“Um…” Dar’s brow creased. “Oh yeah. The ATM contract for transmission services for the Navy.” She paused. “And the network support for that and for their ship-to-shore microwave network transmissions.”
Kerry blinked. “Wow. The WAN guys are going to freak out.” She laughed a little. “They were telling me only last month they were getting 80
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bored.” She relaxed a little and so did Dar. “That’ll mean some extra training.”
Dar nodded. “I’ll give you the number of the training division in Houston. Give them a call and set up what you need. Depending on how many people you have, either they’ll go out there, or Houston will send a trainer down here.” They continued discussing details until dinner arrived, then talk slowed down as they paid attention to their food.
Kerry enjoyed her pasta and watched curiously as her companion methodically decimated the large salmon steak into neat squares, pairing each square with a forkful of mashed potatoes as she ate it. “That smells great.”
“It is,” Dar replied, after swallowing. “It’s honey and brown sugar glazed.” She hesitated, then casually dropped a square on Kerry’s plate.
“Here.”
Kerry obligingly tried it. “Wow, that is good.” She nudged a bit of the chicken from her pasta over on to her companion’s dish. “Fair is fair.”
She chewed the offering. “Wow.” Dar chuckled. “ You like stuff spicy, huh?”
“Mmm-hmm,” Kerry agreed. “It’s what I like best about living here.
Everything tastes different, it’s not all the same.” She took a sip of tea. “Do you like Thai food?”
“Anything with peanuts,” the executive replied with a grin. “There’s a good Thai restaurant right off US 1 near Dadeland. They make really good chicken curry.”
Kerry’s eyes lit up. “Really? And I never found it? W—” The “we” almost escaped, but she clamped her jaw shut on it.
We should go there? What the heck
was I thinking? This is my new boss, who certainly had better things to do than roam
around Miami finding new Thai restaurants for me.
“Thanks for telling me about it.”
“Sure.” Dar smiled at her. “How’d it go with your window?”
“Oh, fine. Fine. It’s done already,” Kerry assured her, then she dug in a pocket. “Oh yeah. Jerry found this when he was cleaning the glass up. Is it yours?” She held up a woodgrain-cased pen.
Dar blinked. “Didn’t even realize I lost that.” She reached over and claimed it. “Thanks.” She looked up as the waitress returned. “We’re done, yes. I’d like a large cappuccino, and, um…” Her eyes went to Kerry’s face, watching the blonde woman’s brows lift as a dessert tray went by. “Hey, share a cheesecake with me?”
Kerry’s eyes widened, then she sighed, and patted her stomach. “I shouldn’t.”
Dar just waited, sure of her quarry. She was beginning to gather an understanding about her new associate. It was a habit of hers, to try and figure out all the angles, and predict what people would do, and so far, Kerry Stuart was proving quite a challenge.
But not on this subject. Dar enjoyed indulging herself, and she suspected Kerry leaned in that direction as well, however unwilling she appeared on the face of it. “C’mon.”
“Oh well, okay.” She capitulated, giving Dar a little wry shrug. “Guess I’ll just put in extra time on the Rollerblades.” And how had the mildly unnerving Dar Roberts known she liked cheesecake? She decided to try
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another slightly more personal question, though she noticed Dar stiffened up when she’d done so before. “Have you ever tried that?”
“Cheesecake or Rollerblades?” Dar chuckled softly. “Both. I like one, and I’m not too fond of the other. I made close acquaintance with a tree last time I used them.” She glanced towards the fake waterfall, which was expelling another cloud of mist. “I stick to running.” She noticed Kerry’s eyes on the bare, subtly muscular arms emerging from her shirt. “And a little working out.” The sea green orbs lifted to hers, and Dar felt uncharacteristically off-balance. Something about the intensity, maybe? “So, you’re all ready for tomorrow? Did personnel forward you an electronic packet of forms for all the people you’ll be converting?”
Kerry watched as the server put down an enormous piece of cheesecake covered with chocolate, which was flanked by two bananas, equally doused.
She sucked in a breath. “Ooo.” Then she realized Dar had asked her a question. “Uh, yes. I got a ton of mail from them, including a three-page instruction list from someone named Mariana, who said something really funny like I was the new duckling?” She waited for Dar to pick up one of the two forks the server offered, then picked up her own and tried a bite. “Wow. I could get to like that way too much.”
“Duckling, huh?” Dar murmured as she worked a chunk off and nibbled it. “Mariana is our Director of Personnel. She’ll help you get everything straightened out.” She took another bite, enjoying the smooth, rich taste. “She has a unique sense of humor.”
Is that a company requirement?
Kerry wondered, but didn’t reply.
They finished up and sauntered through the shop in the front of the restaurant, filled with rainforest-inspired merchandise ranging from T-shirts to tiny rubber geckos to Beanie Babies in the shape of toucans and monkeys.
Kerry fingered a tiny Beanie salamander in an interesting shade of greenish blue, then put it down with a sigh. “I have enough stuff on my desk.”
Dar, who had been examining the large cockatoo overhead, turned but didn’t say anything. They walked out and through the mostly closed mall, the stores shut up tight and only a thin strain of music playing. “Where are you parked?”
“Around by the food court,” Kerry answered as she pushed the door open and held it. The thick, moist air hit her, carrying a heavy scent of rain.
“Well, thank you, Dar. I really appreciate you coming up here.”
The darkness outside hid most of the taller woman’s expression. “My car’s back here; I’ll give you a ride around to the front,” she stated. “And don’t worry about it. I was glad to get a chance to pick up this stuff.” She hefted her bag.
Kerry followed her out into the dark lot, stretching her legs a little to keep up. The breeze off the nearby ocean was warm and sultry and she sighed. “It’s hard to get used to the heat sometimes.”
A soft chuckle answered her. “That’s why we all stay inside,” Dar replied. “C’mon, it’s over here, under that ledge.”
Moving shadows surrounded them—cleaners, and workmen, and other, darker, figures. The parking lot was large and mostly empty, and she could see several small groups of what looked like teenagers, lit cigarettes and low 82
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laughter coming from them.
Eyes watched as they crossed the gray surface, and unconsciously, Kerry moved a little closer to her tall companion. “Kinda creepy out here.”
Dar glanced down. “Just act like you own the place. I guarantee, none of these kids’ll come near you,” she advised.
Kerry watched as the group they were approaching eyed Dar, then nudged over a little out of her way. “I’ll try to keep that in mind,” she murmured, feeling quite, quite safe.
The air was thick with humidity, but she took a deep breath of it, tasting a hint of the sea on the edges from the nearby Intercoastal Waterway. She walked alongside Dar in silence, but it wasn’t really the uncomfortable kind.
“How’s your hand doing?” Kerry asked, as they crossed the expanse of mostly empty tarmac.
“It’s all right,” Dar said. “Wonder what those guys were really after? You didn’t have a purse on the seat.”
Kerry was silent for a few steps. “No, I don’t usually carry one.” She glanced up and caught Dar watching her, the faintly raised eyebrow visible even in the shadows. “Just one of those things,” she added, with a half shrug.
“Mmm.” Dar’s eyebrows twitched a little. “Me either,” she said in a casual tone. “Interesting coincidence.”
Kerry absorbed that as the night became friendlier around her, surprised when she idly wished she’d found a parking spot a lot further out.
Interesting coincidence.
“WHERE HAVE YOU been?” Colleen’s voice came from the doorway, as Kerry finished carrying in her packages. “Ooo, I see bags from Macy’s.” She ducked inside and helped the blonde woman put the bundles down. “How’d it go?”
Kerry sat down on her desk chair and folded her arms across her chest.
“It was interesting. I got lots of stuff, as you can see, and…um, it was interesting.”
Colleen folded her own arms. “Interesting? Your new boss offers to come over and help you shop for clothes, and you call this interesting? I call it
mysteriously
intriguing.” The redhead chuckled. “So, what’s she like when she’s not firing people or restructuring companies?”
“It’s kind of hard to explain.” Kerry exhaled. “I mean, she’s really…” She described a box with her hands. “She’s very closed, kind of remote, but then once in a while she just kinda opens up just a little bit, enough for you to tell there’s a human being in there and not a microprocessor.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Colleen digested this. “So you two spent all this time shopping?”
A quirk of Kerry’s lips. “No, not exactly. We had dinner at the Rainforest.” She avoided Colleen’s widening eyes. “She wanted to go over next week and what to expect, things like that.”
“Did you have fun?”
Kerry thought about that. “It was…Col, it was really, really weird, because half of the time it was very strained, because we don’t know each
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other, and she’s my boss, and it’s just weird, but the other half of the time, it was…” She struggled to get a grasp on her thoughts. “It was just strange.”
Colleen tilted her head to on side and eyed her. “Strangely familiar?”
“Yeah, kinda,” Kerry admitted. “I’ve never had that happen to me before, but I think we’re going to be okay.”
“You like her.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah, I do,” Kerry said, after a moment’s thought. “Even after the whole firing thing. I was really mad at her that night, but after she showed me what she did, how she tried…” She fell silent again. “Yeah, I do like her,” she repeated in a more positive tone.
“Incredible.” Colleen shook her head. “I saw Reynaldo over at Publix, we were getting deli together, and I was telling him about you going to work for her. He was in total shock.” She shook her head. “He’s the IS manager at the bank. He got chewed, and chewed, and chewed until he had only one quarter of his butt left over that tape disaster. He says she’s just the nastiest person he’d ever met.”
Kerry lifted her shoulders. “I think she can be. I can see she’s got a pretty dark streak in there. Remember I told you about that goon, and how he practically dissolved when she yelled at him? And I remember how she was when we first met in my office. There wasn’t much to like. She was pretty mean.”
Colleen rubbed her head. “But you like her anyhow?”
It does sound strange
, Kerry realized. “I don’t know…yeah. I mean, she could have fired my butt several times, right? I was pretty nasty. I told her to go to hell and all of that, and she could have just axed me right then and there, locked me out, had security take me out of the building, but she didn’t. In fact, tonight, I kind of got the feeling that she respected me for it.”
“Oh, that’s twisted, me bucko,” her friend warned. “You watch out for her, hear? She can turn on you quick as a whistle.” She sighed. “I don’t know, Ker, these are pretty uncharted waters you’re sailing into here. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
I hope I do, too.
Kerry sighed inwardly. “I can’t really explain it. Maybe if I’d taken time to really think about what was happening, I would have chosen to stay where I was, but maybe not. I just thought this would be such a unique opportunity, you know?”
“Unique.” Colleen slung an arm across her shoulders. “Me dearie, that’s an understatement. But if you have a problem, I talked with Jacob at my office, and he says he’d take you on in an instant, okay?”
Kerry smiled, and leaned against her affectionately. “Thanks, Col, I really appreciate that.” She exhaled. “Hey, wanna see what I got?”
“You betcha.”
They opened the various packages, and Kerry hung the items off the curtain rod in the living room.
“Ooo, I like this one.” The redhead pointed at the blue-green outfit. “Nice pin.” She touched the front of the jacket.
Kerry stepped closer and laid a finger on it. “Good grief, my mind must have been all over the place.” She laughed in gentle delight. “I didn’t even notice that was on there. Yeah, it is nice.” The pin was a pair of silver dolphins 84
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frolicking on a gold background, with the waves in the forefront tinged in pink and blue. “Perfect for the color. It does kinda look like the ocean, doesn’t it?”
“Mmm-hmm,” Colleen agreed readily. “Bet it looks nice on you; it just about matches your eyes.” She looked at the row of clothing. “I like all of them, but I like this one the best, though that purple one is nice too.”
“Yeah, I like the braid on that. Listen, if I put some of this stuff on, would you take a picture? My parents want to see what I look like dressed up.”
“Surely.” Her friend laughed. “Though, being fair, you look nice in just about everything, you rat. “ She poked Kerry in the ribs. “Even those torn-off old denim rags you wear sometimes.”
“Hey, they’re my favorite pair of jeans,” Kerry protested as she pulled the blue-green outfit down. “Be right back.”
THE SKY HAD finally cleared, exposing a thick wash of stars which twinkled down over the quiet coral deck. The pool’s warm waters rippled around the lone figure floating gently on the surface, head resting on crossed arms and legs propped on a thick Styrofoam raft.
Dar let the peace surround her, concentrating on the gentle sounds of the surf not far away and the rustle of a light breeze which moved the trees around the pool. She was alone, which was not surprising considering the hour, and she was spending a little time just reflecting quietly on her day.
At least it had been more productive than the previous day. After she’d sent out her e-mail, she’d somehow managed to fall asleep again on the couch, with her laptop up and running, the soft leather gathering in her tired body and refusing to give it up until almost dinner time, when she’d groggily woken to see Power Rangers dancing on the screen and 3D pipes patiently creating a plumbing layout on her laptop display.