Chapter 128

Aria’s POV

When I awoke the next morning and checked Liam’s room, he was gone again. I truly had no idea how he could keep up this pace. With a sigh, I turned from his room and went to help the kids get ready for the day.

Once the kids were off on the school bus, I got into my car and drove to the team headquarters.

The parking situation at work had become slightly more precarious as of late. HR had added many new employees but had yet to arrange for more spots in the parking lot. As such, an open spot close to the building was often hard to come by.

Yet, fortune seemed to smile in my favor today. As I came down an aisle, I saw an available open spot, three down from the front of the building. Nearing the open spot, I flipped on my turning signal, indicating to anyone and everyone that I intended to take this spot.

I released the brake, about to turn into the spot, when a car veered in from the opposite direction with such speed, they entirely cut me off. The person, once stopped in my spot, exited their vehicle.

The person was a woman I hadn’t seen before, around my age with severe features and her hair pulled up into a bun. She didn’t even glance at me, even though I was still parked there with my turning signal on. Ignoring me entirely she walked toward the building.

Somewhat shocked, I turned off my turning signal and drove around. Ten minutes later, I managed to find an open spot, at the very back corner of the parking lot, as far as I could get from the entrance.

I didn’t mind the walk, but the blatant disregard of proper parking lot etiquette annoyed me. I was there first and I had my signal on. That woman should have let me gone.

Even so, maybe she had been late for a meeting or something. I didn’t have insist into her life. If she was stressed about the new job, maybe she didn’t even see me.

I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, yet as I approached the main building, I saw her standing outside of it on her phone. She clearly hadn’t been in a rush to get inside then.

Still, none of my business.

She finished the call just before I reached the area that she was. Walking toward the door, she opened it and disappeared inside right in front of me, the door closing behind her, right in my face.

Common courtesy would have been to hold that door open for the person behind her – in this case, me.

It could have been another mistake. Maybe she didn’t see me again.

Though I was starting to become annoyed.

Especially when, a few minutes later, I arrived at the office coffee pot, just to find that same woman pouring the last of the pot into her oversized thermal mug. Then she put the empty pot back in the coffee machine and walked away.

Even though it was still early and others would need coffee after her, she didn’t think of them. Once she had her own mug filled, she had simply walked away.

It was becoming much harder to make excuses for this woman now. One social faux pas, I could forgive. Even two wouldn’t have been a big deal. But now I was starting to feel like this woman had it out for me, whether that was an unreasonable self-centered notion or not.

Too many coincidences added up.

This woman seemed intent on ruining my day.

When I finally arrived at my office, Jackson was already there, nervously pacing back and forth. When he spotted me, he stopped and rushed over to me instead.

“Those rumors I told you? About us getting a new boss?” Jackson said. “They’re true.”

“That’s impossible,” I said. “We already have Liam. Who else do we need?” Plus, as Liam was part owner, they couldn’t replace or fire him. Unless Jackson was suggesting that we had a new direct supervisor, but that seemed as unlikely.

Everything had been running smoothly, from what I could tell, even with Liam being so busy.

Maybe that was just my department though. Perhaps others were feeling more tension. After all, those new employees were still confined to the meeting rooms.

Liam had been so busy. Could a new supervisor help take some of the load off of him?

That wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

“We need to keep an open mind about this,” I said.

“Before I was a driver, I worked somewhere where the management changed, and everything went to hell. The new boss was an asshole, and all the rules changed. Sure, it wasn’t racing, but some things are universal.”

“It might not be so bad to have more help around here. Especially for management.”

Jackson gave me a flat look of disbelief. “I’m telling you, Aria…”

“Let’s just wait,” I said. “We don’t even know who this mysterious person is. We should meet them before we start making assumptions.”

“Mark my words,” Jackson said. “This is going to be a disaster.”

He was overreacting, I was sure of it. Yeah, he was right about new management sometimes making changes that were unpopular, but this situation felt different. Liam was still the boss. He wasn’t going away, to my knowledge.

He definitely would have found time to tell me that, I was certain.

We weren’t under new management. It was just that our current management was getting a little bit of help.

Later that morning, every employee was called into one of the larger conference rooms. Where before, there would have been enough chairs for all of us, now there were too many people. Many had to stand. I was one of the unlucky few.

Jackson spotted me when I came in. He gave up his seat to stand near me.

The room was filled with half people I knew, and half I didn’t. Liam wasn’t there, but his assistant was, standing near the front of the room with that rude woman from this morning.

“That’s her,” Jackson said, gesturing to the pair.

“Liam’s assistant?” I asked.

“No, the woman with her. That’s –”

“If I could have your attention, please,” Liam’s assistant said, speaking into the microphone.

It took a moment with so many people, but eventually the room quieted down.

“Unfortunately Liam has been very busy with this expansion so he is unable to attend this meeting himself,” the assistant said, “but he has asked me to arrange this as a more formal introduction to a woman who will be helping out around here. In fact, she is to become the direct supervisor to everyone here.

“She will be working directly under Liam. So anything you need of him will not go through her.”

The rude woman cleared her throat. “Introduce me, please.”

“Oh. Yes, of course,” the assistant said, blushing slightly. “It’s my pleasure to introduce you to Joanna!”

Many in the room clapped lightly, out of politeness, though several did not clap at all.

Jackson didn’t clap. Neither did I, too shocked to even think of doing it.

The woman who had been rude to me all morning – was now my boss?!