Controlling Vulnerable

Chapter 5

When the IT guy had left, Lara spent a few minutes looking through her apps before Linda appeared to take her into Joe's staff meeting in the board room. He was talking to Scott when they came in, and Lara tried and failed to take in all the other faces around her. Linda rubbed her arm, "This is a two down meeting he has every Monday, and there's his SLT every Wednesday at ten. Don't worry, I'll bring you an org chart later and fill you in on who's who." Lara smiled gratefully as she took the seat Linda indicated. She turned her attention to her new employer and tuned into his conversation, trying not to look too obvious. He and Scott had clearly spent the previous afternoon together with friends, and Scott seemed at pains to talk about Joe's girlfriend's part in proceedings. Lara had a suspicion this was for her benefit, and she felt the full force of being the new girl in the room. She experienced a stab of sadness, realising that despite her interactions with Joe, she didn't know him at all. She was just here to do a job. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that was fine, she was good at what she did and needed to throw herself into work.

Joe's cell phone rang, and he smirked, taking the call. Lara heard him say, "Hey, yeah, me too. You good?" There was a silence, and his smirk grew broader before he moved from where he was standing next to the window and said, "Listen, maybe. I'm just about to start a meeting so I'll call you later." Linda looked at him with irritation which Joe didn't notice as he sat down and began. Lara listened carefully, noting Scott was not very subtly drawing attention to his close relationship with Joe, alluding to outside work activities and throwing in constant sporting references. As the hour drew to a close, Lara couldn't help think that Joe and Scott were pretty much the type of men she disliked in the workplace. Sport and girlfriend obsessed with nothing in common with someone like her. Her heart sank a little, but she pulled together a smile as the others left, and she, Linda and Scott hung back with Joe. Lara could see Scott was angling to join her session, but Joe didn't bite, and he reluctantly left with Linda, who said she'd go bring a couple of coffees through to Joe's office.

Joe opened the door to his newest member of staff, and they walked over to his office. He'd been careful not to show too much interest in his staff meeting once he'd introduced her, conscious Scott wasn't really on board, and he had sway with a lot of the team. They sat down at his meeting table, and Lara suddenly felt nervous as he said, "So what's the plan. How do you want to tackle this? What d'you need?" Lara inhaled, "Well, my approach would be to spend the next two weeks getting to understand each area before I come back to you with a plan. I'll identify a method of assessing where the key risks are, highlight any quick wins with an implementation plan for those, then we can discuss where you might want to invest some cash for new controls." Linda appeared with two coffees, and Lara smiled up gratefully at her. Joe looked as if the wind had been taken out of his sails a little which made Linda smile. He leaned across the table, "Okay. Linda can set you up with any people you need to talk to." The lady in question nodded, and Joe continued, "You know you'll encounter some resistance, right?" Lara smiled enigmatically, "Oh I know." Joe was reminded why he wanted to hire her so much, and added in a serious tone, "I need to go back to my investors. I've kept them at bay while you worked your notice, but they'll want to see a plan and soon." Lara nodded calmly, "Set something up for a month's time. We'll be ready." Joe drank some coffee and held eye contact, "Are you sure? We can't half ass this Lara. If they don't have confidence we're really over this, Callex is in trouble." Lara kept her dark blue eyes fixed on his brown ones and said firmly, "We'll be ready. All I need is your support to access the people to understand your processes, and your commitment to add some controls which some of your people won't like." Joe glanced at Linda, "Linda, can you set up two hours for Lara and me to run through her plan in two weeks' time and call an investor meeting for a month's time to update them."

Later in the day, Linda brought Joe some documents to sign and sat down as he reached for his pen. She gave him a stern look and looking confused he said, "What?" She snorted, "You and Scott this morning. Was all that Farrah looked so hot yesterday, wasn't the Cubs game fucking awesome for Lara's benefit?" Joe rolled his eyes but went a little red, "No!" Linda looked annoyed so he added with a small grin, "She did look hot and the Cubs did win." Linda threw a paperclip at him, "You'd better control Scott. And why didn't you tell me you were seeing Farrah again? She's rung three times this morning and I could have done with a heads up so I could have been ready with reasons to avoid her calls." Joe pulled a face, "Yeah, well she's been 'round a few times and we went down to Tampa yesterday." Linda hummed in dissatisfaction, "I might run a book on how long before I'm helping you get rid of her again, but in the meantime you enjoy her fake figure and her whining about partying. Just don't subject poor Lara to tales of what you get up to and act like a dick." Joe raised his eyebrows, "Harsh!" Linda grabbed the documents he held out and snorted, "Fair."