Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 (16 page)

“Oh, thank you,” she said as she
went through. “How old are you?” she blurted.

“Why? Doing a profile on me or
something?”

“Yeah, right. No, I was just
thinking that guys my age don’t hold doors open, then wondering if you are
perhaps not my age, which would still prove me right.”

“You always like to be right.”

“Yes. So I am twenty-five. Are you
my age,,,uh…ish?”

“I am old enough to know to hold a
door open for a lady. But then, I saw a twelve-year-old doing it last week, so
that doesn’t mean much.”

“Well… okay. Regardless, no, I
don’t need help. Yes, I mean, I’ll be okay to get home.” She realized too late
that he didn’t offer to help. Also that she sounded ridiculous.

“Do you take BART?” he asked, less
than convinced she was okay by herself.

“No, freaking Muni. The dredges of
the transportation world.”

They walked in silence for a
minute, both heading toward the train station.

“Where are you headed?” she asked
him.

“I need to send an email or two
before I shut down for the day.”

“Uh, but...” It dawned on her that
he was walking her to the train station to make sure she got there all right.
He had the manners of a gentleman from the 1800s rather than a skirt-chaser in
his late twenties. She said as much.

He laughed in that carefree way of
his. “My mother always said, ‘You can only get respect if you show respect.’”

“Yes but, it seems as though you
aren’t respecting my ability to get home okay.”

“It does seem that way, yes.
However, showing ladies respect is making sure they get where they are going
safely.”

“That seems like a stretch.”

“Okay, how about I enjoy your
company and don’t want to part with you quite yet?”

“Nope. Still not buyin’ it.”

“Tough sell. Okay you got me—I have
a feeling that if I weren’t here, you’d end up flat on your face in the gutter,
and I would have to find a new Marketing Researcher to work on my team. His
name might be Larry.”

“Oh man! Not that guy! He stinks.
But yeah, that sounds more like it.”

They reached the train station.

“I made it,” she informed him with
a smile.

He couldn’t help but stand
mystified at her for some reason. Then he sported a goofy smile.

Finally, he nodded. “Thank God for
me, huh?”

Sean winked and turned to walk back
toward the office. “Oh, and remember to stop by my office tomorrow morning,” he
yelled over his shoulder.

“What no ‘please’?”

“Don’t deserve it,” he called.

Krista could hear the smile in his
voice. She watched him walk away for a minute, admiring his carefree saunter
with his long, graceful steps. Then she turned to go home.

~*~*~*~

Sean walked into his house and
paused. It suddenly felt empty. He put his stuff on the counter, as he usually
did, and headed for the fridge. Cold beer in hand, the next place of interest
was the couch and the sports channel.

He couldn’t get his impromptu late
afternoon lunch out of his head.

Krista was so laid back. So
down-to-earth. She was calm and normal, but unique. She was interesting and
intelligent. The things that whirled around in that head of hers had him mystified
half the time. Despite that, she challenged him in a fun way. Coaxed him to
step out of his business suit and laugh about the small things. It was
refreshing.

She was so out of his league.

As the images flicked through the
TV screen, Sean couldn’t help but feel the quiet of the house descend. It
wasn’t a giant residence, three bedroom, but for one guy who tried to never be
home, it was too big. Too much empty space.

As he always did when he got
twinges of loneliness, he reached for his phone. Then he hesitated. He wasn’t
in the mood for a booty call. He had a few women to choose from, all eager and
willing, but they were dense and unsatisfying in every way. All they were good
for was a warm body, and that wasn’t good enough. At least not tonight.

Putting the phone down, he settled
more firmly on the couch, a strange melancholy overcoming him. Drowning him.

The next morning Krista was
refreshed and energized. She barely noticed the pulsing white blanket of thick
San
Francisco
fog. The clunky, dismembered train and its
hard seats didn’t get her down, either. Even her newly coiffed hair immediately
frizzing didn’t bother her in the least. She was flying today!

She’d been seeing Paul over the
last few months. They’d been going strong with dates and hanging out now and
again. It was a slow, mild way back into dating and trust. Paul was nice, no
two ways about it. He wasn’t prone to outbursts of anger, he always thought of
her first—well, often he thought of her first—and he listened when she spoke.

Krista had really tried to get out
of her own way, quit second-guessing the reasons he was being sweet, and give
in. She wanted to love him. She wanted to make it a thing with him. The problem
was that, while he was certainly attractive, she was having a hard time with
chemistry. They could talk and laugh, but…there was something missing. Thinking
it was her fault, she talked to him about it, giving him a rundown of her
current emotional state and difficulty trusting.

He said he was content to be a booty
call. Krista couldn’t tell if he was joking, which was a bit unsettling because
that wasn’t really what she was after…

Regardless, last night she’d had to
work out some lust issues, and they totally went for it. She came hard and
fast. So did Paul.

When her alarm started singing at
the usual time, she gave it a tap and was up to start her day. Thank goodness
for sex and small miracles.

She walked in the building with a
bounce in her step and a jingle in her jangle. She felt great. She was excited
to start the day with a new assignment—hopefully that gave her plenty to do.

She needed to see Sean but she also
needed coffee. Being that it was his usual time for the break room, she headed
there first. He wasn’t there, but a mystified Cindy was. She apparently didn’t
understand why she was getting a smiling hello. By the “sniffing-shit” look on
her ugly mug, she didn’t trust Krista’s good mood.

As well she shouldn’t.

As soon as Krista could, she
planned on befriending Marcus and figuring out a way to get Cindy back for
being such a fat cow. Now, however, she had more pressing things to think
about.

Like a new opportunity!

Sean was at his desk with his
perfect suit in place, his perfect hair just slightly disheveled, and a pair of
perfect bags under his eyes. That was about when the record needle screeched
off its perfect track.

On closer inspection, it looked
like a ghost haunted him. He had a
five-o’clock
shadow and a wildness about his eyes that wasn’t there yesterday.

Krista gingerly knocked on the
partially open door.

He looked up.

Krista was struck by a blast of
unresolved desperation. It looked like something was eating away at him. His
workload, which was currently stacked on all available space on his desk,
probably had something to do with it.

“Hey Krista, how they hangin’?”
Sean asked as he shuffled some papers and sat back tiredly.

Did he think she was his new buddy
from the gym or something?

She figured if he wanted to paint
her with a pair of balls, she would play it up like they were magnificent balls
indeed. “Hi-ya Sean. They’re hangin’ low, down to the flo’.”

“What’s up?” He didn’t even give
her a smirk. She wondered if his boss shat on his desk last night. Clean up
would put anyone in a bad mood.

“Well, O-Captain-my-Captain, you
said to report to you first thing in the morning. Here I am.”

“Oh right. Yes, please follow me.”
Sean got up, waited distractedly for her to get up, and gestured for her to
lead him out of the office. Once out, he took over the leadership role and
headed up two floors, and then to the right. He stopped in front of an office
about the size of the one he currently occupied. It had a new, ornate desk, two
chairs in front of it, and a plush leather chair behind. There was a plant in
the corner, two file cabinets, and one window to look out onto the floor.

Krista looked around confusedly.
Sean waited patiently, looking the office over. A computer was already set up
with two flat screen monitors and newish office supplies, all arranged on the
desk, waiting to be used.

“Umm, what’s happening?” Krista
asked, staring at the shiny surface of the desk. She had expected to sign some
papers. Or maybe get her assignment with the promotion and raise to follow
later. What she saw was a deserted office.

Sean looked at her in a dazed sort
of way. She could see the tiredness draining his energy.

“There wasn’t anything suitable
near your department. With enough privacy. John wants what we do kept in the
strictest of confidence.”

“But…wait…are you trying to say I
get to work here?” She turned to him suddenly, making him back up. “Do I get an
office? Are you saying I get an office? Do I get to work here? With a door?
Sean, tell me you are kidding. Tell me right now that you are kidding or else I
might try to click my heels!”

Despite Sean’s attempt to be
grumpy, a twinkle infused his troubled eyes and the corner of his lips lifted.
“Yes. Will it work?”

“Oh my god! Yes!” She gushed. With
a ten-gallon smile, she nearly threw herself at him for a hug just as big.
Obviously, she refrained. Randomly hugging bosses was probably not the model of
professional behavior.

“Yay! Thank you!” She moved through
the office as if she was born to it. Behind her desk, she sat in her new seat.
It was
cush
,
just like Sean’s.

“Did you hear that?” she asked,
bobbing in the chair a little.

Sean’s brow furrowed and he looked
around. “What’s that? Something wrong?” His tired eyes turned back to her.

“Listen.” She couldn’t help her
goofy smile as she crouched halfway out of her chair, put her hands out to the
side elegantly, and sat down again with the
cush
.

“Oh, man. This chair is so nice!”
She swiveled like a five-year-old as she checked out her surroundings. Sean,
perking up at her pleasure, fully entered the office and sat in the visitor
chair with a lopsided grin.

“So it works?”

“Does it work? Wait—“Krista jumped
up, ran to the door, and closed it. “I have a door, Sean! An office and a door!
Does it work—what a dumb question! Definitely!”

He regarded her for a moment
longer. She gazed back with a beaming smile, waiting for her good mood to seep
into his tired and cranky visage. Instead, as he took her in, his brow knit and
he became distracted.

“All right,” he smoothed his
trousers over his knees. “I will be moving up here eventually as well. They’re
making a corner office ready for me. For now, I’ll stay put. Good?”

“Aye, aye, Captain.”

“Great,” he got up and made ready
to leave. “Anything else?”

“Um, well, what am I supposed to
work on? And do I take orders directly from you, or does Mr. Montgomery still
dictate my time? I don’t have to deal with Dan crop dusting me anymore!”

Sean’s mental path visibly
stuttered. Halfway through whatever he planned to say, he paused with a
wrinkled nose. “Crop dusting?”

Krista, swiveling in her chair, had
her eyes on the comfortable arm rests when she answered. “Yeah, you know,
walking by while farting. Office crop dusting they call it.” She glanced up.
Seeing his look of hopeless confusion, she explained, “You know, when people
walk through the office while letting out a silent but deadly one? They spread
it out so no one knows who did it…” She raised her eyebrows, mostly unbelieving
he didn’t know of this practice.

A weird, lopsided grin crawled up
the right side of his face while his eyebrows were doing floppy, funny things.
She had a feeling he couldn’t believe someone could be as outlandish as she
was. The guy needed to get out more!

“Well,” she continued, unperturbed,
“that’s what Dan always did. When he had particularly bad gas days, he’d do
walk-throughs and sorta…sprinkle the fart. Crop dusting! I don’t have to hear
him fart anymore! Oh, this is the best day!”

Sean couldn’t help but chuckle.
Sobering once again, he said, “You have a list in your email of what I would
like you to work on. As for bosses…well, James is technically your boss. For
now I am your Team Leader. You listen to me, do as I do, work on what I say,
and we land our guy. After that the sales team will return you, hopefully
unharmed, to Mr. Montgomery.”

The gorgeous smirk was there, but
his eyes were still distracted and haunted. Dude needed to get some sleep.
Maybe he kept on drinking. Hangovers had a way of making even the most gorgeous
people look ugly. Well, in his case, maybe not ugly, but definitely not as hot.

“You okay?” she almost regretted
asking. One lunch didn’t make them friends. In fact, if they were magnets, the
sides pointed at each other at the moment would’ve had a repelling effect.
There was too much attraction there for it to be any other way.

Still, he was obviously struggling.

He looked at her intently, deciding
if he would share his troubles, or not. After a moment, he chose not. “No, I’m
good. Didn’t sleep as well as I could’ve.”

Krista nodded in sympathy. She
hated those nights. Well, actually, she loved those nights because they were
usually drunken bouts of fun. It was the mornings she hated something fierce.

He nodded once and was off.

As Krista looked around her office,
one thing was immediately clear: working for Sean had its perks. So far, it was
definitely worth the sexual frustration. Especially with their new deal.
Hopefully it stayed that way.

As promised, there was an email
from Sean in her inbox.

Dear Krista,

Please see attached. Start working
on the material requested ASAP. If you have any questions, please come to me or
Ray immediately. I will be contacting you in the future to arrange a meeting
with your findings. Until that time, please assume that you are to continue
gathering information. More is better than less.

Welcome to the team.

Regards,

Sean McAdams

Okay.

She opened the attachment. She was
greeted with a Word document filled with numbered informational needs. The page
was full. There weren’t that many numbers—six in all, but each piece of
information requested had about five sub-pieces. It was madness!

Before she decided to be overwhelmed,
she looked at number one. One step at a time. Usually it was a lot easier, went
a lot faster, when a girl just started at the beginning and soldiered through
it. There was no need to feel like she couldn’t do the job.

Not yet.

She was to pull all the information
on jewelry from the company’s database. She was to print out and put together
everything—everything was specified—she could possibly find. And organize it
for Sean and Ray’s viewing pleasure. In addition to organized, it should be
user-friendly, meaning no overbearing math stuff.

Just to see what she was up
against, she did a quick, broad search. It yielded a crap load of information.
Seriously, a crap load!

“Feck.” Moving on.

Next she was to deduce trends
influenced by fashion, economy, social status, global influences, and anything
else she could possibly think of. Within each trend she needed markets and
demographics by region, by world economy, by freakin’ Popeye’s treasure map if
it was available.

Next was the list of visual aids. A
graph was the least of her worries in this section. She was told to get
creative, and above all, make it look aesthetically pleasing to people who were
not math geeks. He actually said “math geeks” too.

Ass…

“Okay, sure.” Next!

After she got all that information from
the system, she was to head to the library. She needed anything new that
might’ve been overlooked in the past. She was to ferret out trends within
trends that might have been marketing-inspired.

Basically, she was to have the
largest, best organized mountain of information in all eternity solely focused
on jewelry.

Then…

Then she was to refine everything
by sapphires, blue and black. Quality, size, what type of jewelry—everything
down to what type of store sold it to what type of person.

That was all number one.

Krista took a big, lung-filling,
solid breath. She read the list again.

Took out a tab of paper to scrawl
down some notes and a plan of attack.

Got overwhelmed.

In that order…

And then, to stop herself from
crying in frustration—which was a huge flaw of hers—she glanced up with the
intent at swearing into the open space, and noticed a looming, male figure over
her.

“Ay!”

After her heart rate slowed she
realized that the looming figure was merely leaning against the door jamb, and
was now laughing at her for yelling at him in surprise.

It was Jacob.

She almost yelled again.

“I came to check in on your setup,”
Jacob said, strolling into the office.

“Oh,” she’d just found a drawback
to the office. “It’s great. I haven’t been here long, but I can log in and
everything.”

“Great,” he sat in a visitor chair.

“I was just reading a list from
Sean McAdams about the freaking mountain of work he expects me to do right out
of the gate!”

A.K.A. Get out.

“I heard he expects a great deal
when he works with someone. Everyone’s a bit surprised he picked you—you being
so inexperienced and all—“

She needed to nip that in the bud
right quick.

“And I’m sure there are plenty of
rumors as to why he picked me, me being so young and inexperienced. I’d expect
that from the gossiping Golden Girls of this company, but you, Jacob?” Krista
gave her best conspiratorial smile and huffed as she shook her head. Hopefully
he would take the bait.