Risky Negotiations (23 page)

Laci leaned back against the cushions and took a sip of tea. “Spill what?” she said, trying to avoid the conversation. “Where are the kids?”

“
With Thomas. Don’t change the subject.”

“
What’s the subject?” Laci asked, hiding behind her cup, unable to look at her older sister in the eyes.

“
Why you look like death.”

“
You don’t really pull any punches,” Laci laughed, but ran a hand through her hair, then grimaced when her fingers became caught in the mass of tangles.

“
I never have and you’re changing the subject again. What’s going on?”

“
Victoria, I don’t really want to talk about it,” she sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

“
Talk about what?”

Laci rolled her head against the back of the sofa. There was no getting around it, she’d have to tell Victoria if only to get her to leave her alone. “I broke up with Sal.”

Victoria nodded her head. “I know that. But why?”

“
How did you know?” Laci asked carefully.

“
Because Sal’s been terrorizing all his brothers with work demands, running himself just as ragged as you look. So I’ve deduced that the two of you are avoiding something. I just wasn’t sure what. It was a guess that it was each other. You’ve confirmed my suspicious, now give me the why’s and wherefores.”

Laci was instantly concerned. “Is he ok?”

Victoria raised one shoulder, indicating that he wasn’t really okay. “Physically, yes. But as I said, he’s been demanding reports and implementing ideas so fast everyone’s head is spinning. The boys are about to revolt.”

“
What?” Laci said, sitting up. “They can’t do that to Sal. He’s head of the corporation.”

Victoria’s eyebrows went up at Laci’s instantaneous defense of Sal but she said nothing for the moment on that subject. “So why did you break up with him?”

Laci shook her head. “I just did the inevitable.”

“
Why was it inevitable?”

“
You know,” Laci shrugged.

Victoria nodded. Then laughed, shaking her head. “Nope. I’m sorry, I have no clue. You’re going to have to spell it out for me.”

“
It would have happened eventually. Sal has been with so many women, it’s disgusting.”

“
I wouldn’t say that many women,” Victoria contradicted.

“
Enough.”

“
Well, possibly,” she acquiesced on the point, not wanting to argue something that didn’t seem relevant anymore. “But that just means he knows what he wants when he finds it.”

“
Until something else comes along that he wants.”

Victoria looked confused for a moment. “You think Sal is the love ‘em and leave ‘em type?”

Laci didn’t respond.

Victoria continued instead of waiting for an answer. “From the looks of the two of you at lunch a few weeks ago, I would have thought you were in love with him.”

Laci stared at her cup, not bothering to respond.

“
So that’s it.” Victoria said slowly. “You’re in love with him,” she said, almost as if she were explaining it to herself. “Have you told him that?”

Laci laughed but it held no humor. “No. I don’t think Sal would appreciate another naïve female throwing herself at him. That seems to happen frequently enough already.”

Victoria sat up. “What are you talking about?”

Laci sighed deeply. “When we were in Colorado…”

“
When were you in Colorado?”

“
Last weekend.”

“
Together?”

“
Yes,” Laci replied, getting impatient with her sister’s interruptions.

“
And?”

“
And
…Sal had some blond woman throwing herself at him Saturday night at dinner. Then later, when I was coming out of the bathroom, there was a brunette trying to get into his suit in the lobby.”

Victoria laughed. “I’m guessing he was still in it at the time.”

“
It isn’t funny, Vic.”

“
I’m sure it wasn’t.”

“
So anyway, when we got back to town, I just decided to end it on a good note. Let things end while they were still nice.”

“
What happened?”

“
One of his Colorado amours showed up, pretty much making the decision for me.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I mean, the woman who interrupted our dinner on Saturday night walked in to Sal’s office as if she’d been there too many times. I ended it then and there, not wanting to be the one that got dumped.”

Victoria watched her little sister fight back the tears. “And was it the right choice?”

Laci nodded, ignoring the tears that spilled out over her lashes.

“
Well, I think the first thing we need to do is to get some food in you. Then you need to sleep for a while longer. After that, we’ll have another conversation. Maybe that one will be a little more satisfying than this one.”

“
I’m not really hungry. And don’t you need to get home?”

“
I’m hungry and no, I don’t need to get home. Thomas is with the kids and he’s using it as a convenient excuse to avoid the wrath of Sal lately. Watching Sal’s niece and nephews is about the only excuse Thomas has been allowed over the past week so he is exploiting it.”

Victoria stood up and walked into the kitchen. Laci followed her and took a seat at the kitchen table. There was a huge stack of mail and newspapers piled haphazardly on the table and Laci decided she should probably go through it and toss the junk so she could pay her bills.

While Victoria chopped up onions, green peppers and mushrooms, then fixed both of them an omelet, Laci went through her mail. Once she had sifted out all the junk mail flyers, she set aside the bills for tomorrow, not sure she had the energy to pay them tonight.

She pulled the latest paper closer and skimmed the contents. She had been out of it for over a week but the same issues were in the paper. The politicians were still arguing over the latest health care initiative, schools were demanding more money, the police were slowly catching up on solving the latest crime and the Europeans were leading the way with the fashion line up again this year. She looked at the gossip column, wondering why people ever bothered to read such tripe but knowing she couldn’t handle anything more substantial.

Victoria placed a huge omelet in front of Laci with the order to “Eat.”

Laci dove into the cheesy egg, suddenly realizing she was hungry. “This is delicious. Thank you!”

They talked and read various parts of the paper, each trying to top the other’s most ridiculous story. Laci was skipping through the Style section, skimming the gossip columns when suddenly, her fingers didn’t have the strength to hold the fork. She simply stared at the black and white picture. The date at the top said that the picture had been taken the night before.

“
What’s wrong?” Victoria instantly asked.

Laci pushed her omelet away from her, feeling as if she were going to be sick. Victoria didn’t ask again, she just took the paper from Laci’s numb hands and found out for herself.

“
Oh, Laci. I’m so sorry,” she said as soon as she saw the picture of a smiling Sal with his arm around a petite, short-haired blond.

The caption beneath the picture read, “Is the gorgeous Mr. Attracelli finally back in circulation after a disappearance of several months?” The article discussed how Salvatore Attracelli, one of the region’s most eligible bachelors, had not been appearing at many social functions after being “bought” at a charity auction by a mysterious brunette a month ago. The author speculated that perhaps Mr. Attracelli had been too busy with business but was now going to make up for lost time.

Laci’s face was already wet with tears when she stood up and walked into her bedroom, quietly closing the door behind her.

She didn’t know if Victoria was still there or if she had left. Nor did she care. Her suspicions had been confirmed: Laci was out and a new belle had taken her place at the ball.

She curled into a ball and cried herself back to sleep, grateful for the solace of sleep where she didn’t have to feel the pain of Sal’s lack of reciprocating feelings.

Laci woke the next morning and looked in the mirror. She barely recognized the woman staring back at her. There were dark circles under her eyes, her hair looked as if she had stuck her finger in an electrical socket. She’d lost so much weight her already loose sweat pants and shirt were literally hanging off her figure.

She needed to pull herself together. Grabbing a pair of stretch pants and running shoes, she grabbed her keys and left her apartment. Once out on the street, she took a deep breath of cold air and started stretching. With her muscles warmed up, she started jogging down the street. Eventually, the rhythm of her feet pounding against the pavement and the burning feeling in her chest obliterated the pain she felt in her heart.

Okay, she told herself, Sal had moved on. It was time for her to do the same. She needed to pull herself together, get back to work and get herself back into circulation. Laci pushed herself to finish a five mile run. Slowing down as she neared her apartment, Laci felt better. After a shower and a thorough combing of her hair, she knew she needed to count her blessings. She had a great job, a great sister, supportive parents and the cutest nephews in the world. Asking for more was just being selfish, she told herself.

It took her an hour to brush all the tangles out of her hair but she felt much better once it was curling around her waist again. An act of peevishness made her braid it and tie it up around the nape of her neck, since Sal preferred it loose around her shoulders. She spent the rest of the day cleaning her apartment. It was cathartic in a way. Cleaning the floor, scrubbing the grunge from around the cabinets and the soap scum from her bathroom helped her get her life back into perspective. She still ached each time she thought about Sal, but as long as she focused on something else quickly, she was able to hold back the tears. By the end of the day, she felt as if that were enough of an accomplishment.

The next morning, she was in the office early, dressed neatly in a brown tweed suit and turtleneck, cream sweater. Her hair was again neatly tucked away in a bun on her neck and she felt, if not renewed, at least ready to face another week of work.

She had been working for about three hours, building up arguments for an upcoming negotiation with a husband/wife team who were busy dividing up their assets, when Jim walked into her office and dropped a huge stack of papers onto her desk.

“
What’s this?” she asked, reading the top page.

“
The union’s contract. You need to get it signed and delivered to the union members. They ratified the agreement last week. We need to get everything finalized but need ATI’s president to sign them first.”

See Sal again? Walk into his office and talk to him, ask him to sign papers for something he might not agree to now? Laci panicked. Jim was already walking out of her office so she grabbed the large document and ran after him. “Can’t you take these over to get them signed?” she asked Jim, stopping him in the middle of the hallway. She didn’t want to walk into Sal’s office where they’d fought only three days ago and ask him to sign the contract. Her stomach felt queasy just thinking about it.

“
Nope, I’m on my way to Toledo. You’ll have to get it signed. And it has to be quick. From what I understand, the union representatives are getting a little antsy about the whole issue. They want everything signed, sealed and delivered before they do something rash.”

“
Why Toledo?” she asked. She knew she was stalling for time but couldn’t think of anything else to say at the moment. So she latched onto the one thing she could understand out of the whole conversation.

“
Some plastic surgeon is being sued by a group of women demanding reparations. We’re representing the women. I have to be on a plane in,” he looked down at his watch, “well, in less than an hour. I have to go. Just get Sal to sign them and we’re all done, case closed. Good job, by the way.”

And with a wave of his hand and a wink, he was gone. What he didn’t know was that he was leaving Laci in the most uncomfortable position possible. After last week, she’d thought she’d never have to face Sal again.

Laci stared down at the huge document on her desk wondering how she was going to get Sal’s signature.