9781618853158SpecialKindofWomanBergman (2 page)

Once
she clocked in, Regina started helping out.

“Say
Gina, can you keep a secret?” asked Linda while they organized everything in
their little mail carts.

“Sure,
what is it?”

“I’ve
been dating this guy and it’s been so amazing. I had to tell somebody about it
and I knew I could trust you with anything.” Linda beamed as they started
toward the elevators.

Regina
smiled a bit. “No wonder you look as if you’ve been on cloud nine lately.
That’s wonderful. Who’s the lucky fella?”

“He’s
one of the executives here in our building and he’s so handsome, girl. I never
thought a girl like me could hook up with someone like him. We’ve been going
out to eat every other weekend for about the past month now. I told him I
wouldn’t tell anybody about us but like I said, I trust you Gina,” Linda told
her as they got inside and headed up.

“Your
secret is safe with me girlfriend, you know I’d never tell a soul.” Regina
tried to pretend that she was happy but deep down, she honestly wasn’t. Why
couldn’t she find happiness like that as well?

“I’ll
check you in a little bit,” Linda told her as she got off on her floor and the
door closed. But instead of going up, the elevator went straight down.

“What
the hell, I pressed ten?” Regina wondered while continuing to the basement,
where the garage was located. When the doors opened, Regina’s whole body froze
as her heart skipped a beat.

* * * *

Collin Noonan was in
bed with his current conquest from the night before last. He looked over at her
lying next to him, her dark brown hair covering her entire face. Glancing at
the clock, he was thankful he didn’t have to be in for at least another hour
and a half. As she started to stir, he leaned over to kiss her shoulder softly.
“You better get on up sweetheart before we are both late for work.”

The woman, Carol
Miller, worked in the same building as he did, looked over and smiled sleepily
at him. “When can we meet up again Collin?”

Collin had no intention
of meeting up with her again, so with a fake smile, he said, “I’ll give you a
call. You want to take a shower?”

“No, I better head back
to my place. I can’t go to work wearing the same thing I wore the other day,
but do call me, all right?” Carol told him while getting out of the bed and
gathering her things together. She slipped on her slacks and her jacket
excluding her underwear and blouse. Walking over to him, she gave him a kiss on
the lips, smiled and walked toward the door.

Satisfied with himself,
he went to go take a shower.

Collin was a man who
had fought hard to get where he was, being one of the top executives at Nichols,
Tatum, Rutherford, and the youngest at thirty-five. A second generation
Irishman, he was born in New York to a family with ten boys, so he knew how it
was to struggle in life. You could tell who the members of Noonan clan were by
the fact they all inherited their father’s striking red hair and hot-headed
temper. But each son also had their mother’s soulful green eyes and sense of
humor making growing up together much easier.

His time consuming work
ethic kept him from dealing with the fairer sex. He thought of women as nothing
more than fun bed partners, when he had time to indulge. The thought of being
in a relationship was a dream. Collin couldn’t fathom any female—besides his
mother—being worthy of long term commitment. Quick and loveless worked for him.

While fixing his tie,
he heard his cell phone ringing that it was time for the morning meeting.
“What’s up John? Thanks for synching me in.”

“Gentleman, now that
we’re all here in spirit if not body,” Marcus Tatum interrupted, “I want to
report the new venture we’ll be getting into this week will put our company on
top. I’ve been talking with Pilkington and McCormick for the past month now and
with their cooperation we’ve got it made.”

Collin smiled as he
heard the celebrating going on.

“So now that we have
that in order, I’ll have John get to what we’re really here for this morning.”

“All right fellas, as
you all know the party is two weeks from now. If you haven’t found a lady yet,
you better get on the ball. I know that half of us have so the rest of you guys,
good luck with searching.”

Some of the men
snickered a bit.

“You know, I’ve been
talking with this one girl in my building. You should see her, she’s a complete
mess. I know she’ll win it for me this year,” said Benjamin Clarkson.

“Now Ben, you know and
I know that the man to beat this year and basically every damn year has been
Collin. I don’t know where the hell you get these women, man, but my God, it
seems they get homelier and homelier with every single party. Have you found
anybody yet?”

Collin chuckled as he
started his car and made his way out of the garage. “Not yet John, but you know
I like to take my time with these things. I have to find the right contestant
before I know she’s my winner.”

Snickers and groans
echoed through the line.

“Okay gentlemen, I’m
headed into heavy traffic. Be there in ten.” He closed his phone and tossed it
on the passenger seat.

A car cut him off as he
got to the parking garage. “Move! Oh come on, where the hell do you think
you’re going man!” Shaking his head, Collin flashed his card to the guy in the
booth, the arm went up and he went straight to his personal parking space. Before
getting out, he grabbed his phone and took a deep sigh. He walked toward the
elevator and pressed the button.

As the doors opened,
Collin saw her standing there, his winner. He didn’t know what to say, so he
started to fumble with his phone to stop staring. Actually he had been watching
her for the past couple of days. Today’s unexpected encounter was the perfect
time to make his move. “How are you today?”

“I’m doing just fine, thanks.”
He noticed her swallowing hard while she watched the numbers light up on the
wall.

He could tell that she
was nervous. Collin enjoyed watching a woman squirm, especially one he suspected
wasn’t used to men talking to them. “Have you been working here long?” She
never looked him in the eye and he could tell she was trembling because the
cart in front of her was rattling. As she rubbed her lips together, Collin had
to admit that even though she was a nervous wreck, she did have some very
luscious pink lips.

As soon as the doors
opened the woman made a hasty retreat from the elevator. He watched her go down
the aisle with her little cart and around the corner. Chuckling a bit, he
continued on his way toward his office to start off his day. “Good morning
Nancy, any calls for me?”

“Just one from John and
another from your mother, she says to call her when you get the chance, she
wanted to know how you were since she hasn’t heard from her son in a couple of
weeks.” Nancy smirked, as he took the note from her, chuckling.

“Did she really say all
that?”

She nodded.

Amused, he continued to
chuckle as he walked in his office and laid the briefcase down on the desk.
Grabbing the phone, he pushed the button especially programmed to speed dial his
mother’s number. After the second ring, someone picked up the phone.

“It’s about time you
called your mother,” Alannah Noonan told her son.

“I’m sorry Mom, you
know how busy I can get, and then when I get home it’s too late for me to call
you. How have you been doing lately?” he asked, sitting in his chair while
Nancy brought him a cup of coffee.

“Well, I’ve been doing
fine my darling boy. I was making some of your favorite colcannon and I said to
me self, I wonder what me boy Col has been up to, I know he would be eating up
the entire bowl if he was here.” He heard her laugh a bit and his stomach
started to growl because it had been a long time since he had a bowl of his
mother’s colcannon. He had tried once or twice before to follow the recipe
himself, but there was nothing better than his mother’s cooking.

“I’m going to make time
to visit sometime this month. I have something coming up in a couple of weeks but
once that is done, then I’ll be home for a hug and a big bowl of colcannon.”
Collin smiled as he continued talking with his mother some more. After he hung
up with her, he quickly called John.

“What’s up Big Red?”

“Nothing much my
friend, let me ask you something, who is the black chick from down in the
mailroom?” Collin knew John had info on every single woman in this building
since he had probably gone to bed with the majority of them.

“Oh, you mean the
silent one; I think her name is Regina. She doesn’t talk to anybody except for
those she feels comfortable with. Extremely shy, I mean so shy that even if a
guy says hello to her, she breaks out in a sweat. Why are you asking?”

Collin only smiled and
said, “I think I’ve found the one.”

“Really, you think
she’s the one who’s going to win it for you this year?”

“I think so. She’s been
so uneasy around me the past couple of days now that I’ve noticed her, I find
it really intriguing. I’ve never had a woman react that way, not even the last few
I had taken to the party. So, this one is going to be a refreshing escapade my
friend and I’m going to enjoy every bit of it.”

The party in question
was something of a tradition the top executives had been doing for a number of
years. The objective was to get a date with one of the homeliest or shyest
women in their office. Wine and dine her, take full advantage of her if
possible, to the point of the girl more than likely falling in love. Before the
party, each man would invite their woman to basically be paraded around to the
rest of the executives so they could figure out who won the bet. The prize—all-expenses
paid week-long vacation to wherever they wanted to go.

“I can’t wait to see
the guys’ faces when you bring her to the party,” John told him with a chuckle.

* * * *

“My God, that was a
close call,” Regina mumbled before breathing a sigh of relief. She had never
felt so scared in her life as when he started talking with her. She needed to
overcome this fear of being around men. But of course that was easier said than
done for Regina Talbot. Right now she needed to concentrate on giving everybody
their mail and pick up whatever needed to go out for the day.

After collecting her
last bunch of packages, Regina waited for the elevator and recognized the guy
from earlier in his office talking on the phone. She had to admit he was
handsome, too handsome to be with someone like her. Looking above the elevator
doors, she noticed the light was off and when she pressed the button again, it
wasn’t staying lit. “What the hell?”

She went over to
Nancy’s desk. “Hey Nancy, can I use the phone? I think something is wrong with
the elevator again.”

“Sure Regina. I thought
they would’ve at least fixed it during the weekend, you know two folks got
stuck in there and it took them about four hours to get them out,” Nancy told
her with a smile.

Regina started to laugh
because she had already heard the story about a guy named Tom from the
ninth
floor and a woman name Melinda. When they finally got the thing operating, they
were literally naked and sweaty on the floor of that elevator. “Maxine told me
that it was pretty steamy in there.” Regina laughed until she heard the guy on
the line and started to talk, but the conversation almost ended up being a big
argument instead.

“This is great, now I
have to take the freight elevator and I hate taking that thing, it always
smells like garbage,” Regina whined as she hung up the phone with the guy.

“Don’t tell me you’re
going to take the mail down those steps.”

Regina smiled at the concerned
look on Nancy’s face. “It’s not like I haven’t done it before. When the
elevator broke down the last time I was all the way up on the
fifteenth
floor. It was quite a workout let me tell you. At least now I only have a few
boxes and some envelopes.”

“Well, why don’t you
let me help you then?” asked a voice from behind. Regina didn’t want to look
behind her and as luck would have it she didn’t have to. “Hold my calls for me
Nancy while I help…” He looked at her as if waiting for her to say her name.

“Regina.”

“Regina with the mail
here, I’ll be back in a little bit. I’ll take the boxes while you get the
letters.” Regina got a hold of the letters and envelopes as he grabbed two
boxes from the cart and they made their way toward the door that led to the
stairway.

All
right Gina, this is the test, you’ve got to remain calm and just head on down
the steps with this man and once you get to the mailroom, thank him for the
help.

“So you’re Regina,
huh?” he asked, starting down the stairway.

“Yes.”

“I’m Collin by the
way.”

“I already know who you
are. I do leave you your mail.” Regina heard him chuckle at her joke.