Ruthless

Chapter 1

They exchanged restrained pleasantries at the door of her unadorned, eggshell-white office. Ruth felt a faint desire to flirtatiously touch his arm as he entered, but instead she simply waved him towards the chair opposite her desk. Clay’s cool manner hinted at some hostility as he passed and took his seat.

Although Ruth Wroth had long ago formed a tolerance to this kind of estrangement in the office, Clay’s apparent unfriendliness pierced her thick skin. He was a handsome man and somewhere, buried deep beneath her embedded professionalism, she had hoped that there could be something more between them one day.

Ruth joined Clay and sat down behind her meticulously organised desk in a black leather recliner, adjusted to its maximum height. She consciously adjusted the single frame on her desk, so that the photo of the CEO and herself on the eighteenth hole of the Presidio Golf Course angled towards Clay. She was assuming character. Clay, like everyone else, expected her to behave a certain way – arrogant, robotic and cold. It was easier to entertain this reputation and be disliked, than to be herself and be detested for what she was about to do anyway.

The soft ticking of the faceless clock on the wall filled the silence between them while Clay, Ruth’s latest assignment, waited for her to explain why she had called him in. He fiddled with his tie, smiled tightly and then finally, when Ruth opened her desk drawer and retrieved a document instead of offering an explanation, he opened his mouth to speak.

Like a sixth sense, Ruth pre-empted the breaking point of the uncomfortable silence and interrupted with her well-rehearsed speech. “Techniche is one of the top five leading IT consultancies in the world. We pride ourselves on our people and our ability to outperform our competitors time and time again.” She paused, taking the time to neatly arrange the document on the desk in front of her. Her dark brown eyes flicked upwards and locked onto her assignment.

“Your team, as small as it is, is an important part of the company’s success. Unfortunately, because of you that success has been jeopardised.”

Clay’s shoulders tensed as though he’d been startled by a loud noise. Ruth studied him as he attempted to hide his reaction by readjusting himself in his chair and clearing his throat before speaking tautly. “If this is about the ConEx account, you must understand that I had no idea they were looking elsewhere. I met with the CIO just last week. We had coffee, talked about the new infrastructure projects strategy. He never said a goddamn thing about it.”

Ruth stared into her assignment’s pleading eyes, providing no hint as to how she had processed this information. She had in fact suspected that Clay was privy to and had even facilitated the move of ConEx to one of Techniche’s leading competitors. She had also suspected that he had a plan to move there himself, but his body language told her otherwise.

“The team has worked tirelessly to keep that account. We met all our deadlines.” Clay rubbed his forehead wearily. “I can only assume it has something to do with the increase in our rates last quarter. You have to understand that there was nothing I could have done. By the time I got wind of it, they’d already signed the contract with Sense Tech.”

Ruth broke her dogged stare and looked down at the document on her desk, an uncharacteristic waver in her steadfast routine. A tight lump gathered in the middle of her throat. Usually employee terminations were effortless but this assignment was proving more difficult on account of Clay’s urbane charm.

She flicked to the back page of the document and examined the barely dry signature of Clay’s replacement. The action served to bolster her resolve as much as it concealed her discomfort. Seconds ticked by on the clock. With each movement of the second hand, the ticking seemed to grow louder.