Overcoming Fear (Growing Pains #2) (7 page)

“Except we got stuck with
the
highest
grade
earner,” Kate chimed in.

Everyone looked at Krista again.

“I am about to go sit with Mable,” Krista
said as she slumped against the table.

“I don’t advise it,” Sean muttered. Ray
nodded.

“Well, at that second meeting,” Kate took
over, “we all gave our materials, which for the most part, was a
concise outline.”

“For the most part,”
Jasmine accentuated.

“Yes, one of us…” Kate looked at Krista,
“had the whole damn project done. It was in a binder, on nice
paper, and even had a table of contents.”

“Ah yes, the itemized table of contents,”
Ray said, nodding. “Her specialty.”

“How else would you find what you’re looking
for?” Krista asked reasonably.

“That second meeting was a debate. Krista
against the whole team. Krista’s argument, largely, was that we
were slackers.”

“Well?”
Krista said.

“We spent two weeks with her constantly on
our asses—“

“Constantly!” Jasmine said.

“—
trying to get material
barely published. All because the instructor said the only A he
would give was for original work. I lost my democratic leadership
to a dictator.”

“You were unfit,” Krista said, looking at
her nails.

“The professor tried to get our work
published. Published!” Jasmine said.

“It was a fucking
final!”
Kate added disgustedly.

“We did get published, though,” Krista said
defensively. “It was an obscure paper, but I still think that’s
pretty good for sophomores.”

“You’ve been published?” Sean asked
incredulously.

“As a sophomore in
college?”
Ray added.

“That wasn’t my
aspiration,” Kate said. “It was
her.”

“But you still followed her lead,” Ray
noted.

“You don’t
not
follow her lead,”
Kate shot back.

Jasmine nodded. “The one guy who wasn’t
really our caliber of student, but who still ended up with us
because of numbers, was having a hard time of it. He would’ve had a
hard time even if the Nazi didn’t demand our first-born
children—“

“Now
that…”

Jasmine talked over Krista. “With the added
pressure he was way behind. He had no way of matching our quality
or pace. Krista couldn’t have that, of course, and while we all
thought he would sink and she would go to the professor and get him
reassigned, instead she spent every free second with him, helping
him through the project. He did what he could and probably learned
more on that project than from any other class in the whole of his
college career.”

“That has nothing to do with your
interview,” Krista mumbled.

“So, regardless that it was in college,”
Kate summed up, “we know what it is to work under intense pressure,
for unrealistic expectations, for a boss who won’t rest until you
turn yourself inside-out to give everything you got.”

“Which still isn’t good enough,” Jasmine
said.

“I sound like a huge bitch,” Krista murmured
as Ben walked up and sat down.

“Krista is not a bitch!” Ben said, looking
at each face.

He was so serious, and also pale from the
jokes he’d heard, that everyone couldn’t help but laugh, much to
Ben’s embarrassment and dismay.

“So anyway,” Kate said, turning back to Ray.
“That was the toughest.”

“
Well, I am worried mostly
about work ethic,” Ray said after a moment of deliberation. “You
two seem to like to live life—which is a wonderful trait. I am
thoroughly entertained. But the client we are chasing is one of the
biggest. The CEO, who we are trying to sell to, is sharp. He’s not
one to trifle with.”

Krista didn’t mention that trifling with him
was exactly what she’d done for most of that wine function.

“I don’t like life, actually,” Jasmine said
frankly. “But if you’re happy with Krista, then you’ll be happy
with us. We’ve worked with her a million times. We’ve always
delivered. Ask her.”

“True,” Krista nodded.

Ray nodded. “Well, Sean approves. From what
I hear I will give you a chance. If you can last a week, giving us
material we can use, then I say yes.”

“My interview wasn’t this hard,” Ben said
quietly.

Sean smiled, “You were hired before I even
knew your name.”

Ben looked up quickly as his eyes widened,
“What?”

“Where were you?” Krista asked.

The change in subject had everyone looking
at Ben.

“What?” Ben asked defensively, bracing
himself on the table. “I went to the restroom and then talked with
Mary, Ray’s wife. Why? What’s wrong?”

“Just…” Krista looked at Sean, irrationally
thinking he should’ve pulled babysitter. “You don’t usually wander
off.”

“Oh,” Ben turned red. Everyone stared.

“Oh
what?” Jasmine asked, a smile spreading across her
face.

Ben turned redder. “Mary, Ray’s wife, said I
might like to meet Elizabeth, and then made the introduction.”

“Elizabeth?” Sean asked with a furrowed
brow.

“Brown-haired, slim girl with black
glasses,” Ray summed up quickly.

“Oh
right,” Sean said, focusing back on Ben. “She’s
cute.”

Jasmine threw her pointer finger in Sean’s
face. “You didn’t sleep with her, did you? Or date her? Or break
her heart in any way?”

Sean jumped back so he didn’t get stabbed in
the eye. “N-no!” he stammered, thankful that was the case. “I’ve
only talked to her once, and that was only for five minutes.”

Jasmine kept the finger and the glare for
another second before relenting. Ray had a shit-eating grin on his
face.

“Well, Romeo?” Jasmine asked. “How’d it
go?”

Ben turned ghost-white, “She is sweet and
intelligent.”

“Very
intelligent,” Ray said. “She works in Mary’s company in
Engineering.”

“Math versus art brain,” Krista said
ominously. “I hope you two can find a common ground.”

“Oh, I think we can manage.” Ben had red
spots appearing on his cheeks.

“Gotta love Mary,” Jasmine eyed her nearly
empty beer. “I have a date next week.”

“What?”
Kate exclaimed.

“She set me up. Someone named Mark?” Jasmine
looked at Ray.

“Ah yes. He’s in product development, I
believe.” Ray gave Sean a meaningful look.

“Oh,” Sean said, nodding. Another
competitor. He wasn’t excited about that part of his life merging
with Krista, even if it was just blind dates with her friends.

Jasmine threw her finger in his face again,
from which he jumped. “You haven’t dated him, have you? Or broke
his heart in any way?”

Sean laughed, followed by everyone else.
“No. I haven’t had the pleasure.”

Jasmine smiled, “Will I hate him?”

Sean shrugged and looked away. “He…generally
isn’t into the long haul. We’ve…well…”

“Is he like you?” Kate asked with a blank
face.

Sean couldn’t look directly
into the scrutiny. “In some ways, yes. How I
was.
”

“So…” Jasmine said, looking
at the sky, “not as hot, probably. Not first pick—because Mary
seems to
really
love you for some reason. Ray, you can fill us in sometime.
Probably not really worth much, but single.”

Ray and Sean looked at her wide-eyed. Kate
nodded. Ben and Krista pretended they didn’t hear her.

“Single works for me.”
Jasmine shrugged, finishing her beer. “I’m not looking for a Mr.
Right, I’m looking for a Mr. Right
Now
. Maybe he’ll do.”

With that, Ben changed the subject.

~*~*~*~

The next week Krista saw nothing of Sean.
With her head in her work and the constant information they were
giving the client, she needed all hands on deck, and unfortunately,
she was the only hand. She received emails daily, sometimes twice
daily, from Sean or Ray with new requests for research. Always
more. More, more, more.

One time the research was just to prove that
Sean was right and John wrong about some dispute. Usually Krista
would tell Sean to go fly a kite with a request like that, being
that she had enough to do already, but John was a douche. It didn’t
matter that she was sometimes his favorite, he was still an ass
most of the time. She decided to put all her effort into proving
Sean right. He got reports, graphs, Ben’s expertise, and even a
mini-survey around the company just to pour salt on the wound.
Marcus reported back that John figured out what she was doing, and
made an off-handed comment about only challenging Sean when he
didn’t have Krista to back him up.

The week after, the girls
joined the team, much to everyone’s delight. Not only did work get
done three times as fast, which was Sean’s wet dream, they also
managed to take the art department by storm. With Marcus as
their
in,
Kate
and Jasmine made friends like wildfire. They changed everyone’s
opinion of Researchers with their jokes and deadpan deliveries.
They laughed, they joked, and they poked fun, quieting even Cindy,
who was scared to talk shit for fear one of the girls would show up
at her desk and fling it back in her face. It was the revenge
Krista had always wanted to get, but without actually having to
poke her head out of her office to get it.

The rest of Research would’ve hated them,
Mr. Montgomery especially, if they left their cubes long enough to
care.

It was a rough start, though. In the first
three hours of their trial, Ray thought he’d been right—the girls
would rather mess around than work. That was before Krista walked
into their combined office like they’d been there forever and
handed them a list of things that needed to be done by day’s end.
From there on out, they played as hard as they worked; always
enough time to exchange raunchy stories with Marcus in between
handling Krista’s onslaught of chores.

After the first couple of days, when it
seemed like Sean and Ray were pleased with Kate and Jasmine, and
after the girls got the hook in and wanted to see the project to
its end, Krista thought it wise to go over the timeline of how
ideas got from the source to the client. It was something Krista
wished she’d learned straightaway.

Krista wandered into their office as they
were bickering about some flaw they’d found in the research. Their
shared office was overly large so they could lay out all of their
work on a table in the corner as they collaborated to fill in all
the holes. They were social people, so sharing space would mean
less trips to the art department.

“You girls have a second?” Krista asked as
she took a seat opposite Kate.

“Krista, can you explain to
Jasmine
why
it is
important that we figure out the slump in the market during this
time period?” Kate pointed at one of the lists they were
given.

“Actually, I was going to go over the whole
gamut with you girls and Ben. Hopefully, that’ll answer the
question.” Krista called Ben from her cell, not wanting to get up
to use the office phone, and not caring that Kate gave Jasmine an
“I told you so” look.

Ben answered on the first ring, “Hello?”

“Ben?”

“Oh, yes. Hi Krista. I forgot I was supposed
to say my name when answering. I’m not used to people calling
me.”

“Tell her we got more ideas!” Krista heard
in the background.

“I heard,” she answered before Ben could
repeat it. “Listen, I’m going to go over how an idea goes from you
to the client. Do you want to pop up into K-Jaz’s office?”

“Now?”

“Yes, please.”

“Okay.”

The phone clicked off. Krista needed to
remind him to say goodbye when he was done talking.

Ray happened to be passing by when the girls
were waiting for Ben and stopped in to inquire if they needed
anything; that was Ray’s way of asking why they weren’t working. As
soon as he heard what was going on, he called Sean. In ten minutes
the whole team minus the leader were assembled in K-Jaz’s office,
including a harried-looking Judy who was half-dragged into the
elevator.

When Sean finally made it in, everyone was
talking and laughing, having a good time with a few minutes of idle
chat. He was sporting bags under his eyes, a rumpled shirt and blue
jeans. He scanned the faces, meeting Krista’s eyes last. They
shared a moment, this being the first time they’d seen each other
since Ray’s party. Sean gave Krista a small smile and a wink before
half-collapsing into the nearest chair.

In that moment, they both knew that what
they had in the friend realm was for keeps. There were hurt
feelings on both sides, but the part of the relationship that had
always worked would always work. Without the sexual element, and
the attraction, they could meet in the middle comfortably.

It was nice to know.

“You look like shit, Captain,” Kate said as
he shifted to get comfortable.

“Speak for yourself. What’s Krista got you
girls doing?” Sean asked, leaning back.

“All her work, obviously,” Jasmine
retorted.

As Krista looked over her
notes, she said, “Alright, let’s settle down. We’ve got a lot of
work to do—thank you Captain—so let’s get to it.” Then she silenced
the still-giggling Kate and Marcus with a
look.

Into that look everyone nodded, including
Sean, who looked happy that someone else was taking the reins.

“Okay,” Krista said, getting down to
business now that everyone was paying attention. “Let’s start with
Marcus’s latest idea that is actually worth our time.”