Accident Prone

Monday

9:24 AM

Nathan reached the door of his ex-office and paused at the sight of a new name on the door: "Maximilian Anderson, CEO".

"It's official… I'm retired…", Nathan mumbled.

"Doesn't look like it to me.", Foxy said from her desk while standing up.

Nathan shook his head and entered the office with Foxy who was two steps behind him.

"Can you get those drinks removed?", Nathan asked while gesturing to the bottles on the table in the corner. He knows those are leftovers from Max's after-party which resulted in him being hospitalized. Nathan does not want to be reminded of Max's partying.

The cleaning crew tidied up the place, and the un-finished bottles were arranged on the table.

"It will be done." Foxy confirmed before she started with the schedule: "Your first meeting is at 10 AM on the eighth floor. There are two emails that require your attention and the information related to your morning meetings is here…" She placed two folders on the desk. "Hunter is preparing the data you will need in the afternoon. I will sort it out and have it on your desk by lunchtime."

Nathan looked at Foxy and thought about how Max is lucky to have her and Hunter by his side. They are very competent.

Nathan tapped the desk while taking a seat behind it. "Max was supposed to be here as the CEO."

"He will be. Just a bit later than we thought."

"Is everything in place, as we agreed?"

Foxy understood that Nathan is asking about the things related to Irene Brooks. "Yes. The cameras are in place and Ian is watching Irene's office, this one, and the servers where the sensitive information is stored. Her work e-mail and network access are being monitored. If she does anything out of the ordinary, we will know about it."

"Thank you, Foxy."

Foxy understood that they are done, and she left the office.

Nathan leaned into the chair and rotated to look at the view of Seattle. The usually breathtaking view that relaxed him, was now irritating. Nathan exhaled forcibly while trying to control the rage which swelled inside him. This was supposed to be his retirement, damnit! He wanted to spend a few weeks with Madeline at home, and then they would travel. That was the plan, at least. How can he relax and enjoy with all this mess around? The company does not have a leader and Max did a reckless thing again that nearly cost him his life.

Nathan wondered, where did he make a mistake with Max? Why is Max so… unstable? A man should not go drinking and ruining his life over a woman! Sure, anyone can get hurt and angry and dejected, but a man needs to fight for what he wants, or suck it up and accept the facts, and not shrivel like the world is ending.

Nathan knows that Max always had it easy.

Max promised that he will not do it again, and Liz believes him. The only thing left for Nathan is the hope that Max will stick to his promise because next time, Max might not be so lucky.

Another thing on Nathan's mind is Irene. After their talk at Thanksgiving, Nathan agrees that something is not right with her and that she has a secret agenda.

In his mind, Nathan went over the hiring process several times. He remembered hearing how Irene recently ended a major project at her previous company and that she is looking for her next challenge. After looking into Irene's professional achievements, Nathan was impressed. At first, she was not very interested, and Nathan almost gave up on pursuing Irene as the next director of marketing at the Alpha group but a few days later she called him and asked for more information. At that time, he thought that maybe she did her research and found out that the Alpha group is not a small company... but now Nathan suspects that something else happened. Did Irene find out about Max? Or did something else trigger her sudden interest?

No matter how much Nathan thinks about his interaction with Irene, other than that change of heart at the beginning of the hiring process, she was like any other promising candidate. Nathan wondered if he missed the signals that something is off, or if Irene didn't give any. Ah, only if he knew that she is THE girl who made Max turn into a party animal, he would scrutinize her more.

At Thanksgiving, they agreed that Irene didn't come to the Alpha group on a whim. She is prepared and she will not easily reveal her motives. It might take weeks or months before she makes her move.

Max wanted to fire her, even if that means paying her off for breaching the contract, but Nathan reminded Max that if the corporate espionage theory is correct, their enemies will send someone else and the only way to cut this down is to let Irene in and to watch her in order to find out who is behind her. The only variable was how the execution of this plan would affect the relationship between Max and Liz.

"Elizabeth seems to be supportive.", Nathan said to Max.

"She is. Liz knows that no matter what Irene tries, I will not get back to her because my heart and my mind are set on Liz. I will not be foolish to give a chance to Irene to do anything underhanded. However, that does not mean that Liz will be comfortable with Irene lingering close to me."

Nathan understood the situation and he had an idea… "Irene will not be close to you. You are injured and you will need several weeks to recuperate. Until you return to work, I will be the acting CEO and by the time your body heals, we can see where we are. Take a month off and by then we should have a good idea of what she is up to. I hired her and I want a chance to clear this up."

Max agreed, and so did Hunter and Foxy.

They discussed how they will be keeping an eye on Irene and the meeting ended with them deciding to meet again in one month at what point they will determine the next steps.

While Nathan was lost in his thoughts, outside the CEO's office…

"Excuse me, Miss Foxwell… I would like to see CEO Anderson."

Foxy lifted her gaze from the screen of her computer and met Irene's eyes. "Director Brooks. People don't stop by to see the CEO. You should have sent a request for a meeting with a suggested agenda, and then you will get a slot, based on the priority and availability."

Irene bit the inside of her lip, to prevent herself from snapping. How dares this lowly secretary give her a lesson on how a director should behave?

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