Cat on the Fence Read Free Page B

fundraiser should be a last
resort.”
    He sighed and rubbed at his face. “Okay then, no people cuts
and no fundraisers. We could sell off the healthy cubs and increase your bottom
line this quarter by up to thirty percent.”
    Karabi’s stomach churned at the word sell . “We only
trade animals. We don’t sell them.”
    “Not even for a thirty percent profit increase?”
    “Again, we’re not-for-profit. What we need is better
budgeting, not bigger profits.”
    He gave a hearty chuckle—a deep, rolling sound that was
chock-full of belittlement but still somehow laced with masculine charm and
appeal. “It’s quite obvious, Miss Minstry, that finance isn’t your expertise.
But that’s okay, I’m willing to take the time to break it all down for you.
That is after all what I’m here for.”
    “That’s great,” Karabi said, her voice dripping with
sarcasm. “Some of us are here for the animals.”
    “So I see,” Alex said. He bent toward the table and wrote
something down in his notebook. “Salary reviews are coming up next week. I’ll
keep that in mind when we discuss your raise versus those who are here for a
job.”
    Karabi opened her mouth and closed it, speechless. It wasn’t
often that she didn’t have a witty comeback. Robert chuckled and she jerked
around in her chair. She’d almost forgotten there were others besides just Alex
and her in the room. She threw her coworker a threatening glare.
    “Look, I see you two have some differences to work out,”
Robert said. “Should we call it a day and revisit this tomorrow?”
    “I think we could work this out if Karabi and I had a few
more minutes alone to discuss this,” Alex said.
    Robert looked back and forth between Karabi and Alex, then
over at Sandra, who had been sitting very quietly at the table. “What are you
thinking?”
    “I’m thinking we’re wasting our time here,” the middle-aged
blonde woman said with a shrug. “I vote for whichever of Alex’s plans Karabi
will agree to, since this directly impacts her animals.”
    Robert nodded as he gathered up his notes and stood. “Sandra
and I are calling it a day, then. We’re both good with whatever you decide
upon. Try not to kill each other, okay?” He snorted again and shook his head
before he and Sandra left the two of them alone in the conference room.
    Karabi and Alex glared at each other.
    “You’re making this extremely difficult,” Alex said.
    “No, you’re the one making this difficult,” she said,
pointing her finger at him. “I thought you were an expert on managing budgets.
Instead of trying to shake things up here, why can’t you just, you know, manage
the budget? Move some expenses around, find room someplace?”
    “That’s impossible without cutting expenses or increasing
revenue.”
    “Surely we could find wiggle room.”
    “I don’t think you understand just how tight the budget is.”
    “There’s always a way to squeeze something in—no matter how
tight—if you think creatively enough.”
    He raised an eyebrow at her then twisted his lips to the
side. “The zoo already had a lot of plans for expansion in place, and this
extensive medical and care cost is on top of that. The expense is huge .
I understand that youmay have this fairytale notion that it’s easy to
just shove something new, large and unexpected where it’s tight, no matter how
unrealistic that might be. But I’m trying to help ground you in reality so that
you can expand comfortably. You can’t just force it all in without making some
adjustments—it’s just too big. I need you to trust me to show you how to make
this happen with as little pain as possible.”
    Her mind immediately went to inappropriate places and she grew
moist and hot in places that were even more inappropriate. Was he taking her
there intentionally? Why was this man affecting her like this? Maybe it had
been too long since she’d had sex. She needed to try to remedy that soon—her
judgment and her libido