Chapter 0137
+25 BONUS
Elena walked up the catered buffet that she and Sabrina had set up for Hazel’s former client at a local hall they rented out. They had ordered Chinese food, the head of the company’s favorite according to Hazel’s detailed lists she had emailed over earlier that day.
“The spring rolls, you added peanuts as Hazel requested, correct?” Elena asked the head caterer, emphasizing Hazel’s name.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, putting out the last of the food.
“And the cookies as well? I only ask because it’s important, Hazel said the client loves peanuts and he’s one of our biggest clients,” Elena smiled.
“Yes, the cookies have them as well,” the caterer answered in a monotone, clearly not interested in Elena’s over–explaining.
“Excellent,” Elena stepped away from the buffet and pulled out her phone.
She opened a new message with Sabrina. “Everything is set just the way we ordered it!” She sent
“Perfect 🙂 “Sabrina sent back.
Earlier that day, as soon as Hazel had sent over her client list, Sabrina and Elena got together to look over the documents. Hazel had been very thorough in her notes. For each big name in the company, she had a list of their closest family members, likes, dislikes, topics they liked to discuss, and just all kinds of info that one would need to schmooze with them. It must have taken her years to compile all of it, Elena had thought.
“I hate how good these files are,” Sabrina had said. “No wonder Logan won’t just fire her. Look at all this
shit.”
A bolt of lightning hit Elena. “I bet there is something in here we could use to get Hazel fired.”
“What? How?”
“Like. take some of this info and use it against the client, pin it on Hazel, then boom, she’s out of here.” Elena explained.
“Okay,” Sabrina said with a smile. “I like the way you think.”
Over the course of the next hour, the two of them scoured through the lists, trying to find something in them they could potentially use to get Hazel fired over Then, Elena came across Paul Hanson’s file. He was the head of Hanson and Associates, one of the company’s biggest clients. She read his list out loud:
“Loves taekwondo, has three children (Jeff, 3; Alice, 6; and Amanda, 12) and a wife of 20 years (Jillian), big football fan, favorite foods: Chinese and Mexican, blah blah blah…”
She scrolled to the end of the list and saw in all caps: SEVERE PEANUT ALLERGY.”
“Bingo.”
From there, they came up with the idea that they would order a Chinese buffet in Hazel’s name, and make it seem that she requested adding peanuts to various dishes.
Chapter 0137
+25 BONUS
Elena walked around the few tables that had been set up for the dinner, to make sure everything was set and in place. Paul was bringing his wife and a few others from the company to meet with Elena so they could get to know her, and they were due to arrive any minute.
After straightening out the last of the forks on the tables, a small crowd walked through the doors. Elena turned to them. She tugged at her clothes to make sure they looked perfect, then walked over to them.
“Hi, welcome! My name is Elena, I will be your new contact with the company. I’m so glad you could join me this evening! Please help yourself to the buffet and have a seat wherever you’d like,” she smiled at them then gestured towards the buffet.
The crowd walked to the buffet except for one middle–aged couple towards the back. They walked to Elena and the man outstretched his hand to her.
“So nice to meet you Elena, I’m Paul and this is my wife Jillian,” he said, shaking her hand.
Elena shook his hand then reached for Jillian’s. “It’s so nice to meet both of you!”
wwww
“I’m looking forward to working with you, but I was sorry to hear about Hazel not being our point of contact anymore. Is she leaving the company?” Paul asked.
“I sure hope so,” Elena thought to herself. Out loud she said, “No, she’s just been reassigned. She helped plan this dinner, however, as a way to say thank you.”
“She was always so kind and considerate,” Paul said. He turned to Jillian. “Shall we grab some food then? I am starving.”
Jillian nodded and hand in hand, the two walked over to the buffet. Elena followed. She watched Paul closely. He was looking at each dish closely before scooping things onto his plate. One of the caterers on the other side of the buffet was refilling the spring rolls.
“Excuse me,” Paul asked him. “Do you know if any of these things have peanuts in them? I’m pretty allergic.”
“Let me ask,” the caterer said and started to walk away.
“I think just the cookies have them, from what I overheard Hazel saying.” Elena interjected. “She warned. me about your peanut allergy.”
Paul and his wife exchanged a ‘how thoughtful!‘ look. “She is such a thoughtful, considerate person, I hope her reassignment was a promotion, she deserves one.”
Elena inwardly fumed. “Something like that.”
Paul grabbed a couple spring rolls and put them on his plate, then continued down the buffet.
Elena smiled to herself. The plan was working out perfectly.
Later t
that night, after I got home from hanging out with Maria, I opened my laptop to start looking for new jobs to apply to. At this point it didn’t really matter where I worked, I just wanted to be away from Logan and all the drama that seemed to be finding me around there lately.
There were quite a few openings for secretaries at local places. I bookmarked the jobs I was interested in the most so I could come back later and apply to them
+25 BONUS
Chapter 0137
My phone began to buzz. I looked over at it. I was surprised to see that it was Logan calling me. I wondered for a moment if it was just a pocket dial.
I pushed the answer button and held the phone to my ear. “Um, hello?”
“Hazel. I need to speak with you in person right now. Are you free to come to the office?” Logan’s voice sounded tired, not anything like how he used to speak to me before Sabrina came into the picture.
“Uh, yeah, okay. I can do that. What is this about?” I looked at the time on my laptop. A sudden emergency 9 pm meeting could not be good.
“It’s too much to explain over the phone. Just get here as soon as possible, okay?”
“Yeah, okay, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
He hung up. Logan hadn’t sounded that serious since he’d first started working for the company.
I slid my feet into my sneakers and grabbed my purse and phone, then bounded down the stairs to my car.
Fifteen minutes later I was bounding up the stairs back into work. My heart began to pound. I had no idea what this meeting could possibly be about. Sabrina, maybe? But why the urgency? What was so bad that it couldn’t wait until tomorrow?
