Executive Affair (17 page)

Claire hesitated. Dinner sounded far too intimate but it was a reasonable suggestion given that they had not eaten all day.

‘I'll take those for you,' he offered, pointing to the carrier bag that she had filled with the contract copies. She gave him the bag and they crossed the street to a traditional Chinese restaurant. She was relieved by the glaring lights and the noise. It was hardly a romantic venue.

‘Cathair want to interview Tony and Jimmy tomorrow. I hope they survive the scrutiny.' Robert's face was creased in a frown as he poured two glasses of water, sliding one across the table to her.

‘Tony should come across well.' She hesitated to comment on Jimmy.

‘It's not Tony I'm worried about. I don't think Jimmy is up to it. He's technically good but he talks too much.'

The waitress put a selection of steaming dishes on the table.

‘Why don't you send Brian instead of Jimmy?' Claire suggested as she spooned some rice into her bowl.

Robert was pensive for a few moments before saying, ‘That's an excellent idea. Cathair aren't very interested in Amtech HK. They're more interested in Amtech the multinational. They keep pushing for reassurance that the worldwide infrastructure will be able to adequately support them should anything happen to the HK office. I like the idea of a Sydney person being the interface – it sells the multinational aspect.'

She felt her face go warm under his approval. The water was also warm when she drank from the glass he had poured her.

It was raining when they went outside after dinner.

‘Do you want to catch a cab?' he asked, stopping to assess the rain from the shelter of the restaurant's canopy.

‘Is the hotel far?'

‘No, it's only a short distance away – we can walk if you don't mind the rain.'

She didn't mind the rain. She walked out from the shelter of the canopy, turning her face up to meet the warm drops.

‘I forgot for a moment that you're Irish! You're used to rain,' he laughed at her.

He was right: it was a disappointingly brief walk to the hotel. They paused inside the entrance.

‘Which floor is your room on?' He ran his hand through his wet hair, the shaken beads of water landing on the tan of his forehead.

‘Nine. You?'

‘Ten … Look, Claire, I'm going to have a drink in the bar. Would you like one?'

She could tell from the intensity of his expression that it wasn't a casual invitation. They were on dangerous territory. This was where she had to say no. But it was so hard. After a day of closeness, she wanted more. It went against the grain to walk away, to take the lift to the impersonality of her room, when she could be in the bar basking in everything about him.

‘Thanks … but I need an early night. Goodnight.'

‘Goodnight.'

She had walked a few steps when she heard him call her name.

‘I forgot to give you these.' It was the carrier bag of contracts she had given him earlier. ‘I have an appointment with Cathair first thing in the morning – you'll need to look at the contracts when you get in.' He looked as if he wanted to say something else.

She took the bag from him, flustered. ‘Okay … Goodnight … again.'

She didn't see Robert the next day – he didn't come back from Cathair. He called her several times, looking for an update on the progress of the due diligence report. She had read through most of the contracts and there didn't appear to be anything serious enough to cause concern.

She went out at lunchtime so she could get some photos of the city in the daylight. Last night's rain lingered and a lot of the city viewing spots were redundant due to the low-lying cloud. Even though she usually hated rain, it suited Hong Kong. The sky was black, the mountains and harbour angry shades of grey, and the streets slick.

It was late afternoon before Brian returned from his interview.

‘How did it go?' she asked him as he took off his wet jacket.

‘It went quite well. I had a few tricky questions but I'm pretty pleased overall. Robert is happy too. He's a lot more optimistic about our chances now.'

She called Fiona when she got back to the hotel that night.

‘What's happening up there? Why haven't you called me until now?'

‘I've been run off my feet.' She yawned as she spoke. ‘I had to work on Sunday and it was late when I got home yesterday … and I think the hours will get longer as the week goes on.'

‘I'm glad that you've got a good excuse. I was worried that you were falling for Robert's charms.'

Claire laughed as she lay back on the bed. ‘I'm tempted, Fi, I really am. I just hope nothing happens that will put what little resolve I have to the test.'

Fiona didn't share her amusement. ‘It isn't funny, Claire. If you can't trust yourself around him, then keep out of his way!'

‘Don't be so cross!'

Fiona softened. ‘I don't mean to be cross. I'm all for you having a passionate love affair. But not with your boss. There are very few rules in my book, and that's one of them.'

‘I know, I know. I just wish I could remember the rules when
I'm around him.' Claire yawned again. ‘Did you try to call me on Saturday night?'

‘How could I call you when I didn't have your number?'

‘Good point … Somebody hung up without leaving a message. I wonder who it was.'

‘It was probably Robert. Asking you to jump into bed with him.'

The tension melted when they burst into laughter.

Robert didn't use the provisional office that Tony had reserved for him. When he wasn't in Cathair, he sat in the engine with the rest of the team. Claire was the only nonsmoker in the group. Every hour or so the team would trickle out to have a smoke in the humidity outside. It was on one of those occasions, on Wednesday afternoon, that Claire was left with Robert on her own.

‘Have you given up?' she asked when he didn't join the others.

‘Not exactly. I'm cutting back. On bids like this, when it gets tense, it's too easy to chain-smoke.'

She went back to the due diligence report. It was nearly complete. A clean bill of health. There were some minor points that the pricing could be easily adjusted to accommodate.

She saw him turn his head in her direction before he asked, ‘Any news from Mark on the upgrade?'

‘Not since last week. Emma downloaded the data and sent it on to Michael. I'm planning to call him when I get back next week.'

‘Good, it sounds as if everything is on track. Ireland's role in all this will be critical in the future.'

She waited for a few moments to see if he would elaborate. When he didn't, she stopped typing.

‘I wanted to ask you about that. You mentioned something before about centralising Finance and IT in Ireland.'

‘Yes, that's still the grand plan. All transactional Finance and IT would be delivered out of Dublin. Payables would be the first function to move.' It was hard to read his thoughts from his brown eyes.

‘Does that mean you'll be reducing head count in Sydney?'

‘Not necessarily. If the natural attrition rate would not solve the problem, we would redeploy the people across the organisation.'

‘How can a centralisation plan work with the time difference between Ireland and Australia?' She couldn't help being defensive.

‘We haven't worked out the details yet … we might put Dublin on twenty-four hours.' His response was infuriatingly offhand.

‘That can't be cost effective.'

‘Do I detect a note of resistance?' There was something like amusement in his brown eyes now.

‘Yes, you do. We have only one Payables person – James. How can you possibly save costs by moving the function to Ireland? Especially when you'll have to pay shift allowance over there!'

Their conversation was cut off with the return of the smokers. She didn't look in his direction again as she concentrated on finishing her report.

It was late when they finished. After ten. There was only the Sydney contingent of the bid team remaining. The others had departed an hour earlier to return to their neglected families for the night.

‘I'm going to have a beer back in the hotel,' Brian announced, stretching as he waited for his PC to log out.

‘I'll join you … Claire?' Robert was looking at her.

‘I think I'll pass … I'm very tired from looking at that report all day.'

She didn't even venture a glance in his direction.

‘Just come along for one, Claire,' Brian smiled persuasively. ‘We haven't had a social drink all week and it will be very late when we get out of here tomorrow night.'

She was always bad at saying no.

‘You guys go ahead. I'll follow you,' Robert said, waving them away. ‘I need to make a call.'

‘How well do you know Robert?' Claire asked Brian as they sat alone in the enormous but empty bar. She couldn't curb her curiosity, hoping for some insight from someone who knew him as a colleague.

‘I do lunch with him every so often. He adds a lot of value – very knowledgeable about the business. Apparently he's a close friend of the president, Donald Skates – they social-ise together.' Brian delivered his limited knowledge in bullet points, his male bluntness having little regard for the detail that Claire craved. ‘Robert told me that he's divorcing his wife – he says they have irreconcilable differences.'

‘She's in San Jose, isn't she?' Claire took a sip of her wine as she spoke so that her question would appear to be casual.

‘Yes. It's a peculiar arrangement with him here and her over there … but I guess it doesn't matter when they're getting a divorce.'

She couldn't relax, drinking faster than normal, waiting for Robert to arrive with an equal mix of dread and anticipation. Brian didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. He talked more to make up for her preoccupation and drank his
beer quickly to keep up with her nervous pace. At eleven, she finally acknowledged that Robert wasn't going to turn up. She struggled to hide her disappointment from Brian.

When she got back to her room, the red light was flashing on her phone. A message.

Hello, Claire. It's Robert. Sorry I didn't make it tonight. My call to San Jose went on for longer than I expected. It was after eleven when I finished and I figured you guys would be gone by then. Okay, I guess I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight.

Who had he phoned in San Jose? Donald Skates, the president of Amtech and, according to Brian, his close friend? Or the wife he was divorcing? She wondered if Robert had been the one who phoned her Saturday night. It hadn't been Fiona. It was unlikely to be Brian. So that left either Robert or someone who had dialled the wrong number. She lay in bed awake, upset that he hadn't turned up, happy that he had at least called her, chiding herself for reading too much into everything he did.

Thursday was a nightmare. The pressure got so bad that by midday both Robert and Claire had joined the smokers. They stood outside in the heat, kept dry from the teeming rain by the shelter outside the foyer.

‘So, tell us, Tony, are you feeling bullish about the deal?' Brian asked, his eyes squinting as he inhaled.

‘I don't know what to think right now. When I'm rational, I believe we have a good chance,' Tony replied, offering Claire a cigarette. She declined.

‘All our sources inside Cathair are giving positive vibes,' Robert said. ‘But if it doesn't come off, the Asia Pacific region will have a very poor quarter.'

There was a tense silence. Losing the deal after the huge investment of time and cost would be soul-destroying.

‘I guess missing out on the Queensland government deal doesn't help the results for the quarter,' Claire commented, to keep the conversation alive.

Robert frowned at her. ‘What do you mean? Nobody told me that we lost it.'

‘Oh,' Claire faltered, ‘Digicom won it … I know someone who works there.' She looked at Brian to assess his reaction to the news.

‘I hadn't heard either,' Brian snapped. ‘Why the hell didn't Frank tell us before he went on holiday?'

Both Brian and Robert were glaring at her, waiting for an answer.

‘Maybe Frank didn't know before he went.'

‘Bullshit! It's his job to know!' Brian was furious.

‘There is absolutely no good reason for losing that deal. Digicom would have come in above our price. Of that, I'm certain.' Robert put his cigarette out and went inside alone.

It was six in the evening. They had spent the whole day running sensitivity analyses on the pricing so that Donald could get a feeling for the risk. Claire was cross-eyed from the model. She went outside to get some air. There was no air – a wave of heat hit her firmly in the face. The rain had temporarily eased and it was a balmy evening but prematurely dark because of the black clouds.

‘Hi there.' Robert stood beside her.

‘Come down for a smoke?' Claire gave him a teasing glance.

‘No, just need a break,' he said, grimacing as he thought of what they had been through during the day.

They were silent for a while.

‘You know, you were right yesterday … about the payables function,' he said out of the blue.

‘Was I?'

‘Yes, it's not cost effective to move it from Australia to
Dublin. I must have been crazy to think it was.' He kicked his shoe against the concrete step, lost in thought.

‘I was thinking about what you said as well,' said Claire. ‘Maybe we should compromise – move part of the function there. The vendor set-up could be done from Dublin. It's not as time-critical as the rest of the role.'

‘And it means that the same person won't be setting up vendors and processing invoices.' There was admiration in his face when he looked at her. ‘That should make the auditors happy, right?'

‘Right – it was one of their issues on last year's audit report.'

He was still kicking his shoe against the step. She waited for him to say what was on his mind.

‘That's what I like about you, Claire. Your honesty.' He looked up again and this time his eyes locked with hers. ‘I appreciate your feedback – I don't often meet people who have your openness.'

She didn't know how to answer him.

‘I suppose you think I'm a grumpy old bastard,' he smiled, stepping closer, shocking her by putting his hand on her shoulder.

‘Just grumpy, not old.'

His hand moved, his fingers stroking the curve of her neck.

‘What are you two doing out here?' Robert jerked his hand away at the sound of Brian's voice. He took his cigarettes out of his shirt pocket, lighting one up without answering.

Claire went back inside. She was shaking, her neck blazing where he had touched it. He might have kissed her had not Brian come along and ruined the moment.

Donald didn't think the contingency provision was enough to cover the risk exposure. Robert was irate as he spoke to him on the phone. The team listened apprehensively, sensing another change to what they thought was a final document. They were running out of time. It was 5.00 am, Friday. The tender was due in the offices of Cathair by nine. They had been in the office almost twenty-one hours now.

Robert crashed the phone down. He took a deep breath to collect himself and his voice was admirably controlled when he spoke. ‘Donald won't budge. He wants to see a bigger contingency provision. But he doesn't want lower margins. Does anyone have any ideas on how to achieve this?'

He looked at the pale faces of the team. They were struggling to stay awake; bright ideas were unlikely. It was a few moments before anyone responded to his question.

‘We could scale down the job grades of the managers. Make them team leaders instead, save about 20K a head,' Tony suggested, flicking through the tender document to get to the relevant pricing schedule.

‘Brian?' Robert was sharp as he looked at Brian for reassurance that the delivery wouldn't be impacted by the cost-cutting.

‘I agree with Tony: the managers' salary line is the only area where we can make a cut. It's not desirable … but it can be done.' Brian's response was flat and unenthusiastic.

‘Let's do it,' Robert decided, ‘but let's get one thing straight. Jimmy, remember this: we're making these changes for the bid only. When it comes to delivery, and it turns out this idea was a bad one, then we drop it and go back to the original roles. Got that?'

Jimmy nodded.

Claire sat down with Brian to run the new numbers through the financial model.

It was 8.00 am when they finished. Tony and Robert left together to hand deliver the tender document to Cathair. Claire caught a taxi to the hotel with Brian.

She fell into the comfort of her bed.

She was lying on her stomach, still asleep, when the phone rang. She reached out her hand to pick it up.

‘Claire, it's Robert here.'

Robert had nearly kissed her last night. She smiled at the memory.

‘Hi.' Her voice was a sleepy whisper.

‘Did I wake you?'

‘Yes, but it's okay. I should be getting up anyway.' She pulled herself up in the bed, cradling his voice between her ear and shoulder.

‘We're all downstairs having a drink … I was ringing to see if you would like to join us.'

‘Who's there?'

‘Jimmy, Tony, Brian … and me.'

Safety in numbers
.

‘Okay, I'll be down in half an hour or so … I need to wake up and have a shower.'

She hung up, knowing she was reaching the end of her resistance. She decided to call Fiona, the voice of reason. Maybe a firm telling-off would stop her from doing something stupid. But Fiona wasn't home; Claire had only herself to rely on. She started to get ready.

She changed her clothes three times and it was closer to an hour before she made her way downstairs. She wore a black
sleeveless top and a new metallic skirt. She was tall and striking in black sandals as she walked into the lounge. It was the first time that she had seen the bar full: Friday was obviously the busiest night of the week. She made her way to the Amtech group at the far end of the room.

Robert looked handsome in a navy polo shirt and jeans. He beckoned the waiter so she could order a drink.

She sat next to Tony and listened to the conversation that was already well in progress.

‘You seem to know your way around Hong Kong, Rob. Have you been here many times?' Brian asked, leaning forward in his seat.

‘I don't know. Three times? Four? I've travelled so much over the last ten years that it's all a blur.'

‘But you enjoy it, don't you?'

‘Not any more. I'm tired of it. I guess I'm getting old.' Robert was smiling but Claire could see the regret on his face.

She met his eyes.
You're not old. You're the sexiest man I've met in my life
…

‘So you want to cut the travel and finally settle down … in California, right?'

He looked away from her to answer Brian. ‘You know, I quite like Sydney.'

‘My wife's having our third child … that's settling down big time,' Tony put in.

‘Congratulations, Tony! I didn't know that. I'm very happy for you both. Another regret of mine. Never had the time for kids. Now I'm wondering what the hell I was so busy with.' All eyes were on Robert as he drank his beer.

‘Hey, man, you sound like you're having a midlife crisis here.' Tony gave him a friendly punch on the arm.

‘Maybe I am,' Robert answered seriously.

Claire was happy to listen to them talk, happy to absorb the extra morsels of information about Robert's life. An elderly pianist began to play the grand piano in the corner of the lounge. His aged fingers ran agilely over the keys, the popular music filling the room and muffling the loud hum of conversation. She was busy watching the pianist, and was startled when Brian stood up, shrugging on his jacket.

‘Where are you going?' she asked, immediately embarrassed by the shrillness in her voice.

‘I've got a flight to catch … Tony, Jimmy, it's been a pleasure … Fingers crossed that we'll get some good news next week.'

Tony stood up to shake Brian's hand. Jimmy followed suit. Brian winked at Robert and Claire.

‘I'll see you both back in Sydney.'

Claire knew what was going to happen next. Tony would want to go home to the pregnant wife that he had barely seen for the week. Jimmy wasn't drinking – it was almost certain he would leave with Tony.

Just as she predicted, Tony checked his watch and put down his empty glass. ‘I must excuse myself. I promised Joanne that we would go somewhere nice for dinner tonight. Much as I would like to invite you both along, I don't think she would be impressed.'

Jimmy had also stood up. ‘I'm afraid I must also be going … family commitments, like Tony.'

They departed on a wave of handshakes. She was alone with Robert. They were both standing. A profound silence stretched across what must only have been a few seconds.

She sat down.

‘Would you like another drink?' he asked, sitting next to her.

‘Yeah, why not?' she answered, with feigned indifference.

It wasn't long before the crowd started to sing along to the old favourites that were flowing from the piano. Claire felt her shyness disappear, eaten up by the haze of alcohol and music.

‘I used to play the piano when I was younger.'

He looked at her slender fingers as she reached for her drink. ‘I'd love to hear you play some time.'

‘I don't know if I would be much good,' she smiled wryly. ‘I haven't had a piano since I moved out of home. When I buy a house of my own, it will be the first thing I get. Music is one of the few things that can change my mood in the matter of seconds.'

His expression was intent. ‘Did it change your mood this evening?'

‘Yes.' She paused before admitting, ‘I was nervous about coming here.'

He nodded. ‘My mood has changed for the better too. When I was talking to Brian earlier, I was reminded of all the things I missed out on in my life … I was envious of Tony and his family. But maybe it's not just the music that's making me happy.'

‘Yes, there is the alcohol to consider,' she said with a giggle.

‘And your company,' he added with an unsettling stare.

She didn't remember exactly when he put his arm around her. It was a few hours and too many drinks later. She was vaguely aware that they hadn't eaten but didn't want to suggest dinner. It would be unthinkable to leave the warmth of his arm and break the magic just for food. Everything about the evening had a sense of inevitability, including her powerlessness to end it.

It was after ten when the old man stopped playing, unperturbed by the disappointment of his audience. Claire and Robert were as verbose as the rest of the patrons, begging him to play an encore. He finally obliged, the familiar notes of ‘The Piano Man' enticing the crowd from their seats.

‘Would you like to dance?'

She nodded and they fought for some space on the dance floor. He rested his hands loosely on her lower back. She put hers around his neck. Their bodies brushed lightly as they circled, his beard bristling against her face. When the song finished, she stayed in his embrace. He lifted her face by putting his hand under her chin. His lips met hers for a split second, the taste of them leaving her yearning.

‘Thank you for tonight. I haven't had such fun in a long time,' he said, his face inches from hers.

She was pressed up against him in the crowd.

‘Do you want to go on somewhere else?' he asked, stroking her face with his thumb.

‘No … I think I've had quite enough to drink.'

She fell against him as she lost her balance from the push of the dancers returning to their seats. He steadied her.