Pushing his chair back, Logan stood. “I’ve got to get back to my office. I’ll let you know how it goes with her. If you’re right, I have a feeling I better get my notes out before I get on the call.”
Alex grabbed his empty plate and weaved through the tables alongside Logan. “Well, I trust you’ll keep me in the loop. I wouldn’t mind seeing her again.”
Logan glanced sideways at his friend and wondered what the hell had actually happened between Samantha and Alex. The way the other man talked, they actually knew each other a little better than he let on.
“Talk to you later.” Logan said over his shoulder, dismissing his curiosity, as he headed down the narrow corridor that would lead back to his side of the building.
“Sure thing, boss.”
Chapter Three
After spending the last two hours walking the floor, talking to her direct reports and getting her Friday morning project updates, Sam managed to work off some of her nervousness.
Like usual, things appeared to be running smoothly, and her projects were on schedule, but her projects were always on schedule.
Her team might have to put in some extra hours in order to figure out a few defects, or overcome a couple of obstacles, but they always seemed to stay on target. Being on time was one of her pet peeves and she’d managed to instill the sense of timeliness in those who worked for her as well.
Armed with the information she needed to schedule the rest of her day, Samantha managed to get through most of her unanswered emails before opting to step out of the office for a quick bite.
There was a great Vietnamese restaurant just two blocks away that she and Liza liked to frequent. For the last few months, they’d managed to escape the nonstop shuffle of the office and go to lunch. Today she welcomed the chance to get her mind off of work.
After they’d eaten more than their fair share, Liza convinced her to run through the coffee shop for an afternoon caffeine fix. As she sat at her desk, drumming her fingers on the keyboard in front of her, Sam wondered if she should have bypassed the extra espresso shot.
She only had a few minutes to skim through her email, check to see if there were any fires she needed to put out as well as review the job description she would be discussing with Logan McCoy.
Feeling slightly frazzled, Sam pulled up the email James sent and opened the attachment to read through the details of the position.
Vice President of Project Operations.
Damn that was a long title.
Trying to stay focused on the words in front of her Sam couldn’t help but think about whether she had actually ever met Logan McCoy. She didn’t think she had, unless he had come through the San Antonio office at some point in the last few years. Being that his name was so familiar, surely she would remember having met him face to face.
It was unlikely she had actually been introduced though, since James often went to visit the Dallas office, at least twice a month, rather than have any of the big wigs show up here. Each month all of the VPs met with the President of Strategic Operations at one or more planning sessions usually held at the corporate office.
As her mind wandered farther and farther from the words on the monitor, Sam found herself reflecting back to the very first day she started on the job. It had been a fairly unremarkable day. Introductions to the company, the people, her work and then left to run through the requirements laid out and put together a plan by the end of the day for a particularly challenging project.
It was a welcome to the company type of project – one that would make or break someone as inexperienced as she was at the time. That had been a challenge, but she had been up to it in her new role as project manager. Nothing had slowed down since then, but how could it when she had taken on the role of director four years before. Nope, nothing slowed down, with the exception of her social life.
As she read through the brief job description, she realized she didn’t feel any better about making a decision. Sure, she was qualified. She was familiar with managing projects and people; it had been her life for the last decade or so. Her biggest concern was related to the actual projects in question.
Surprisingly, the short blurb attached to the email didn’t tell her much besides she would be managing people and projects. Not that her current position was much different, except for the level of individuals and apparently the level of visibility according to James.
At this rate, she could probably stay in her comfortable job with the people she had now and be just as successful – although it may take her twice as long to get to where she wanted to be.
Which was where?
If she sat down and thought about it, which she really hadn’t, she didn’t know what else she would want to be doing. The pace in Dallas was probably twice as fast which meant the pressure was twice as high.