Too Close to Touch by Georgia Beers Read Free Book Online Page B

direction.
    Kylie tried to backpedal a bit. “Look, I don’t mean to step on your toes or anything. I’m just not sure I agree with how you handled things yesterday. This group is just used to…” She grasped for the right words.
    “Jim. They’re used to Jim.”
    “Yeah.”
    “He babied them, Kylie. He gave them no discipline, no goals.”
    Kylie felt her temperature rising at the slight against her old boss and fought to keep it down. Gretchen obviously didn’t understand the point. “No. No, he didn’t baby them. But he was gentler. They liked him. He was nicer .” That last word sounded snide and it slipped out before she could catch it.
    If Gretchen was fazed, she hid it well. “Well, I’m not Jim.”
    “I know that.”
    “Nice only goes so far in the corporate world.” Gretchen pointed at the report again, which Kylie had yet to glimpse at. “Look at the bottom line, Kylie. This region is down nearly thirty-Þ ve percent from last year. And twenty percent from the year before.”
    Kylie blinked at the numbers. Thirty-Þ ve percent? That didn’t sound right. Wouldn’t Jim have told her if they were that far off?
    “You haven’t even seen that report, have you?” Gretchen asked as if
    • 45 •
    GEORGIA BEERS
    reading Kylie’s mind. Her voice registered a note of triumph. Apparently she’d suspected that Kylie wasn’t privy to all the information. “Kylie.”
    Her deep voice reverberated in the pit of Kylie’s stomach, forcing her eyes up. Gretchen spoke carefully, but with granite resolve. “It was time for Jim to retire.” She waited a couple minutes, let Kylie absorb the meaning of that statement, and then continued. “Those numbers?
    They’re why I was hired…to get them back up. And they’re why he was pushed out early.”
    Jim took a forced retirement? Kylie didn’t want to believe that she’d been so completely out of the loop with a man she admired so much. She looked up into Gretchen’s rich brown eyes and hoped to see them soften with understanding. They didn’t. If anything, they seemed colder.
    “I can’t have my EAA second-guessing me. It’s counterproductive and makes my job harder.”
    Kylie nodded, her face warming.
    “Not to mention, it pisses me off.”
    “I’m sorry.” Kylie’s voice was tiny and she dropped her eyes. “It won’t happen again.”
    “I’m aware that the reps don’t like the way I spoke to them yesterday, but you know what?” Gretchen dipped her head so she could catch Kylie’s eye again and bring her gaze back up. “I don’t care. My job is to increase the bottom line. I’m not here to be their friend or yours. I don’t really care if any of you like me. That’s not my concern.
    Do you think Margo Wheeler cares whether Jason Bergman thinks I’m a bitch?”
    Kylie shook her head.
    “No. She cares what that number at the bottom of that report says.
    If it’s too low, she hears about it. And you know what they say about shit rolling downhill. The next one down from her is me, and I happen to have a nice wardrobe. I don’t like the idea of getting crap all over it.”
    Gretchen inhaled and let out her breath slowly, tilting her head to the side as she regarded Kylie. “Kylie, I think you’re a great EAA.
    I’m really glad that I ended up with you as my assistant. You’ve made things easier already and I’ve been here less than two weeks. I know Jason can be a squeaky wheel, as can most salespeople, but you can’t let him browbeat you. And, God damn it, if he’s got an issue with me, you tell him to be a man and bring it to me . He may not like my methods.
    • 46 •
    TOO CLOSE TO TOUCH
    You may not like my methods. But his opinion doesn’t matter to me and frankly, neither does yours. My job is to increase the sales of this region. That’s why I’m here and that’s what I’m going to do. I’d rather have your help than have you working against me, but it’s your choice.”
    She paused for effect. “Am I making