Yeah. Well. ”They can bite me,” Kerry responded. ”They assumed all kinds of things anyway, Mark. The hell with them.” She glanced up as her order arrived. ”Thank you.” She reached out and took the bag.

”Let me get back upstairs. I know it’s going to be a zoo today.”

”Hey.” Mark touched her hand, giving her a hesitant grin. ”Nice ring ya got there.”

Kerry paused, flexing her fingers a little. ”Thanks. Yeah...um...”

She felt herself blush. ”Dar gave it to me.”

”She’s got good taste.” The MIS chief admired it. ”But then, we kinda knew that.” He winked at her, chuckling as her blush deepened.

”Listen, don’t let all the crap bother you, Kerry. You do a great job, and 284

Melissa Good

most everyone knows that. A lot of the shit’s just jealousy. There’re people that have wanted to get inside that office, and if you’ll excuse the disgusting comment, inside Dar’s skirt for years.” He shrugged. ”It drives ‘em nuts that you just walked in here, and shazam.” He snapped his fingers. ”You got the job, the perks, and the hottest looking VP this company ever had all in one, bigass fell swoop.”

Kerry took the cover off her coffee and took a swallow. ”Thanks, Mark. I know it’s kinda hard to believe. In fact, sometimes I find it kinda hard to believe myself,” she added, in a low tone. ”It’s like magic, you know?” She glanced up at him. ”I feel like a little kid at the circus sometimes.”

He gazed at her, a little disconcerted. ”I don’t know, that’s kinda beyond me, Kerry. I don’t know about a lot of that stuff, but I do know Dar’s been through a lot of shit, and if she finally found someone she really likes, fuck the company, you know?”

That got a smile from Kerry. ”Yeah, I do know,” she agreed quietly.

”We’ll work it out. Its just going to take some time for everything to settle down again. ” She leaned forward, changing the subject firmly.

”Did you really put her picture up on everyone’s desktop?”

He grinned. ”You friggen betcha.” He stood, and indicated that she precede him. ”C’mon, I’ve been hiding cause I know she’s gonna kick my ass when she sees it, but it was too good a shot to pass up.”

Kerry laughed, and held the door for him. ”Oh yeah, she was having a fit, but I convinced her to leave it until we got in, because I wanted to see it.”

They walked outside and almost crashed into Eleanor and José, who were entering. Both executives backed up, and gave them dirty looks. ”Good morning.” Kerry smiled at them.

”Good morning,” José replied gruffly, circling her as though she were some kind of dangerous animal. Eleanor followed him without a word.

Kerry and Mark exchanged looks. ”Ooo.” The MIS manager winced. ”Gonna be some meeting this morning.”

Yeah. Kerry watched the reactions as they got back into the elevator, and noticed a subtle, but distinct edging away from her. Is there such a thing as a scarlet L, she mused. Or do they think it’s contagious? She leaned back, trying to wash the thought out of her mind.”Hey, Kerry.”

She looked up, to see Elaine, one of the data entry supervisors actually coming closer to her. ”Morning.”

”I hear you guys did a kick ass job up in NC, way cool,” Elaine commented, with a grin. ”You going to meet with the climbing group Wednesday?”

Kerry smiled, relaxing a little. ”Yes, I think so. My hand’s a little sore but I think it’ll be okay.” She gave Elaine a grateful look. ”I missed Hurricane Watch

285

going this past week; be nice to get back to it.” Her eyes moved to where they were getting a disgusted look from one of the administrative assistants. ”Do you have a problem?” she asked the woman directly.

Only the squeak of the elevator was heard for a long moment.

Kerry held the woman’s gaze, her own unamused and stony. ”You can say yes, ma’am, or no ma’am, take your pick,” she added, icily.

The woman sucked in a breath. ”No, ma’am. I have no problem.”

The doors slid open on the eighth floor and the two younger women escaped hastily, leaving the doors to close after them. Kerry settled back against the wall and sighed. ”Jerks.”

Elaine rolled her eyes. ”Phobes.” She shook her head, then glanced at Kerry. ”Don’t let them get to you.”

Them. Kerry considered, as the elevator went to the fourteenth floor. ”So it’s us and them,” she mused. ”Are there a lot of us?” she asked Elaine curiously.

An enigmatic smile crossed the tall blonde’s face. ”I’ll send you an email,” she remarked, as the doors slid open, and they got out. ”You’d be surprised.”

Kerry inhaled, as she watched Elaine and Mark saunter off down the hall. ”Would I?” She shook her head and trotted towards Dar’s office, opening the outer door and slipping in. ”Hi Maria. I’m back,”

The secretary glanced over, and smiled at her. ”I got you some coffee.”

”Muchas Gracias, Kerrisita.” She pointed at the door. ”I think el jefa is still in the shock, you better go see.”

Puzzled, Kerry set down Maria’s little cup of cafacito, then took her bag and entered Dar’s office.

The scent of roses almost bowled her over. ”Jesus.” She blinked, trying to find her lover behind a huge arrangement of three colors of the flowers, which dwarfed her desktop. ”Hello? Dar? Do I need to go get a machete?”

Blue eyes peeked out from behind a creamy, peach colored rose.

”Hi.” It was Dar, at her most sheepish. ”It’s a little big, huh?”

Kerry edged around the desk, to find her lover slouched in her chair, regarding her flowers with some trepidation. ”Dar, it’s gorgeous.

Who sent it?” There must have been three dozen blooms, a dozen in red, in peach, and in yellow. The scent was almost overwhelming.

Wordlessly, Dar handed her the card she’d found on it.

”Awww...” Kerry bit her lip, giving her companion a delighted look. ”That is sooo sweet, Dar. I told you he was proud of you.” She examined the huge bouquet and smiled a touch wistfully. “What a nice thought.”

Dar leaned back in her chair, bracing one foot against her desk and fiddling with her pencil, looking oddly adolescent. ”Guess so,” she replied gruffly, almost but not quite masking the little grin that trembled around her lips.

Kerry leaned over and kissed her on the head. ”You’re daddy’s little 286

Melissa Good

girl, all right.” She watched as Dar struggled with what was evidently an overload of emotion, then finally sighed, and gave into a broad grin.

”Here.” She handed over the coffee, then gently cupped a rose in her hand and sniffed it. ”Oh god, these are incredible. I love that smell.”

”Mm.” Dar buried her muzzle in the cup and regained her composure. ”Guess we can take them home and put them on the dining room table for a few days, hmm?”

Kerry giggled.” Thank god you’re driving, not me. I can’t imagine trying to get us and these flowers into the Mustang.” She looked past Dar to the monitor, and laughed. ”Oh wow. He did a great job with that!”Dar sighed, peeking at the screen. Mark had taken the shot from the newspaper, and scanned it in, then composed a nice looking scroll background, with little dancing Dogberts all over it. ”I’m gonna kill him for this,” she groused, then sighed. ”I have thirty two pages of mail to get through, six inches of inbox, three meetings, and I can’t even get to my desk because there’s a jungle on it. ” She paused melodramatically.

”Can’t I just go home?”

Kerry divided her inbox stack. ”I’ll take half.” She carefully moved the floral arrangement, carrying it over to the side credenza, where she set it down and arranged the flowers carefully. ”There.” Then she crossed back over and headed towards the door to her office. ”Forward me any stuff you don’t want to deal with. I’m going to get started on my own avalanche.” She looked back over her shoulder, regarding a happily munching Dar. ”Dar, at least save a few for after lunch. You’re going to get sick if you eat all of those.”

Dar licked a flake of pastry off her lips, and took a sip of coffee, then poked her tongue out at her lover.

Kerry sighed, and shook her head. ”What a little punk.” She opened the door and slipped through it, heading for her own office.

DAR RECKONED SHE would not have drawn more attention walking down the hall into Personnel if she’d been stark naked. She could feel the eyeballs following her, and if she’d wanted to, heard the comments that followed.

Deliberately she ignored them, rapping lightly on Mariana’s door.

“Come.”

She unlatched the lock and walked inside, closing the door behind her as she faced the woman behind the desk. “Morning.”

Mari leaned back. “Morning” she replied wryly. “How’s it feel to be queen?”

Dar chuckled and took a seat facing her across the desk. “Thanks for the warning.”

Mariana threw up her hands. “You don’t think we all tried to call you? What did you think those pages were, us asking what to order you Hurricane Watch

287

for lunch or something? Good grief, Dar!”

“I know.” Dar leaned on the chair arm. “We turned everything off for a few days. Serves me right.”

The Personnel VP pulled a packet from her desk and tossed it across to her visitor. “That’s for you,” she advised. “Explains your new benefits, and obligations being a member of the board, and so on.”

“Mm.” Dar observed the packet but didn’t reach for it. “Keys to the private baths in there too?”

Mari chuckled. “The keycodes. We are a technology company, after all,” she said. “It really was unexpected, Dar. We were all thrilled when everything started working again—I mean... “ She gave a self-deprecating hand wave. “Most of us really didn’t understand what was going on but hearing the ops people cheering was great.”

“Long night,” Dar agreed. “Lot of hard work for a lot of people.”

“A lot of brilliant improvisation, from what we heard,” Mariana said. “From both of you.”

Dar nodded. “Couldn’t have done it without Kerry,” she said. “She definintely proved why she’s where she is.”

They both were quiet for a minute, as the multiple level of meanings filtered through.

“Alastair sent me a policy memo,” Mari went on. “You have hire/

fire for the whole operation here, complete.” She picked up a folder from her inbox and dropped it on top of Dar’s packet. “Want that to be the first one? I’ve got enough sworn statements of pretty much everything that if he sues, we’ll win.”

Dar leaned over and picked the folder up, opening it to find Fabracini’s personnel records inside. She glanced up. “José should fire him,” she said. “He hasn’t done anything but screw him over too.”

“He should,” Mari agreed. “But he won’t.” She leaned back. “He had the afternoon to spread his poison around before you saved the day. Damage was done.”

Dar shrugged. “You mean about me and Kerry?”

“That too.”

“I don’t care. Kerry doesn’t care. Alastair doesn’t care. Everyone else doesn’t matter.” Dar stood up. “I’ll take a look at this and let you know what I decide to do.” She picked up the other packet. “See you at the staff meeting.”

“That should be fun.”

Dar paused at the door and peered back at her. “For me.” Finally, she grinned, and winked at Mari, before she left and let the door close behind her.

Mariana gazed at the door, then she sighed and leaned back again.

“This is either going to be the best or the worst decision he’s ever made,” she mused. “Talk about no guts, no glory. Alastair McLean, I hope you end up swimming in glory because otherwise I’m going to find someone else’s nightmare to be part of.”


288

Melissa Good

”I’LL BE RIGHT IN.” Dar gave Mariana a wave, as she ducked into the bathroom. Fortunately, it was empty, so she spent a moment just twitching at her clothes, and giving herself dire looks in the mirror. She was wearing the gunmetal gray suit today, with a black silk shirt, the only splash of color the pin Kerry had gotten her down on the boardwalk.

Okay, Paladar. Her jaw muscle twitched. They're all in there, waiting on you. This isn't an executive committee meeting anymore.

This is a staff meeting. They're your staff now.

You are their leader.

Dar winced, and her face wrinkled up into a grimace. Ugh. The slightly widened blue eyes gazed back at her mournfully. I'm too young for this. With a sigh, she reached up and ran her fingers through her dark hair, arranging it in some kind of order, then she took a deep breath, and let it out, settling the neatly pressed fabric over her broad shoulders. Okay. How do we do the ‘tude.