The secretary looked up from her task. “
Ay, chica
, come in here.” She waved Kerry in and patted the chair next to her desk. “What have you been doing? I heard two people in the lunchroom saying very lovely things about you.”
Kerry obligingly dropped into the chair. It had taken a day or two of them gingerly feeling each other out, but she felt that Maria and she had decided to like each other. Apparently Maria had felt Dar needed some help for quite some time, but she resented the usual parade of applicants, who tended to treat the secretary as...well, like a secretary. Kerry had taken her cue
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from Dar and accorded Maria a high degree of respect, deferring to her whenever possible. “Oh, this and that. Trying to get some of my work list done, you know.” She smiled. “Anything hot you need taking care of with the boss out of the office?”
Maria rolled her eyes. “When is there never hot things? You might could take a look at this.” She handed Kerry a folder. “Customer Service sent over and put it right on my desk.”
“Okay.” Kerry took it, then she glanced around. “Is Dar coming back today?”
Maria looked around as well, though they were both quite alone. “
Si
, she’s supposed to, but she’s at the doctor’s.”
Green eyes widened. “Just a check-up, or…”
The secretary hesitated, torn between her knowledge of Dar’s intensely private nature and her need to share her concerns. “It’s the headaches. She gets them so bad, she went to have them check her out,” she finally said. “But, shhh, she doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“Yeah, I noticed she takes a lot of aspirin, but her job’s enough to give a rock a headache.”
“
Ay
.” Maria sighed. “Is good you help her out. It’s terrible the way they expect so much of her.”
They both jumped a little as the door opened and Dar slid inside, giving them both a look of mild surprise. “Afternoon,” she muttered as she walked through the outer office and pushed her own door open. “Anything going on?” Kerry and Maria exchanged apprehensive glances. Dar’s demeanor was quiet and grim, and her blue eyes lacked their customary sparkle. Kerry stood up and held up the file. “Just some stuff from customer service. I was going to take care of it.”
Dar regarded her for a moment, wrestling with her conscience, then gave her assistant a nod. “Good.” She turned and went into her office, putting her briefcase down and dropping into her chair. Instead of glancing at her monitor, though, she turned her seat and gazed out of the window, watching the slow drift of clouds across horizon in the east.
A soft knock made her look around. “Yeah?” The door edged open, and Kerry poked her blonde head in. Dar exhaled and lifted a hand, motioning her in.
No sense in taking out my nerves on the kid, right?
“C’mere.”
Kerry obeyed, moving across the carpet and settling in the chair across from Dar’s desk, the folder clasped in both hands. She looked uncharacteristically nervous. She took a breath. “Everything okay?”
Dar spared her a wry smile. “Does everyone in the building know where I went?”
“No, just us, I guess.” Kerry obviously meant herself and Maria. “Don’t be mad at Maria for telling me, she’s just worried about you.”
Caught between annoyance and embarrassment, Dar compromised by rolling her eyes.
“Please forget I asked,” Kerry stated hastily. “Next topic. I think the whole Tucson thing is going to work out. Infrastructure was able to complete the T3 circuit on time, now they’re just waiting for the installers to get there.”
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“That’s good. I was afraid they’d screwed that one up past redemption.
Did you sit on them until they finished it?”
“Well, not exactly. I just kind of talked to the client and got some concessions from his building management to make it easier for them to finish,” Kerry explained quietly.
“Good work.” Dar hesitated. “Kerry?” Green eyes lifted and met hers.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking.”
Kerry blinked. “I know you don’t like people getting into your personal business,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to intrude or anything. I’m glad everything’s all right.”
Dar felt a quiet regret at the woman’s apology. “I…I don’t mind, not if it’s Maria, or if it’s you. I just don’t like the entire company involved.” She gave Kerry a brief smile. “You’d be surprised at what passes for juicy gossip around here.”
“That’s not something to gossip about.” Kerry frowned. “That’s rotten.”
That got her another brief grin. “I can’t say I don’t agree, and I’m not one for idle chatter myself, but it’s a fact of life here.” Dar leaned back in her chair.
Kerry pressed her lips together and nodded. “I understand.” She looked up, studying Dar’s half shadowed face. “Anyway, I’m glad things are okay.”
There was the faintest hint of a question in her tone.
Dar leaned forward and rested her arms on her desk. “Mostly,” she admitted, “I basically got told I should take a vacation and not work so hard.”
She shrugged. “Like always. I got some drugs for the headaches, and that was it.”
Kerry absorbed the revelation. “So, when was the last time you took a vacation?” She asked curiously. “I know mine was a while ago, so much stuff was going on. I went over to Marco Island for a few days.” It had been a fun excursion; she and a few of the folks from Associated had rented a small cabin on the west coast of Florida, and spent some time looking for shells, and bumming around on the beach.
Dar concentrated. “Um, I think mine was…skiing in Colorado,” she recalled. “About a week. I ended up meeting most of the trees in Aspen up close and personal.” She chuckled softly. “I finally got the hang of it on the last day, but I haven’t been back since.”
“That sounds like fun. I’ve been skiing a bunch of times. I’m not that good at it, though,” Kerry confessed with a smile. “I ran into a rabbit my last time, and went head over heels. Ended up with a broken wrist.”
“Ouch.” Dar laughed.
“So, are you going to take the doctor’s advice? Take a vacation, I mean?”
Dar looked up. “You trying to get rid of me?” Her tone was light, but wary.
“No,” Kerry answered very seriously. “I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to get a machine gun mounted on my desk in time.” She held up her hands. “
Rattataataa
.”
Dar couldn’t help it. She burst into laughter again, leaning back and feeling her whole body relax from the day’s tension. “And here I thought you were the peaceful sort,” she teased as she rested her elbows on her chair arms, then
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leaned her chin against her interlaced fingers. “Machine Gun Stuart, huh?”
Kerry grinned at her. “I was trap shooting champion during high school,”
she admitted. “Loved nailing those clay ducks.”
Surprised once again by the many facets she was discovering in Kerry, Dar asked, “Really?”
“Yeah.” Her assistant nodded. “Trap and debating. Bad mix, really.”
Dar chuckled at the image. An idea burst into her mind, and she started talking before she really thought about what she was doing. “Listen, I’ve got to go to the South Miami office for a quick meeting. I think you should come along, so I can introduce you to the guys down there.”
“Okay,” Kerry agreed amiably, somewhat tickled at being able to make Dar laugh. “Sounds good to me, and it’s on my way home, practically, anyway.”
“Hey, we could try that Thai restaurant after the meeting. It’s right by there. I didn’t get any lunch, so…” Dar felt a little awkward but relaxed when she saw Kerry’s eyes light up. “Haven’t had that in a long time.”
“Sure,” The younger woman agreed enthusiastically. “I’ve been waiting for a chance to try it. None of my friends like Thai, so it was wait around for someone who does, or go by myself.” She made a face. “I hate doing that.”
Dar glanced at her hands. “I’ve gotten used to it over the years,” she commented lightly. “But I know what you mean.” She stood up. “Well, then, let’s get going. That meeting’s set for five o’clock.”
“I’ll get my things and meet you at the elevator,” Kerry agreed, and trotted out.
The room seems so much more empty without her in it
, Dar mused. She hardly knew why she’d brought up the restaurant, other than the fact that she was hungry now, and…
And.
Dar chewed her lip. “And you like spending time with the kid,” she told herself wryly. “Come on, just admit it. She’s got a fresh perspective, a whole lot different from yours, and for some crazy reason, she likes you.” A soft sigh. “Damned if I know why, either.” She sat pondering that for a moment more, then gathered her things and headed out.
“SO, HER SECRETARY goes in and gets the cup, then washes it out with vinegar!” Kerry picked up a stuffed shrimp, and took a bite. “Wow, that’s great... Where was I? Oh, I’m standing there, getting coffee, and I just looked at her.”
“Mmm.” Dar nibbled on her own shrimp and listened, getting a kick out of the stories of things she certainly never saw. “Vinegar, huh? That explains a lot about Vi.”
“Shhh. Right, so I see she doesn’t even rinse the cup, then she pours decaf into it. My curiosity finally got the better of me. I asked her what she was doing, and she just kinda laughed.” Kerry cautiously took a sip of the amber fluid in the wine glass that had just been set before her. “Oh…that is good.”
“I don’t drink much, but I can take a glass or two of this,” Dar admitted.
“I keep a bottle of it around the house. Nice to sip out on the balcony sometimes.”
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“I try not to go over my limit very often,” Kerry sighed. “They get me out at a club once in a while though, and I usually regret it in the morning.” She took another sip of the plum wine. “Anyway, so I ask her, and she tells me that she and a few of the other secreta—excuse me, administrative assistants...” They exchanged rolled eyes. “A few of them really want this other coffee vendor to do the building or at least the floor. But this one is the building manager’s cousin, or brother-in-law, or whatever. So, they won’t change even though they think the coffee’s lousy.”
Dar bit through another appetizer, which was shrimp stuffed with crabmeat and deep-fried until it was crunchy. It had an orange/honey/ginger dipping sauce she particularly liked. “Well, it’s not the best, but it’s not the worst either,” she commented of the coffee.
“That’s what I thought, too. I mean, it’s office coffee, not Starbucks, for Christ’s sake.” Kerry shook her head. “But they’ve got this scheme. They put the vinegar in her boss’s coffee because they know she’s got a big mouth, and she’ll complain all the time. Then if she does that long enough, they’ll change.”
Dar laughed. “Oh, hell. Vi does complain about that constantly, too. I’m in trouble now! Next time we have an executive committee meeting, and she starts going on about the coffee, I’m going to lose it.” She relaxed in her chair.
“Why don’t they just buy whatever damn coffee they like, and bring it in?”
Kerry eyed the large plate of white rice and the container of chicken curry that had just been set down in front of her. “Uh oh. Looks like I’ll have lunch tomorrow out of this.”
“Bet you don’t.” A quick grin edged Dar’s face. “It’s got a way of disappearing.”
“Yeah, into me.” Kerry patted her stomach wryly. “Oh, about the coffee.
Well, that’s what I suggested to her, I mean, they’ve been doing this for three months, Dar. In that time, they could have hired Juan Valdez as consultant, you know?” Dar snickered. “They looked at me like I was a three-headed dog.” She lifted her hands in a shrug. “They made a snarky comment about how not everyone worked for you and got paid megabucks.”
A dark brow lifted. “You’re not my secretary,” Dar stated flatly. “I pay people what they’re worth.”
Kerry blushed slightly and fiddled with her plate, mixing her rice with the fragrant curried chicken. “I just told them I guess I picked the right boss, then.” She lifted her eyes shyly and met Dar’s. “And I think that’s true, regardless of what I was getting paid.”
Dar was silent for a moment, absorbing the unexpected compliment. “So, does that mean I haven’t scared you off yet?” Her tone was joking, but there was a serious undercurrent to it.
“I guess that’s what it means,” Kerry replied. “I really like what I’m doing. I’m learning so much.” She exhaled and gave Dar a smile.
“That’s a relief,” her boss answered quietly. “As of tonight, you’ve officially lasted the longest ever of my assistants. Congratulations.” Dar lifted her glass and held it up, letting a quiet, almost wistful smile touch twist her lips as Kerry touched her glass to it. “Wasn’t quite what you expected two weeks ago, hmm?”
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A small laugh. “No, it sure wasn’t, but I’ve learned that sometimes things happen for a reason. I think this is one of those things.” Kerry reflected that toasting her new boss with plum wine over very good chicken curry wasn’t what she expected either, but she’d take that, too. “No complaints.”
Dar was contented. She’d made the right choice and events were proving that out to the point where even Duks had made a comment, nudging her in the ribs and complimenting her on Kerry’s handling of some account or other
.
“Thought you were picking for looks there, my friend. Guess I was wrong.”
She’d smirked in response. “You’re so superficial, Dukky. You gotta learn to look beneath the surface.”
She’d gotten a good employee, and a smart manager, and
… And.
Their eyes met casually, and Dar felt a gentle warmth in her gut
. Good
god, I might have even found a friend, scary as that thought is.
At least someone she could have dinner with once in a while without worrying about being bored.
“Glad to hear it.”
Kerry sighed happily and chewed her curry. “So…” She swallowed. “In this ‘us and them’ thing, who, exactly, is
us
, Dar?” She wiped her lips.
“Because you need so many score cards in that office, I’m considering putting it in an Access database.”
Dar almost inhaled a bit of rice. “Don’t make me laugh like that. I’ll choke,” she protested. “Okay. Well, who is us… That’s a hard question, because everyone has their own agenda. You realize that, right?”