Harry had stayed in his office most of that day, and both times he came out -- for lunch and to head home -- Veronica hadn't been at the desk. He felt some sort of obligation to thank her or something for that morning's dalliance, and the next day, when he came in and she wasn't at her desk, he wondered if maybe the fact that he didn't do anything had somehow offended her. There was a memo at his desk, though, saying 'Sorry, talking with Reg, I'll be in later. -V', next to the regular checklist. He twisted his mouth at the thought of Reg monopolizing all her time. He got an inkling in his head to go have a word with him about getting his own personal assistant, but thought better on it. He wasn't in a position to get bent out of shape for the sake of jealousy. He still had a job to do, and, from the look of the checklist today, it was going to keep him busy enough.
The presentation for that week's meeting was a complicated one, and it got even more complicated as he began looking over the numbers in the files Veronica had prepared for him the day before. Some of the company's accounts receivable with their smaller clients were piling up, to the point that it was having an adverse affect on the bottom line, and the board had been toying with the idea of taking a more aggressive stance on collections before the next quarter. The problem was that many of the overdue accounts were with long-standing customers, and even though their hard times were becoming the company's hard times, Harry had been asked to present the case it might be worth being lenient on certain accounts. It would be a tricky road to navigate, he realized, since if he were wrong they might have a whole lot of bad debt as a result, with not much tangible upside in the short term even if he were right. It was one of those business cases that could go either way, and depending upon what the board members thought was best, his presentation might ruffle a few feathers. He actually wondered how he got roped into it, when he remembered that Veronica said it had been Reg who'd dropped the project on him. He hadn't given it a second thought because Reg had dumped projects on him before, but something about this one seemed a little strange. He and Reg had never really been the best of friends, but they'd never had any troubles. But without even really realizing it, he'd just been thrust into a situation that felt oddly like he was walking the plank.
Not to mention that he'd just taken his gorgeous secretary away from him. Something about this didn't seem right at all.
Still, with nothing to do but work and no welcome distraction sitting outside his office, he set about organizing the data in the manner that seemed to convey his point the best. It was tricky work, and he found that all it took was changing the scope a little and the data actually didn't support the argument at all, but favoured a scenario whereby the company ought to actually take a tough stance on the delinquent accounts. Each manipulation he made seemed too much like a manipulation, and by the time lunch came around he had the sinking feeling that the meeting was going to involve trying to con a bunch of suits who were going to see right through him. To make matters worse, he could start seeing the faces of some of those account representatives, people who had their jobs and lives to worry about, who might be affected if his company started coming down hard on their business. It gave him an unsettled feeling, and he couldn't muster up the appetite to eat, so he decided to cool off at the gym instead.
When he left his office, he noticed with disappointment that Veronica was still missing, and he took a quick detour to go up the hallway towards Reg's office to see if she was around. When he went by, he saw that Reg's door was open, and there she was, looking striking as ever, sitting in a chair in front of his desk, next to Reg's own secretary -- a fairly attractive woman in her own right -- and both were taking notes as he spoke. Reg looked up from his desk where he sat when he saw Harry, and stopped talking to give a quick wave. Both Veronica and the secretary glanced over as well, and gave him polite smiles. He'd hoped to see something a little more meaningful in Veronica's eyes, but in professional fashion she went straight back to work. Sunken, Harry turned and walked towards the gym.
About fifteen minutes later on the treadmill, the dashboard heartrate monitor was beeping madly. Harry, who'd been blocking images of Veronica and Reg out his mind, had tried to focus on the report, but had found that it only wound him up more, and when the beeping started he was sweating profusely, his muscles were roaring hot and there was a burning, raspy feeling in his lungs. Instinctively, he panted "Calm, calm..." and began to slow down, retreating into the same place he went to whenever his anxiety over Trish used to start up. Suddenly, there they both were in his head, Trish and Veronica, and he began to dread a new feeling, that whatever had just started with Veronica was about to go the same way as his marriage with Trish had -- eventually, she'd just move on to someone she liked better. Suddenly, he felt even less confident than before, and began to panic anew. He didn't know if he could handle it again -- it had almost killed him to see Trish with Jack that day, to hear her speak of the affair so casually. He didn't want to go through that with Veronica. Suddenly, he saw the look in her eye, the smokey look that she got after kissing him in the office, and for a second he was convinced it was an act. It made him angry, and so he tried to calm himself down, thinking that there was no proof that it was an act, that if he waited until a better moment, he'd know for sure, and that there was no sense worrying until then. But then his mind jumped to when he'd used the same rationalization to calm himself about Trish when he first heard her lover's voice on the answering machine, and before he knew it the heartrate monitor was beeping madly again.
He slowed down, got off the treadmill, and walked over to the counter, where the pretty aerobics instructor tossed him a towel and facecloth. He thanked her, and walked over to the locker room. "Don't think," he told himself as he stripped down and wrapped the towel around himself. "Just relax. Just...
be
..." He walked towards the sauna rooms.
He stepped inside the last one and felt the steam wash over him like a wave. He sat down on the bench, put the facecloth over his eyes and leaned back, breathing in and out slowly. "Just relax," he thought. "You're all right... you're all right..." He felt the darkness creep up around his field of vision, and for a moment he concentrated on trying to attain peace within, and for a quick moment thought on his friends from high school and university, guys who'd settled, and thought for a moment that it might be worth it not to chase the highest goal, if it meant not knowing what it felt like to lose it. But then he thought further back, to the first time he heard Trish say "I love you", and even though it wasn't that way now, it was still a happy memory. And then he thought of that first time Veronica had kissed him, and even though it might not have been real, that weekend of anticipation had been one of the happiest and most exciting times he had known. And if Veronica was going the way Trish had, well, he could accept that, because those moments, as fleeting as they were, had happened, and could happen again. He thought of having a woman who fulfilled him only as much as his job had over the past few years, and he laughed. He'd have been a bitter old man by the time he was thirty. He was feeling alive now for the first time in years, and he had Veronica to thank for it. He allowed himself to wonder if he could continue to go it alone, if Reg managed to steal Veronica from him, and he considered the possibility that he could, and it felt good, and right. Veronica had been a godsend, but if she was only meant to be a catalyst, that was okay. Maybe he could take over from here.
He got up, and walked towards the sauna door, and opened it, determined to grab a quick cold shower and get back to work. As soon as he stepped outside, though, he saw Veronica standing there, clad in a bathrobe and a towel wrapped around her head, with a look of surprise on her face, and then relief.
"There you are..." she said. "The counter girl said you were back here."
"Yeah," he said, "but I'm heading back. I've got to get to work on this presentation."
"Can it wait?" she asked. "I've got to talk to you about something important."
"How important?" Harry said.
"It's about Reg," she said.
Harry grinned sardonically. "What about it?"
Veronica looked behind to the entranceway, and then went to a sauna room, opened the door, and stepped inside. She turned back and motioned for him to come. He paused for a second, and then followed her in. Once inside, she removed her bathrobe, and turned to him with a big smile. "I'll get to that in a sec," she said, and then walked towards him.
She certainly was a vision. She was like an hourglass figurine, and in the mist the soft contours of her body were highlighted by the diffused glow coming from the window. The moisture clung to her her hips, her breasts, her arms, her legs. She often tied her hair back in the office, but in the sauna, with the towel still completely covering it, he finally saw what a perfectly beautiful face she had. He felt a momentary stirring underneath his own towel, but laughed.
"What's this about?" he said. "What is it about Reg you wanted to tell me?"
She walked around him to close the latch to the sauna door, and then came right up behind him and put her hands on his stomach. They had a cool touch, and she stiffened her fingers and pressed into his belly. "You really have gotten into shape in the last few months, you know that?"
