My Ambition 2

Chapter 2 

Switched to Slack, typed out a message to Ryan: 

[Ryan-Wellington deal expires 9 AM tomorrow. Penalty would destroy the company. Need you to approve/sign ASAP.] 

Red error message popped up: [Message failed. User has restricted communication.] 

Are you kidding me right now. 

Grabbed the office landline, started hitting up other executives. 

VP’s phone rang twice before going to voicemail. 

Text came through immediately: [Jade, wish I could help but… you know how things are with Ryan and Brittany. Calling him right now would be career suicide, right?] 

CFO actually picked up, voice slurred like he’d been hitting happy hour hard: 

“Jade, sweetie, don’t stress, don’t stress. Ryan’s got… hiccup… got his hands full with relationship stuff. Brittany’s on the warpath. Contract or no contract, domestic drama trumps everything, you feel me? Just… just sleep on it, we’ll figure it out tomorrow.” 

“David,” I cut him off: “Tomorrow at 9:01 AM, we’ll be figuring out how to explain a ten-million-dollar loss to our investors.” 

Dead silence. Then this nervous laugh: “I… I’ll see what magic I can work.” 

Radio silence after that. 

Last resort-I opened our company Slack workspace. 

Posted to #general: 

EMERGENCY ALERT Multi-million Wellington Corp deal expires 9 AM tomorrow. Cannot reach Ryan for approval. Penalty- Company bankruptcy. Anyone with direct contact, please assist. This is not a drill.] 

Channel went dead. 

= 

Few seconds later, Ryan’s avatar popped up, but the typing style was pure Brittany: 

@jade.sterling OMG hun, I know you’re super passionate about work, but Ryan’s literally sick rn and needs his beauty sleep. Posting scary messages this late is giving everyone major anxiety! 

Plus… this huge contract thingy… Ryan’s never mentioned it to me? Jade, I’m worried someone’s trying to scam you! If this deal is fake and the company loses money, that’s gonna be on you, and I just can’t let my man blame himself for that! ?]* 

Every word was a calculated strike. 

Before I could even start typing back, gray text appeared: 

[You have been removed from this channel by an administrator.] 

I actually laughed out loud. 

Every phone call that could be made-made. Every message that could be sent-sent. 

I’d done everything humanly possible. 

Shut down my laptop, grabbed my bag, called an Uber home. 

But couldn’t sleep all night. 

Soon as dawn started creeping through my windows, I was parked on my couch, watching the sky shift from black to gray. 

Exhaustion kept hitting me in waves, but I still couldn’t let it go. 

Ryan had been my mentor, my break. 

I’m just small-town scholarship kid who made it through state school on pure grind. 

After graduation, I got rejected from literally every company I interviewed with. 

Ryan was the only one who took a chance on me, gave me a shot. 

Trusted me enough to let me climb the ladder. 

Sure, the guy flip-flops sometimes, but he’s been a solid boss. 

That’s when my doorbell went absolutely psycho. 

I opened the door-Ryan and Brittany. 

Ryan looked like he’d been hit by a truck, hair all over the place, clutching that company seal like his life depended on it. 

‘Jade! The contract! What’s the status? I’ll stamp it right now!” 

His voice was pure panic as he tried to push past me. 

3rittany was hiding behind him, eyes darting everywhere except at me. 

All that attitude from last night’s phone call? Completely evaporated. 

Looking at their hot mess energy, I had to smile. 

‘Boss.” 

stepped sideways, blocking the doorway, voice quiet but ice-cold. 

You’re a grown man-maybe learn some boundaries?” 

looked them both up and down, emphasizing every word: 

‘Showing up at your single female employee’s apartment at dawn.” 

‘Pretty inappropriate, don’t you think?”