Change became necessary when Kallie overheard a conversation between two important men in her life. As she walked away from friends and a foster family she had known forever she begins to focus on the fact that the conversation she had overheard was truly correct and now she can begin to fix her life.
Sneak Peak
Chapter 1
Kallie’s computer reminded her that it was lunch time at the same time as her foster brother; Trevor called out her name as he came through the office door. “Hey Kal”
“Hi Trev” she answered “How are you today?”
“I’m good. Is Mark on the phone?” he asked pointing to the closed office door. “I need to talk to him.” Mark and Trevor were co-owners of Stone Fox Construction. They had met in grade school and had been best friends since then. Trevor had worked construction most of his working years and still did the field work on all of their projects. Mark had gone away to college and gotten a business degree with a minor in project management. When Mark returned to Phoenix, he and Trevor had joined forces and now had the second largest construction company in the city.
“He is not on the phone.” She said coming around the desk to knock on Mark’s door.
“Come in” Mark called from inside.
“Trevor is here.” Kallie said as she opened the door.
“Send him in.” Mark answered and Kallie stepped back to let Trevor into the office.
“I’m going to lunch; can I bring the two of you anything back from the deli?” Kallie asked both men. She wrote down their orders and left them to their business. She collected her purse and the items for the errands she had to run and left the office.
After finishing at the post office, she stopped by the sandwich shop near their office and got their food. Foxes Sandwich Shoppe was owned by her foster parents. It was a national chain and she loved their food. Kallie frequented this store because of its location to her work and because she was well known there. “Hi Kallie”
“Hi Maggie” Kallie answered. “How are you?”
“I’m good. How are you?”
“I’m starving.” Kallie laughed. Maggie wrote down Kallie’s order along with Trevor and Mark’s and went to prepare it. Kallie sat down at the counter and waited. Herb and Margo Fox had created each shop to look like a comfortable family kitchen. The counter where Kallie currently sat was like a breakfast bar in any home in the country. The tables and booths throughout the shop looked like your family’s dining room. Kallie had always enjoyed the atmosphere in these restaurants. Lunch time was always busy at Foxes Sandwich Shoppe but her order was delivered quickly. It helped to be the foster daughter of the owner.
Kallie had been given up for adoption by her biological mother at birth. Kallie’s adopted parents had been Justin and Sharon Jensen. They were best friends with Herb and Margo Fox and when they had died in a car accident when Kallie was fifteen, Herb and Margo had become her foster parents.
The transition had been less painful since Kallie had spent lots of time with Herb and Margo anyway but losing her parents had devastated Kallie. Their accident had been the result of a manufacturer defect on their car so Kallie had received a large settlement from the car manufacturer.
Kallie was twenty-four and a college graduate. She wasn’t a brilliant student but she had received her degree in business management. To get some experience, she took the job as personal assistant to Mark Stone right out of college when he offered it to her. She had learned skills needed to manage but she knew this wasn’t a job she wanted the rest of her life.
On the weekends Kallie volunteered at a local learning skills center called “A Better Tomorrow”. She helped out with the little kids while their parents went to classes. Kallie loved it and she was thinking of changing jobs to work in a preschool or maybe even fulltime at the center. The director of the center, Kevin Holmes, had practically fallen out of his chair in delight when she mentioned it to him. The parents had given him glowing reports on her care for their children and his other staff members had included their thoughts on Kallie’s skills that she could pass on to their clients.
The only problem with this new plan would be leaving Mark Stone. He had become very important to her. She had known him for years since living with the Fox family and not working with him or seeing him most days was going to be tough for her. She was crazy about him and actually figured that she loved him. He was great looking, kind, honest and fair. Leaving him wasn’t an option right then because she would miss him.
Kallie didn’t close the outer office door as she entered the office. As she approached Mark’s office door, she listened to their conversation and very quickly learned why you shouldn’t eavesdrop.
“I need a better personal assistant.” Mark stated to Trevor.
“Anyone would be better than Kallie and much better to look at through the day.”
“Absolutely. I really only hired her as a favor to your mother. I never expected her to take the job.”
“I know you did. Can you transfer her to accounting?” Trevor asked
“Would you do that to Melody?”
“No, I like Melody.”
“I guess I’m stuck with Kallie until forever; she has no gumption to do anything else.” Mark said dejectedly. Kallie backed quietly away from the door and fought for composure. She had never been so humiliated in her life. Their opinion of her had been harsh. Before she lost the battle to the tears she made a noise in her office to alert them that she had returned. Their conversation stopped abruptly and she delivered their lunches to them.
“Thanks Kallie” they replied. Kallie spoke softly and left the office. She took her sandwich to the break room and put it in the refrigerator. Her stomach hurt so bad now that she knew it wouldn’t hold any food.
Trevor and Mark were talking business when she returned a second time to the office. She sat down at her computer and went back to work. There was no way she was letting them see how their words had destroyed her. She was not giving them any satisfaction. Tonight she would write her resignation and leave as soon as her replacement could be trained or sooner since she apparently didn’t do a good job anyway.
Kallie worked steadily through the remainder of the day but asked Mark if she could leave a few minutes early that night to run an errand. He agreed and Kallie left the office to go to A Better Tomorrow to talk to Kevin Holmes about employment.
By the time Kallie entered her house that night she had a new job at the learning center. She turned on her home computer and typed out her resignation. As she printed it off the tears finally started flowing.
Other than the death of her parents, Kallie didn’t know when she had been this hurt. They both thought she was lazy, ugly and bad at her job. Mark had never mentioned that she wasn’t good at her job and Trevor had never been anything but kind to her. Apparently it was all a lie and she was heartbroken. Kallie took a long hot shower to wash away the dirty feeling of shame and disgrace that her employers had made her feel then crawled into bed and watched each hour of the night roll by.
Kallie had a meeting each morning with Mark to go over schedules and correspondence. At the end of that meeting the next morning, Kallie asked for a moment of Mark’s time.
“Sure, what’s up?”
Kallie had prepared a story for Mark as a reason for her sudden resignation. She hoped that she could get through it without emotion. She handed him her letter of resignation and waited until he read it. His face showed extreme surprise. Kallie began to speak. “Thank you for letting me work here but I’ve decided business is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’m resigning effective in two weeks or sooner if you don’t need me.”
Mark was surprised. He hadn’t expected her to resign. “Uh, you caught me off guard here…this is sudden. Umm, where are you going to work?”
Kallie ignored the question. She had no desire to tell him anything about the
new life she was starting. He had devastated this one; he wasn’t taking pot shots at the new one. “Do you want me to call an agency and get a temporary assistant or do you have someone in mind?”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
“Neither did you.” Kallie said standing to leave the office. “But I need to know if you want me to stay around the two weeks or not. Let me know as soon as you decide.”
“Kallie, I need a minute to think this through. Why the rush? Do you have another job?”
“I’ll call an agency or do you want to? Tina can probably do work for both of you for a while. I’ll work with her if you want.” Tina was Trevor’s assistant. Her and Kallie were often the backup for the other on vacation days and things. Tina could handle anything that Mark needed and could train Kallie’s replacement if necessary.
“You are not answering any of my questions.”
“And you aren’t answering mine.” She returned. “I’ll go place that call that you wanted.”
“Wait a minute. What is up with you? You look like death warmed over and you aren’t talking to me.”
“I am so talking to you. I’ll just be a minute…” she said heading out the door to her desk.
Mark was so surprised and couldn’t believe what had just happened. Kallie had resigned without explanation and wouldn’t give him the time of day. She had completely cut him off and refused to answer his questions. Mark called Trevor on his cell phone.
“Hey Mark. What’s up?”
“Meet me downstairs now.” Mark stated swiftly. “At the entrance to the building.”
“Okay, I’m going.” Trevor answered hanging up. Mark stepped out of his office and told Kallie to wait on placing that phone call for a few minutes then he left the office.
Kallie was thrilled he was gone. As much as she had cared for him before yesterday, now she was hurt that much and the more he was gone the better she liked it. The anger was the only thing keeping her going at this point and she needed that to get through the next two weeks. She called Tina up as soon as Mark left the office.
“This is Tina.”
“Hi Tina, it is Kallie.”
“Hey girlfriend, how are you?”
“Did Trevor just get a call from Mark?”
“No, but he just left the office a second ago. Why?”
“I’ve resigned. They probably went to discuss it.”
“Resigned? Why?”
“Long story. Anyway, can you cover for me and work for both of them if Mark let’s me forget the two week notice?”
“I guess so. Something is wrong, tell me.”
“Nothing is wrong. I just want to leave here and the sooner the better. I have to get another call; I’ll talk to you later.” Kallie hung up and went to type on the report that Mark needed.
Trevor found Mark pacing at the front entrance. Mark opened the front door and they stepped outside to talk. “What’s up?” Trevor asked
“Kallie just resigned.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No, I’m not. She’s leaving in two weeks or sooner if I don’t need her.”
“That’s fantastic.”
“I guess.” Mark answered unsure of why he wasn’t jumping for joy.
“You guess?”
“She’s acting very weird.”
“Weird for Kallie or just weird?”
“Kallie isn’t weird. She’s a hard worker she just isn’t cut out for a personal assistant job.”
“Who cares? At least she is leaving, it is what you wanted isn’t it?”
“Why is your opinion of her so horrible?”
“She’s a pesky kid.”
“She’s twenty-four or something, not a kid.”
“So what? I didn’t think you liked her either.”
“I like her; but not as my assistant.”
“Kick her loose today and Tina can work for both of us.”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“What’s to decide? She’s horrible.”
“She isn’t horrible.”
“Fine, keep her. I could care less, I have to run. I’ll talk to you later.” Trevor took off for his truck to go visit the construction sites and Mark returned to his office. Kallie was picking up the phone when he returned and told him she would transfer the call to him in just a moment. Mark thanked her and went into his office and shut the door. Kallie transferred him the call and then hung up.
Kallie did her job for the rest of the day. Anytime he asked her questions about resigning she ignored him. She talked to him only when necessary and in very short abrupt sentences. She wasn’t rude but wasn’t kind either. At the end of the day, he called her into his office.
“Yes sir.” She said standing in front of his desk.
“Please sit down.” He said pointing to the couch. Kallie sat down and he sat in the chair across from her. “Why are you resigning?”
“I just am. What did you decide on a replacement?”
“I haven’t yet. I want an explanation.”
“I don’t owe you an explanation.”
That response was unexpected to Mark “True, I guess. Are you unhappy here?” he asked and at her look revised his question “I guess so since you are leaving but is there a specific problem?”
Kallie didn’t answer, didn’t look at him and didn’t breathe. She couldn’t take this concern from him, she knew his opinion of her. “Tina said she could work for both you and Trevor. Is that what you want?”
Mark gave up trying to get an explanation “I need you for at least a week maybe both of the weeks. Transition some stuff to Tina but I need you working on the reports for the Magnus Hotel. You know what is needed for due diligence and Tina doesn’t. Have Human Resources start sending me applications and I’ll, reluctantly, hire your replacement.”
What a bold face lie? Kallie thought but she answered him professionally “Yes, sir. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She said standing to exit the room.
“Good night Kallie.” He said as she hurriedly left his office.
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