“Don’t ask me that.” Duks rubbed his eyes. “I’ve been going over financials for the last two days. I have such a headache, I can’t tell you,” he complained grumpily. “What about you? They’re going to hit you with those facilities additions, you know.” He studied Dar’s face, noticing that the tense lines and faint shadows that used to characterize it had faded, replaced by a noticeably more relaxed expression. “Let me guess, you have all the answers already.”
Dar shrugged. “I have some of them…and enough evasions to get by with on the others.” She held the door open as they reached the bottom floor. “You headed for the cafeteria?” she inquired. “I’ll buy you a cup of coffee, how’s that?”
“I never turn down that kind of offer.” Duks laughed as he followed her through the line, glancing at her choice. “None for you?”
Dar waved him off. “Must have picked up a bug or something, my stomach’s bothering me.” She set the bottle of club soda down, then nodded at Duk’s steaming cup and handed the cashier a bill. They took their drinks and went to a corner table, away from the early lunch crowd. Dar noted the eyes following her and saw the veiled interest. Idly she wondered what list of rumors was currently making the rounds. “So.” She leaned on her elbows, and twisted the top off the bottle, taking a small sip and grimacing as it hit her empty stomach. “What do you think José will try?”
Duks took a swallow of coffee and pondered the question. “He’s been quiet, too quiet,” he mused. “You’d better watch your back, my friend. I think whatever he’s up to, it’s got you in the center of it.”
“Probably,” she agreed.
“You don’t look worried,” her friend remarked. “My assistant overheard Eleanor’s two poodle girls talking about Kerry. Seems Eleanor is convinced she can turn her.”
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“Well.” Dar had to smile. “She’s welcome to try, but, um…” She waggled her hand. “I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on her loyalties.”
Duks smiled back. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
The dark head tilted in question. “What, having one up on Eleanor?”
Steady eyes regarded her, as a slight grin quirked Duk’s lips.
“Oh.” Dar felt a faint blush creeping up her neck, and she studied her bottle, turning it over and over in her hands. Finally she looked up. “Yes. Yes it does.”
He leaned forward, dropping his voice. “Dar, please believe me when I say that I am so, so, happy for you.” He watched her eyes flick around the room in obvious discomfort. “I really like her. I think you picked a good one, this time.” Pale blue orbs fastened on him intently. “A blue chip.” He winked.
Dar covered her embarrassment by taking a long swallow of fizzy liquid.
She appreciated the sentiment, and Lou had been a good friend for many years, but still. She cleared her throat. “Glad you approve.” She managed to keep her tone droll, but she knew her lips were twitching into a helpless grin and she felt awkwardly exposed. Her cell phone’s beeping was a welcome interruption. “Excuse me.” She pulled the instrument out and flipped it open.
“Yeah?”
“Hi.” There was a world of tension in the voice.
“Hey,” Dar responded, instinctively gentling her own. “Flight okay?”
“Right up until it pulled up to the gate,” Kerry replied with a sigh. “I’ll call you later.”
“Okay, take it easy,” Dar replied quietly.
“I’ll try,” came the answer, then a momentary pause. “I love you.”
Dar closed her eyes, and consciously blocked out her surroundings. “I love you too.” She spoke the words clearly and intently. “If you need anything, you call me, okay?”
She could hear the smile right through the phone. “I will. Bye.”
Dar folded the phone closed, and opened her eyes. She was grateful that Duks had found something desperately interesting in his coffee cup, and he gave her a moment to compose herself before he looked up. They looked at each other in awkward silence for a moment, then the financial officer smiled reflectively. “You know, Dar, times like this, times when I see something in us so beyond the animal, are when I come closest to giving in and believing in the grace of something higher than myself.” And he stood, putting a hand on her shoulder for a gentle squeeze before walking off into a rising hum of lunchtime chatter.
“IS THAT ONE yours, Kerry?” Her mother’s voice echoed in her ears, and she turned.
“Yes, I’ve got it.” Kerry reached over and grabbed the handle, hoisting it clear of the belt and setting it down next to her feet. “That’s it, just this and the carry-on.” She attached the strap to the rings on the duffle bag and slung it over her shoulder. It seemed curiously lighter than it usually did, but she put that down to her own nervousness. “Let’s go.”
“Do you have that? Let me get a sky cap, dear.” Her mother eyed her.
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“Goodness, you’ve put on weight, haven’t you?”
Kerry let the memory of Dar’s voice wrap around her like a comfortable jacket. “Yes I have, thanks, I feel great,” she replied. “Are we ready?”
Her mother looked like she wanted to say more but instead simply nodded. “Yes, I wanted to stop at the store on the way. Is that a new coat you have there?” She examined the garment. “I don’t recall it.”
Kerry shifted her shoulders a little. “Yes, it comes with this zip-in liner.”
She opened a flap as she walked, knowing it would distract her mother. “We do get the occasional cold day down there.” The softly textured, chocolate-colored leather smelled wonderful, and if she concentrated, she could get a whiff of a familiar scent. Dar had looked at her in puzzled question when she’d asked her to put the thing on—the sleeves only coming halfway down Dar’s long arms, and the fabric tight over her broader shoulders. But Dar had as she was asked and had handed it back, watching in bemusement as Kerry then buried her nose into it and broke into a smile.
And she did again, watching the dull brown brick walls of the airport go by and taking a breath of cold air as they exited from the terminal into a cloudy November day. A thin drizzle was falling, dusting them with moisture as Kerry glanced around, taking in the gray and brown landscape, where trees had already shed their leaves and the grass its color. It struck Kerry’s eyes as strange, almost alien, so used to the vivid colors of the subtropics as she was now.
She followed her mother to the car, where a driver was waiting, pulling open the door as they approached. He took Kerry’s bags from her, and she slid in after her mother, leaning back in the soft seat and folding her arms over her chest after she put her laptop case between herself and the car door. Her mother spoke to the driver, and she let her thoughts drift back to that morning, before she and Dar had left the apartment
.
She’d found the taller woman gazing at the sunset lithograph in her living room as she’d come out of the bedroom and crossed to her.
“
Dar…I…” She’d held something in her hand. “After that break in, I…would
you hold on to something for me?”
Startled blue eyes had turned to her. “Sure.”
She’d held out her hand, and by reflex Dar had lifted hers to meet it. She put a
small, round object in its palm. “It’s been in my family forever. My great-aunt gave it
to me.”
The ring was ancient and delicate, a traced filigree with a barely visible round
inset. It was a very simple design, a bird’s head in profile on a darker background, but
she’d always loved it. “Just hang on to it till I get back, all right?” she’d asked Dar.
Long fingers had closed gently over it. “All right.” Had Dar understood what
Kerry was trying to tell her, by giving her something to keep that was so important to
her? She hoped so.
“Kerry?”
She turned and gazed at her mother. “I’m sorry? I was just thinking.”
Cynthia Stuart was a thin, aristocratic woman with pinched features and wavy, silvered brown hair. Her eyes were the same green as Kerry’s, but that’s
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where the resemblance stopped, and she stood several inches taller than her eldest daughter. “Now, listen to me, dear, I want you to promise me you’ll hold your tongue on this nonsense of your staying in Miami. Your father has some definite plans, and I don’t want him upset over the holiday.”
Kerry simply stared at her. “Mother, I have no problem with not saying anything…as long as you understand I have no intention of moving back here.”
Her mother sighed. “Kerry, I don’t understand what’s gotten into you.”
“Maybe I’ve just grown up, Mother,” Kerry replied in a gentler tone. “I’m twenty-seven, I think I’ve got a right to a say in my own life.”
“It’s all a question of what’s best for you, Kerry. Why can’t you see that?”
her mother’s voice became upset. “You’re down there in that dangerous place, with no family around you. What if something were to happen to you?”
Kerry looked away. “I have a lot of friends there,” she said. “Some I’m very close with.”
“Friends are not family, Kerrison, you know that. And, what about Brian?” Her mother changed the subject.
“What about him?” She looked at her mother.
“Honey, you’re getting married to him in the spring. Or have you forgotten that?” Her mother was getting more upset.
Bite the bullet time.
“Mother, I like Brian very much, and he’s always been one of my best friends, but we haven’t spoken since August. I just don’t think we have much in common anymore.”
Her mother stared at her in shock. “Don’t you dare say that,” she snapped. “Don’t you dare. Do you know how long we’ve been planning this?”
She fussed with her purse, slamming it open and shut. “You had just better not say that to your father.”
Kerry leaned back and closed her eyes. “Fine.”
“Give me one good reason why the two of you can’t be married,” her mother went on. “It’s ridiculous.”
I could answer her honestly.
Kerry mused. She glanced at her mother’s face and decided giving her a heart attack was probably not the best idea at the moment. “Mother, let’s talk about this later. All right?”
The older woman’s hands were shaking. “You make me very upset.”
Kerry sighed and gazed out the window at the rows of winter-grayed trees. It was going to be a very, very long weekend.
IT WAS, DAR decided, too quiet. She closed the door to her condo behind her, and moved into the living room, setting her gym bag down on the couch and letting out a long breath. She was tired, having just spent the last three hours at the gym, teaching the beginner’s class as she’d promised. She then took two hours to spar with Ken, giving her body a workout that was probably a little more than it really was in any condition to handle at the moment. But she hadn’t been as rusty as she’d been afraid of, which was a pleasant surprise. She had even managed to deliver a combination kick at the very end of the session that had amazed her and knocked poor Ken flat on his butt on the mat.
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That had felt pretty damn good, given that the man was five years younger than she was and in better shape on top of that. A faint smile curved her lips. She’d almost forgotten how much she liked that feeling. How much she liked the physical competition, and the satisfying release of a pent-up aggression that left her feeling a lot more relaxed.
But not totally.
There was still that knot of worry in her gut that had Kerry’s name written all over it. As she had all day, she found herself wondering how Kerry was faring. With a sigh, she trudged into the kitchen, stretching out the stiffness that had settled in her shoulders during the drive home and reaching into the cabinet for a mug as she glanced at her terminal.
Mail. Of course.
“Mail. Read.” She poured milk into the mug and added chocolate to it.
“Mail, sixteen items, three urgent.”
“It’s the day before Thanksgiving, what in the hell could be urgent?” Dar queried wryly as she stuck her mug in the microwave and turned it on.
“Display.”
The list came up, and she scanned it. “Read six.”
Sent by: Stuart, Kerry
Subject: Hell
Time: 6:00 PM
Hi.
They were wrong, Dar... Hell isn’t a fiery pit. It’s a two story ranch home in Michigan. I’ve been here six hours, and I want to kill everyone already. My sister’s due here any minute, then we get to have the first of the family dinners. Lucky for me, I don’t get to see Brian until tomorrow.
So far we haven’t talked about the situation, but
I’ve gotten criticized for just about everything else.
One more round of that, and I just may lose it.
I miss you. Gee, that sounds goofy, doesn’t it? Well, I’m going to go change...I may put on that Navy
sweatshirt you gave me just to annoy my parents. Might as well take my fun where I can find it, right? Wish me luck.
K
“Reply,” Dar said softly.
“Hey, glad you dropped me a note. I’ve been thinking about you all day and wondering how things were going.”
Dar paused as the microwave beeped, and she removed the mug.
“I just got home. I taught that class tonight, missed having you in it.”
She took a sip.
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“Then I worked out with Ken for two hours, and boy, am I feeling it. I’m going to take my hot chocolate and go sit in the whirlpool for a while.”
She smiled at the screen.
“Wish you were joining me.” She paused.
“Send.” Dar watched the message process, then she sighed and reviewed the rest of the list. “Read ten.”
Urgent
Sent by: Alastair McLean
Subject: no subject
Time: 9:56 PM
Dar—
What the hell is this?:
<
Mr. McLean,
In the interests of promoting and maintaining
excellent relations between our two companies, I find myself forced to bring a matter to your attention, in hopes that you will address it in the proper manner.
While at our facility this month, one of your
officers was observed in an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, and we feel that this is not a good indication of how your company deals with discipline and presentation.