This opens the Monday following the twins weekend together. A new ally is found and Lee works on his reputation as a bastard, extorting sex from the women at the office. Pete and Rosa have a fight and make-up. The twins get some surprising info about Don's connections. Enjoy. Votes and comments welcome. Jb7
*
Lee was at the office by eight o'clock Monday morning. When Ashley walked into the executive area at five after, he was sitting at her desk, watching her traverse the open area. Her steps faltered when she realized he was watching her. When she was within a step or two of him, he stood up, smiling. "Get yourself some coffee, Ashley, and come in. I need to talk to you," he said to her.
"Okay. Do you need some coffee, too?" she asked, nervously
"No, thank you. I have some inside."
A few minutes later, he gestured for her to sit at one end of the love seat, while he took the other. "I want to talk to you about Friday..."
"I...I'm sorry if I was too..."
"No, you were absolutely perfect. I have to ask you to never speak of Rosa's visit, to anyone; not to me, or her, or your most trusted friend, ever. Do you understand? I can't force you to make that promise, but I am asking you to."
"Asking, not telling? How come?" she asked, looking at him over the rim of her cup as she took a sip of coffee, still nervous, now confused.
"I'm an engineer, not a psychologist, but I think I have a pretty good ability to read people and understand their motivations. Still, I can't begin to imagine what happened to you that made it so the only way you can enjoy sex is to be humiliated first. But Friday, you took the first steps away from that need, away from needing to feel that you are less than your partner; as you said, you are more than a vagina.
"You are really a fairly attractive woman. With some advice about make-up, a different hair style, and more stylish clothes, you'd put most of the women here to shame."
"Don't," she started to sob. "Please don't try to compliment me, or say nice things about me. If you want me to leave, if you're going to fire me, just do it, please."
"What on earth would give you the idea I'm going to fire you?" he asked, moving down the couch to hold her.
"Because that's what they always did, tell me what a good girl I was, how smart and strong, then they'd take away something I wanted or expected. Always, right up until I moved out."
"Who..."
"Everyone, my parents, the Sisters at school, even here, I was hired as a secretary, and I...I tried to do a good job, t...tried to anticipate what my s...supervisors needed; that's why I started to listen. Everybody said I was doing a good job, but they t...took it away from me... and made me a floater. Oh they tried to make it...s...sound like I was the only one who c...could do it because I was so versatile, but I knew..."
She got up and got a tissue to blow her nose. "Is that all? I'll pack up my stuff and leave."
"You can't do that. Well, you can, but I wish you wouldn't. I need your help. Actually, Rosa and I need your help, on a couple of projects. One is important to her, and to me; the other is important to the company. In some ways, the last three months have been a training period for you to take on both. Whenever, where ever, whoever; remember that?"
She turned around, fighting tears of relief. "Just what do you mean by that, Lee Carruthers?" she asked, smiling, with tears still in her eyes.
Lee blinked rapidly. "Wha...Who... Who did you call me?"
"Don't try to deny it. I recognized you the day you came in with your father, before your sister married Donald Doofus.
"Why in hell did she do that? She could have any man in town, although I will admit, that isn't the best she could do." She looked at him and laughed, a little anxiously. "You don't remember me, do you?" Her smile warmed as she recounted the incident.
"I guess you were a junior in high school. My mom was subbing for your Dad's secretary while she was on vacation. There was an important contract or something that had to go out and she had to work late.
"I was only eleven or twelve, just starting junior high school. Your Dad sent you over to babysit me until Mom got home. You fixed us dinner and helped me with my homework. I forget what the math was, but you explained it so it made sense for the first time. I had a crush on you for years after that." She sniffed and wiped her nose.
"Are you really putting the horns to Doofus, doing your sister? Is that why you're not using your real name? Are you trying to find out how he got control of all that stock? Do you know about the accounts he thinks are his secret?"
"Holy shit! Is there anything that goes on here you don't know?" Lee sputtered.
She giggled. "Not much, I think. Just a minute." She left the office, and was back in less than five minutes. She handed Lee a sheet of paper. It was a proxy assignment, filled out giving the family the right to vote her stock in the company.
He looked at the number of shares she owned and whistled. "You really own all this stock. Other than the family members and Don, that makes you the single largest stockholder."
"Well, it's been cheap lately, and I didn't think you were going to let it go completely to hell, so I bought up that I could afford. A few months back, I got a letter from Doofus on company letterhead, asking for my proxy, saying there was some problem with SEC. I guess he didn't recognize my name.
"You said you needed my help. What can I do?"