Romantic Acquisition (6 page)

Kate was logging
o
nto her computer when she heard voices coming towards the conference room. 
She quickly became interested in the file on the top stack of the nearest pile. 

“I’m glad Katherine is working out for you.  I know she’s extremely
knowledgeable
about all the Jamison departments.  She’s a real asset to
our operation,” David was saying
.

Kate looked up and saw Carlo nodding his head as he
entered the conference room, his eyes
look
ing right
at her.  “Yes, she’s been great to work with. Thank you for assigning her
to us,
”
his deep voice replied. 

“
Good, good,” David said cordially.  He looked around the conference room and noticed Kate sitting at the table.  “
Kate, you look tired,” David said
, feigning concern for one of his employees
.  “I saw your car here last night
as I was leaving but I didn’t see you in the offices
.  Late night with your friends?” he said.

Kate would normally ignore his question, knowing that he didn’t really care where she’d been.  But with Carlo, Jeff and Peter looking on, she thought she should at least be polite to him.

“I went out with a friend,” she said simply, avoiding Carlo’s eyes.
“I just left my car here for convenience.”

“Well, tell your friend not to keep you out late the next time.  You’re an integral part of this transition team and you need to be fully alert to provide information to these gentlemen.”
  He nodded to Jeff and Peter.  “Are you getting everything you need?”

Both men nodded their heads and thanked him for Kate’s support.  “She’s great,” Jeff said. 

“Good to hear.” 
With that, David left, having patronizingly done his good deed for the day. 

“Well that was a pleasant interlude,” she said under her breath. 

Jeff and Peter heard her and chuckled.  Kate hadn’t thought she’d said it loud enough for anyone to hear but apparently even Carlo heard it
on the opposite side of the conference room
.  His eyes were smiling even though the rest of his face was stone serious.

Kate grimaced with the knowledge that they had heard.  It was petty of her to have said it and she regretted that they’d heard her. 
“Sorry, that was uncalled for.  What can I do to help you gentlemen today?” she asked
, smiling as cheerfully as possible
. 

“I’m okay with the reports you gave me yesterday,” Peter said.  Jeff also nodded.

Kate was about to start on her own work, assuming that Carlo wouldn’t need anything again today since he hadn’t requested anything from her the previous two days. 

Her assumption was incorrect.  His deep voice broke through to her nervousness. 
“I’d like to take a tour of the store, if that would be okay with you,” Carlo said
, moving
towards her chair
. 
“Do you think you could spare a few hours and explain how things work in
the
real environment?”

Kate nodded but her nervousness multiplied. 
Be alone with him for hours as they walked through the store? 
“Of course,” she said and stood up
, glad that her shaking legs would hold her
. 

“
The front doors are closed right now but w
e can get into
the store through the employee
entrance at this time of the day,” she said
escorting
him down the hallway
.  Before she’d gotten ten feet out of the conference room, she
was accosted by three of her staff needing questions answered.  To all three of them, she pointed to her deputy’s door.  “I’m sorry, I’m on a special project for David.  You’ll have to go to Matt for help.  He’s fully capable of answering your questions,” she said and stepped away quickly.

She showed
Carlo
to the elevator and as soon as the doors closed on the two of
them
, Carlo spoke.  “Are you having problems with your work load, being our point of contact as well as managing your staff?”

Kate shook her
head
.  “I don’t think it will be a problem.  Matt is good at what he does, he just doesn’t always want to manage the team.  He’s great at selecting styles for the store and getting great prices for the stock, but puts his head in the sand when personnel come to him for help.”

“Are you concerned?”

Concerned about Matt or concerned about being alone with you, she wondered to herself. 
“No, this is probably a good thing.  He’ll have to develop more, broaden his horizons.
  Me being out of the picture forces the issue for him to move into more of a management role, which he’s been avoiding for too long.
”

Carlo nodded his head and Kate turned to look at the lights indicating the floors they were passing.  The headquarters
was
located on the tenth floor of this building.  The department store took up the first three floors
and there were other offices that occupied the rest of the building.

She fidgeted with her pearl necklace until the doors opened.  She could feel Carlo staring at her and wondered what he was thinking.  He was so large, he seemed to make the elevator
feel
smaller
than usual
.  His broad shoulders were almost touching hers as they waited for the doors to open.  She tried to step away, but there really wasn’t much room
to move
.

Finally, the doors opened and Kate almost sprung out of the small space. She set a quick pace through the stock rooms
,
barely explaining anything.  The stock rooms were dark and quiet since no one would be there for at least another hour
except security
.  She led him quickly
out into the store which was still closed at this time of the morning
but at least there
were cleaning people moving about
and some of the management staff were checking the aisles to make sure things were set up properly.  The most important attribute for Kate’s peace of mind was that
it wasn’t as dark
as the store rooms which had seemed too intimate when Carlo was with her
. 

Once o
n the main floor of the store, she stopped and
wave
d her arms, the pride evident in her voice. 
“This is the flagship store and the original one built by David’s great grandfather.  It’s also my favorite,” she said, smiling as she looked up at the tall columns and intricate iron work on the walkways. 

“Why?” Carlo asked.

She glanced around, loving the feeling this building evoked within her. 
“
Lots of reasons, I guess.  T
he historical significance
is probably the main reason I like this store so much
.  I also like the ambiance of this
store
.  The others all have their own flavor, but this one is the only one that really goes back in time and shows what it was like to shop in the earlier days,” she explained, running her hands along one of the jewelry counters. 

“You strike me as being a lit
tle nostalgic,” he said
, eyeing her black, high-waisted slacks
with a wide, pink satin bow tied around her waist
. 
Her pink silk shirt was topped by
a triple strand of
pearls and the only indicator of
conservatism
he’d seen
in her dress code yet
.

Kate nodded her head in response. 
“I’m very nostalgic.  I love new things but I have a huge respect for the old as well.  It shows
us
where we were and, if you look closely and pay attention to the details, where we are going,” she said.

Carlo agreed with her opinion and appreciated her perceptiveness.  But he didn’t say anything, preferring to simply watch her face as she talked about the store. 

They walked slowly
around the various departments
as Kate talked about how each of them were connected to the other, the flow of the layout and why one department was located in a specific area versus another
. 
Carlo
wanted to know exactly how the stock was brought onto the floors, how it was purchased, how long it took to train the various people and what kinds of personalities the store looked for in employees. 

The store was open and full of shoppers by the time the tour was over
in the early afternoon
.  Kate was fascinated by his curiosity. 
I
t didn’t seem like he cared only because of the due diligence he was currently reviewing.  He asked about things there was no reason for someone as high up as he
probably
was
within
ATI
to know. 

She liked that about him.  She thought it was interesting that he wanted to know about everything and nothing was beneath him.  It was completely different from David who never even scratched the surface on the details of running the chain of department stores.
  Kate wondered if David had even been in the store rooms lately.  She knew he’d worked in some of the departments but that had been only briefly when he’d been a teenager. 

She remembered doing her homework one afternoon when she was in middle school.  David was just about to graduate from high school and go off to college.  Phillip had demanded that David learn the business by working on the floor in the men’s department.  That afternoon, she’d seen David fly into a rage at Phillip.  He’d stormed up from the store that day and exploded into his father’s office, stating emphatically that he would not work another day on the retail floor. 

With those words, David had left the building and hadn’t returned for two years.  By that time, Phillip had decided to bring David into the store at the executive level which David felt was a much more appropriate position for him. 

Kate continued to answer Carlo’s questions as they made their way back to the conference room. 
That was the last time Carlo and Kate were actually alone together for the next three weeks.  She worked in the conference room and the days settled into a routine.  She would help the
ATI
team for the morning, then by the afternoon, she was able to concentrate on her own work although she remained in the conference room to answer any questions. 

Although they were never alone, Carlo started asking her questions
during the day
as well.  That was almost more painful though.  When he approached her, her whole body reacted.  Her nerves started tingling and her blood seemed to hum along her bloodstream.  She knew her feelings were becoming involved and tried to stop it
from going any further
.  But the man was just too incredibly handsome and intelligent
for her not to fall for
. 

She wondered about her attraction towards him.  He was serious and quiet, unlike any other man she’d ever dated.  Most of the men she’d been in
terested in previously had been
much shorter, less muscular definitely and much more lively. 
Kate was usually interested in people she met at bars or dance clubs she and her friends frequented in the evenings and on weekends. 
She realized that most of her boyfriends ended up as her friends instead of lovers. 

She thought back to the one time she’d spent the night with a boyfriend.  It had been disastrous!  She’d cried through the whole experience and been ashamed the following morning. 
She’d walked home from the guy’s apartment since he wouldn’t even wake up enough to drive her home.  Kate had been crushed by his insensitivity towards her need to get home but even more so by his callousness once they’d been intimate.  It was as if she hadn’t existed to him anymore.  Apparently, Kate had just been a challenge to a group of men who had all tried to get her to sleep with them.