Monahan 01 Options (16 page)

“How about eggs and toast?” he asked.

“Sure. Sounds great.” I took off my jacket and hung it in the closet. “Need any help?” I offered, but Jay knew better. I was just being polite. He didn’t let me in his kitchen when the stove was turned on.

“No. Thanks. I can manage,” he laughed and headed down the hall. The living room was at the end of the hall. The kitchen was on the left through the living room and his bedroom and bathroom were on the right of the living room. He left the living room in darkness and turned on a light in the kitchen.

“Make yourself at home,” he said over his shoulder. I dropped my purse on the coffee table and said, “I’m just going to use the little girl’s room.”

Like the rest of the apartment, the bathroom was neat as a pin. Jay had been taught well by his mother. She showed no favouritism when it came to household chores and Jay was familiar with all of them.

I splashed cold water on my face and looked at myself in the mirror. A very round, pixie-like face stared back. My hair looked like I had been standing in front of a fan and I tried to remember if I had brushed it that morning. Once a day was my rule. I was stalling in the bathroom and didn’t know why.

Our relationship had taken a definite turn today. Jay had shown some unbrotherly-like interest in me and I didn’t know how to deal with it. I wasn’t a neophyte when it came to relationships but the river had run dry during the last year. I hadn’t been seeing anyone seriously in a long time. In fact, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a date.

After my divorce from Tommy, it had taken me a long time to get back in the dating mode. At one time I’d been a real pro. At dating. I was quite the girl about town. When I worked at the law firm I met lots of interesting, fast men. Tommy was one of them. My autobiography will describe our courtship as whirlwind, our marriage as a disaster and our divorce as friendly.

Tom Connaught was an Irish-American from Phoenix who I’d met when our law firm was acting for his company on their initial public offering. We’d married shortly after the deal closed and he went back to Phoenix to look after his business. I was going to follow as soon as I could close up my apartment. Weeks stretched into months. I was flying back and forth to Phoenix every second weekend and when business allowed, Tommy would come to Toronto. My excuse was work. I always had one more deal to close. Half packed boxes sat in my apartment and I just never got around to moving. We drifted apart as fast as we had come together. Tommy still called me whenever he was in Toronto and it was times like this that I missed him. I hadn’t been involved in a serious relationship since. It had been seven years since our divorce.

I turned out the bathroom light and went back to the living room. Jay was standing there with two plates in his hand. The living room was dark and the light from the kitchen silhouetted Jay’s body.

I turned on a lamp on the side table and pulled the coffee table closer to the sofa. Jay sat down beside me and placed the two plates on the table. He had prepared scrambled eggs and toast. He pulled two forks and two knives out of his shirt pocket and handed me one of each.

“Eat,” he ordered. I dug in. The food was good and hot. I sank back in the sofa when I was finished and tucked my legs up under me. I turned sideways and leaned against the back of the sofa and looked at Jay. He was sitting close to me and I could smell his aftershave.

“Thanks for the eggs. You could always get a job as a short order cook,” I joked. He smiled and gathered up the two plates and returned them to the kitchen. I heard him rinsing the plates and I thought about leaving. He sat down closer to me when he came back and I threw caution to the wind for the second time that night. This time I kissed him. And he wasn’t rude like I’d been. He responded. He tasted like beer.

When we came up for air I asked him, “Should we be doing this?”

He held me back at arm’s length and said, “Why not? This isn’t against the law Kate.” I decided not to argue and my lips closed over his again. The man could cook
and
kiss. Definitely a keeper.

chapter twenty-one

I looked at Jay’s sleeping face beside me the next morning and promised myself there would be no mental bashing. Although I hadn’t thoroughly analyzed the pros and cons of a relationship with him, it had happened. And I was glad. Maybe it could be a stronger relationship because we’d known each other for so long. Many experts say solid relationships are based on friendship, I reassured myself. He definitely knew all my faults. And there were many.

I lightly ran my finger down the side of Jay’s face and mentally pinched myself. What had happened last night after the kissing had been tender. I eased myself out of bed and went looking for a toothbrush. I used Jay’s. Now that our relationship had reached a new plateau, I was sure he wouldn’t mind. Besides, we exchanged enough spit the night before that using his toothbrush didn’t seem out of line.

Jay found me sitting at the kitchen table smoking and drinking coffee. He was shirtless and wearing jeans.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey yourself,” I replied. He poured himself a coffee and leaned against the kitchen counter. I felt shy and cursed under my breath. I’d never been at a loss for words with him before. The man was bringing out that feminine side that I’d always abhorred in other women. I was definitely not the cute type.

I looked at him and swallowed. Fuck it. Let’s barge on.

“So. Are you okay with what happened last night?” I asked him. I tried to be cool about this. I wasn’t looking for a marriage proposal but I did need to know where we stood. I needed to know if it had been a one-night stand for him. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about that, but I wasn’t about to make a fool of myself either.

“Okay?” he laughed. “I’m great with it. You?”

“Great,” I said slowly. “Is it likely to happen again?”

“Well, Kate. You were the one who initiated it. Are you going to do that again?” he teased.

“Depends on how drunk you get and if I think I can take advantage of you,” I joked. I was feeling better. “Can I buy you breakfast?”

“Sure. Did you want to shower before we go out? You’ll find clean towels in the closet in my bedroom.”

“Yeah. Give me a few minutes.” I stood up and he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to him. He held me like that for a few moments and lightly kissed the top of my head. He slapped my butt and said, “Get a move on. I’m hungry.”

We decided to walk because the day was gorgeous. Actually he decided to walk and I thought about my arteries. A couple of blocks won’t hurt, I thought to myself. But I found I was enjoying myself as we set a brisk pace block after block. I had to remind him not to walk so fast because his legs were about ten times longer than mine. We finally found a place and we ordered large breakfasts.

When Jay was finished, he pushed his plate back and stretched.

“Ah,” he sighed. He grinned and looked at me. “Good food. Good woman. What else could a man want?”

“Good job?” I teased.

“Don’t remind me,” he said. We sat quietly for a few minutes and I thought about Jay and TechniGroup. There were some screwy things going on.

“Do you realize what we’ve been through in the last three days?” I asked him. “Evelyn died, you discovered some fuck up with the stock options, Oakes called a board meeting and they’re going to fire Cox, and Rick fired you.” I ticked each event off on my fingers.

“I can’t believe that Rick would screw around with the stock options. It’s so bush league. What could he possibly gain?” Jay asked himself out loud.

“And,” I said. “I think they’ve got a couple of other things on him too.”

“Like what?”

“Fraud and sexual harassment.”

“I beg your pardon?” he said. His eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up.

“You heard me. Fraud and sexual harassment,” I repeated.

“Just how do you know this?” he asked.

“You know. I hear things.”

“And the board knows about all of this? That’s why they decided to fire him?”

I nodded my head.

“Fraud. I can’t believe it. Won’t believe it. He may be a raving lunatic but he’s no criminal. I’ve worked with the guy and he takes his legal obligations very seriously. What kind of fraud?” he asked me.

“Something about falsely reporting revenue. I don’t really understand it. You know me and financial statements,” I said lamely.

“I admit some of our accounting treatment is questionable but the auditors always sign off on it. I can’t believe Rick would falsely report revenue,” Jay stated.

“He supposedly ordered one of the controllers to do it,” I said.

“And the guy did it?”

“I don’t know if he did. The memo said he ordered the guy to do it.”

“What memo?” Jay asked.

“Nothing. Forget I said it. Look, I think the house of cards is about to come tumbling down. Once the public find out that Rick Cox is gone, our shares’ll be in the toilet. The analysts’ll have a heyday with this shit. Monday is not going to be fun.”

“Yeah, well the bastards have pulled it off before. They’ll say he resigned and we’re seeking a replacement. Remember the last time?”

I remembered. We’d had a brief sojourn with a chief operating officer that lasted six months. We had touted him to the world as the second coming of Christ. Oakes had hand-picked him and he was going to save the world. The analysts loved it and the share price rose steadily for the six months he was around. I thought the guy was a perfect fit because he was as loony as Oakes. He didn’t last long enough though, and when the board fired him they told the public he was resigning to pursue personal interests.

I should write a book. It probably wouldn’t sell though because it would be so unbelievable. And now we were firing another chief operating officer who was going to ‘pursue personal interests’. Our only hope was that the public and the analysts had a short memory. The other guy got fired almost exactly two years ago. This was becoming almost an annual event.

“Well, I have a feeling we’ll have a replacement before you can say Bob’s Your Uncle,” I said.

“Yeah,” Jay joked. “Maybe I should apply for the job.”

“Well, you’ve always wanted the job,” I reminded him. “Actually, I think Oakes wants to see Philip Winston in the position.”

Jay snorted. “Yeah, right. He’s got no more experience than I do. There’s no way the board will allow that.”

“The board’ll do exactly what Oakes and Larry Everly tell them to do. The board members are there for one reason only. The money. The board fees. And their stock options. Having a conscience and thinking for yourself are not requirements for being on our board.”

We sat silent for a few minutes, both of us thinking. I was thinking about stock options and how they had been the center of almost everything that had happened in the last couple of days. Evelyn and stock options. Rick Cox and stock options. Jay and stock options. Stock options had caused the demise of three people in three days. And two of those people were very close to me.

“Jay, have you ever known anyone who died?” I asked.

“My grandmother. And when I was in high school some guy killed himself. Walked in front of a train. I didn’t know him well but everyone at school was upset about it. And Evelyn. But we still don’t know why she died.”

“Exactly. Why she died. Notice you didn’t say how she died. Why. Do you think it could have anything to do with the stock options? Do you think someone planned it?”

“Kate, get real. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever known anyone who was murdered?” I shook my head.

“Right,” Jay continued. “Neither have I. This is the real world. Not some movie about corporate America where they murder off people every twenty minutes. Our guys are stupid but I don’t think anyone would murder one of the employees.”

“You’re probably right. Besides, they’re all too stupid to have planned something like that. And the police haven’t been knocking on the office door. So obviously no one suspects foul play.”

Another thought occurred to me. Was someone smart enough to set up Jay and Rick Cox? But why? With Rick Cox gone the stock was going to take a hit. And all of the top guys were driven by the stock price. They were smart enough to know that when the stock price went down, so did the value of their stock options. Maybe someone hated Rick Cox so much they didn’t care about their personal wealth.

Fuck it. I was spending too much time worrying about the office.

“Let’s forget it, Jay. This shit is making my head hurt. It’s a beautiful day. What do you want to do?”

Jay grinned. “Well, we could go back to my place. I won’t make your head hurt.”

It was a pleasant thought and I felt a blush starting at my neck and rising up my face. I grinned back.

chapter twenty-two

We were sitting on the sofa later that afternoon and the sky was starting to turn to evening. So far I’d had a perfect day. I was hoping it wouldn’t end. I could remember as a kid those special Sunday’s when my brother and I would leave the house after breakfast and play outside all day. One adventure after another. Games of baseball. Hide and seek. War. Road hockey. All the kids in the neighbourhood playing together. Mom wouldn’t even bother trying to get us to come in for lunch and she would leave food on the front porch. If we remembered, we’d eat at some point in the day. When she finally called us in for dinner, we went reluctantly. Those days were perfect and I smiled to myself as I thought about them. The games Jay and I had played today didn’t involve the neighbourhood kids but it had been just as much fun. I didn’t want the day to end. I smiled again when I remembered that some of those neighbourhood kids had been Jay and his sisters. History was definitely repeating itself.