"How is Joe?"
"Jennie, we're not going there again," Bethany said and then moved the phone away from her lips briefly as she sighed. Her daughter still insisted on asking about Joe at least once a week.
"Mother, it's been months since you first mentioned him. Don't you think you've made him wait long enough? You're not getting any younger you know."
"I'm not making him wait," Bethany replied, ignoring her daughter's dig about her age.
"You're just being a coward," Jennie snapped.
"I am not," Bethany insisted. "In fact, I came close to initiating a lunch date with him a couple of weeks after our discussion, but something held me back and I'm glad."
"Glad?" her daughter's voice raised. Bethany sighed as she admitted to herself that glad was too strong a word. She still found Joe attractive and there were days she wished that she had given in and dated him, but Bethany knew she made the "right" decision in the end. She couldn't date someone who worked for Bradley Junior.
"So how is my granddaughter doing at school?" Bethany asked, obviously changing the subject. There was a pause on the other side of the line followed by a rather loud sigh.
"Molly is doing fine," Jennie finally replied. Bethany smiled in relief as her daughter dropped the subject, at least for now.
**********
"We'll be done next week and Herb will start running in parallel," I said.
"So, you missed the deadline," Karl said in his typical snide little voice. I sighed to myself. After months of working with the management team I'd come to the decision that I could cope with Bradley junior and Judy, the Sales and Marketing VP, but Karl on the other hand, was simply a nasty piece of work.
"Not really," I replied. "There was scope creep as is typical with these types of projects. Herb signed off of the deadline extension and additional costs."
"I'm sure that gave us another happy customer," Karl said, not quite dripping in sarcasm.
"Actually, Herb is satisfied. We are actually ahead of schedule based on the latest project plan," I replied with a false smile. "He's already agreed to be a referral for our new prospects." This caused Judy to brighten.
"That's great news!" she said. My smile became real as I nodded.
"If I remember correctly, you were also able to turn a profit on this project," Bradley said, obviously looking for something on his desk. Bethany stopped taking notes long enough to hand him a document. Bradley looked at it and added, "Fifteen percent."
"That not including the licensing fee," Bethany put in. She glanced my way and smiled. I shook my head because her looks still caused a stir in me. It didn't help that over the last few months she started updating her wardrobe and got rid of the granny glasses.
"We can do better now that all of my new employees are up to speed on the product," I said, refusing to think about Bethany and her affect on me.
"I can't wait to get stuck supporting what all these new people threw together," Karl said. "My area is going to be buried in bug fixes. We already have a laundry list of new problems that arose in the last few months." I didn't like what he was inferring and I had no intention of letting him get away with it.
"Actually, most of that list is generic problems my people found while testing the base product. We've fixed them for Herb's implementation and sent along documentation on what the issues were and how we resolved them. We could just as simply have corrected them in the generic package, but I was afraid it was overstepping since your area is responsible for the generic product."
Karl was the COO. In this company that made him responsible for support, product development and anything else not sales and marketing, implementations or finance. By all rights, I should probably be reporting to him, but thankfully that wasn't so. I could barely stand sitting through weekly meeting with the man. I could never work for him.
The company didn't have a CFO, which seemed odd to me until someone told me that Bradley junior used hold the position before his father retired. Finance was the only area that didn't suffer when Bradley senior retired. After working with young Bradley for a few months it was obvious that he liked working with numbers.
"Speaking of which," Bradley junior interjected. "Karl, did you see the list of generic enhancements Joe's department forwarded?"
"We're already buried in the product development area," Karl replied quickly. Surprisingly, Judy jumped in.
"I've seen the list," she said. "There are a couple of suggestions there that have my sales reps drooling."
I looked at Judy and wondered. She caught my eye and smiled slightly. Karl saw it and frowned. I glanced over to Bethany and she nodded ever so faintly, verifying my thoughts. Judy was finally accepting my role within the company. More important, she realized that the things I was pushing for would help not only the company, but her area as well. Halleluiah!
"Bethany, please set up a separate meeting for next week to go over the suggestions," Bradley said, and then smiling added, "It's likely to take a couple of hours in itself." Bethany nodded. The meeting lasted another twenty minutes before finally breaking up.
Bradley left as soon as it was over. Karl followed him out. He was calling after Bradley. I'm sure that was going to be an interesting conversation. Karl was not happy. Judy let them go and turned to me and asked, "Would you mind having lunch with me tomorrow? I'd like to go over where our areas overlap and see what we can do get thing running more smoothly."
"Of course," I said, trying hard to suppress my surprise.
"Good," she said with a slight smile. "I'll have my secretary get us a reservation for noon."
"See you then," I replied as she nodded and left. I turned toward Bethany who was just finishing up her notes and our eyes locked. Both of us were fighting back a smile as I said, "Miracles do happen."
"I may have to up my estimate of Judy," Bethany said, using the Sales and Marketing VP's name for the first time that I could remember.
Bethany stood and carried her notes toward the door. One of the folders she was holding dropped and we both bent down to pick it up. I got to it first and looked up to see her only inches away from me. Her soft brown eyes met mine and it felt almost like an electric bolt traveled up my spine, only this bolt carried pleasure, not pain.
It didn't help that Bethany was wearing an enticing perfume. I was actually tempted to lean forward and kiss her slightly parted lips. Instead, I stood and fought to control my emotions.
"You still owe me a lunch," Bethany said as she stood. She seemed almost as surprised as I was at her words.
"I think the statute of limitation may have passed," I replied, stalling to get my bearings. I wasn't sure if going to lunch with her was such a smart thing after all. She had too great of an affect on me.
"If you say so," she replied, sounding almost relieved. I suddenly realized that she wouldn't give me another chance if I let this one slip through my fingers. I might be wrong, but I wasn't willing to take that chance.
"Hey! Wait a minute," I said quickly.
"Yes?" she asked.
"I was just kidding," I said. "Of course I want to take you out to lunch." She looked at me and didn't quite shrug.
"Fine," she replied, but then paused before adding, "You do realize that this is just lunch? It's not a date or anything."
"Of course," I replied nonchalantly. I didn't know what made her change her mind about lunch, but it was a start. Right or wrong, I liked Bethany. I could tell that she liked me as well. I decided right then that I would get a date with her eventually. I would just have to be patient.
"When do you want to go?" she asked.
"Now sounds good," I replied quickly.
