Chapter 32 Dropping A Bomb
The team is in uproar. I try to calm them all down but to no avail. Holly for her part, dropped that bomb and then left, leaving disaster in her wake. Everyone is panicked and anyone would think they’ve never had a complaint come through before. In reality, there are complaints every week. What makes this different is the sudden spike in complaints and the fact that it’s against one of their best products.
They’re all looking expectantly at me as if I’m supposed to have all the answers.
I don’t want to disappoint them but I don’t know much more than they do.
“Guys,” I try, “Noah is talking to them now. We’ll all know soon enough.”
I somehow manage to make it sound like he’s got the whole situation in hand and they seem to believe me momentarily.
“Which product is it?” Stacey asks, as they all circle around me.
I don’t know how much I’m supposed to tell them. It would be better for Noah to do it. But they’re all looking at me, beseeching me to tell them.
“Er… the walnut coffee table,” I say hesitantly.
They all breathe in harshly in almost comical unison.
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Rob mumbles to himself as Stacey asks, “have we EVER had a complaint about that coffee table?”
The others all have their own questions but I don’t know the answers. My eyes keep darting to the doors, hoping that Noah will return.
“What can we do?” someone asks.
“The best thing you can do,” I say calmly, “is carry on with your work. We can’t let this affect our current projects.”
There’s a murmur of agreement and then the group that’s gathered begins to scatter as people return to their cubicles. Searching through my contacts, I look for the factory’s information.
The department is quieter than usual and when Noah finally comes back, they don’t even try to hide the fact that they’re watching him. He either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care, as he makes his way towards me.
“Did you get the number?” he asks tensely.
I hand it over to him and he moves to enter his office but I call him back.
Quietly, I tell him, “Holly came by and announced to everyone that we’ve received complaints.”
He turns back towards me, before glancing towards the others. The sea of faces watching us, all avoid his eye, pretending to be busy.
“What did you tell them?”
“That you were dealing with it and for them to carry on.”
He nods his head, his expression serious.
“Thank you, Eden,” he says, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“What did they say?”
“I have until the close of business today before they recall all of this month’s sales.”
My eyes widen. That doesn’t give us long to find out what’s gone wrong.
“Grab your coat,” he tells me. “Let’s not waste time trying to get an appointment and just head over there. I want to see it for myself.”
I hurry to do what he says as he makes his way over to the rest of the team. He somehow manages to look completely at ease as he talks to the team. I don’t know how he does it. Only an hour ago he’d looked half panicked as he read my emails and now he seems unphased. It’s impressive.
Turning back to me, he says, “let’s go.”
He doesn’t wait for me to respond before striding out into the lobby. We take the lift down to the car park. It feels strange getting into a car with Noah. For one thing, I’ve been using public transport since starting at Clancy’s Comforts but it’s more than that. There’s a static charge in the air between us. Even though I’m worried, I can’t help but notice just how alone we are.
He’s quiet, not really making any effort to make conversation. He’s clearly focused on the task at hand. The traffic is dreadful though and so we’re not going to get anywhere very fast.
“I just can’t believe this,” Noah grumbles when we have to stop at traffic lights. “We haven’t got time for this.”
I want to comfort him but there’s nothing I can say to make this better. I feel useless. As soon as the lights change, he’s accelerating away.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
