Putting It to the Test

“You’re sure it’s Matt?”

“Positive.”

Steam filled Carly’s veins until she recalled her confrontation with Matt that morning and her anger turned to dread. She’d been so cocky about him having to fill out the survey to get the job, had accused him of trying to cheat even. And all the time Hall had already lined him up for the project.

She slowed her pace and sighed. How long would she continue to make a fool of herself in front of that man? It was bad enough infatuation turned her into a babbling idiot whenever he was around. Now the one moment she’d held her wits long enough to tell him off, she’d ended up being wrong about the whole thing.

It was too humiliating to consider.

“Does he know?”

“I don’t think so. Patty told me they were keeping it really close to the cuff. Only she, her boss and one analyst there are aware of Hall’s instructions on how to tally the surveys. In fact, now that I’ve told you, I’ve been ordered to kill you.”

Carly would have laughed if she wasn’t so dumbfounded, not certain whether she should wallow in embarrassment over popping off to Matt when she was the one with egg on her face or ire that once again he was being handed the big job.

Ire was winning by a nose.

“So all the surveys are for nothing?”

“All the men’s surveys. The women’s are legitimately being used to match against Matt’s.”

“I can’t believe it,” Carly fumed. She placed her hands on her hips and slowed down to a stroll. “Matt’s walking away with another top project again.”

“Matt and whoever strikes the closest match to his survey.”

She stared out over the grassy lawn. The warm day had brought a crowd out from under the fluorescent canopies to enjoy lunch at the tables or hold an outdoor meeting. It was the first sign of spring, normally Carly’s favorite time of year, but today even the good weather wasn’t enough to hold up her spirit.

“Why do they think he’s so great?” she asked. “So he’s got, like, double master’s degrees. Big deal. He’s arrogant and flippant and not the least bit interested in sharing that wealth of talent with anyone else on the team. Why they keep raising the man to the level of he-god, I’ll never know.”

“He-god?”

Carly frowned. “You know what I mean. He doesn’t deserve the constant accolades. There’s a lot more to being a company asset than good Web design.”

“True,” Bev agreed, stepping over to a park bench and plopping down for a rest. “Though he’s got a few assets someone’s company would enjoy.” She smiled as Carly sat down next to her. “You ever noticed him on casual Fridays? Man, does he have a butt for a pair of jeans.”

Noticed? Carly had studied that butt so many times she could pick it out of a lineup. But this wasn’t where she wanted the conversation to go. Matt Jacobs had had enough of her attention over the last two years. If there was ever a day to squelch it, today would be it.

“He used to play pro baseball, you know,” Bev added. “Can you imagine that ass in a pair of those tight-knit baseball pants?”

The Anaheim Nationals, two years in their AA league before he’d been “cut loose,” as Adam had put it. He hadn’t said much more than that, just enough to feed a few steamy images of Matt in a uniform—and then out of it.

She shook off the thought, annoyed that she could be so easily pulled off track. This conversation wasn’t about Matt’s assets but how he’d become her personal liability. If this latest move by Mr. Hall wasn’t enough to permanently exorcise her lust for that man, she seriously needed to consider psychotherapy.

“Can we get back to the subject, please? We’re talking about Singles Inc. and who deserves that job. Mr. Hall lied to all of us. This project was supposed to be a fair game.”

Bev blew out a sympathetic sigh. “I know, but in retrospect, none of this surprises me. It’s our biggest account. There’s no way Hall was going to let the project randomly go to two people on the staff. He needed one person in there as his anchor to make sure the job ran smoothly.”

“And that anchor couldn’t have been me?”

“Carly, they love your work. You and Matt are the two top designers on staff. They still consider you one of the best.”

“They did before Matt came along. Now who knows what they think? I haven’t had a challenging project in over a year. It’s just the same old stuff, info screens without any user interactivity. How am I supposed to keep up my programming skills if I’m just putting graphics and text on pages?”

This job was not working out as she’d planned. She wasn’t supposed to have hit a glass ceiling at the age of twenty-six. She was supposed to be on her way up the ladder, making the steady climb to bigger jobs and a bigger salary. Granted, she hadn’t expected to spend her life working for Hall, but she’d thought as new opportunities opened up she’d continue to be in the running. But since Matt had come on board, her career seemed to have come to a screeching halt, and if she wanted to keep progressing, maybe it was time to accept the fact that she’d have to do it somewhere else.

“I’m tempted to quit.”

Bev scoffed. “And go where? The high-tech industry is barely picking up around here. To find anyone hiring, you practically have to move to Texas.”

“I could go to Web Tactics.”

“Rumor has it they aren’t doing so well.”

Carly’d heard that, too. Oh, who was she kidding? She’d just bought a house with a hefty mortgage. She couldn’t risk losing it by leaving a secure job for something unknown. Wherever she went, she’d be the new gal on the team, the first one on the chopping block if a company decided to downsize, and with so many firms being swallowed up by the big fish or relocating out of state, she wasn’t certain she could take the chance.

“I could move to Texas, but Mom and Jodi need me.”

“They rely on you for a lot.”

Carly sighed. She knew if she left Hall Technologies, she’d find a way to make things work, but making a move like that out of anger wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

Right now she felt stuck, and if there was anything Carly hated, it was feeling trapped without choices.

“It’s not fair,” she said, the tone coming off whinier than she’d intended. “They should be giving everyone opportunities to be challenged. When they announced how they were handling the assignment of Singles Inc., I thought they’d finally seen that and done something about it.” Gazing out toward a clump of cattails, she added, “I guess I was wrong.”

“I don’t know about that. I heard another rumor today.”

“There’s more?”

Bev nodded.

“Is it good news?”

“I don’t know. It’s all in how you choose to speculate.”

Carly clasped her fingers around the seat of the wooden bench and braced herself. “What is it?”

“I heard Hall’s planning to open a new management position.”

“A manager?”

This was news. Mr. Hall had always preached the hazards of being top-heavy, which was why so far he only had two managers under him—Hugh Simonds, in charge of the programmers, and Frank Meyer, Carly’s own manager and head of the creative-design team. The sales staff reported directly to Mr. Hall, as did Renee and Andrea, the two women who handled Human Resources and Payroll. The idea of a new position opening up was a big deal.

“Any idea who’s getting the job?”

Bev shook her head. “Not a clue. I don’t even know if he’s planning to hire from within or bring in someone from the outside. But what I’ve heard is he wants to put together a team that exclusively handles the bigger projects and that he plans to assign the team a leader.”

“A special project team, huh?”