One Step Away (A Bedford Falls Novel Book 1) (22 page)

It seemed he had to call an impromptu
meeting with his management team, and he suspected that they would
blame him for not anticipating that Bedford Falls would institute
this change. Just what he needed: an angry community and an angry
staff.

*

Marisa entered her new office and heard the
phone ringing. She put down her purse and answered it.

“Good morning, it’s Lance. I’d like to see
you in my office as soon as possible.”

“I’m on my way.” Her boss hung up before she
had a chance to say goodbye, indicating that something was wrong.
Lance always engaged in some pleasantries before proceeding to
business, and he never failed to say goodbye before ending a call.
She took a sip from her morning espresso, exited her office, and
went upstairs to meet her boss.

When she entered the administrative office
on the third floor, she spotted Esther Rollins sitting straight
behind her desk with a wide-eyed look as she typed on her keyboard.
Seeing Marisa, she winced and cocked her head toward Lance’s
office. “Good luck.”

Marisa’s stomach plummeted. Two
possibilities vied to control her actions: one wanted her to turn
around and run out of the administrative office; the other, eager
to discover what made Esther so anxious, tried to persuade herself
to enter Lance’s office.

She followed the latter directive by walking
across the office and knocking on the closed door – another bad
sign. Her boss always left the door open, unless they were
discussing annual reviews, disciplinary meetings, or other
confidential matters. Marisa had had her last review about four
months ago, and she hadn’t been Assistant Director long enough to
have any made mistakes yet. Nonetheless, she tried to swallow, but
her tongue made clicking sounds against the bridge of her
mouth.

She opened the door to find the Board
President, Bob Dubchev, sitting in one of the two chairs in front
of Albrecht’s desk. As both men stopped talking to recognize her
presence, she felt a chill pass through her as she closed the door.
They just looked at her, expecting…what? “Hi, Bob,” she said. “Hi
Lance. Is everything all right?”

Lance steepled both hands underneath his
lips. “In a word? No.” He met her gaze with a blank expression.
“Please have a seat. We have a lot to discuss.”

Dubchev eyed her with serious deliberation
as she sat down. But he deferred to Lance.

“I’m getting kind of worried,” Marisa said
and sat down.

“No reason to be,” Lance said. He pushed his
chair closer to the desk. “This weekend, I met with my doctor. He
found something on a toxicology screen that…shouldn’t be there.
I’ve made an appointment to begin chemotherapy treatments next
week.”

Marisa stared at her boss. A veil of
sympathy cloaked her. “I’m so sorry.” She entered his office,
thinking of herself, only to discover that it was her boss’s life
that was on the line. Nothing she might say could convey the
sadness she felt for him.

Lance glanced at each of the family photos
on his desk. “It’s early-stage prostate cancer. And we’ll try to
kill it, God-willing. I guess we’ll find out.”

“As you can imagine,” said, Dubchev, turning
to Marisa, “Lance will need to take an extended leave.” He smiled
at Lance. “You have thirty years-worth of sick days to take.”

Lance picked up where Dubchev left off by
addressing Marisa. “That leaves you in charge. How do you feel
about that?”

So many uncertainties flew around her mind
with such rapidity that Marisa couldn’t even snag one to determine
its meaning. She looked at her boss but didn’t say a thing.

Lance, a small smile playing on his lips,
looked at Dubchev. “In six years, this is the first time I’ve seen
Marisa speechless. Quick, get a camera.”

Both men broke into laughter, easing some of
her self-doubt. “What are you saying?”

“The keys to the kingdom are yours for the
taking. You haven’t had much experience when it comes to leading a
library, but it’s not something you can completely prepare for. Bob
believes in you. I believe in you. The question is…do you believe
in yourself?”

Marisa recalled her conversation with Kelsey
over the weekend. “Yes,” she said with the utmost confidence. “I
can do it.” Where did that certainty come from? Had some imposter
spoken those words?

“That’s exactly what we hoped to hear,”
Lance said. He backed away from his desk and stood up. Dubchev did
likewise.

Marisa rose to her feet.

“I expect to be out of commission for at
least nine months.” He looked down. “It’s a pretty aggressive
treatment. If I can’t get my strength back…”

Dubchev waved off the possibility. “You’ll
be back. You can’t stay away from this place.”

Lance traded a knowing glance with Marisa.
“I’m sorry to say that tomorrow will be my last day. But I don’t
want to waste away sitting at home watching TV and reading when I’m
not sleeping and trying to recuperate. I expect to hear from you.
I’m sure you’ll have a lot of questions, especially since we’ve had
so little time to work together to get you up to speed on your
responsibilities. But I’ve heard that, in between treatments, even
speaking for longer than a couple minutes might be too exhausting,
so I’ll do everything I can to help you from home. Do you have any
questions?”

She nodded. “Just one. How do I run the
library?”

Her boss laughed, but it died out after a
few seconds. “You have a great team here. They’ll help you.”

Marisa cracked the joke to lift his spirits.
She’d never had a close bond with her boss, but he never failed to
help her, and she hated knowing that soon he’d be fighting for his
life. Still, her joke was only somewhat facetious, so she
continued. “It’s a team that’s not fully-staffed. We’re down an
Adult Services Department Head and an Assistant Director. And now
you? Not including my inexperience, we’re down 50 percent of our
management team. I think I’ll do a decent job with the day-to-day
operation of our staff and facility. That doesn’t concern me. But
since you and my predecessor have worked with the accountants,
lawyers, and…” she turned to Dubchev, “the Board. I don’t know what
I should be looking for when it comes to so many things I don’t
know about. What if there is a legal matter we need counsel on? Who
do I contact? What happens if—”

“We’ll go over all of that the next two
days. I’ll have all of my contacts at your disposal. I know this is
sudden and very daunting, but you have a close colleague who has
many of those same concerns.” He glanced at Dubchev. “Alexander
Lawford, our former Head of Adult Services is now director at Vista
Heights.” Returning his gaze to Marisa, he said, “Think of this as
an opportunity to grow.”

Dubchev smiled and held his hand out to
Marisa. “And the Board will be there to make sure you don’t
falter.”

Shaking his hand, Marisa felt reassured by
the comment. Unless he meant it as a threat.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Earlier in the day, Alex had met with his
department heads and discussed the impending lending restrictions
that Bedford Falls had set into place. He heard plenty of negative
comments about his former employer, the chief accusation being that
their staff and patrons were pompous.

Alex kept his opinions in check. Because he
enjoyed his experience at Bedford Falls, he wanted this staff to
view their neighboring colleagues as hard-working and dedicated,
who didn’t enact this policy to hurt Vista Heights but to best
serve their own community. And rather than perceiving their recent
policy change as disruptive, they should regard it as an
opportunity to reinvent their own library. He handed out copies of
the statistics Marisa had shared with him last week to provide
evidence of these facts.

The figures shocked his leadership team into
silence. With a better understanding of what persuaded Bedford
Falls to enact this policy, each member of Alex’s team reluctantly
agreed that they, too, would have recommended the same path. They
did, however, bristle at Bedford Falls’ immediate implementation of
this policy.

Alex had surprised his team by agreeing with
them, which earned him some respect. But he reiterated that since
Bedford Falls’ board planned for this policy to go into effect
within two weeks, they would accomplish more by working with their
neighboring library, than fighting the inevitable. His team agreed
to work with their counterparts at Bedford Falls to ensure that
they continued to deliver top-notch service while adjusting to the
changes by re-appropriating their respective budgets to purchase
more of the materials their patrons had been utilizing from Bedford
Falls.

After leaving the meeting, Alex was
gratified to have convinced his management team to reconsider their
opinions about the Bedford Falls Public Library and its community.
The victory left him fatigued, but earning their trust and respect
was well worth the effort, and the goodwill they would extend to
their colleagues could only be perceived as positive for both
libraries.

When he returned to his office, he heard his
phone ringing, and he managed to pick it up before the call went to
voicemail. “This is Alex, how can I help you?”

“Hi, it’s Marisa.”

Surprise mixed with elation. Just the
musical chime of her voice put a smile on his face. “Hi, how’s it
going?”

“Can we meet? I need your help with
something.”

His head pounded to the sound of his heart.
He recalled how helping her up to this point contributed to being
placed in the friend zone, and he refused to lend her a hand only
to end up getting put into a position he found uncomfortable yet
again. “I’ve been really busy lately.”

“Are you free for dinner? My treat. I
wouldn’t ask if I didn’t really need it.”

He sighed into the telephone, letting her
know that he didn’t like the idea.
Take the lead
. “Meet me
at
T
he Witching Hour
at 5:30.” Why couldn’t he resist
her? “See you then.” He hung up the phone, preventing her from
responding.

Damon’s advice about not being too available
entered his mind. But Marisa wouldn’t have called if it was related
to their relationship. That painful thought calmed him. But not in
a good way.

*

An hour later, a wax figure of the Wicked
Witch of the West from the
Wizard of Oz
greeted Marisa at
Kelsey’s horror-themed restaurant where the waitresses wore large,
pointy black hats and provocative, black gowns that displayed
enough cleavage to entice a strong percentage of males, both
teenagers and adults. The outfits were inoffensive enough to
attract a large number of excited grade school and middle school
kids, accompanied by mothers who looked uncertain whether they
should be repulsed or entertained by their surroundings.

Framed sorcery and mystical-related posters
hung from the walls:
The Blair Witch Project
;
Practical
Magic
;
The Craft
;
The Witches of Eastwick
;
Hocus Pocus, American Horror Story, and Witches of East End
.
Three wands used by the actors who played Harry Potter, Hermione
Granger, and Ron Weasley were encased opposite a black leather
outfit worn by Alyson Hannigan who played a witch named Willow on
the television show,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
.

Upstairs, Kelsey had prepared a
vampire-themed staging area with plenty of signed photographs by
actors that had played vampires in movies and television: Tom
Cruise, Kiefer Sutherland, Gary Oldman, Alexander Skarsgard, Ian
Somerhalder, and Robert Pattinson. A wax figure of Bela Lugosi
welcomed customers, directing them toward a display case that
contained fangs worn in the movies by Brad Pitt, Wesley Blades,
Stephen Moyer, David Boreanaz, and Christopher Lee.

Marisa would have expected to hear horror
movie-related music, but instead a popular tune by Rihanna piped
through the surround-sound speakers. A hostess approached her,
asking for the number of members in her party.

“Two,” Alex said, sliding up beside her.

“Jesus,” she said, jumping at the sight of
him. “Where did you come from?”

“My mother. Why, where did you come from?
And give me something more original than Ken and Barbie this time.”
Then he turned their hostess. “We’d like a booth down here.” He
gestured towards Marisa. “She was once attacked by a vampire. Still
gets nightmares.” He rolled his eyes. “Long story.”

Laughing, the hostess directed them to an
empty booth, handed them menus, and left to get a Cosmopolitan for
Marisa and a Miller Light for Alex.

Marisa slipped out of her jacket and placed
it beside her on the seat cushions. “All of these waitresses
wearing…stimulating outfits. Now I see why my father invested so
heavily in Kelsey’s vision for this place. But I just don’t see the
fascination with vampires and zombies and all that.”

She examined the menu. “Take zombies. They
eat human flesh to stay ‘alive,’ right? But they’re dead. And while
they’re walking after people, they’re…what, burning calories from
all those body parts they’ve eaten? I mean, how many overweight
zombies do you see in movies and TV? They exist to eat more arms
and legs. And yet they’re not greedy. How often do you see zombies
fighting over a human? It doesn’t happen. Is it not in their
nature? I mean, they can’t talk because they don’t have brains,
right? Is that why they always share a corpse? Because they’re too
stupid to be greedy?”

Alex broke out laughing at the
absurdity.

“And what if they spend an afternoon
savoring a link of intestines? Those suckers are over twenty feet
long. Besides, if they don’t have a brain, how do they know when
they’re full? It would be like a hot dog-eating contest. So here’s
where the calorie burning comes in: they’re dead, which means their
intestines aren’t functioning. What happens to the food they eat?
You never see a zombie squatting on the side of the road, well,
taking a dump. Every zombie should be bloated and too slow to catch
anyone.”