“There’s no need for that. They’ve both been terminated this morning.”
She opens her iPad and starts scrolling through it, and I’m glad she doesn’t expect me to respond because I couldn’t form a coherent thought if I tried.
Panicked and wildly confused by her announcement, I connect the dots of the sequence of events that brought me to London in the first place and try to reconcile them with what she just said.
“Because of my email?”
She snorts a laugh. “Of course not. But before I tell you, please sign this non-disclosure agreement. This is highly sensitive. I’ve received clearance from legal to share it with you, and only you. Revealing it will expose you, me, and the entire organization to legal action.”
Stunned by the news and more than a little bit afraid of what I’m about to learn, I nod. “Okay, sure. I’ll sign it.”
She slides it across the small table. “I’m going to the powder room. Read it, and if you agree, sign it. We’ll continue when I get back.”
What in the world? They’ve both been fired? Erin is relatively new to the role of chief operations officer. She created this director of corporate intelligence role for Derrick, my boss, and they both just moved to London with Mrs. Wilde.
I hadn’t been sad to see the back of him. He was underqualified and overconfident. When he asked me to be part of the team he was assembling to design the new security and privacy protocols for the London office, I expected to do most of the work.
I’d never been to London before that, and the idea of spending three weeks there, all expenses paid by someone else, was too good to pass up, so I didn’t blink before I said yes.
At the end of my trip, we met to present our plan to Erin before she presented it to Mrs. Wilde, and I realized that every single one of the recommendations in the report were mine. And that the one I made about surveillance equipment in the office was incomplete. When I mentioned it, Derrick reprimanded me in front of the whole team and called my recommendation for cameras overkill.
After the meeting, Erin called me into her office. Derrick was waiting there with her, and he advised me because of my attempts to upstage him and insubordination, I was being given an official warning that would be placed in my permanent employee record.
Shocked and embarrassed, I apologized for my overreach and went back to Houston with my tail between my legs, praying I hadn’t done fatal damage to what I had hoped was just the beginning of a long career at Wilde.
I was searching our team’s shared drive and I scrolled past the finalized security plan for Mrs. Wilde’s new office.
My sixth sense made me stop, go back, and open it. The plan that Derrick filed included all of my recommendations, including the cameras. And in the cover letter he wrote her, he’d taken credit for all of them.
I was so angry that I sent him an email calling him out for not only stealing my work, but for reprimanding me for something just because he hadn’t thought of it first.
It’s hard enough being a woman in a field where men are treated like James Bond and women like Miss Marple. And if he did it to me once, he’d do it again. I wanted to make sure at least he would know he couldn’t get away with it. So I copied both Erin and Mrs. Wilde on the email.
Derrick didn’t respond, but the next day, I got an email from Mrs. Wilde summoning me back to London for a meeting. I haven’t slept more than a few hours since I got it.
I thought I was going to get fired, but it turns out I was completely off the mark.
I sign the NDA, slide it back to her side of the table, and wait impatiently for her return.
When she sits down again, she scans it, smiles, and proceeds to blow my mind.
“Derrick and Erin are a couple. They have been since I hired her. All of that is in direct contravention of our anti-fraternization policy. And while we don’t allow couples to work together, we understand that these things happen and have a process for disclosure and separation of interests, so we don’t have issues like this. They decided to hide their relationship, and she let it influence her in her decision to promote and move him here—at great expense to the company.”
My jaw drops. “Wow.”
She smiles grimly. “Indeed. I found this out a day before your email landed in my inbox. And I was reminded that when one door closes, another one always opens. All that to say, Derrick’s role is now vacant and will be based in Houston again, as it should be. I’d like you to fill it.”
My heart skips a beat, and I grasp my hands in my lap to hide their trembling. “Me? Really?”
She chuckles. “Don’t look so surprised. Your resume isn’t traditional, but I like your gumption and that you aren’t afraid to speak truth to power. And you’re very, very good at your job. I’m sure, after a few more years here, you’d be able to write your own ticket, but I hope you’ll stay and grow with Wilde World. We all care about you, Dina, and think of you as family.”
“I don’t know what to say. Derrick is a director. I’m two levels lower than that.”
“Yes, and you’ll have a steep learning curve in this role, and a few men who will resent you going from being their peer to their superior. But I see a lot of potential in you, and I want to nurture it. And I think you are up to the challenge.”
“Thank you so much.” I take a sip of my tea to hide the wide grin of surprise on my face, even though I know my eyes show my elation. The job she’s offering me is the kind of opportunity I didn’t think would come my way for a long time. But just like that, it’s here.
At the same time happiness tugs at the corners of my mouth, gratitude tugs at the strings of my heart.
Hearing Tina Wilde say she sees potential in me and cares about me is one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever received. And it’s the closest thing to mothering I’ve had from anyone in a long time. Not that she’s anything at all like my mother.
She’s almost sixty, the same age my mother would have been if she was still alive. She has the same cocoa brown complexion, too. But that’s where the similarities end.
My mother treated me like I was the center of her universe. Tina Wilde’s brand of mothering is to remind everyone that the universe has no center.
But galaxies do—and she is the center of this one. The rest of us—her children, her company, her employees—are planets kept in rotation by her gravitational pull.
“I’m so honored, Mrs. Wilde, thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Derrick and Erin had an assignment that they won’t be able to see through, and I’ll need you to fill his shoes.”
“Okay.” I nod, excited at the possibilities unfolding in my mind.
She glances at the iPad and then frowns. “I see you’re scheduled to leave for Paris Friday. Do you have plans set in stone there already?”
“No.” But my stomach drops. It’s my birthday on Saturday. I planned a weekend in Paris when I realized I’d be in London so close to the date. It’s the one place I’ve always wanted to visit but never got the chance. I thought after I got fired, it might be my last chance for a long time.
But I wouldn’t dream of telling Mrs. Wilde that. She’s giving me an opportunity most people would kill for. My job at Wilde World is the reason I can afford to go to Paris at all. It’s also the reason, after my divorce turned my life to rubble, I’m able to dig out of the financial rut it put me in.