I’d gotten so used to it that I hardly heard the noise anymore.
Since my employer was an airline and the employees I wrangled worked for it too, it made sense for us to be within spitting distance from the actual airport. Our offices were light and airy, and we looked out over a collection of runways with wide expanses of green grass between them.
My first day back at the office had been chaotic, and my second day wasn’t shaping up to be much better. It wasn’t even nine yet, but I was already putting out fires every time I turned around.
On the upside, it didn’t leave me much time to think about Jaxon. While I usually prided myself on having everything in hand and neatly organized, the chaos I walked in on offered a welcome reprieve.
Anna, my newish assistant, stood in front of my desk with a tablet in one hand and a takeout coffee for me in the other. “Yesterday was all about sorting out the most urgent things that happened while you were gone. Today we’ll have to work on returning a ton of calls and messages.”
“Let’s do it.” I waved her into the wingback chair across from me and held out my hand. “Thanks for the coffee—and for holding the fort down while I was gone.”
“Just don’t go away again anytime soon.” She smiled as she slid the coffee across the desk. “I swear it was like people could smell you were gone. The entire workforce seemed to have a collective meltdown.”
My nose wrinkled. “Was it really that bad?”
“Yep.” She turned the screen of her tablet to me so I could see how many unread emails there were in her complaints folder as she scrolled. “A bunch of the ground staff got drunk on the premises again, the luggage handlers might be planning a strike for the end of the month, and there have been a string of infractions by individual employees.”
I rolled my head back and said a quick prayer for patience before jumping in. Picking up my coffee, I opened the corresponding folder in my emails that she had open on her tablet. “Is there anything that needs our attention more desperately than any other matters? Or can we work through it systematically from oldest to newest?”
“Systematically should be fine.” She glanced down when her device started vibrating in her hands, an annoyed scowl flickering across her features. “Actually, maybe we should start with that one first. He’s been calling all day and he’s put in a few calls over the last couple of weeks. He’s getting terminated.”
A loud huff came out of her when the vibrating started up again seconds after it ended. “I don’t think he actually understands English. I’ve told him so many times that you’d get back to him as soon as you’re able to.”
“People tend to get worked up when they’re threatened with termination,” I said calmly. “Let’s get his papers in order and we’ll call his managers before we speak to him. Have you got his file on there?”
“Yeah. Name’s Jackson.” My heart skipped a beat, but then I realized that the spelling was probably different, even though the pronunciation was the same. “They’ve sent him to us because apparently he didn’t show up to work for a week or something.”
My stomach twisted, but it had to be a coincidence. Taking in a reassuring breath, I exhaled it slowly and focused on my job. I could not allow not-my-Jaxon to distract me here.
“What’s his direct manager’s number? Have you got it?” Mentally running over our termination checklist, I identified the next steps we had to take. “We should double-check our own system, speak to management, and get all our ducks in a row before entering into official communication with the employee.”
Terminations could get rough. Coming across unprepared or not having all our evidence on hand only made it so much worse. Anna nodded and tapped on her screen a few times, and a contact email from her popped up on my laptop a few seconds later.
“The manager is Steve Robertson,” she said. “He’s also the one who sent the file over here. They’ve already been in contact with the employee to alert him to the fact that steps are being taken against him. There’s a note on the file about the call.”
“It’s a good thing they’ve gotten the ball rolling.” I took a few sips of my rapidly cooling coffee, but I’d rather have cold coffee than a hot