At noon, I received a text from Matt with his order, and I saved my work before seeing his assistant, January, for his credit card.
When I stepped into the elevator, I smashed my finger into the wall, misjudging the distance.
“Ouch!” I cried out. I looked down to my middle finger and the cracked nail. Crap.
I shook my hand, hoping that would make the pain fade faster.
It had been nearly a year since I’d gotten a manicure, and I desperately missed them.
After dropping off Matt’s lunch, I returned to my desk with my own meal in hand.
I wasted no time stuffing my face with the Cuban sandwich, which smelled delicious, and I was halfway through when a glob of mustard dripped out and onto my shirt.
“Shit,” I hissed. Immediately I tried to wipe it away, which only made it smear. A groan of frustration left me, and I threw the napkins down and picked my sandwich back up.
After finishing the last few bites, I headed to the bathroom in hopes that I could get the yellow smear out of my white top. Some cold water, paper towels, and two minutes later, it was still there.
I threw my head back. “For fuck’s sake.” A half laugh, half cry left me, and I huffed before trying again.
It wasn’t coming out. I knew it, the mustard knew it, and so did my shirt.
I gave up and returned to my desk, opening the bottom drawer to pull out my spare shirt, only to find the space empty. A groan left me, and I banged my head against my desk.
A similar disaster had hit last week, and I’d used my backup and apparently forgot to bring another one back.
“Fantastic,” I hissed just as my calendar app chimed.
Up popped an event reminder, and I glanced at the clock. There were only fifteen minutes until my one o’clock meeting with Matt and Donte. Thankfully, I just had the re-read of my social media pitch to deal with after that.
I cleaned up my mess before detaching my laptop, grabbing my water, and heading to Matt’s office. As soon as I entered, Donte gave me a sad smile.
“Rough day?”
A whimper left me. “Tell me it gets easier.”
He patted my arm. “It does, and it will. Teething?”
I nodded. “I think I maybe got two solid hours of sleep and a few cat-naps.”
Donte was another of the few people who knew about Kinsey. It wasn’t that I was keeping her a secret per se, but I only interacted with a few people in my department. I didn’t feel the need to scream out that I suddenly had a baby.
Donte had two kids himself, so he understood.
“Sorry about that,” Matt said as he rushed in and got settled back at his desk. “How’s everyone’s day today?” He looked me up and down, then shook his head at my new stain.
“Yeah, it’s that good,” I said with a chuckle. Because if I didn’t laugh, I might cry from exhaustion.
“Get some sleep tonight,” Matt directed.
“Can you tell the ten-month-old that? Because she doesn’t seem to agree.”
Both men chuckled.
Matt drummed his hands on his desktop. “Okay. The boss wants us to draw up some materials for the initial public announcement of the Worthington Exchange takeover. He wants their customers to be reassured and excited about the changes.”
“Print graphics? Commercials? What media are we talking about?” I asked in an attempt to get a handle on the scope while tamping down the excitement buzzing through me.
“All.”
My eyes widened. “That is a huge undertaking.”
“Which is why I’m giving it to you two. You’re going to hand over a lot of your other commitments to Liza and Mateo. This will be your focus.”
Donte nodded. “Sounds good.”
Matt drummed his hands on his desk again. “All right, get to it. Roe’s getting me the social media proposal and Donte’s got the editorial in by…”
“Tomorrow afternoon,” Donte replied.
“Excellent. Off you go,” Matt said, shooing us from the room.
“We should nab some time in one of the conference rooms this week,” Donte said as soon as we were out of the door and headed back to our desks.
I nodded in agreement. “Definitely.” They always seemed to fill up fast, and we would need a few hours each day to talk things out without disturbing people working around us.
“Now to finish up this social media pitch and figure out what information I need to send with these other projects.”
“Want me to go over the pitch for you?”
“Would you mind? I’d really appreciate it.” I reattached my laptop to the docking station and woke my computer up. “I’ve spent the last two weeks on it and could really use another set of eyes.”
“No problem. This is just for ads, right?”
I nodded. “Facebook. Twitter. Instagram.” My eyes narrowed at the screen. Something wasn’t right. I’d enlarged the top font earlier in the day, and it was smaller. I scrolled down, and a few other things I’d changed were also missing.
A prickle of panic shot through me, and my stomach dropped.
“No. No, no, no.” My eyes were wide as my breath left me. I saved before I left. I knew I did, but it was back to the point of my arrival that morning. “I saved before lunch, but all those updates are gone!”
“Calm down,” Donte said over my shoulder. “We’ll find it.”
“I will seriously cry if it’s gone,” I said, on the verge of tears as I sat back to let him get closer. I couldn’t even think straight, and I was thankful Donte was there with a clear mind.
He leaned over me, focused on a list of files. It was a few minutes before he clicked on one. “I think I found it,” he said.
The file popped open, and I gave a huge sigh when I saw a more recent update. As I scrolled through, I noticed it wasn’t to the point it was when I left for lunch, but it was closer.
“Almost, but a lot better than that other one.”
“It’s a large file. You may have closed it down before it finished saving.”
That made sense. I was rushing to get out to pick up lunch. “My fault, then.” I looked at him and gave him a strained smile. “Thank you so much.”
“Is it too far off from where you were?” he asked, scanning the file along with me.
I shook my head. “No, but it still stings, given the day I’ve had, and this delays me more.”
“It’ll be okay,” he said as he straightened. “Take a few deep breaths, get some coffee, and maybe put in your earbuds to drown everything out.”
“That sounds like a great idea.”
He smiled down at me. “About time to recognize.”
A laugh left me, and I rolled my eyes. “All right, you’ve got mad skills.”
“That’s what I’m talking about.”
“Thank you again, Donte. So much.”
He grinned at me. “I got you, dog.”
After he stepped away, I took a more in-depth look at the proposal. Thankfully, I didn’t lose much. The only reprieve to my day.
I made a few alterations, staring at the screen until a yawn rolled through me.
Coffee time.
When I got to the break room, I let out a whine at the empty pot sitting on the burner. Why didn’t the person who took the last cup make a new pot? We were all coffee addicts; it wasn’t like it was going to go to waste.