I stare at the computer screen blankly, reminding myself that this is something I enjoy doing, something I'd wanted, asked for, and been granted. When my twin sister and I were brought into the corporate structure of Summers Resorts, we were jointly in charge of operations. Since then, Chelsea has shown a huge aptitude for marketing, and our CEO has made her the Chief Marketing Officer, leaving all operations solely in my charge. And that's fine. In theory.
For the past year, I've been thriving in the solo COO role. Making sure that everything runs smoothly, our resorts are in tiptop shape, and our customers are completely satisfied are things that come naturally to me. But a few months ago, our CEO decided it was time to hire our Chief Financial Officer.
To an outsider, it may seem odd that we didn't already have a CFO, but the company was a partnership until a couple of years ago, and one of the partners (not the one who's now our CEO) was embezzling from the company and ended up going to prison. I've nutshelled most of the drama because there was no shortage of it, and it would take way too long to talk about, but the end of that story is that the partnership became a corporation, and our CEO has outsourced handling the finances. But he's finally found someone he feels he can trust in the role of CFO.
I should probably back up and elaborate a little bit more on the corporation and cast of characters I just introduced.
Summers Resorts: Founded by Drew Summers. A luxury resort chain known for accommodating everything from overnight guests to large conferences. On-site restaurants boast world-class chefs and specialty menus, but you can also find homestyle favorites in nearby cafes that partner with the resorts. Every resort has a spa guaranteed to relax and refresh our guests. At my suggestion (and backed by support from Drew's wife), the chain will be opening smaller, family-friendly sites in the very near future that travelers on budgets can enjoy.
Drew Summers: founder and CEO of Summers resorts, as I already said, but also, my uncle. It's an odd situation. He's five years older than I am. My mother, Drew's older sister, was a teen mom, and she's a lot older than Drew. Consequently, I always felt that Drew was more of an older brother than an uncle. He's also one of my best friends. That doesn't always translate well in the corporate sphere, but it works for us. Best guy in the world, and I'm very glad he took a chance on Chelsea and me when it came time to restructure his corporation.
Chelsea Summers: My twin sister. Fraternal, of course, but we look nearly identical. The Summers family is known for having dark hair, chocolate brown eyes, and dimples. Oh, and of course, they're all devastatingly attractive. My gene pool is amazing. At least what I know of it. All I know of my father's genes is that he had/has deep blue eyes. I know this because Chelsea and I both have them. We're the first in the family to sport that eye color, so all our relatives have to remind us of it when we gather. All of them. Chels and I are joined at the hip, like most twins. We think alike, finish each other's sentences, and don't thrive when we're apart. We have our own houses, but we work together and often go out together. We share the same friend group...you get the idea.
Oh, and I have to mention Drew's wife, not just because she supported my idea about family-friendly hotels.
Haley Summers: Drew's wife. See, the thing is, I knew her first. And when I say I knew her, I mean that biblically. I know. That's fucked up. But it was sort of an impulsive, one-time thing. And it happened a year before she and Drew started dating. She didn't know I was Drew's nephew, but then she found out, and Drew found out about Haley and me, but he thought Haley was cheating on him because he didn't know the timeline, and I couldn't set him straight because I didn't know the timeline either. And everything blew up. It was horrendous. It didn't get better for a long time. Anyway, not getting into the details here, suffice it to say, Haley and Drew finally figured things out, and Drew still loves me. They got hitched, and Haley and I are great friends. That's pretty much all I'm going to say about that. Except, one day, I would like to find someone as gorgeous and amazing as Haley who wants to be with me and not Drew.
And finally, we come to the new Chief Financial Officer.
Samara Townsend: Pain in the neck. Loose cannon. Recipe for disaster. Bane of my existence.Destroyer of worlds...
Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but ever since Drew brought her on, Sammy has turned my life upside-down. Day after day, it's one thing after another. And the hell of it is, she's not even trying.
Take yesterday; I'm sitting at my desk, minding my own business, working on finalizing a contract for security at one of our more upscale resorts. Sammy enters (without knocking, of course) to tell me Drew needs to see me before the day is over.
I knew that. It's on my calendar. Drew and I had our executive managers schedule a time that works for both of us, so I don't understand why Sammy would need to stop by to tell me anything about it. But she did. And while she was reminding me of the meeting that needed no reminder, she managed to spill my coffee on my laptop keyboard.
And she didn't even notice.
She just walked out.
She fried my laptop.
The contracts were late because I had to borrow a computer to finish and send them. And it ended up not being a big deal for the contractors, but my entire day was upended to make room for her coffee-spilling incident.
Which she didn't even notice.
Did I mention that?
And then there was this morning. Sammy was supposed to send me updated financial information from an important client regarding some renovations at the resort in New Haven, Connecticut. It's unusual that we would be renovating it already since the resort is fairly new, but the location is more popular than we had anticipated, so Drew decided to add some amenities that weren't included originally. These included covered parking and some spa treatments that required a revamp of the current space. All good things.
So, I was awaiting Sammy's email, and she sent it right on time. And she somehow managed to turn the whole message into an encoded email that no one could access. How did she do this, you may ask? I have no idea. As with most things Sammy-related, I'm at a complete loss. So, I sent the email back to Sammy, asking her to forward me the original. Which she did. And it arrived encoded. Again.
Not having the patience to wait for Sammy to mess up one more time, I walked to her office to see if I could take care of this myself. I told her what I wanted, and she vacated her desk and computer so I could take a look at the email in question. I checked all the settings, found the problem, and sent myself the email. The whole time, of course, Sammy hovered over my shoulder so she could see why she was email-challenged. Awesome.
Mission accomplished, I went to stand up, but somehow Sammy managed to become entangled in the desk chair. It tipped over and I went down hard, ripping the crotch of my slacks as I did so.
Did I get an apology? No, I did not.
Sammy acted as if this was an everyday occurrence – nothing out of the ordinary. She didn't even notice that I was shielding my crotch so no one could get a look at my plaid boxers as I left.
Nope, business as usual.
I've tried to talk to Drew about her. He looks at me as if I'm insane. Sammy is the perfect corporate officer with him. No mistakes. No spills. No torn clothing. No underwear exposure. How is it that someone who works so well with the CEO is a disaster waiting to happen every time she comes near me? How is this possible?
It's the same with Sammy's interactions with Chelsea. They act like they've known each other all their lives. They work on projects together with exactly zero mishaps. They chat at lunch, and nothing spills. They even go out on weekends. This is another sore spot for me because Chels used to go out with me. But now that Sammy's invited, I'm out.
So this is my life now.
And it sucks.
I hate her.