approached the Office of the Attorney General, but I honestly didn’t expect anything to come of it. I hadn’t spent the support money Coop sent, but put it back in a college fund for Lena. If he wasn’t going to be a decent father, the least he could do was pay for her education. He needed to take responsibility for his daughter, even if only financially.

At first, I hurt for my baby girl and myself. I felt guilty for choosing such a dick to be her father. She deserved better. Then I realized that without Coop, I wouldn’t have Carolena, so I stopped feeling sorry for myself. Still, I did worry about her. When she got older, she would benefit from a male influence. Right now, she didn’t know any better, but, in a few years, she would have questions. I dreaded that day because I wasn’t sure what I would tell her.

My cell phone rang, breaking through the heavy cloud of my thoughts and bringing me back to the present. It was useless to mourn for what I lost, since it hadn’t been all that much now that I looked back. Right now, I needed to focus on my job and taking care of my daughter. I glanced at the screen but didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?”

“Hi, uh, Yancy. This is Charles Faulkner.”

Apparently my tirade yesterday finally penetrated since he managed to call me by my actual name. While I despised the fact that I lost my temper, it seemed to have fixed at least one of my issues with Mr. Faulkner. I realized I needed to tell him I was sorry for calling him an asshole, but a small, petty part of me wanted to wait and see if he would apologize first. Maybe it was immature, but the man called me by the wrong damn name for a freaking month, even after I corrected him multiple times.

“Hello, Charles. What can I do for you?”

He paused and cleared his throat. “I was wondering if you finished your analysis yet?”

I rolled my eyes. He was definitely impatient. “Yes. I just finished lunch and I’m about to type my notes and send them to you.”

“Great. That’s just great.”

He didn’t sound completely sincere, but I ignored it. “I’m glad you caught the error. It could have been disastrous if it had gone unnoticed.”

“Thanks.” He paused again. “Look, I’d like to schedule some time for us to go over this information tomorrow.”

I pulled up my calendar and saw that I had very few appointments the next day. “When would you like to meet?”

“How about after lunch?”

“Not a problem. I’ll meet you in your office at 1:30.”

“I’ll reserve the conference room. My office is a little cramped right now,” he replied.

Considering his office was the size of mine and I thought mine was spacious, this seemed odd, but it was his choice. “Fine. See you then.”

“Bye.”

After he disconnected, I put my cell phone on my desk and decided that I would apologize to him tomorrow in person, Maybe by then I wouldn’t be so irritated with him. I don’t know why his inability to call me by my name annoyed me so much. I mean, people called me Nancy constantly. Yancy was a unique name. Usually, I would smile and correct them, even if it was the fourth or fifth time.

For some reason, when Charles did it, I couldn’t continue to feign indifference time after time. Maybe because he seemed to remember everyone else’s name, just not mine.

Or maybe you want him to notice you.

I growled as the thought crossed my mind. So what if he was attractive, intelligent, and hard-working? He was a colleague and rude. While the company didn’t have an official policy against dating, it wasn’t considered professional behavior. I’d heard rumors of office romances and the aftermath and I did not want to be grist for that mill.

When I realized the direction my thoughts were taking, I groaned. Office romance? The man just learned my name. Why would I even want to date him if he asked? Then again, he probably hadn’t noticed I was a woman, much less had an interest in me. I was presuming too much. With a sigh, I turned toward my computer and began to type up my notes for Charles. Maybe I needed to take Tanya’s advice and start dating again. If the man who annoyed me at the office was starting to look good, then I’d been alone too long.

An image of Coop flashed in my mind. Nope, I wasn’t ready to date just yet.