The Princess???

A date?? No we're just colleagues

Jarrod went back to work from lunch. This report looked off for some reason.  So he pulled past reports to compare.  Managers meeting was coming up and this would be surely interesting.

Things have been moving at the speed of light since I became manager. I have been a manager for eight months now and I found that i'm not allowed to quit or step down. Every time I shared it with Jarrod or Marylyn I was promptly fussed at. Marylyn and I have become really good friends, like real friends where I have shared my secrets with her. She shared some with me and bonus this weekend we are having a girl weekend, where I will sleep over at her house. My first sleep over. She got up out of bed and headed to work. 

 The day went by pretty smooth, except for Jack visiting her. She check and rechecked her numbers, conducted meetings with her team. The day seemed to fly by and next thing she know a knock on her door. She look up to see Jarrod standing there. 

"Come in and have a seat. I need to ask you something that I don't want to share in public." 

He entered and sat on the armchair facing her "What's can I help you with?" He asked

"I have been going over my numbers and they are not making sense. I have the numbers from my individual team members and I'm still getting a different figure then this spreadsheet that Jack gave me today that is supposed to be my official numbers. These numbers are lower then the ones I'm tracking and the ones I collected today. Can you look at these numbers and tell me if I have done my math wrong.?"

"You say Jack gave you some numbers?" He asked

"Yes, he brought them to my office and said that I need to improve my numbers and it looked like my team was falling behind so I better watch out before I'm no longer the manager. It came off as a threat, but since I wasn't  paying close attention to him, I don't want to accuse him and it could just be me interpretation of what he said. 

This is a help. "Do me a favor and put all of these spreadsheets in an e-mail to me and just me. I'd like to go over them myself. Don't share this information with anyone else. If we can figure out the issue together and correct it then no one else needs to know. " He said watching her send the e-mail  to him. 

"Get your things, you have me on this with you. Let's get some dinner and a good night sleep and tackle it tomorrow." He said standing up, watching her close her programs and shut down her computer. "Why did you shut down your computer? He asked. " Yesterday morning, when I got here a lot of things were moved on my desk, my chair and it felt odd, so now I shut down my computer.". She said. Hmm there is someone messing with my company.  He took out his phone and text Chase to get him to come in tonight and bug her office to see what is going on. "Hey, just so you know, I'm going to set up some cameras in your office, I just want to take some added precautions with you ok?" He said.

They turned and headed to dinner.

"So I fell down and slid about eight feet from the bottom of the hill to the lodge patio" He said

"When are you going to bring her home to meet the family?" He paused, he knew that cultured, would know it anywhere, he grew up listening to that voice.

:"Hey mom" Jarrod said.

"When are you going to bring her home darling?"

"It's not like that mom." 

"Sure it is, she is beautiful, smart, makes you laugh and you are genuinely having a good time with her. She should come home to meet the family."

"If you will excuse me." Katrinah said. standing

"Please don't leave.."

"I'm only going to the restroom. I will be back." She walked away.

"Mom don't scare my employee. She works for me. One of the best managers I have. She is also going to be the key to figuring out this new problem in my company." He said

"She makes you happy and I want to know her. I saw the way you were lit up talking to her. I have been waiting to see your face light up like that for about ten years now. Please consider more with her. She makes you happy. I just want you to be happy."

"Mom, we are not dating, we are just colleagues. Please don't make more of this then it is. " Jarrod said

" I just  want you to be happy baby. Please just think about considering her for more than friends.:" She kissed him on the cheek, turned and left him.

"Sorry about my mom, she saw something" Jarrod explained.

"It's  okay." She said

"Is everything okay?" Jarrod asked

"It's just that I don't have any family at all. When you said mom, It just brought everything down on me. I'm so sorry for overreacting." She said

"It's fine. Do you want to tell me about your lack of family" He asked.

"No. I'm not  ready to share something so personal with my boss." She said into her bowl.

"I understand. I don't like to discuss my personal  life either. I keep business and personal separate. So on that note. What is going  on with your project?"

" I wish I could say, but Jack really threw me for a loop. It was going great until then. Our numbers were up and we are bringing in more business. I don't understand how he got those numbers and where he got them from." She said perplexed.

"Leave that to me. I have a theory, but I need to see if my instincts are right. I just need you to keep working your plan. Don't change anything, no matter what anyone tells you. You have a direct order from me not to change anything. I have set up a lot of surveillance on your team and you, just to have the data that will solidify or disprove my point." He said

"I'm so confused about work. When you compare the numbers you will see the big differences. I don't know how there got to be such a discrepancy in numbers. I've been trying to make it make sense." she said

"Do you have old spreadsheets with your numbers on them?"

"Thank you for reminding me. I have the screen locked to current to future numbers showing and the past numbers are locked. That spreadsheet is accessible by each team member. They each have a tab on the sheet.  If you can't  unlock it let me know and I can come and unlock it. I will check it." she said, then yawned.

"Let's get you home, so you can rest. I want you to let me handle this from now on. If  anyone says anything to you, immediately come to me. I don't care what I'm doing come to me and say Case J and I will come to hear what you have. I want you to focus on running your team and let me focus on what is going on with this. I'm going to take you home, I want you to get a good night sleep, and tomorrow I want you focused on your team and continuing working on your changes. I also would like for you to come up with a survey to send out to all of our costumers to ask them about the services we provide and what they think of the direction we are going in and what they would like to see. So tomorrow I want you to start on a survey to mail and e-mail to our clients." As he escorted her to drop her home on his way home.