“Of course, this latest allegation has been a huge shock to all of us.”
Lacey O’Connor glanced up from her phone as Mitchell Tremain, Head of People and Culture, uttered the bald-faced lie without so much as a twitch.
He wore a blue Ralph Lauren dress shirt with his tie loosened and the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. An image carefully constructed to say professional but accessible, management but still in there getting his hands dirty. Why he bothered in a room full of PR and advertising professionals, she had no idea.
Around the crowded boardroom, people shuffled their feet and looked at their shoes. Lacey returned to tapping out her message to her cousin. Just because she was stuck in here while Mitchell worked his way through the next steps in The Dummies Guide to Handling a Corporate Scandal didn’t mean she couldn’t be productive at the same time.
Next, there’d be the spiel about employee wellbeing and doors being open.
“I hope you all know that Langham & Co is first and foremost about our people.” Mitchell hit the next step right on cue. “If you have anything at all that you need to talk about, my door is always open.”
Unless it was after three on a Friday. Mitchell’s tee-off time was four sharp. Not even the scandal that had kept on giving for six weeks had managed to divert Mitchell away from his standing date at the New York Country Club.
Lacey let the side of her mouth lift. She guessed the guy deserved his respite wherever he could find it. Trying to maintain the facade that Langham & Co was something other than a cesspit of inappropriate behavior had to be exhausting. Her small and perfectly formed team the only exception.
Book publicity may well be seen as the prudish great-aunt in the world of advertising and PR. Still, not a single person in her team had been fired in the recent company clean-out. Another bow in her quiver for promotion. One that was already watertight but should come borne on a silver platter. After all, if there ever was a time for the Executive to add another XY chromosome around their table brimming with middle-aged white men, the time was now.
“I’ll hand it over to Guy for the final agenda item, the Chair’s Update.”
Mitchell took his seat as the CEO stood from his end of the table and moved toward the front of the room. Distressed designer jeans and white shirt completed by a carefully curated five o’clock shadow.
There were two good things Lacey could say about Guy McRoberts. The first was that the man kept his hands to himself. Which, until recent weeks, had been a character trait in short supply in Langham & Co. Second, he knew she was by far the best candidate for the next President of PR and Publicity. Had all but promised the job was hers.
She had even done him the favor of drafting the press release announcing her appointment. One that was long on experience and nonexistent on pedigree and family connections.
There was no silver spoon in her mouth. No mother called Bitsy. No father with numerals after his name subsidizing her “little book job.” No antebellum mansion in the South. No youthful summers at Martha’s, sailing and eating clam chowder.
Just her. And her 150 New York Times Best Sellers.
Lacey hit send on her message to Emelia and put her phone on her lap. The Chair’s message had gotten terser as the weeks had gone by, as the headlines continued and the body count had grown.
Guy cleared his throat and winced as he looked at the piece of paper in his hands. Lacey straightened in her chair. This promised to be interesting.
A knock at the door and Guy’s assistant, Sandra, stuck her head through the gap. “Um, Guy. You’re needed right away.”
Guy looked up from the sheet of paper. “Can it wait a couple of minutes, Sandra? We’re just about to wrap up here.”
Sandra shook her head, eighties spiral perm bouncing. “No. It really can’t.”
“Sorry, guys, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Guy looked resigned as he headed for the door, no doubt braced for more bad news on the other side.
“Who do you think it is this time?” Jeremy from accounts sat a little straighter in his chair.
“No idea.” Lacey’s phone buzzed in her lap, and she reached for it. No point worrying about whatever Guy was dealing with. They’d know when they left the room and found another empty desk.