Breath of Scandal (18 page)

That night Dillon brought home a bouquet of flowers, a loaf of bakery-fresh bread, and a bottle of wine. "What's the occasion?" Debra gasped breathlessly after he released her from a searing hello kiss.

-whars for dinner?" "Hamburgers. Why?"

"Good. Because I brought red wine."

"I think you drank a bottle on the way home," she said, sniffing his breath- "You're acting very strange. A husband bearing gifts in the first year of marriage is as suspect as the Trojan horse, Are you having an affair?"

"Absolutely." He lowered his hands to her bottom and pulled her against him. "With the sexiest broad ever to come out of Atlanta. "

"Lil' o1' me?"        .  So," he drawled with a lecherous "None other, sugar pie.

grin, "wanna fuck?"

"Uh-huh.                                   stripped off their They raced each other to the bedroom

clothes, and made love. Afterward, while Debra was catching her breath as she lay amid the rumpled sheets, Dillon slipped from the room and returned with the gifts he had brought home. He laid them out in front of her.

,,What do these three items have in common?" he asked. "They're all bribes."

"Cute. Try again-"

"You must have had a terrific day at work. What's going on?"

"Will I have to find another girl to play with, or what?" "Okay, okay. Flowers, wine, and bread," she mused. s or mold, some"Does it have anything to do with spore

thing like that?"

He shook his head. "It's not so much the flowers as the ribbon around them."

"Red, white and blue striped. " She began to sing. " 'My country 'tis of Thee, sweet land-' "

"Another country whose colors are red, white, and blue. "

:'England. " I

Another. "

She picked up the bottle of wine and read the label. Then, lifting her quizzical gaze to Dillon, she said, "France?" He broke into a wide grin. "Congratulations, young woman! You win first prize."

'Which is?"

:'Two years, maybe more, in Paris!" "Dillon?"

"Actually just outside Paris-Versailles, where the palace is located. I don't think you'll mind living in the suburbs, will you?"

Debra squealed "Dillon, what are you talking about?" He told her about the job Pilot had offered him. "It's for an international insurance firm. They were building a new office complex for their European headquarters. The contracting firm turned out to be incompetent, and the work was scrapped until a new one could be hired."

"Pilot bid on the project?"

"Right. Now Pilot needs a troubleshooting engineer to go over there and whip this mess into shape."

"And Forrest G. Pilot chose you."

He spread his arms away from his naked body and tried in vain to look humble. Debra launched herself against him. He toppled over backward, carrying her down with him and squashing the loaf of French bread.

"Can you believe that he thought living in France would be a drawback?" Dillon asked. "Little did he know that my wife's main ambition in life is to go to France and hone her skills in the language."

"Did you tell him that?"

"Hey, I ain't stupid. I appeared disgruntled over having

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to live abroad and said that ' I accepted the job, I would I Iif

have to have more money,

"What did he say?"       eek raise."

"A hundred dollars a w   nt, they made love again. The In an orgy of exciterne                   for dinner were hamburgers Debra had planned to serve     ad and the tepid substituted with the smashed loaf of bre

bottle of wine. After they had demolished the last crumb the last drop, they lay together on top Of the and drained

scattered, crushed flowers and drowsily discussed their sunny future

The move was a nightmare. There were Passports and visas to obtain, weepy relatives to bid goodbye, and a milThose responsibilities generally

lion loose ends to tie up.                                    if fell to Debra while Dillon was busy familiarizing himse with the unfinished project he had taken on. He was eager to get under way. As it turned out, he went to France ahead

met her at Charles of Debra to make living arrangements and

de Gaulle Airport three weeks later.

Leaving customs, she rushed into his arms and they held escorted her through the busy ineach other close. As he                   how much he had ternational airport, he told her repeatedly

missed her.

"You can't fool me, Burke," she teased as they entered Ig garage. "You've probably gone through a score the parkir                                 eks." Laughing, of French mistresses in the last three we               asked he ushered her toward a car. "Is this Ours?" she

incredulously.

11 'Fraid so." -It's so tiny."

-That's the only way you can survive the traffic over here. you,ve got to be able to slither through or you're stuck for hours

She gauged the   small interior against tile length of Dillon's legs. -Can you fit into that?"

"It's a tight squeeze. As a result, there's something I've

got to tell you. " Solemnly he said, "I can no longer father children. "

Debra pressed her hand against his crotch. "As long as it still works, I don't care."

He was momentarily shocked by her public flirtation, but she reminded him that they were in France and that the French were famous for their tolerance of lovers.

He apologized to her for their apartment, which was on the third floor of a building with an elevator he didn't trust and that he ordered her never to use. It was a narrow, drafty building with four apartments on each floor. "It was the best I could do," Dillon said regretfully as he unlocked the door and swung'it open. "Everything here is so expensive. "

What he found antiquated and inconvenient, Debra dubbed quaint and charming. "We've got a balcony!" she exclaimed, rushing toward the window and pushing open the shutters.

"Not a very good view, though."

The balcony looked down over a sadly neglected courtyard. Within weeks, however, there were primroses blooming from the window boxes Debra had installed. She covered the cracks in the interior walls with colorful travel posters and made casual slipcovers out of bedsheets; to hide the tackiness of the furniture, which had come with the apartment. It soon became a home that Dillon wouldn't have traded for the nearby Versailles Palace.

On weekends, native Parisians made an exodus to the country, leaving the city to tourists like the Burkes. They parked their car on the outskirts of the city and used the Metro. Soon they became expert at negotiating its multilayered, underground stations. Like hungry gourmands at a feast, they consumed everything French. They fell in love with the sights, smells, and sounds of the City of Lights. They haunted the museums, parks, and historically significant public buildings, and discovered hideaway cafes where even Americans were charged fair prices for exquisite meals.

Cathedrals with windows of stained glass were dark sanc-

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tuaries where they sought privacy to kiss instead of prayin comparison to those sold in American hotdogs paled ,

Montmartre alongside original paintings.

To celebrate their first wedding anniversary, they spent a long weekend in the wine country, sampling the local vintages until they grew maudlin, and sleeping in small hotels where the featherbeds were as thick and sumptuous as the sauces served in the intimate dining rooms-

in their paradise.

But there was a serpent  canlan. Dillon's title was superHis name was Haskell S             ction. Haskell handled vising engineer in charge of constru

business matters-PaYTOII, purchasing, and bookkeeping. They bad met briefly in Tallahassee. Dillon had hoped that his first impression of the man would change once they got

ake he had hoped they could be to France. For Debra's s

friends with Haskell and his wife.        out to be as big a Unfortunately, Haskell Scanlan turned    estic. None of the pain in the ass on foreign soil as on dom

construction workers could stand him. An unmerciful timekeeper, he docked their pay if they clocked in thirty seconds late, When the foreman approached Dillon about a pay increase, he took what he believed to be a fair request to Haskell Scanlan. Haskell adamantly refused even to consider it.

-For Chris' sake, give them the raise!" Dillon shouted after a half-hour of heated argument.

"Across the board?" -Across the board."

-That'll only encourage them to ask for more later on." "Hell, Haskell, they're only asking for what amounts to twenty cents an hour-"

"Multiply it out. It adds up."

so raise them ten cents an hour. That would "Okay,

demonstrate our goodwill and might give them enough incentive to stay with us. I lost two good carpenters last week because they could make more money working on that new sports arena that's under construction."

"The carpenters YOU lost were replaced."

"But it took several days out of MY work schedule to

interview and hire them. I don't like losing days. The building is scheduled for completion sometime next summer. I'd like to finish it by early spring."

"Why?" "Because Debra's pregnant. Much as we love it here, I'd like my baby to be born at home."

"Personal interests shouldn't override the interests of the company. "

"Fuck you."

Haskell had all but tsked him. "Resort to that kind of language if it makes you feel better. I assure you it's not oing to change my mind."

9  Dillon res6rted to that kind of language and a whole lot worse before the issue was settled. "I hate to jump the chain of command on him, " he told Debra that night over dinner. "But the man's a penny-pinching prick who can't see anything except the bottom line. What he doesn't seem to understand is that the sooner we get the building up, the more money he'll save Pilot Industries."

"Maybe jumping the chain of command is warranted," Debra said. "You can't be effective if you're constantly quarreling with a man who's obviously jealous of you." "Jealous?"

Haskell and his wife had come to dinner one evening at Debra's invitation, so she had had a chance to observe him. "Dillon, be realistic. You're everything he would love to be. You're handsome; he's not. You're tall and strong and manly, and he's a pale, puny weakling. Despite the language barriers, you get along well with the men, but they ridicule him. Didn't you tell me that they call him the French equivalent of 'asshole'? I don't even think his wife likes him."

He made a moue of grudging assent. "You may be tight, but there's a big difference between determining the problem solving it."

and "Call Pilot. Lay it on the line."

"Issue an ultimatum-Haskell or me?" He shook his head. "I'm not ready to chance that. Haskell's been with the company longer and Pilot puts a lot of stock in seniority. If he chose Haskell, I wouldn't get to finish my building.

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Besides needing the job, I want to see my building finished for my own satisfaction."

Dillon lost two ironworkers the following week. He blew his top when Haskell refused to give him a budget with which to bargain

"'Mey're only trying to manipulate you."

,,Go to hell." Dillon left quickly, so that he wouldn't slam his fist into Haskell's parsimonious puss. He decided he had no choice but to call Pilot.

Wt pleased. 111 certainly didn't think I'd have Pilot was

to worry about personality conflicts from two so-called professionals. "

"I'm sorry I have to bother you with this, but if Haskell und the company purse, I'm going keeps his fist closed M .I'll be forced to hire second-rate to lose qualified builders                   ts that, do we, workers, and I don't think either of us wain

Mr. Pilot?"

static crackled through the long-distance connection during the ensuing silence. At last Pilot said, "Tell him that I personally authorized a ten-cent-an-hour raise across the board."

"Fifteen?" "Twelve, and that's it, Burke. Don't involve me in these squabbles again. I put you in charge of this Project, so take charge . "                                                  ank

pilot hung up before Dillon had a chance to say th you. He reasoned it was a good thing. Otherwise, it might look like pilot was playing favorites instead of exercising sound business sense-

Haskell Scanlan didn't see it that way. "Did you go crying to Daddy?" he asked snidely when Dillon informed him of the conversation with Pilot.

"I told him what I thought was in the best interest of this ect

p roi                                        'Pilot looks at you "Oh, sure," Haskell replied cattily.

and sees a younger reflection of himself. Beneath the gilt as you. He prides of his success, he's as brash and uncouth

himself on being a self-made man- So don't make the MIS-

take of believing that you won this       quarrel on your own merit. You only won because You're the boss's ego trip.,,

Since he had ultimately won, Dillon didn't concern himself with Haskell's opinion. Beyond a few days of cold, miserable rain, things at the construction site ran smoothly through the autumn months. Dillon lost no more workers, because they knew he was responsible for their raise.

The workers seemed to appreciate his talent for remembering their names, his ability to tell a dirty joke like one of the boys, and his sense of knowing when to interfere in private disputes and when not to. He asked nothing of them that he didn't require of himself. He took risks, stayed overtime, ate a packed lunch alongside them, and earned their respect for mixing with them instead of setting himself apart-

Dillon prefered to know his building intimately-every rivet, every cable, every brick-rather than seal himself off in his trailer. He inspected every phase of the construction. His high standards caused his next altercation with Haskell Scanlan.

"What the hell is this?" Dillon was holding a strip of electrical conduit in his gloved hands. The unfortunate electrician whom Dillon had randomly selected to question glanced warily around the circle of onlookers and, seeing no one willing to leap to his rescue, began explaining in rapid French.