Lisa sat in her office, reading her emails over and over again. She was finding it hard to focus after everything that had happened.
Matt hadn't come over during the weekend, nor had he tried to reach out to her to explain what had happened.
Although, she would be very stupid not to know what was going on at this point. The whole time, she actually thought she could win Matt back but... it was obvious now.
She'd never get him back- he was in love with Bobby and she was in love with him. How could she ever compete with Bobby? The simple truth was that she couldn't. No woman ever could. She'd always thought that Bobby could be the perfect woman for Matt.
Lisa wiped a tear as she continued with what she was doing. She'd come in to work very early that morning and was waiting for the first sign of Nora and Brian. She needed to speak to them. She felt so stupid, so incredibly stupid for not seeing it.
Why the hell hadn't they told her? To spare her feelings? Instead, they'd just managed to make her feel stupid. She was sure that Matt was going to be pissed when he found out the baby wasn't his but she didn't give a damn! After all, she was pissed at him for lying to her. Then that stupid stunt he pulled, pretending like they could get back together before chasing after Bobby like that. She hated them! She wanted nothing but to be as far away from the both of them as possible.
Lisa glanced at the clock. They should be walking in by now. She finished sealing the envelope she had on her desk and walked out, placing it on Ben's desk as she did. It was addressed to Matt and she knew Ben would hand it over to him. Then she turned to the elevator... right on the mark. Brian and Nora walked in, his hand on her back as she laughed about something he was saying.
"Oh, Good Morning, Lisa. You're here early." Nora said, noticing how she stood waiting outside their office.
"Good Morning. I know you're just getting in but I need to speak to the both of you. It's absolutely urgent."
----
"Michael, Do you have the numbers I asked for on Friday?" Matt asked with a frown, looking through the papers. He'd gone over them a couple dozen times but they weren't in. He'd almost thought he might have misplaced them or maybe the papers were stuck together. In the end, it was obvious that Michael had not gotten the reports in on time.
It was disconcerting. Usually, the entire office took off early on Fridays and with the party that night, it was understandable that everyone was rushing to go home but if there was something urgent that needed to be finished, the executives never hesitated to stay until it was. He looked at Michael who looked through the stack of papers he was holding. Now that he thought of it, he hadn't seen Michael stay behind on a Friday even one time. He waited, watching as the man shuffled through his papers.
"Here, I have the prelim." Michael said, handing Matt a couple of ruffled papers. Matt raised a brow. This was certainly unacceptable, and Michael should know that.
"I need the real numbers." Matt said with a shake of the head, tossing them back at him.
"I can have those tomorrow first thing." Michael said.
"I needed them Friday." Matt said, making Michael look at him. The two men stared at each other for several minutes, as if silently challenging each other.
"I'll have them EOD." Michael finally said, giving in.
"I need them by two." Matt said and Michael frowned.
"Not possible unless I work through lunch." Michael said.
"We have deadlines to keep, Michael, sometimes that means staying late or working through lunch if we have to." Matt said. "Two."
"Yes, sir." Michael said, shaking his head and moving to pick up the papers Matt had tossed at him. Matt was trying to be patient but this early in the game, it didn't bode well if the CFO wasn't keeping up. It wasn't as if they were asking for something extraordinary. Mistakes were one thing, especially from someone new, but failing to meet deadlines entirely was another.
"Oh and..." Matt began but froze as he caught a glimpse of Michael's wrist.
"Yes?" Michael asked, putting all the papers back into his folder.
"that bracelet..." Matt muttered and Michael smiled, looking at his wrist.
"Oh, this?" He said, flicking the B with his fingers. "I know I must look ridiculous wearing a woman's bracelet but... my girl insisted."
Matt stared at the bracelet.
"Bobby has one just like that." Matt said and Michael chuckled.
"Yes well, I won't say anything if you don't." Michael said, turning to leave. "Two o'clock."
Matt was perfectly still after Michael left his office. That was Bobby's bracelet. That was the same bracelet he'd given to her on Christmas, the one he told himself he'd buy her matching earring for. She'd just... she'd just given it to Michael? Just like that?
Matt stood up. That was absolutely unacceptable. He stood and moved towards his office door, prepared to give Bobby a piece of his mind. He didn't care who heard, it was cruel. It was cruel. Then, as he pulled the door open, he found himself face to face with Ben, who had now dropped all the mail he'd been holding in his hands.
"Sorry." Matt muttered as he and Ben starting pick up the envelopes.
"You're fine, I just didn't get a chance to get this to you sooner." Ben said, standing and handing Matt the rest of the stack.
"Thank you." Matt said, turning and peeking into Bobby's office, noticing it was empty. His eyes darted around the office, searching. He was certainly going to give him a piece of his mind.
"Hey." Nick said, appearing almost out of nowhere.
"Hey." Matt said, noticing Emma was talking to his parents and Bobby was with them, notebook in hand. They seemed to be very lost in conversation.
"I need to tell you something." Nick said, "let's go into your office."
"What's going on?" Matt asked, raising a brow.
"We're going to have a meeting right now." Nick said.
"I don't have one on the calendar." Matt said, looking to Ben who shook his head.
"No, no meeting." Ben confirmed.
"It's an emergency one." Nick said.
"So let's go." Matt began but Nick stopped him.
"I think we should go into your office first." Nick said.
"What? Why?" Matt asked.
"Nick! Matt!" Brian called out, signaling for them to go in his direction. Matt watched as Bobby walked into the office, Michael following closely...
"Well, don't say I didn't try to warn you." Nick said, moving towards their father. Matt glanced at Nick and followed quietly, wondering what could be going on.
"Okay everyone, take a seat." Brian said as Matt walked into the office, noticing how everyone was settling in. "Close the door, please Matt."
Matt closed the door behind him and looked around, noticing how Bobby sat between Emma and Nick, Michael right behind her.
"I'm fine standing." Matt said, when he realized Brian was waiting for him to sit.
"Fine." Brian began, making Matt realize that Lisa was missing. He raised his brow. He'd been avoiding her all weekend, realizing she must know now about him and Bobby and wondering how she would take it. For a second, he considered going to get her.
"Well, we have a bit of a situation here." Brian said, "Something that is going to set us back, unfortunately."
Matt turned towards his father, raising his brow.
"Lisa submitted her immediate resignation this morning. Due to a personal emergency, she will no longer be working with us." Brian said, making Matt turn to stone.
"Wait... what?" Matt asked. Bobby stiffened in her chair, wanting desperately to turn and look at Matt, see the look on his face but instead, she forced herself to continue to face forward.
"I know, it came as a surprise to us too. But she was very insistent it couldn't be helped." Nora said. "Lisa has committed to helping us with the reports and rerouting her emails and calls remotely."
"Remotely?" Matt asked.
"Yes, she's had to leave town. But in the meantime, we need to figure out how we're going to fill that role." Nora said.
"What did you have in mind?" Nick asked and Brian pointed to Emma.
"So, back in the day, before Lida and Volstak got where they are now, the VP of operations and Marketing director were pretty much the same role." Emma said, making Nick's eyes widen.
"I know I'm awesome but I can't do both jobs. The company has outgrown that." Nick said but Emma shook her head.
"No, we realize that. Unfortunately, finding someone with the right kind of experience and knowledge of our company at such a busy time is going to be hard. While we're on the job hunt, we're going to need your support to help fill the gap." Emma said looking at Bobby.
"Me?" Bobby asked, surprised.
"Yes. For now, Nick will take over most of Lisa's role- it's more specialized and he has a marketing degree so it will work out fine. Bobby, we'll need you to support Nick with some of the Operations role. Nothing too crazy, mainly reports, a little management." Emma said.
"Okay." Bobby said, nodding and wondering if she was up to it.
"We're all going to have to pitch in until we can get another Marketing Director on board." Brian said, "And no worries, Emma is already searching for candidates."
"I'm meeting with a head hunter tomorrow morning." Emma said, "But, Bobby, this means you'll have to completely let go of your duties with Matt and let Ben take over."
Matt looked at Bobby, trying to let everything sink in. It was a lot of information very quickly.
"Of course. I'll meet with Matt and Ben to make sure I get everything handed over by tomorrow the latest." Bobby said, jotting something down in her notes.
"Okay. We'll set up a couple of meetings this week to iron out the details. For the moment, we won't be sharing with staff. Emma will write up the memo for later this week. Bobby, please talk to Eddie and have him assist Nick, Nick- Danny can support Bobby for now."
With those last words from Nora, everyone stood and turned to the door but Matt was already way ahead of them, quickly moving into his office, his mail still tightly clutched in his hand.
He moved quickly, not bothering to stop for anyone as he went straight for his cell phone. No answer. He called again. Straight to voicemail. Again, and again.
What the hell was she thinking? Why would she just quit? Just like that? Without telling him what was going on? Did she forget they were having a baby?
There was a soft knock at his door then and after a few deep breaths, he finally spoke.
"Come in."
She moved slowly towards him, unable to take her eyes off of him. Bobby couldn't believe it, especially when she realized that Matt had no idea that Lisa had resigned. Bobby wondered what she had been thinking and why she wouldn't have told Matt.
"What do you want?" Matt asked after Bobby didn't say anything. Bobby was still, surprised by his surliness. Still, she imagined he must be in shock about Lisa.
"You dropped this." She said, holding out a couple of envelopes that she had been trying to smooth out with her hands. They had been badly crumpled in his grip. When he didn't move, she placed them on the edge of the desk.
"That all?" He asked. He stared at her, thinking about the bracelet that should be on her wrist and how it now clung to Michael's. How could she do that? She should have known how that would hurt him. Is that what she was doing, trying to hurt him?
"Yes." Bobby said, turning to leave the room. She didn't know what to do, feeling a little bit like Lisa's disappearance might be her fault. After all, there was no way she wouldn't know about her and Matt at this point. She turned, about to apologize but Matt spoke.
"You can go now." He said, trying to contain his anger. He needed her gone, he was afraid if she stayed in the room, he would shake her, throttle her, beg her... he was afraid he would beg her to tell him it wasn't true.
Bobby took a deep breathe and practically ran out of the room, Matt staring after her in confusion. Then, he turned to the crumpled envelopes, picking them up and going through them one at a time.
He noticed the one at the bottom, the smallest one, his name written across it with no other information. After staring at it for a second, he opened it slowly.
It was from her. It was from Lisa.