Risky Negotiations (22 page)

Sal knew better and explained Debra’s parting comment to Laci. “She locked herself out of her house and stayed in mine for about an hour until her second husband arrived with a key. It was over Christmas vacation so the whole family was here as well. I don’t know why she tried to imply something more significant happened but I guarantee that we’ve never been together romantically or otherwise.”

“
Well, that must have been a disappointment for her,” Laci said, feeling her chest relax and her breathing coming easier. She was so relieved that he hadn’t been with Debra that she was almost light headed.

Sal laughed. “I’m sure it was.”

Laci looked around the room, then back to him. “I need to visit the ladies room, but after that, I’d really like you to take me home, Sal,” she said, her voice telling him exactly what she intended. Laci needed Sal to take her back to his house and make love to her until the stench of Debra’s innuendos were forgotten.

Sal stood up and was instantly behind her chair. “I’ll meet you in the lobby,” he said close to her ear.

Laci finished in the bathroom and was walking out a moment later but stopped dead in her tracks as soon as she entered the lobby. There was another woman draping herself against Sal. She was dressed all in black, right down to her black satin, high-heeled shoes. She had short black hair that curled beautifully around her classic features.

As soon as the mysterious woman put her arms around Sal, he pulled them back down to her sides and took a step back, putting some space between their bodies. Laci was too far away to hear what was said, but she saw Sal speak softly but firmly to the beautiful woman. It was obvious from the woman’s body language that she didn’t like what Sal was saying. She quickly moved off and Sal didn’t even watch her leave. But Laci did. Her stomach clenched and her mind was spinning. She forced her feet to move away from the ladies room door and towards Sal who had spotted her and smiled.

They arrived back at the cabin and Laci desperately touched him everywhere, not able to get enough of him. Their lovemaking was almost frantic. Each time she started drifting off to sleep, she would reach out to him and they would start making love again. By dawn, she was exhausted and fell into a fitful sleep.

They spent most of the day skiing down fresh slopes with brilliant sunshine. Unfortunately, the time to leave came too quickly for Laci. The flight home was quick and quiet. Laci left him at her apartment doorway with only a kiss, knowing he needed to stop by the office to get some files for a morning meeting.

As soon as her apartment door closed Sunday night, with Sal on the other side rushing off to his office, she burst into tears. Was she just another woman in a long line? Laci had known all along that Sal had dated many women. She suspected that she was just another notch in his belt even though he wasn’t as callous as that. And she couldn’t handle being the next in line. She wanted him too desperately, and knew she was already desperately, painfully in love with him.

Should she have gone skiing with him? Would she have been better off not knowing what it would be like to share a life with him? Laci didn’t know the answer to that. A part of her wouldn’t trade the past weekend for anything. She would savor the time she’d spent with Sal for years. But the other part of her knew that she’d never feel this way about any other man. Sal was too vital, too intense, too wonderful. After a sleepless night, she showered and dressed for work, bracing herself for the day ahead.

Surprisingly, the morning went well for her. She was able to clean up several items on her desk that had arrived in her absence the week before. But the afternoon was long and tiring. She met with Max and Jim to go over more points on the union contract and she was irritated that the negotiations had lasted this long. As far as she was concerned, the points were irrelevant now and Max was only dragging out the nit picking details, trying to get an extra dime out of the workers for their health care coverage or reviewing several safety issues that had already been hammered down.

She jumped each time someone passed by the conference room doors, wondering if Sal would come in to talk to her.

By five thirty, she was exhausted and worried. She’d made a decision to not see Sal anymore but knew she’d have to meet with him one last time to tell him that. She wanted that time to happen now, on somewhat neutral territory but she suspected that he was out of the office today.

They were packing up a half hour later when Sal walked in and sat down. “Can we go over the progress so far?” he asked, looking at her and Jim for approval.

All three of them nodded and sat back down in their chairs. Sal took the chair at the end of the table while Max went over the points each side had agreed upon so far.

Sal nodded his head and wrote down some notes. As soon as Max finished speaking, Sal chimed in with some changes. “We’ll give the workers a fifty cent break a month on health coverage, they also need dental and eye coverage but that can be an option they choose if they want the extra expense.”

As he went through the issues, Laci and Jim frantically wrote down notes, her mind whirling at how much Sal was giving in on. Many of the points Sal was changing, Max had fought tooth and nail for. She glanced up for a moment to see his reaction. But he had a satisfied smile on his face and seemed to be nodding in agreement to everything Sal was giving in on.

Laci was thoroughly confused but also speechless.

When he was done, he pushed the note pad back over to Max, then looked directly at her. “Could I have a private word with you?” he asked politely.

Laci could only nod her head. She followed behind him, not understanding what had happened in the last fifteen minutes. Was he nuts? He’d given in on so many items and it would cost the company a good deal of money over the next five years.

She entered his office and stood there, wanting to tell him that she couldn’t’ see him anymore, but not sure how to go about it after his generosity. Or had she just been bought and paid for? That thought made her furious. “Why did you do that?” she asked, controlling her anger only barely.

Sal walked around her and closed the door for privacy. “Because it was the right thing to do. And most of my companies have those benefits, why not that particular one?”

The fire went out of her. That had been her argument on several occasions but Max had pushed it aside with counter arguments about the cost for that particular factory. “But, I don’t understand,” she said, her hands facing up to the ceiling as if the explanation would fall from the ceiling.

“
What’s to understand?” he said and started walking towards her. “The negotiations are over, you and I can get on with…”

Whatever he had been about to say was interrupted by the door to his office opening with a flourish. “Sal, I simply must talk….” The blond and perfumed Debra started saying as soon as the door opened. “Oh!” she said, a perfectly manicured hand went to her mouth. “I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?” she asked, a slight smile on her lips.

Laci’s shoulder’s lowered in defeat. She had no idea what Sal had been about to say, but it was just as well. She needed to break it off with him and the entrance of Debra only crystallized that decision.

“
Would you excuse us Debra?” Sal asked politely, not taking his eyes off Laci.

“
Sure!” she said brightly. “I’ll call you.”

As soon as the door was shut again, Laci took a deep breath. “Look, Sal. I don’t think this is going to work out. I think we should just end it before it goes too far,” she said and turned around on her heel intending to leave.

“
What are you talking about?” he asked, looking genuinely surprised at her statement.

“
This…thing we have between us,” she explained, still staring at the door Debra had just vacated. She knew Sal was behind her but couldn’t face him, the pain of what she was doing was too raw. “We need to stop before someone gets hurt.”

“
Just like that?” he said, his tone suddenly angry. “What if it has already gone too far?” he demanded.

Laci shook her head. “No. It’s best this way,” she said and her hand reached out for the door handle.

“
Best for who?” he said, spinning her around to face him.

Laci tried not to be intimidated, but Sal angry was a powerful force. “Sal, look, I don’t think it will do any good to hash this out. I just need to end it. Now.”

Sal didn’t respond but his hands gripping her arms gentled. “What happened? Are you mad because I had to work last night? Believe me, if I could have stayed with you I would have…”

“
No. It has nothing to do with that.”

“
Then what is it? Why are you doing this?”

She was fighting back tears now and she didn’t want him to see them fall. She needed to get out of here with a little pride. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Because it needs to happen. It was going to happen sooner or later so let’s just make it sooner,” she explained, hoping he would accept her decision and let her go, staring at the button on his shirt instead of at his face.

She pulled her arms free of his grip and stepped back. She reached for the door, unable to look at him, afraid she might lose her resolve.

She quickly rushed to the conference room and packed up her briefcase. It wasn’t until she was in her car and driving out of the garage would she allow the tears to flow. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw Debra heading back into the office via the front door. That only firmed Laci’s resolve. That woman could be relentless!

Laci went home that night and cried herself to sleep. She woke about two in the morning and changed out of her suit and into a pair of sweats and a tee shirt then went back to bed, crying herself back to sleep.

The rest of the week passed by in a blur. She worked as hard as possible during the day, taking on extra assignments so she wouldn’t have time to think about Sal and wonder what he was doing. Or who he was doing it with. By the time Saturday came around again, she was in a state of misery.

She avoided the constant phone calls from her sister knowing that Victoria would want an explanation but unable to give her the real reason. How could her strong, vibrant sister who was madly in love with her husband and very secure that the love was returned, understand that Laci was just too scared to pin all her dreams on a star? She was madly in love with Sal. But there was no reason to believe that he returned those feelings. And there was ample evidence that he was probably following the same pattern as all his previous relationships. Laci didn’t want to fall into that group. She couldn’t handle becoming more emotionally addicted to a man that was too wonderful, too sexy, too perfect for her in every way. And then watch him leave her for the next beautiful woman that came along.

By Saturday morning, Victoria was no longer allowing Laci to avoid the conversation. She came over to her apartment and banged on the door. “Laci, I know you’re in there, open up!”

Laci pulled herself out of her bed and unlocked the door, only to fall onto the sofa, instantly falling asleep again. She didn’t want to talk to her sister and since she’d been up most of the night again crying, she didn’t have the energy to fight her fatigue.

Victoria took one look around Laci’s apartment and shook her head. “Laci, what is going on?” she whispered to the sleeping woman.

Victoria hung up the clothes that were lying all over the apartment, then looked into the refrigerator. There was half a cup of yogurt and some eggs but the rest of the refrigerator was empty. “Are you eating, little sis?” she asked, not expecting a response.

Victoria picked up Laci’s keys and left the apartment, coming back an hour later with two armfuls of groceries. She cleaned up the rest of the apartment, made Laci’s bed, put a warm blanket over the still sleeping woman, then crept into the kitchen to make dinner.

Laci woke up several hours later to a strange sound. There was someone tapping in her kitchen. She sat up on the couch and looked out the window. It was dark. Was it still night time?

No, she thought back. The last time she’d woken, it had been morning.

She finally focused her eyes and looked at the clock on the wall. It was six o’clock. She guessed it was six in the evening. She was covered by a blanket and felt more rested than she had all week.

“
Are you alive?” a gratingly cheerful voice called out from the kitchen.

Laci smiled slightly. “Victoria?”

“
Yep,” she said and poked her head out of the kitchen doorway to smile at her little sister. “It’s about time you woke up. I’ve been dying to find out what is going on with you” she said and carried two steaming cups of tea to the sofa, handing one to Laci. “So spill it,” she said, pushing Laci’s legs off the end of the couch to make room for herself to sit down.