“Hey, Steph, you listening?”
Tom’s stocky frame leaned into the side of her cubicle. Stephanie secretly hoped it would buckle and send him to the floor.
“Yes, sorry.” Her voice came out so quietly he had to strain to hear her. She tucked a small tuft of her mousey brown hair behind an ear.
“You really need to pay better attention, or you’re not going to get very far in this company.” He took a long sip of his tepid coffee. “Anyway, I’m going to need both those financial reports on that ILP acquisition by Friday.”
Stephanie blinked, looking visibly confused. “But I thought those were supposed to be yours and Steve’s responsibility?”
He coughed. “Yeah, well Steve and I are going to be working on a new restructuring internally, and those new hires we got need to be trained. We’re just going to be too busy for it, and they need to be done ASAP.”
“I’ve already got so much going on, though. I have to get our entire department’s budget report finished before the 15th, and-”
Tom cut her off. “Steph, you’re doing it, okay? I don’t want to get Bill involved, but you know how he feels about people not being a team player.”