Glass Ceilings (15 page)

‘Well, yes, I was there.
I didn’t see you?
’
This time Verity did glance up, with a cautious expression.

‘Jim and I
were in the general dining area, outsid
e the Watermark Room,
’
Kerry said, adding irritably to herself,
only because
t
ight-arse
J
im won’t spring for the fine dining room
.
She
hurriedly
swallowed her annoyance
to add
brightly,
‘Jim and I often go to The
Conservatory
for d
inner, it’s such a lovely spot.’

‘Yes, it is,’
Verity
murmured
vaguely,
dropping her gaze to the diary and flicking
through a few
page
s
. She didn’t fee
l inclined to discuss
that subject
any further
with her
PA
—
to Verity
, the ‘personal’
in ‘personal assistant’
didn’t cover things like that.

B
ut Kerry wasn’t finished with her yet.
‘Was that Royce James you were with?’
J
ealous
y glittered
deep in her eyes.

Verity sighed
and replied absently,
‘
What? Oh, yes ... um ...
we
worked late on the EC
presentation. We called in there for
dinner
on the
way home.
’
She
snapped
her diary
shut
and fixed
Kerry with a direct gaze
. ‘T
hanks for the itinerary. I’ll have the final meeting agenda for you to distribute to the members
first
up
tomorrow morning.’

Kerry’s face darken
ed
at the obvious dismissal
and she murmured, ‘Of course
,
’
before turning on her heels and
flouncing
out
.
Throwing herself
down
at
her desk, she slammed the keys to
wake
her hibernating computer
,
and waited with gritted teeth while it came back to life.

So, P
r
ince
Charming
has taken Cinderella
to
dinner
, and to my favourite
plac
e
no less
—
one he’s never taken me to
, despite all my hints
.

Another part of Kerry’s
brain whispered that not only had Royce not taken her there, he hadn’t
taken her
anywhere
, which only incensed her to
continue silently ranting
.

And was
dinner
all t
here was to their date
?

She
frowned
, before giving
a spiteful
snigger
.

P
robably
,
Verity
strikes me as
a bit
of a cold fish.
Maybe
Royce just
feels sorry for her
.

Kerry’s
eyes narrowed and her mouth set in a cruel line.

Well, he might be
fe
el
ing
more sorry for her soon ... it’s time someone put her back in her place.

She
logged into her email
with vindictive keystrokes,
and
pulled
her telephone
closer
. She had a few important calls to make and emails to send before she left for the day.

La
ter, as she
was leaving
,
she
gave
a satisfied smirk
and called
out
,
‘’Night Verity
,
’
thinking with sweet malice
,
pleasant dreams, don’t let the bed bugs bite
....

Verity sat back in her chair and closed her eyes for a moment. With most people gone, the building was quiet.
In the past
,
on the odd occasions when she’d been
working back and
there on her own,
she’d
found it
a bit eerie. B
ut now
it was
a
pleasant
relief from the continuous noise and stream of visitors to her office during the day.

She
thought over the
issues brought to her since she’d taken up residence in the executive suite, and not for the first time, found herself questioning the conduct of her department heads.
She suspected they were
dumping their problems onto her,
including
those
that fell into the
day-to-day
management
category
.
She wondered if they’d done the same to Clyde.

Although not privy to every
matter
previous
CEOs had been involved in, Verity seriously doubted Clyde would have had much patience with minor issues like the ones presented to her now.
Was she being treated like
a
glorified agony aunt
,
simply
because she was a woman?
That thought made her sit up
straight
and
flick
open her electronic
calendar
. With practiced
skill,
she scheduled a meeting
in a week’s time, between herself and
h
er senior staff
,
during which she’
d
outline
her expectations of them
in more detail
.
It occurred to her that
they’d
be well aware of
their responsibilities
already, having
all
held thei
r positions
at RCL
for some time
.

T
hey
’re
testing the waters
,
she mused.
Well
,
they’ll know my depth
soon, especially after
I highlight
t
he part my
expectations will
play in their
performance appraisals
,
and
in the anticipated
productivity-based bonus calculations
.
And I wonder how they’ll take to the new team-based culture I want to implement throughout the organisation....

After sending off the electronic meeting notifications,
she closed her laptop
and took
some deep, calming breaths. She
picture
d
the location of the
approaching
executive committee meeting.
This year’s was on Loquacious Island, only a short plane ride from Perth. Verity hadn’t been to the island before, but the brochures Kerry obtained for the delegates pictured a lush rainforest setting, with turquoise water nudging fine white sand.

Dragging herself back from the entic
ing vision,
Verity
looked at
the
itinerary
and meeting agenda
.

Great,
I should
be able
to get in a scuba dive while we’re there.

The
following
day
,
Verity
was away from the office
, hosting
a visit to the bauxite mine by a number of international VIPs. As the
y travelled
along the private road flanking the
overland conveyor
,
and
linking the mine to the refinery, Verity again marvelled at the engineering feat that made this vital link possible.
Without the conveyor to transport bauxite from the mine to the refinery some fifty kilometr
es away, production would halt.

Now THAT would have the JVs hyperventilating,
she thought, swallowing a grin,
and that’s a fact.

She
glanced around
at the other faces o
n
the bus
. It looked as though t
he visitors
were
e
njoying themselves
,
despite the road’s
ups and downs
.

Thi
s isn’t a trip for anyone who suffers from
travel sickness,
she thought sympathetically
. I’m glad I’m returni
ng to the
refinery by helicopter, I’ll get back
there in a fraction of the
time.

She turned to look out
of
the
window again while their guide for the trip,
Ben,
one of RCL’s environmental offic
ers,
carri
e
d on with
his commentary
.

‘Earthworks have recently been completed on the five hectare disused gravel pit and stockpile area
we’
re currently travelling past
,’ he enthused.
‘
After
contouring the earth t
o esta
blish a suitable landform,
we
spread
topsoil
and th
en d
eep-rip
to
allow infiltration of water and help prevent erosion.
R
ocks
, logs and cleared vegetation
are used
for
erosion control
, and to
provide habitats for native animals.
Now
the
drainage work is complete, t
he area
will be
fertilised and hand-seeded
with
a
seed mix
collected f
ro
m the local area over summer,
cont
aining
about eighty species of native grasses, shrubs and trees.
’

He paused to check everyone was still listening before continuing
cheerfully
, ‘
Still awake? Good! Now, r
esearch
is continuing
into improving rehab
techniques and establishing
best practice methods
.
…’

Verity
was well aware of the company’s environmental programme, so she only
l
istened with half an ear. T
he
native forest they were passing through took her attention
.
She’d
travelled the
conveyor road many times
, but still found herself in awe of the
beautiful countryside bordering it
. Being
spring
,
the south west’s famous
wild flowers
were in brilliant bl
oom, their bright faces shining from
the most unlikely
spots
,
between large rocks or on gravel
l
y slopes.
Her eyes searched
the ground
for flashes of the iridescent blue of tiny Leschenaultia flowers, and the delicate white of native ground orchids.
On
one of
h
er
previous
trip
s to the mine
, the Easter lilies had been out in all their powder pink glory. She
’d
glimpsed
clusters of
their daintil
y rouged faces peeping
out
from
among the trees.

As they passed through an
other
area under rehabilitation, she felt the usual swell of pride at seeing the company
’s active
commitment to environmental care.
Workers
e
specially recr
uite
d for
the planting
programme
,
were
carefully
placing
seedlings into holes
containing measures of fertiliser
.
Ben chose that moment to explain the planting process to the visitors, and Verity could see a shared appreciation on the
ir faces
for
what the company
was doing
to return
the environment to its natural state.