38

I like to think sexnovella for my editing.

32.

Got to turn off, as I roll over to my phone, reach for my phone, must...turn...off, finally, thank God, quiet. I sit up on the side of my bed, and gather my thoughts before I get up. I get up, throw on a shirt, grab a couple dollars and head for the vending machine again for another expensive bottle of water.

I head out the door and down the hall, this time; I don't hear any strange noises coming from Kate's room. I make it to the vending machine, damn you smart people for bottling water, I say to myself as I purchase one, wish I could go back in time and do this, before they could, walking back to my room. I hear movement coming from her room now, as I open my door and disappear behind it.

Open the water; take a swig from it, then pour some lemon juice in it. It gets me up in the morning, the bitter taste is awesome (no coffee, bitter taste is nasty). Strip down to nothing and head for the bathroom to do the morning Ss' (you know shave, shower, and the other one). Get smelling good, and feeling fresh and clean. Get out and dry off and head for my suitcase and suit bag. I decided in a simple black suit and pants with a pinstripe black and gray tie, with a white shirt. Nothing fancy, but enough to hopefully make a good impression in Anon.

Since, it's only 0810; I turn on the TV just to see if anything was really news breaking. Nothing but puppies and food, wow really? Thinking to myself, why put puppies in morning shows?

0830 rolls around, aww, puppies they're so cute! I don't want to turn off puppies! I force myself to flip it off and get out of the room, damn you morning shows and your puppies, damn you, as I head out the door and across the hallway.

I come out of the room, and I hear the same me news program in Kate's TV, too, must be the puppies, as I knock. When I do the TV turns off and I hear Kate approach the door, and it opens.

She opens up the door and looks at me, "morning Aden, ready?"

"Yes," I reply, "were you watching the puppies?"

"Yes?" Kate says with a curious smile, as we head down the hall to the elevator, "how do you know about the puppies?"

I chuckle, "because, I was watching it, too."

"They're so cute, aren't they," Kate says sweetly.

"Yes, they are," I start, "at first I was like, 'what the hell puppies in a news program', the 10 minutes later. I was like, aww, aww," DING! The elevator doors open and we head in and make our way down.

We laugh l as we had down in the elevator, to the main floor, and towards the rental car. As we are making our way, I notice just how stunning Kate is today. Her usual silky-smooth, just below the shoulder length, straight black hair is today in a ponytail. Her makeup is business like, some blush and eye shadow, and light lipstick. She's wearing a black business jacket with a blue shirt with two buttons undone showing some cleavage, and black suit pants with 2 inch pumps to finish it off.

If I'm not mistaken, thinking, as we make to the car, and she open her door, it's the first time that she's worn suit pants, it's usually skirts, as I get in, and start up the car l, or least that I've remember, as finally say, "okay, where are we going, Ms. Navigator?" As I look at Kate.

"Anon industries, is," looking at the map, "pretty close actually, we need to go...,"

33.

Kate and I make our way to Anon Industries. Anon is the largest contract the division (Southeastern) has. They make parts for cellphones, and they need somebody to help them market their goods to the cellphone companies (makers) and this would be us, Apex. We have a good relationship, they help us develop business opportunities that would not be open to us without them, and we help them market their goods to the larger cellphone companies that would not be interested in these said goods. We (Apex) like to keep their business happy (you know a happy wife a happy life) and they keep our bank accounts happy. If we didn't, they'd pull out, and these doors would close behind them.

"Well," I start to say, as we pull me to Anon's parking lot, "I couldn't miss it if I wanted, too," I say with a chuckle.

Kate sweeps her hair back from her face and places it behind her left ear, and looks my way with her soul-piercing green eyes, then snaps around and looks back at the building, "wow, larger than what I thought," she chimes in, "I know this place was going to be big, but this is insane!!" As she squeals like an 18 year old.

She's exactly right, I think to myself, as I pull into a visiting parking place. This place is the size of an airport (minus the planes, maybe) three stories, and as long as a football field, and as wide as one, too. It has tractors hauling out loads, almost non-stop.

Holy Hell, I say to myself, this place could hold UCLA practice field and still have the room. "Wow, Kate, I knew this place was going to be big, but...," we get out of the car and head up towards the customer service offices.

Kate follows in tow, behind me, as she interrupts, "If the Bruins need a practice field, on the east coast, this could do in a pinch, you know!"

"...," I stop dead in my tracks, and look back at her, how she knew what I was going to say.

"What?" She looks at me with her beautiful green eyes. I just keep looking at her, I can see her face start to blush now, and "why are you looking at me like that Aden?"

"You are," I start to walk again, towards the doors, "going to have to stop that."

"Stop what, Aden?" She asks completely confused what I was saying.

"That was exactly what I was thinking," I say very casually, as we reached the doors and I open them for her, I notice her blushing as she walks through, then I follow.

34.

Kate and I walk through the doors of the customer service area of Anon Industries, and we notice 30 something lady sitting at a desk in the middle of the room, I'm guessing the receptionist, I approach her, as she types on her keyboard while staring intently at her computer screen.

She's finally noticed Kate and I as we approach her and she looks up and with a genuine friendly smile, "Welcome to Anon, how can I help you?"

"Hello, Ms.," as I glance at her nameplate on the desk, "Tolliver, my name is," as I reach into my jacket pocket, and pull out my business card," Aden Jones, and I work for Apex international as the coordinator for this area, and I was wondering if Mr. Oliver Anderson had time to see me today, as I am in town for a few meet and greets, I would like to meet, one of the major principal contract holders in the area, as long as it's possible," I say with a big smile, as I lay down my business card and slide it forward.

She looks shocked and surprise, as she picks up the card, and looks at it, and then at me and glances over to Kate, "You're with Apex?" As her look now changes to a stern, unforgiving look.

"Yes," I say, unsure what she means by that, "I'm the Senior Marketing Coordinator for the Southeastern USA, and this is my assistant Kate Martinez, may I ask is there something wrong, I know I came without an appointment?" Asking curiously.

Ms. Tolliver look is a little more pleasant, but still isn't giving any ground on what happening, "No," she starts, "well, yes actually, we haven't seen anybody from your home office in what seems like years."

I'm stunned by this, "really?!" I say shockingly (which was true), "are you saying my company hasn't sent out anybody from Los Angeles to see how you guys are doing in years?"

"Yes,"Ms Tolliver say matter-of-factly, "so Mr. Jones, why are you here?"

"I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself, I was in town at the branch office," say truthfully, why did that question feel like I was in an interrogation or something, "I didn't know any of this until you just told me."

Her face, still a little stern, but has eased up a little, "okay, sorry about coming off a little hard, but we are upset at you guys, we have been trying to contact the Apex home office to no avail, for going on for about 4 years now, and then you show up, so called on the doorstep like nothing has happened," Ms. Tolliver takes a breath, "sorry about that it's been a problem, but I imagine that. Mr. Anderson will be happy to see somebody, please have a seat, and I'll contact him now," as she points over to some chairs, and she looks more at ease now since she gotten that off her chest, and she dials (more than likely) Mr. Anderson's assistant.

As Kate and I sit, we overhear her part of the conversation, "...yea, Anon is here...can you let Mr. Anderson know...yep, through the front door like nothing has happened..., thanks Glen see you in a few bye," she hangs up the phone and looks over to us, "Mr. Anderson will see you in 10 or so minutes, he's finishing a phone conference, with the president of Anon recovery division, and then he'll be glad to meet with you," then she turns back to her computer.

"Thank you," I say, "very much, sorry about all the trouble with my predecessor," apologetically.

She smiles, and looks our way, "no problem, sir, just be prepared to answer some questions, because he's not happy with you guys at the moment," as she smiles, but with a tinge of anger at the corners.

"Well, I'm going to rectify the things that my predecessor did or didn't do," I say confidently with a smile. Then she turns back to what she was doing.

I look at Kate with a 'what the hell' look, and all Kate can do is shrugging her shoulders 'I have no clue'.

35.

For 5 or so minutes, Kate and I yet sat there not saying anything to each other, trying to figure out what my predecessor or Apex has done to upset one of the biggest principal contracts in this division.

"What the hell...," I start to say, as a what looks to be a child, appears out of nowhere to be standing in front of us now, "lo," as I catch myself.

"Mr. Jones?" the 'boy' asks (kind of), extending his hand, "I'm Glen, Mr. Anderson's assistant."

"Oh," I stand, little surprised, and shake his hand, "hello, Glen, and yes I am Aden Jones, and this is my assistant Kate Martinez."

She stands, flashes her million dollar smile, and shakes his hand also, "hello."

"Uh, um," little nervous it seems now that he's met Kate, "well, please follow me and I'll take you to see Mr. Anderson," he says, as he turns around and walks, and as he does you can see he's a little flushed.

What the hell happened there is all I can think as Glen leads us through some impressive hallways towards where Mr. Anderson's off is.

We finally look as we are finally ending up where our final destination is, damn, no joke this place is huge, I think as I can look out on the floor through a glass panel, and notice probably of hundreds of employees, moving around like busy little bees, coming to and fro. We finally end up at this huge wooden door, that says Vice President of Operations Office, Oliver Anderson, and Glen opens the door and ushers us in quietly.

As we step inside we notice that the office itself looks bigger in the inside than on the outside, Mr. Anderson's office, which is at the end of the room, is blocked by another wooden door, and as we walk to get to the other side of the room, we see a secretary pool consisting of 4 secretaries all busy doing something, either on the phone dealing with people, typing away at letters and memorandums, or making a small dent in the mountain of papers to be filled. The three of us have made it to the large wooden door at the end of the office, and Glen opens said door and steps behind it motioning us to wait as he checks to see if he's ready.

About 45 seconds later Glen appears out from behind the door, "he's ready," he says as he motions us to go with him this time. Behind this door are two different doors, one belongs to Glen very small room, with the basics, and the other one is Mr. Anderson's office, "just knock, and head in, good luck two you both," as he disappears into the ether that he appeared from the first time. Kate and I look over each other to make sure we look presentable. She straightens my tie, flashes me a million dollar reassure smile, and I knock.

I open the door and proceed to step through, and I notice a 60 some year old man sitting behind a large oak desk in the middle of the room, "hello you two must be from Apex, Mr. Jones and Ms. Martinez," he says in a stern voice, as he stands, and extends his hand, "I'm Oliver Anderson, we have some things to discuss," as he flashes a smile.

36.

Mr. Oliver Anderson, the Vice President of Operations of Anon Industries, the 3rd most important person in this company, makes his home in Asheville. 30 or so years ago, Mr. Anderson decided to open up a branch of his friends company here in Asheville. When he did this Anon was a very small phone making company, cell phones weren't really big back then, but Anon decided to get ahead of the curve by investing in cellphones, and ever since the mid-90s Anon has not looked back.

From everything that Kate and I have heard about Mr. Anderson, that he's a straight shooter, always upfront and completely honest, some people would say that he's blunt. He's a good and fair person, but will not hold anything back either.

Kate and I shake hands with Mr. Anderson (whenever I hear his name I think of Mr. Smith from the Matrix movies 'Mister Anderson') and he motions for us to sit across from him.

As he sits, after motioning us to sit, I can see anger in his eyes. But the rest of his face you can't make out any other emotion. I just don't understand what we (Apex) did to stem so much animosity from a Vice President of a major corporation, that I have never met before (I understand if he's met me that he would hate me, but not before). He leans back in his chair crosses his arms, and looks right at me with those anger filled eyes, "So, Mr. Jones, why are you here? Did your bosses finally decide to send somebody to see me after I've requested a face to face meeting for the past 2 years?!" I can hear the anger in his voice.

"Mr. Anderson, I've came here on my own fruition," I start as I put in my most trustworthy face, that I could muster under the circumstances," I didn't even know the Apex International hasn't been here in over 3 years, I literally found this out from the receptionist, Ms. Tolliver."

"Okay, let's say I believe you at this moment," Mr Anderson starts, "so then, why are you here?"

"Like I said," I feel like I'm repeating myself (I feel like I'm repeating myself), "I came here in my in fruition, to be honest, I wasn't even here to see you," I say this, I can see his face ease up a little, but now he looks confused at the moment, "I was actually here to visit my branch office in Asheville, and we had a couple of days left before I head back to Los Angeles and I wanted to see some of my high value customer and contracts before I headed back. Donald (Donnie) River didn't mention any of this to me."

"Mr. River?" Mr. Anderson asks a rhetorical question, "he's a good guy, but are you telling me that he didn't even mention the issues that we were having with Los Angeles office?"

"Yes, sir," I reply, "he didn't, I don't even think he knows that I'm here, because I haven't told him either, I wanted to do a couple meet and greets without telling him, and then tell him when we have dinner together, to tell him how I think he's been doing to what he needs to correct. But from what it seems I'm the one who's going to need to do some correcting on my part."

"Are you his boss?" He asks.

"Yes, I am," I reply.

"How long have you been in this position, kid?" A little condescending, but still a fair question.

"Um," I say as I look over at Kate, "3 months?" As Kate confirms, "yeah, 3 months."

"...," Mr. Anderson's face has completely frozen, "...you've been in charge for 3 months, and you're already here? The last guy, who was in your position, was I there for 4 years, hell he never even called me at all. How did a, hate to say this, kid get the position?"

"Well," I start, "Mr. Anderson...,"

"Please call me Oliver, if I can call you Aden," Oliver, now, interrupts me. Who has now eased up and is more comfortable with me.

"Sure, Oliver," I smile, then start again, "see, Apex had their audit review, and Mr Verlander and Mr. Spencer led it, basically I impressed Mr. Verlander so he promoted me to this title and position, so I'm not lying when I say I don't know what going on, because I don't," when I said this I got a chuckle from Oliver, and Kate also, "so Oliver, will you explain to me what happened between you guys and us?"

He looks more at ease than he did earlier, I'm guessing he just needed to get it off he's chest, "first off let me apologize for the attitude that I had earlier, it's been annoying to say at least to get ahold of you guys, we have been flying in the dark on some of our contracts, we haven't been able to grow like we have wanted to because of this, and we were going to let the contract expire and then move on to the Lawson Group. They've been after us for years now, but we haven't moved on because of the 5 year contract holding us back, which by the way expires at the end of this year," he throws that end at the end as a reminder, "the thing is we liked Apex in the past, but you guys have gone downhill since, and it's been time for us to move on, there is only two things that have stopped us, one of course is the contract, and the other one has been Donnie."

I'm sitting dumbfounded from what I've heard, okay, let me get this straight they want to expand to a broader customer base, but nobody from Apex at all has been in contact, what the hell was my predecessor doing?

"Oliver, will you excuse my assistant and I for one moment please," I say as I stand up with Kate, who looks at me with a questionable look stands up and follows me to a corner of the room.

"What is it, boss?" Kate says in an almost whisper.

"Kate," whispering myself, "I need you to go back to the branch office, and see what kind of damage that my predecessor did for other companies in the area. I need to see if I can fix these problems, before I head back to Los Angeles, and also find out who this S.O.B is, too."

"Yes, boss, of course," Kate has her serious look on her face, which means she'll find out all the issues, and every dirty little secret, "um, before I leave, what about you?"

"What do you mean?" Not really sure what's she asking.

"If I leave, who's going to take you back to the hotel?" Kate says with weariness in her voice.

"Oh, um," damn didn't even think about that, thank God for her, I say to myself, "I'll either call you, or take a taxi."

"Please, bosses," Kate looks at me with those green soul-piercing eyes, "call me."

I crack a smile, "yes, ma'am."

She blushes, gives me seductive look, and then heads out of Oliver's office, and down the hallway, clicking low pumps as she goes.

She's just a..., as I interpret my own thought, and return to the chair. As I sit I glance over to Kate's now empty chair, and I feel a little empty inside.

"Sorry, about the Oliver, I sent my assistant back to the branch office, I need more information on this horrible infraction that my company made," I look directly into his eyes, and with my most confident expression, "I'm going to fix this, and by the end of the conversation you'll be wanting to redo this agreement, that Apex and Anon have, and you'll completely forget about the Lawson Group."

"...Okay," still unsure Oliver expresses.

"See here's what's going to happen..."

37.

"...and you see Oliver, this is the plan," as I have finished my speech, damn that took forever, as I look at a wall clock above Oliver, "so what do you think?"

Oliver just chuckles, and shakes his head, "...are you sure you can pull this off?"

"Well," I lean back in my chair," if I don't I won't be I this position for long," I say sarcastically, which Oliver responds with another chuckle," to be serious, I don't know, but I know somebody over there who owes me a couple favors, and plus you said you want to expand to other cellphone makers, so why not go after the head of the class when it comes to cellphones, in general."