Playing the Bosses

Welp... It's Friday

The Countdown: Five Weeks Until Eva's Deadline

31 Days Left

Eva stood with her arms crossed, looking at Adrian and Justin after they explained their intentions to open a plus-size luxury business that Eva would lead. Her jaw was tense and eyes narrowed.

"Look, I don't want to sound ungrateful, but you didn't think to ask me ahead of time if I would even want to run an entire brand before asking the fucking maf— your bankers for a two-point-five million dollar loan?"

Caleb stood from his seat in the corner of the room where he was watching the exchange. "See. I told you guys! You should've asked her but of course you let your personal feelings get involved."

"It's not that..." Justin turned his attention from Caleb to Eva. "Like I said when I was explaining it, Eva: We want you to run this brand because of your business savvy. "

"Why are you directing that statement at me as if it's addressing my concerns? That response was for Caleb... or yourself. I'm saying that I don't want to run a whole brand for PMC Group and I'm telling you that it was a bad idea to ask for that loan without talking to me first."

"We did consider that it would be additional work," Adrian explained. "That's why we set aside enough funding for you to hire plenty of support. And we already have thoughts on who from PMC Group we can add to your bench so you won't have to do too much. You'll just need to make decisions and others will execute."

Eva held up her two index fingers in an explanatory manner. "So let me get this straight. You're going to give me my own brand to run and all I have to do is tell people what to do? No added work for me? And I won't be your assistant anymore?"

Adrian nodded. "Exactly. You're the best assistant we ever had, but your skills with business are where we really see your value for the company. So, we want you to use that to your fullest extent with this new brand, a brand that will be revolutionary for our industry."

"Eva, I know it's a big change," Justin added. "But we thought this through and we're here to support your all the way through the process. We don't want this to be a burden. We want it to be a gift that keeps on giving."

"This is still a big undertaking and you should've asked me about it first."

"You're right and we're sorry about that... we talked it through yesterday while you were at the spa... We realized that while we did think a lot of this through, we still could've been more considerate of the other implications that come with running a business outside of the work itself."

Caleb scoffed his amusement at Justin's words as he shook his head. "Fucking whipped," he whispered under his breath.

"You guys let your personal feelings impact your decision-making about business," Eva said abruptly. "That's not a smart move."

Stuck on the first part of her statement, Justin and Adrian were taken aback — both of them unsure how to respond.

Taking note of their incredulous expressions, Eva continued. As she spoke, her voice went lower and lower, reaching almost a mumble by the time she reached the end of her statement. "I just mean that I know we've all grown closer in recent months and that you care about me... like I care about you... I think that affected your decision-making a bit too much, though."

"R-right," Adrian replied.

"You have a point..." Justin admitted.

"Told you guys," Caleb grumbled.

"Is that it?" Eva asked, her face now blank as she looked over the men. "Can I go now?"

"We still haven't gotten an answer from you," Justin responded.