A Trade For Good (13 page)

"Yeah, if there's nothing to hide,
than why are we whispering?"

Jeff opened his mouth to say something
when Sera chose that time to come in.

"I think I will have that coffee after
all. That was a very big and brave statement I made earlier, but I
think I do need some caffeine. By the way," Sera winked at Jeff
before adding, "I like it hot, strong, and just a little
sweet."

They saw her turn around to leave with
a big smile on her face and Mitch started laughing. "Boy are you in
trouble..."

Jeff brought Sera her coffee just the
way she wanted it and watched as she took her first sip closing her
eyes and sipping the hot drink as if it were an aphrodisiac; for
him.

"Mm. That's good Jeff, just the way I
like it."

Jeff could tell Sera had no idea how
sexy she looked and sounded hugging her mug of coffee. He started
back to his office and found that she was following him.

His desk had been cleared with the
exception of one stack of manila folders, which sat right in the
middle of the desk.

He looked down and smiled. “In the
olden days this would have been an extremely tidy desk, but this
pile of files is making me nervous.”

"Oh yeah, when you get a chance can we
go over some of these accounts? I went over most of the files from
this year this morning, and then I found these. Most are completed
jobs, but they haven’t been paid yet. And these," she held up a
stack that she was carrying, these look like decent
prospects.”

Sera came around the desk to where he
was standing and leaned closer to show him what she was talking
about. She smelled absolutely great, and Jeff only heard half of
what she was saying.

He couldn't believe how flustered he
was by her getting close. It was like being in High School with a
beautiful girl again and feeling awkward about his next move.
Except that he wasn't in High School, she wasn't a girl, she was
the mother of four children, and she was married. No this wasn't
the same. This just meant he definitely had to start dating
again.

Jeff walked away abruptly from her
realizing she had just asked him something and was waiting for a
reply, to which he answered. “Fine, talk to Mitch about this.” And
off he went.

Sera was left standing in his office
with the two stacks of files and not knowing what to do. Jeff was a
really nice guy, but she wondered if he was bipolar. What had that
been all about?

Maybe he wasn't ready for her to get
so involved in money matters. Maybe he thought she was questioning
his effectiveness as a business owner.

Once again, he had acted as if he
wanted nothing to do with her. It was confusing. He said he had a
good time on Friday and enjoyed meeting her family, and then she
starts talking business and he storms off. Men!

Maybe the thought of unpaid accounts
reminded him she was hired only to settle a debt.

Sera knew she was a little sensitive
to that. Sera felt awkward and resented the fact that a debt had
been the only qualification that had landed her the job. At least
now, she was proving herself. She hoped.

Yes, she was. She told herself. Even
she knew the changes she had made in the office were all good ones.
She didn’t need the guys to tell her that, even though they always
did. Mitch, Alan, and Todd were constantly praising the changes she
had made. “Now I can find the files without having to search the
entire building”, “Alphabetical order? Why didn’t I think of that?”
maybe she just rubbed Jeff the wrong way. These mood swings were
way too confusing.

Confused she was. There had been a
couple of moments when she thought Jeff really liked her and felt
at ease with her. Like at the restaurant. They had joked around, he
had complimented her, and he even praised her work.

Fine, whatever. She'd talk to Mitch.
Mitch was easy to talk to and never avoided her.

Chapter 14

Sera's meeting with Mitch went well,
even though, Mitch seemed even more clueless, or at least
oblivious, to what was going on with the business side of it all.
He told her to drive on with what she was doing to find all
delinquent accounts, and to make sure they actually hadn't been
paid and not that they were just not recorded. He suggested she
match numbers against bank statements, which she had already
done.

Sera had been through bank deposits
and hadn't seen any of the outstanding amounts, but Mitch said he'd
check with Jeff himself on this while Sera looked through more
papers to make sure.

Mitch was confused. This was Jeff’s
thing. Why did he pawn it off and send Sera his way, and told Sera
just as much.

So Sera wasn’t the only one who was
confused by the way Jeff acted.

On Tuesday morning Sera was typing a
draft for a letter that was going to all past due account
customers. She had drafted two letter so far, one was very nice and
just a simple reminder, the other was threatening with legal
action; she opted to write a third and would have the partners make
any changes they saw fit.

A letter was the first step. After
that, they’d have to figure out how to proceed once they heard back
from the different clients. Should they offer payment plans? Did
the contract state they had a designated number of days to pay
back? What if the client didn’t respond?

It was close to noon and Sera was
actually thinking of stepping out today to buy a couple of things
she needed for her house, when she heard the door to the office
open. She knew there were no appointments scheduled for
today.

She was in the back room and knew it
wasn't one of the guys since they told her they'd be out on a job
site and might not even return before the day was over, so she felt
a little uneasy and kicked herself for not locking the front
door.

Jeff had told her repeatedly to lock
it when she was alone. The neighborhood was pretty safe, but they
didn't like her staying alone at the office when anyone could walk
in on her thinking there was money, or worse, knowing there was a
pretty woman and no one else around.

Sera made sure she had her cell phone
in hand just in case she had to call 911, but didn't think she'd
need to after she snuck a peak of the intruder, and
relaxed.

A tall, thin, and perfectly groomed
woman had come into the office. She seemed like the type of person
who waltzed in, not walked.

She didn't look like she belonged
here, but maybe she was a rich client and wanted to speak to
somebody about a job she wanted done.

This would be Sera's first experience
talking to a client face to face, and she wished the client hadn't
looked so stunning in a business suit and high heels, next to
Sera’s most professional looking jeans, t-shirt, and bleached out
sneakers.

This woman was also tall. Sera didn’t
like tall women who looked down on her. This woman was at least a
head taller than Sera.

"Hi, I'm Sera. May I help
you?”

"Do you work here?"

Sera immediately noticed the woman's
condescending tone, and decided her first face to face was not
going to be fun.

"Yes, I'm Mr. Mason's personal
assistant." Sera wasn't exactly sure what her job title was, but
the one she had used sounded pretty good and put her in a good
position directly under Jeff, which was not a bad place to
be...

"I bet you are," the woman said and
took a seat behind Sera's desk.

"I'm sorry, I hate to be rude, but is
there anything I can do for you? If you need to talk to someone, I
can take your name down and..."

"Is Jeff in?" the woman
purred.

"No, he's out. He's at a
site."

"Oh yes, he loves getting his hands
dirty, doesn't he?" The woman asked with a shudder.

"He's the best there is at what he
does, and making himself available at the different sites is
definitely a part of his success. Have you seen his
work?"

The woman looked down at her nails as
if extremely bored by the question, and answered, "Yes honey, I
know what he does and I know how well he does it.

“You probably know how much he likes
getting down and dirty." She fluttered her eyelashes trying to act
as if she was very coy and Sera realized they weren't just talking
landscaping here. However, why this woman felt the need to push her
way in and make a point was beyond Sera.

"I'm sorry Miss.... You see, you have
me at a disadvantage, you know who I am, because I introduced
myself, but I don't know who you are." Sera smiled sweetly and
silently congratulated herself on the fact that she could be as
phony and coy as any woman in stilettos.

"I am sorry; you said your name is
Cynthia?"

"Sera."

"Oopsies," she said with a very fake
giggle, "Sera then, I thought you'd know, I'm Mr. Mason's fiancée.
I thought everyone knew."

Sera took a step back. That
one caught her off guard. Sera hesitated before responding in the
hope that the truth would sting a little along the way. Then,
looking at the well-dressed ice queen in front of her, she
answered, "No, in fact,
Jeff
never once mentioned you."

"Interesting...,” the woman said as
she picked up her purse and left without as much as a wave, a name,
or even a good bye.

The rest of Sera's day went without
any major incidents. She managed to polish up a couple of drafts
for her letter and left them on Jeff's desk for review. Today she
hadn't seen Jeff at all, but with the quiet of the office she felt
she had actually accomplished less. Sera was used to noise,
activity and chaos. Those were everyday occurrences in her life and
in her home. The quiet of the office had not helped, nor had the
visit from Jeff's fiancée.

She should be happy for Jeff. If he
was engaged and thinking of getting married, she knew he'd make a
great husband and an awesome father someday, but somehow, she
didn't see his fiancée as a Donna Reed type, and she seemed too
high maintenance for the Jeff’s of this world.

But what did she know anyway? And why
did it bother her?

She spent too much time that afternoon
being bothered by the thought of Jeff engaged to that woman; or was
it just Jeff engaged, period? It nagged at her that Jeff was
engaged to that frigid bitch. He was a nice guy, and he deserved
better. Yes, that must be it. Or… Was it really just the fact that
he was engaged period? Ugh! She didn't want to think about
that.

If truth be told, and she had just
recently actually accepted this as a reality, Sera knew she was
somewhat, maybe a little, and sort of – kind of, slightly attracted
to Jeff.

There, she said it.
However, who wouldn't be. As her sister in law Deb had said, that
guy is
sizzlin
hot!

Anyway, she tried to tell herself
“Good for him.” However, if he had to be with someone, that woman
was not what Sera would have ever imagined for Jeff. Maybe that was
his type of woman… Well then, so much for Sera ever standing a
chance!

Today had truly taken a toll on her.
She looked up at the clock she had recently unearthed from the
storage room and decided it was time to pack up and go
home.

Sera was tired and didn't like the way
her mind wandered. It was taking her to places where she didn't
wish to go and in all honesty, she couldn't afford - literally or
figuratively - to go.

Her life was too much of a mess
already, and she didn’t need some romantic notion of starting fresh
and being madly in love, not to mention being loved, by a sizzlin
hot, really nice guy.

She turned the coffee pot off, the
copier off, shut down her computer, turned off all of the lights,
and left.

Today sucked.

Chapter
1
5

Sera came in earlier the next morning
to make up for the twenty minutes or so she had taken off early the
day before. Yesterday, when she left early, it was knowing that no
matter how long she stayed, she wouldn't have gotten anything else
done, but today would be better, and any thoughts about Jeff would
just have to go away.

Smiling and singing to herself, she
went to unlock the door and found that it was already unlocked.
Funny, she didn't recognize any of the cars outside.

Then, walking in slowly, Sera entered
the office and saw her. Tall, thin, and gorgeous, but this time,
the woman was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and sneakers that looked
a lot like the ones Sera always wore; only these sneakers were
probably at least three sizes larger than Sera's.

Sera shuddered.
Another one of Jeff’s women?
At least this one looked normal, although maybe too pretty.
Sera wasn’t sure if she was ready to retract her claws quite
yet.

"Hi, you must be Sera." A beautiful
woman who looked slightly familiar came to her in quick strides
with her hand out and a genuine, welcoming smile to greet
Sera.