The Boyfriend Project Page 21

  Samiah had emailed her proposal to her team for feedback. Not twenty minutes later, Grant Meecham came into her office, praising the ingenious plan Keighleigh had sent to him.

  Keighleigh’s smile wobbled slightly. “I was just so excited after the long hours we’ve all spent on Swiss Burger. I wanted Grant to know about the idea ASAP.”

  Samiah leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers over her stomach.

  “So, you were so excited the thought of mentioning that I was the one who came up with the solution completely slipped your mind? Is that what happened?”

  “You know Grant.” Her coworker shrugged dismissively. “He doesn’t look at individuals. He’s all about the team effort.”

  Samiah arched a brow. “So why didn’t you tell him it was the team that proposed the idea? I saw the email you sent to Grant.”

  Keighleigh’s eyes bulged.

  “Yes,” Samiah continued with a nod. “He was so thrilled with your idea that he forwarded the email so I could read it myself. You presented my idea as if it was your own. You didn’t mention the team.” Samiah pushed up from her chair and marched toward her. Lowering her voice, she said, “I’ve tolerated this kind of bullshit in the past, but no more. I’ll be damned if I just sit here while you take credit for my work.”

  Her eyes had grown to a cartoonish size. “It…umm…it’s not that at all,” she said. “You should take it as a compliment.”

  The fuck?

  “A compliment?” She was two seconds from taking off her shoes and earrings and going straight-up Houston Third Ward on this bitch. “You can keep your damn compliments,” Samiah said. “I don’t need them. If you try that shit you pulled yesterday again, I will literally kick your ass up and down these hallways, you hear me?”

  Samiah straightened her shoulders. “I have work to do. You can go back to your desk, or straight to HR. I don’t care. But you need to get out of my office. Now.”

  If she wasn’t so pissed, Samiah would have laughed at the shock on her coworker’s face. But this wasn’t a laughing matter. Keighleigh Miller was well on her way to making a career out of taking credit for other people’s work.

  “Not this one,” she said as she watched Keighleigh scuttle away from her office.

  Having adequately disposed of her nemesis, she returned to her desk and the profusion of projects cluttering her day planner. The minute she sat, Justin Vail’s face popped up on her interoffice messaging app. Samiah, do you mind coming into my office? We need to talk to you.

  Well, hell. Keighleigh must have run to HR.

  No problem, she replied.

  Minutes later, Samiah approached her supervisor’s office, prepared to defend herself. At the same time, she understood that Keighleigh could have taken her words as a physical threat and reported it that way. With Trendsetters’ zero-tolerance policy when it came to office violence and harassment, Samiah may have put her job in jeopardy.

  Justin’s office walls had been switched from clear to opaque, something he rarely did. She couldn’t stanch the instant panic that began to spread to her extremities. She entered the office and the panic escalated to mass internal hysteria.

  Justin sat behind his desk. Barrington Jacobs, Trendsetters’ CEO, perched against the front of the desk, his arms folded over his chest and feet crossed at the ankles.

  She was being fired.

  But why would the company’s owner be in on her firing? That was a job for Human Resources.

  Samiah cleared her throat. “You wanted to see me?” she asked, trying not to jump to the worst-case scenario.

  “We do. Please, sit.” Justin motioned to the empty chairs in front of his desk. She sat, and Barrington took the seat opposite hers.

  “We won’t keep you long,” her supervisor started. “I know you’re swamped with finishing up the Leyland Group and Swiss Burger projects—although Grant told me about Keighleigh’s great idea for that one.”

  She bit the inside of her cheek.

  Deep breaths.

  “We have a proposal for you,” Barrington started. “How would you like to head up your own department?”

  Samiah’s head snapped back. She blinked several times. If someone was recording her right now, no doubt she’d be a meme on Twitter by the end of the day.

  Oh, wait! Thanks to that viral video she was already a meme on Twitter.

  Pay attention.

  “I would like that very much,” Samiah answered. She looked to Justin. “Are you leaving?”

  “No way,” he said with a laugh. “You’ll have to wrestle me away from here. It’s not the R&D Department, although I’m sure you would give me a run for my money if you ever set your sights on my job.” He folded his hands on his desk. “The department we want you to run doesn’t officially have a name yet. In fact, it’s not officially a department just yet. As of right now, we’re calling it Trendsetters Outreach.”

  Samiah repeated the title, unable to mask her confusion. “Can you expound a bit?”

  “The work you’ve been doing, like reaching out to schools and women’s shelters and adoption centers, it’s elevated Trendsetters’ profile in the community and the industry.”

  “It has also made an impact on the company as a whole,” Barrington said. “Your coworkers see the positive work you’re doing and they want to contribute. Take that middle schooler who shadowed you the other day. What was her name? Tomeka?”

  Samiah nodded.

  “That made such an impact. I’ve had several employees approach me about bringing in students interested in STEM. Someone even suggested we devote an entire day to it.”

  “I like that idea,” Samiah said.

  “So do I. Look, I want Trendsetters to be here for a long time,” Barrington said. “The only way the company survives once I’m living out my retirement years on a private island near St. Barts is if we start grooming future computer engineers and software developers early.”

  She could totally see the company’s young CEO retiring by age forty and enjoying a life of leisure on an island somewhere in the Caribbean.

  “What does this mean for my position in R&D?” she asked. If either said that they would offer it to Keighleigh she would pitch a fit.

  “Aparna Bajwa would be promoted into your position,” Justin said. “She deserves it.”

  Samiah let out a relieved breath. She could absolutely get behind that.

  “And my team in this new Outreach Department?” she asked. “Do you have people in mind?”

  “Now, I know we tend to work in teams,” Justin said, reaching over to the Newton’s cradle on his desk. He pulled back one metal ball and sent it careening into its neighbor. “However, because this is a new position that we’re testing—”

  “Implementing,” Barrington interrupted as he grabbed the swaying balls, putting a halt to their clacking. “Testing makes it seem as if we won’t go through with it if it doesn’t work the way we’re expecting it to. That’s not going to happen. We’ll try things out, see how they work, and adjust if necessary, but this is here to stay.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I meant,” Justin said. “Because this is a new position we’re implementing, we’d like you to be the sole architect. You get to mold and shape the new department. As it grows we’ll bring people in to join your team.”

  Now that she knew she wasn’t being fired, Samiah regained a bit of the control she thought she’d lost. She sat up in her chair and placed her folded hands in her lap. “Is it too early to discuss salary?” she asked.

  “Gotta respect how direct you are.” Barrington chuckled. He tapped Justin’s desk as he stood. “I’ll leave the rest to you.”

  Samiah continued to study her supervisor as the CEO vacated the office.

  “So?” she asked. “Will my pay be comparable to that of other department heads?”

  “Not yet,” Justin said. “Pay grade–wise, this would be a lateral move, for the time being.” He held his hands up again. “It does come with
a significant onetime bonus. We can’t ask you to take on something like this without monetary enticement,” he added with a good-natured grin. “As the new department gets better established and more employees are added to it, you will get a pay raise. Not only that, but Barrington is pledging three percent of the company’s annual revenue to outreach programs.

  “You do a lot of good already, Samiah. Just think of how much more you can do with that kind of budget.”

  That’s exactly what she was thinking about. In the past few years she’d cajoled management into committing acts of charity here and there—donating gently used computer equipment, sponsoring youth sports teams, purchasing box fans for a local drive that provided seniors with relief during the scorching summer months. With this new position, she wouldn’t have to finagle funds for her goodwill pet projects. She would have hundreds of thousands of dollars—possibly millions if Trendsetters had a good year—at her disposal. The possibilities made her skin tingle.

  “There’s one other thing,” Justin said.

  She straightened in her seat. “What’s that?”

  “You’ll need to remain in your current position for a few months while concurrently building the Outreach Department. Aparna is leaving for Jaipur next week. She’s had this trip scheduled for her father’s sixtieth birthday celebration since the spring, and she’ll be there for a month. When she returns, it will likely take another two to three months to transition, and that’s being conservative.”

  Samiah surreptitiously sucked in a shallow breath. Four months of essentially working two jobs. Was she expected to sleep and eat? She barely had time for those things now.

  “You’ve given me a lot to consider,” Samiah said. “When do you need an answer?”

  “That’s the other thing.”

  “You said there was one thing,” she said.

  “I meant one thing as in two things.” He held a hand up. “I know. I know,” Justin said. “Here’s the thing. We need to know as soon as possible.”

  “Why the rush?”

  He had the decency to look sheepish. “Barrington doesn’t want you to think we’re only starting this new department to make the company look good, but—”

  “But you need to make the company look good,” she said.

  “Trendsetters will be profiled for Tech News Watch magazine next month. I don’t have to tell you how impressive that is.”

  No, he didn’t. Tech News Watch was one of the largest trade magazines for the tech world.

  “We want this Outreach Department up and running before the reporter gets here.”

  “You want me to build a new department from scratch in a month, while also juggling the rest of my current projects?”

  “Did I mention your bonus will be significant?” Justin asked. “Look, Samiah, I know this is a lot, but there’s not a single person in this company who could do the job that you would do. However, if you’re not up to it, there are a couple of other people on my list.”

  “Don’t go giving away my department before I even get the chance to run it,” she said. “Can I have a day or two to think it over?”

  He nodded. “Let me know by Monday.”

  She pushed up from the chair and thanked Justin for the opportunity. Having the chance to mold this new endeavor into her own vision was intoxicating. But as she made her way back to her office, all she could think about was what she would have to give up in order to make it happen.

  * * *

  The deluge that had sabotaged their plans to hike the Walnut Creek Trail continued to pound against the floor-to-ceiling windows of Samiah’s living room. Other than the occasional ding from the elevator or a faint car horn blaring from twenty-one stories below, the steadily intensifying rain provided the only sound throughout the condo.

  It had been this way for much of the morning. Long stretches of comfortable silences were interrupted by Samiah’s sporadic musings about the new position she’d been offered at Trendsetters. Daniel glided his fingers lazily through her hair, massaging her scalp as she continued to debate whether she should take it.

  He felt her stiffen a moment before she sat up.

  “Oh, my God, I’m an idiot,” Samiah said. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”

  “Have you figured it out?” he asked.

  “Yes, of course! Well, I’ve figured out why I’m having such a hard time figuring it out. It’s because I haven’t made a checklist! I need to write down all the pros and cons.” She started to rise, but he gently stayed her with his palm.

  “No list-making,” Daniel said. “You said you were going to relax today, remember?”

  “I tried. It’s not working. How can I relax with this all up in the air?”

  Daniel lifted her head from his lap and scooted down to the opposite end of the sofa. He claimed her right foot and started to knead the sole of it with his thumbs. Her eyes fell closed and she released a satisfied groan.

  “Okay, run it by me again,” he said. “What are all the reasons you want to take the job?”

  Her eyes still closed, she started ticking the list off with her fingers. “For starters, I would be a department head. It doesn’t even matter that it’s only a department of one for the time being. That kind of thing looks great on any résumé.”

  He squeezed her foot. “You planning to start sending out résumés?”

  “No, but I don’t take anything for granted. Something can happen tomorrow in the tech world and Trendsetters can tank. I learned a long time ago that the key to being in control of your own destiny is to always be prepared, no matter how safe things may feel now.”

  “Smart woman.”

  “Thank my dad for that.” She sat up, balancing on her elbows. “Another huge notch in the pro column is the fact that I get to create this department from the ground up. Trendsetters is basically giving me carte blanche to mold it into what I want it to be. It’s hard to turn down that kind of power.”

  “I knew that had to be a part of it.” He chuckled. “Power is quite the seductress.”

  “Can you blame me? I’m not in this job for my health; I’m in it to get ahead. But the best part about all of this is that running this Outreach Department will put me in a position to help other people get ahead too.”

  “So it’s not just about you getting ahead.”

  “It’s never just about me,” she said. “I always have to consider how I can help those coming up behind me.” She folded her arm over her eyes and released a regretful sigh. “That’s what makes this such a hard decision.”

  “I’m not sure I follow,” Daniel said. “So far, everything you’ve laid out has been a pro. Are there any cons at all?”

  She nodded. “A big one.” With another sigh, she said, “If I accept what Trendsetters is offering, I will have to put my whole heart in it. I’m looking at months of ridiculous hours at the office until Aparna is able to transition full-time into my current job.”

  And just like that, Daniel recognized where this was leading.

  “You would have to put your app on the back burner,” he said as understanding dawned.

  His throat constricted at the resignation in her brief, dispirited nod.

  “Exactly,” she said, her voice small. Crushed. “I’ve been working on this app for years, Daniel. The deadline for submissions for the FITC is just a few weeks away. If I accept this new position, there’s no way I’ll have enough time to get the app ready before the deadline. I’ve never had the kind of momentum behind it that I do now. If I don’t make that deadline, I’ll probably never see it through.

  “So, essentially, a yes to Trendsetters is a no to my own dreams.”

  Daniel hated the defeat in her eyes. He smoothed his palm over her calf. In a quiet voice, he said, “Well that answers the question for you, doesn’t it?”

  “No, it doesn’t. It’s just the opposite. I’m left with an impossible decision and I have no idea which path I should choose.”

  He paused for a moment,
searching for his words. Seeing how upset she was, he wanted to make sure they were the right ones.

  “Samiah, I’m sure it’s occurred to you that you can still work for the Outreach Department, even if you’re not the one who gets it off the ground. You said that Barrington seemed to be one hundred percent behind the idea. He won’t do away with it if you say no. He’ll just put someone else in the position.”

  “It needs to be me,” she said. “I know I sound cocky, but I’m the best person for this job, Daniel. Barrington has more compassion than ninety-nine percent of the CEOs out there, but he isn’t doing this for altruistic reasons. This is to help Trendsetters’ image in the tech world. I want to make sure that Trendsetters isn’t the only winner here. No one else they put in that job will make an effort to seek out young people of color—specifically young women of color—and bring them into STEM, or into Trendsetters. It’s not because they don’t think it’s important. Some don’t have a connection to the neighborhoods where the people I believe they should recruit live. Others just don’t see it as a priority.

  “I’ve witnessed this time and again. Hiring directors will look at two résumés and hold all things constant. They don’t factor in how much harder that young black engineer had to work in order to get into that same position, and how that engineer will bring that same work ethic to the company.” She shook her head. “There is so much good that can come from this.”

  “The same could be said for Just Friends,” he pointed out. “Who knows what it could lead to? You may be five years away from building your own Trendsetters, Samiah.”

  “But can I afford to take that chance when so much is at stake? How selfish would it be of me to turn down the opportunity to do something that would make life better for so many more, simply because I’ve held this dream for an app that may never make it out of development?”

  “It will make it out of development,” Daniel said.

  “But what if that’s as far as I can take it? What if I pass on being the department head and my app idea falls flat? Then what? I’m relying on someone like Owen Caldwell or—God forbid—Keighleigh Miller to do the right thing when it comes to outreach?”