Just Let It Happen Harry

THE SETTING is New Zealand, errors and grammar are copyright to the author.

*

CHAPTER 1

Bored stiff and facing another weekend home alone and not being asked to parties because it was known she was currently without a guy, Chelsea Rhodes was passing the reception desk late Friday when a tall guy in a blue shirt and yellow jeans for goodness sake was being turned away.

"As I said sir we don't hire executives here. Our agency is Executive Search International and here is their card."

Chelsea smothered a laugh. This guy must be joking. Dressed like that he should be asking building services if there was a vacancy for an interior window cleaner. He turned, she caught the appreciative stare in the almost emerald green eyes and her thighs appeared to spread slightly on their own accord.

Ohmigod.

She restarted her breathing and said recklessly, "Sir, I'm Miss Rhodes, director of operations. Would you care to join me for coffee and the meeting room over to my right where we can chat?"

Mr Green Eyes turned to the receptionist and snorted, "Is this usual?"

"No sir but you could do well by going with Miss Rhodes. She had a reputation for doing things differently."

Chelsea struck quickly. "Yes, and that scares off people, particularly men. Are you apprehensive about my approach, perhaps even scared of me Mr Green Eyes?"

He laughed and said anything but scared. "Are you available for dating?"

"Coffee Mr Green Eyes?"

He hesitated. That told Chelsea he was hooked. He was just getting used to a female using power play.

"Right, lead on Miss Rhodes -- I guess you have a first name?"

"It's Chelsea."

"Hi Chelsea, I'm Harry Chandler, just returned from England. "I worked in women's mail order apparel in Manchester."

"What, specializing in bras and panties?"

"Very droll Chelsea. The company was Sutherland House and I worked as director of business development."

Chelsea swung around to look at him. "Sunderland's is huge."

"Sales of £37.7 million last year through Sunderland House and its nine subsidiaries."

"Well we managed the equivalent of £1.5 million pounds."

"Even better in fact. My read is $NZ5.88 million in sales last year."

Chelsea smiled and said someone had done his homework. "Here we are, black. Milk is in fridge."

"Black thanks."

Chelsea poured two black coffees and forty minutes later was sitting in the chief executive's office with Harry. Paul Rich questioned Harry at length and then said, "Well, Harry please return here on Monday with your credentials and an outline of what you think you can do for this company. For the past two years we have talked about appointing a business development manager. Of course the offer of such a position starting from scratch would probably be an insult to you."

"Not necessarily. It would depend on the company's marketing objectives. I shall do what you ask. Do I report to you or Chelsea?"

"To Chelsea at 9:30. Our management meeting will have finished by then. Tell me Harry, you obviously appear to have studied our annual reports. What is one thing that strikes you about our company?"

"Your dispatch and returns facilities are in this building. That central core should be relocated close to the nearest container port and freight distribution network at the center of your market that certainly is not here in Auckland."

Paul and Chelsea exchanged glances "We have been battling with our board for two years to accept a strategic plan to rationalize our distribution network. Your arrival here may be opportune. The stubborn directors on our board may be prepared to listen to The Man From Manchester."

They laughed.

Outside Paul's office Chelsea said, "You impressed Paul greatly."

"And you?"

Chelsea's breathe caught.

"Or do you think my interest remains confirmed to bras and panties?

She blushed and dammit he caught some of that change in coloring as he raised his eyes after briefly running them over her bust line

He grinned and waited for her to say something.

She had nothing more to say but her mouth through some obscure connection with the sexual oriented part of her brain did. Her mouth blurted, "Are you predatory Mr Chandler?"

Harry reacted as if his brain had just been read: "Er, now that you mention it..."

"What Harry?"

"It's Friday night, let's go to a bra I mean bar."

Chelsea smiled and told him to wait in the main lobby; she would collect her handbag. She walked off in confusion and tried to work out had she just primed Harry Chandler to ask her out for a drink. The conclusion was she guessed that was triggered by her question about predatory. How on earth did that word get into their conversation? She knew the word, admittedly, but hadn't used it in conversation, ever.

As Chelsea walked from the elevator wearing her fashion-statement sunglass and carrying her fake zebra skin handbag Harry turned into her smoothly and took her free arm. She was aware the two women receptionists were staring and nudging each other. Gawd, rumors about Chelsea and her man in yellow jeans would be all over the office within minutes.

* * *

Milady Mail Order Ltd had operated since 1937, an unfortunate time to start a new business but by having to survive the harsh environment of the world war years and the five years of post-war recovery ensured the fledging company established the correct product lines for the time and focused on the importance of concentrating on core product to deliver.

Ten years ago Chelsea's mother Ruby Rhodes, only child of the founders Ralph and Katie Stone, had updated the company on the urgings of her architect husband That radical step of changing a very familiar company name to Phone For Fashion Ltd resulted in a slump in trade that lasted for only a nervous two months before the associated brilliant marketing campaign began to bite.

Women's talk about Phone For Fashion in coffee shops, hair salons, country general stores, bridge and women's golf clubs and company staff cafes expanded and sent company sales soaring. A year later Ruby Rhodes, the company's current chairman, won the Chamber of Commerce's national award of 'Businessman of the Year'. The award was then renamed 'Business Person of the Year' by the sponsoring organization that for very obvious reasons had operated for generations on the simple assumption that no woman would ever become a top dog in the business world.

Now chief executive Paul, Ruby's daughter Chelsea and the advertising and the marketing managers agreed that the company was in need of a makeover and it's over-bloated product lines slashed. But in their way stood the influential chairman, Ruby Rhodes. She argued the fundamentals were sound and the executives didn't have to worry the board about decisions to make slight adjustments to product lines or apply for permission to change emphasis on marketing although they must not be too radical.

Whenever executive directors brought a new makeover plan to the board, Ruby's comment was always the same: 'Don't change the car when its running smoothly and serves everyone well". The outside directors were handpicked by Ruby so guess what? The executive directors -- Paul and Chelsea and financial controller Belinda Charles -- would leave at the conclusion of the meeting once again with their revised recommend strategy for change destined for the trash can.

* * *

At the bar Chelsea and Harry chatted like people do getting to know a little about each other and after two drinks she rose and went to leave.

Harry looked surprised and said goodbye and, "Er, do I get a kiss."

"Please yourself."

They kissed and Chelsea gave him her card at told him coffee would be ready for him in her office on Monday at 9:30. She then left without looking back, hoping the abruptness of her departure would trigger his sex drive.

But no, he didn't come running after her and that perhaps raised questions about his sexuality.

She was almost at her apartment when he called.

"We forgot to go to dinner."

Her heart upped its beat. "Oh did we now?"

"Yes."

Well, where was this getting them? She made the move. "Here's my address."

"Got it, and...?"

"Bring over some take-outs. Make mine for a woman on a healthy diet."

"Fatty steak, onions and potato burger?"

She laughed and cut his call.

Chelsea changed into a black cat suit, looked in the mirror and said, "Oh God' and lowered the top and put on a bra. She then had second thoughts of looking like a female provocateur so changed into the clothes she had been wearing.

Almost dropping off to sleep after watching an hour's chat show, Chelsea raced to check herself in the mirror before answering the door.

"Sorry I'm so later, but good cooking takes time."

They kissed, lightly. He hadn't changed either.

Harry got down dinner plates from the cupboard without having to ask what cupboard as she opened the bottle of white wine he'd given her. He saw her bemused expression and smiled when he explained, "My mom also keeps the heavier daily-use tableware on the closet cupboard above the side right of the dishwasher."

He unloaded the containers wrapped in foil and with tags in beautiful handwriting. She wondered where had he found a take-out bar of this standard and handed Harry his wine.

"My hotel kitchen did this for me. This is your grilled chicken and pressure steamed carrots, broccoli and peas and a salad and this is low-cal dressing. I have steak, fries and peas and for desert we have fresh fruit salad with low-fat yogurt."

"Oh your darling man," Chelsea said, and finding him with his wineglass in one hand and her container of steamed vegetables in his other hand, placed her hands around his neck, pressed up against him until his belt buckle pressed into her gut and kissed him slowly and thoroughly.

"Wow."

"Time to eat," she giggled and flushed because he stood still, 'ruminating'.

Harry left a couple of hours later but the only other kiss was at the door. Chelsea had considered putting on a porn DV and wait for him to do the rest but decided, reluctantly, that was not the way to begin a relationship that quite possibly might last a month, perhaps longer. So she called her mom and yes she could join her and her father tomorrow for lunch. It would be on the launch and yes could bring a guest.

Harry had been in the position to follow the conversation so said, "It appears we have a formal date planned if I am to be the guest?"

"Yes, out in the harbor. As you know New Zealand has some of the finest pleasure boating waters in the world. I'll fill you in. My late grandparents co-founded the company and their only child, my mother, is chairman of the board. I'd like her to look you over outside the boardroom so please don't seduce me on the boat in front of her. I'm sure Paul will hire you because you fill a need."

"Seduce you...may I seduce you?"

"I was being factious Harry, over-exaggerating the suggestion you should do nothing but impress my mother. This is a way of entertaining you and dropping you gently in front of my mother so that when you face the procrastinating bitch in the boardroom..."

Horrified, Harry pointed out Chelsea had just called her mother a bitch.

"My relationship with my mother domestically and at our workplace Harry are the same as chalk and cheese. Get it?"

"When it comes to company business you see your mother as being obstructive?"

"Very good Harry. We should just hire you for your brain."

Looking slightly confused, Harry nodded as if it added up. "And Paul thinks similarly?"

"Even more so. He fattens his salary with bonus performance payments and he thinks a modernizing restructuring will release a new flood of cash in our direction from consumers. I agree with that thinking, totally."

"You have commissioned a marketing study?"

"We have failed to win board approval for that."

"Oh dear."

"Thank you Harry."

Well, thought Chelsea, closing the door behind her departing guest. She knew she really liked Harry and he could be a huge asset to the business. Also he could seduce her as soon as he wished and as often as he liked. Oh, within reason.

Parents Ruby and Charles sipping coffee on the aft deck of the flybridge watched their daughter approaching.

"It's a guy," Charles said, squinting to see who was with Chelsea. "A taller guy at last."

As the pair approached closer Ruby waved and said dryly, "He might not be a sex toy for Chelsea -- he's wearing a purple shirt, green pants and orange boat shoes."

"You mean gay?"

"I refrained from making a sexist comment darling."

Charles grinned and said clever bitch, she'd made him think she'd said it.

The greetings were friendly and Harry took the smile from Ruby's face when asking him what was his career, he replied he was unemployed.

"Don't worry mom. He's just arrived back in the country after spending six years working in northern England."

"Not London?"

"No Mrs Rhodes."

"We're friends here. Please call my Ruby and the father is Charles."

"Not the husband?"

"Father and husband," she smiled.

They were cruising at 20 knots out in the gulf when Charles cut back to eight knots when Ruby called lunch was ready. It was served on a foldaway table on the flybridge with folding chairs being lifted from a deep locker. Charles remained seated at the helm but was able to join conversation.

Eying that impressive array of cold food on the table, Harry complimented the chef. Ruby smiled and asked what was his home town."

"Tauranga."

Ruby smiled and said it was a great place. "It's near Hamilton where my executives once thought it might be more efficient to relocate our entire company operations there. What do you think of that?

"What does the marketing study say?"

Harry jumped as he felt Chelsea's foot slide up and down his leg while she eyed her mother.

"We haven't commissioned such a study yet."

"Well, like Charles here, if you are the captain of your ship you must steer the right course."

"Who said I was the captain?"

"You did say my company." The foot stoked his leg again.

"Oh yes, so I did."

That provided the perfect opportunity for Harry to press forward. "Also Chelsea had told me you were chairman of Phone for Fashion. It is quite likely your company will hire me this coming week. I'm here today so we see the softer side of each other before I begin pressuring you what to do with your company."

Before he'd finish, Harry had felt Chelsea's foot pull abruptly from his ankle and she looked across at him darkly. Her mother had now put down her glass and was asking her daughter, "What is this darling?"

"Torpedo has stuck amidships and the captain is about to counter-attack but is it too late?" Charles laughed.

"Stop being childish Charles," Ruby said, not amused.

"It's something you ought to be familiar with mother as you would have used some sort of tactical maneuver when you went in against grandma determined to restructure the company. It's just that Harry has jumped in a little premature. He'd not undergone the recruitment process yet."

"I see. Well for your information young lady, back then the company had long been stuck in a rut, going nowhere."

"I understand that mother and Paul and I can see that's exactly where the company is today, going nowhere."

"How dare you."

"Had grandma still been alive twelve years ago she may have used those exact words to her mother in this same situation."

"Harry fill the glasses of the ladies," called Charles, an expert in commercial law. "I don't want our ladies getting too heated."

Opening another bottle of the very smooth wine from the Nelson region, Harry filled everyone's glass. When he sat down, the upset chairman turned her attention to him.

"Are you some sort of business guru Harry?"

"No, just an executive who cast himself off from Clarence House to return home for a new chapter in his life."

"You mean Manchester-based Clarence House?"

"Yes."

"Well, well. At last I have clear vision what this is about. Either Paul or my daughter head-hunted you."

"No, I walked into the offices yesterday looking for a job."

"We hire executive staff through our agency."

"So I learned but a very beautiful and enterprising young woman called Chelsea Rhodes had overheard that conversations, looked unbelievably at me dressed in a blue polo and bright yellow jeans apparently thought my audacity at attempting to become an executive in the company was worth hearing about, so she took me aside for coffee and within the hour later she was introducing me to your chief executive who apparently didn't believe he was wasting his time."

"I see. And precisely what was your title with Clarence House?"

"Director of new business development."

"Ohmigod."

"Ruby, may I suggest we get back to enjoy light conversation and ripping good boating. This is indeed luxury class. I say this because today I am still unemployed and may also be unemployed by the end of next week."

"Not if I can help it."

"Ruby, please. You know hiring and firing is outside your professional jurisdiction. Please give me a fair good and leave me to Paul and his manager of HR to assess my submissions to make my case for being hired. I'd like the decision to be made professionally without any political pressure."

"Very well. Do you have any other surprises for me?"

"Only one."

Charles and Chelsea leaned forward as did Ruby. You went through school and university with my mother, Shelia Wells."

"Ohmigod, one of my best friends. When you said had been reared in Tauranga I thought of asking you if you knew her. We've lost touch -- so she's Shelia Chandler these days?"

"Yes, runs her own accountancy firm and is a leading business adviser and often is appointed to Government committees."

Chelsea's foot was back to running up and down Harry's leg and that touching was now activating him sexually. Presumably that was her plan.

"Come and allow me to hug you dear young man. I wish to apologize for being a little bitchy with you."

"Only if you listen to my plea. It's now doubly important that you don't interfere with my appointment and don't treat me as special nor my ideas if I am appointed to your company."

"I've already given you my assurance I will remain aloof from your employment negotiations and as if thinking I'll be a soft touch in business matters, just ask Chelsea. I become a hard-nosed bitch at work, it's my altered-ego inherited from my mother. She was just the same."

"In that case Ruby, here comes the hug.

CHAPTER 2

After the launch docked Chelsea said to Harry as they walked to her apartment: "You put both feet in the fire and yet came out unscathed. That's remarkable. Come in and I'll put on an adult DVD and let's see where that takes us."

Harry said no but the way in which he did it charmed Chelsea. "No sweet lady; two fires in the one day would be too much for me. I like you and sense I'm going to like you a lot more but let's put your fascinating invitation ahead of us. I suggest the evening of the day I'm appointed, that's if I am appointed."

"Yes, that would be perfect. Oh, I trust mom to keep her word. All she will do is to call the head of our employment agent and tell her to call Paul without saying why, only that she's heard he is considering employing an executive without her firm being involved and pointing out that would be a breach of contract. Paul being Paul will react appropriately and invited Lillian to his office for the first interview at 9:45 Monday."

"Your mother is sneaky but that's prudent management."

"Good boy," she said kissing him goodbye without being too gross about it.

Chelsea attended only the preliminary meeting on Monday and not the recruitment interviews. On Wednesday morning Paul called her in to his office and resting his fingers together said solemnly, "He's checked out from Clarence House as being their loss of the decade and there was a huge upset when he handed in his resignation because whether he knew it or not he was chief executive designate."