It Must Be Love

Sterling couldn’t pinpoint it specifically, but there was something about seeing Jewel that piqued his interest in several ways and he was determined to satisfy his curiosities about her. One night out for dinner would do it. He’d be able to determine if his interest in her was from a lingering childhood crush, or something genuinely fresh and new.

“Mr. Bishop!” The panic in his secretary Ann’s voice snatched him from his thoughts of Jewel. She stood, alarming him with the speed in which she moved. “We have a situation.”

“Good morning, Ann. Please continue,” Sterling urged as he moved past her into his office.

“My apologies, sir. Good morning. I tried to call you and Mr. Stephan, but neither of you answered. There’s a problem at our east end server farm.”

Sterling pulled his phone from his belt and found that he had missed several calls, as well as text and email notifications. He wondered why he hadn’t heard them. “How long ago did this happen?” His jaw clenched when he realized he still had his phone on silent from the board meeting the previous night. It was obvious that he had forgotten to turn the sound back on.

“Only about ten minutes ago. For some reason one of the backup servers seems to be shorting out. It kicks on but won’t stay on.”

Sterling rubbed the back of his neck. “Thank you, Ann. Let me get Stephan on the phone.”

The first ring hadn’t completed before his brother picked up the phone. “I know. I just finished speaking to Phil at the server farm. There was some kind of major outage in the area that was caused by a fire. They’re working on getting the backups running smoothly. It keeps kicking off.”

Sterling washed his hands down his face. “Steph—”

“I know.” Stephan’s huff was audible. “I just pulled up. I’ll be inside in a sec.”

Within the next few minutes every employee on deck had hands in the mix trying to get the situation rectified. Stephan kept in touch with their staff managing the server farm. Sterling was in touch with the utility company regarding the fire that caused electrical transformers to blow and affect their equipment, which housed scores of data from the customers they served. They guaranteed that services would be back up within hours.

At the server farm, maintenance staff worked hard to keep the backup servers running to avoid any major catastrophes.

Stephan walked to Sterling’s office and paced. “This is all over the news.”

“I know.” Sterling pointed at his computer where he was watching the latest report and turned up the volume. Not one, but two major transformers had blown, causing electrical fires to light up electric lines in the area. Homes, businesses and schools in the surrounding area were all out of service. The utility company and local public service authorities were investigating to determine the cause of the problem. Stephan stopped pacing long enough to hear a few moments of the report. Sterling looked at his watch.

An hour had passed and every second counted. Their backup server was still shorting out. The team struggled to keep it up and running. Customers had the lines clogged, reporting issues with their IT systems. The entire office was in crisis management mode. Outside of Sterling’s door a frenzy of people moved to and fro with an urgent pace.

“We should cancel our meetings with prospective clients today.” Stephan returned to Sterling’s office with his suggestion.

“No! We need to go. We’ll work through this. I trust that Phil has the farm covered and he’ll keep us posted. We can deal with any concerns that may come up from our prospective clients. Besides, it’s important for them to know that we are able to manage a crisis and still get business done.” Sterling believed in always moving forward.

“If you say so.” Stephan released a heavy sigh.

Just then, Sterling’s phone rang. He hesitated before answering since he didn’t know the number, but picked up anyway. “Sterling Bishop speaking.”

“Ah. Mr. Bishop. Bobby Dale Chandler of Chandler Food Corp here. How are you?”

“Fine, Mr. Chandler, and yourself?” Sterling stretched his eyes at Stephan. “How can I assist you?”

“A good friend of mine, Don Kota, referred me to you. You know Don, right? Kota Enterprises.”

Sterling put a smile in his voice. “I certainly do. Mr. Kota is a great friend and client.”

“That I know. I was speaking to him about help I was looking for and he said I should call you.”

“I’m happy to be of service. Would you mind if I add my partner to the call?”

“Of course not.”

Stephan eased into the chair on the opposite side of Sterling’s chair. He put Bobby Dale on speaker and after introductions, they listened to him speak about the services he sought. Chandler Food Corp was looking to overhaul their entire IT system and hire his company for ongoing IT maintenance of their network.

“We can certainly do that. The first thing we’d need to do is come by to take a look at what you have in place, get a few more details and we can draw up a proposal for you,” Stephan said, sounding much more cheerful than he had minutes before.

“Sounds like a plan. When can we meet?”

“If you don’t mind holding for one moment, we can check our schedules.” The brothers took a few seconds to pull up their calendars and agree on a date that worked for everyone.

“Wonderful! I’ll see you then. Looking forward to working with you gentlemen.”

Once the call ended, Sterling and Stephan slapped a high five.

“See! Despite setbacks we have to continue moving forward.”

“I’ll call Phil to see if there’s any progress at the farm.” Stephan stood and headed for the door.

“I’ll see what’s happening with the utility company and check in to see about our customers who are being affected.”

Despite being in the middle of their current crisis, Sterling felt better. They had a promising prospect to meet with today and now a major new prospect that also happened to be the company of the woman who recently infiltrated his curiosities. Sterling made a note to call Don, who was also his mentor, and thank him for the referral. It looked like fate was helping him get a little closer to Jewel after all.

With his brother at his side, Sterling jumped headlong back into the situation, striving to lead the company out of the problem they were facing. They ended their day with a visit to their sever farm to make sure their systems would continue working through the night. Damage to the electrical lines and transformers were still being repaired at nightfall, even though their company originally estimated it to be a few hours. News cameras captured every angle while reporters updated the public on all developments. As frustrating as the situation was for the brothers, Sterling excelled under pressure, feeding off the energy it generated. By the time he made it to bed some time in the wee hours of the morning, he felt exhausted, but also accomplished and excited about the upcoming meeting with Chandler Food Corp.

Chapter 7 (#ubb662c22-3c27-5e66-8fd9-8ceb0e69ba20)

Jewel took a deep breath before knocking on her father’s office door.

“Come in.” His voice bellowed from the other side.

Jewel tried not to let her nervousness show. Before coming to her father, she’d spoken to Dorothy, who’d prepped her to ask for the promotion. She also promised to coach Jewel and help her succeed in the position.

“Dad. I’d like to speak with you. Is this a good time?”

Bobby Dale peered over the rim of his glasses and sat back. The salt-and-pepper hairs along his temples and in his mustache gave him a distinguished look. “Anytime is a good time for you, my dear.”

“This is about business, Mr. Chandler.” Jewel stood straight. Bobby Dale wiggled his brows, seemingly amused by her serious demeanor. Jewel grinned letting on that she was teasing and sat.

Bobby Dale’s laugh was jovial. That eased the tension for Jewel.

“On a serious note, Dad. I’d really like to talk about the impact of Dorothy leaving and the possibility of me getting promoted to her position.”

Bobby Dale slid his glasses from his face, sat back and peered at Jewel. “Go on.” He encouraged her.

“Well.” Jewel sat up straighter in the chair. “I know that you’ll agree that Dorothy was a dedicated and accomplished leader. Under Dorothy’s and your tutelage, I’ve had the benefit of learning what I need to know to be an effective leader in operations. I recently requested feedback from her regarding what it would take to be successful in her position and determine potential areas for growth. With that, I believe I’m well positioned to take on the position of VP of operations and would love to discuss what it would take to gain that opportunity.” Jewel was relieved. She had gotten out her rehearsed speech without fumbling. She knew she had to exude confidence when speaking with her father as well as prove that she was capable and qualified.

Bobby Dale remained quiet. His expression was unreadable, which made Jewel nervous. She tried not to squirm. Jewel swallowed to keep from clearing her throat, not allowing her anxiety to show. She felt compelled to fill the silence that expanded between them. She’d played her hand. It was time for her father to play his hand and she wouldn’t ruin it with anxious chatter and shoot holes in her confident exterior.

Finally, Bobby Dale pressed his lips together and nodded. “You believe you are qualified?” It was more of a statement than a question. “Tell me why.”