An Executive Decision (7 page)

Chapter Ten

It hadn’t been Dee’s intention to spill her guts to Harris about the disastrous meeting. He stopped by her office to deliver a sandwich for a late dinner. He’d been in the neighbourhood, and they hadn’t had much time to catch up since she started work at Pneuma Inc. She’d promised him at least 20 minutes in exchange for the sandwich. It hadn’t taken him that long to figure out something wasn’t right.

‘I couldn’t even make an excuse, Harris. There were no excuses. Marston’s right. I was irresponsible.’ She knocked back the last of her iced tea, wishing it were something stronger, but knowing she had way too much work to do this evening to even think about drinking anything that didn’t involve high doses of caffeine.

Harris sat back in the chair and wiped his hands on the napkin. ‘You look like hell, Dee. When’s the last time you slept?’

‘This morning! That’s the problem.’

‘I mean really slept. A full night, peaceful dreams, teddy bear, the whole nine yards.’

‘I never thought it would be like this. I always thought I’d be so impressive, that I would somehow manage to pull everything off and come out shining. He’s gonna fire me, Harris.’ She quickly wiped at her eyes to stave off the threat of tears. ‘He might have already done it if Sandra and Wade hadn’t conspired to rescue me.’ The thought made her cringe. ‘It’s so humiliating. I’ve never needed rescuing in my life. I’ve always pulled my own weight.’

‘Yours and several other people’s as well, most of the time.’ Harris said. ‘So then what happened?’

‘Ellis said he’d get back to me, that we weren’t finished, but then he got called away, so I was spared the guillotine, at least until tomorrow.’

‘He’s not going to fire you, Dee. Does he have any idea the hours you put in? Is he still here?’

She shook her head.

‘Didn’t think so. And you were here how late last night with Wade Crittenden?’

She toyed with her sandwich. ‘I don’t know. I think it was two when I left. We had a couple of calls to Paris, and with the time change and all …’

‘And how long has this been going on?’

‘It doesn’t matter how long. It’ll have to keep going on until I figure things out, or Ellis finally decides Tally Barnes really can do this job better than I can. She must have been looking pretty damn good to him this morning.’

‘Who’s Tally Barnes?’

‘Someone who’s a little too helpful for comfort.’ Dee figured it was probably Tally who had been thoughtful enough to mention to Ellis that she’d been spending evenings with Wade, though she didn’t know how Tally knew about Trouvères.

‘Maybe you’re right; maybe you should be prepared just in case Ellis gives you the axe.’ Harris gave her a mock-serious look. ‘You should probably polish up your arias. Great sopranos are hard to come by.’

She threw her napkin across the desk at him and laughed. ‘True, but we mediocre ones are abundant.’

Harris caught the napkin and slam-dunked it into the trash. ‘Ah! What a life it would be for you, Dee!’ He stood and moved behind her desk, placing a light kiss on the top of her head. Teaching snotty-nosed kids their scales after school, auditioning for all the local musicals. Your mom would be so proud.’ He looked down at his watch. ‘I’ve gotta go. Some of us still have a life.’ He shrugged. ‘Well, at least Kendra does. See you later, Ms Diva.’ He kissed her again and left.

Ms Diva. Harris and Kendra used to call her that all the time back when she was running here and there to music lessons and auditions, before she defied her mother and went off to study for her MBA. The memory of her day of emancipation still made her stomach churn.

‘When were you going to tell me? I’m your mother, for God’s sake!’

Dee remembered everything about that day like it was yesterday. Her mother had paid a surprise visit to her dorm room after one of Dee’s professors had let the plan slip to her while picking up his kid from a piano lesson. The colour in her mother’s cheeks always made her look like a porcelain doll when she was angry, and she had been enraged.

‘There was no point.’ Dee continued packing. ‘I knew how you’d react.’

‘Of course you knew how I’d react. How would you expect me to react when you throw your career away?’ Her mother paced in front of the bed breathing like she was about to explode.

‘There is no career, Mom. When are you gonna admit it? I’m not that good.’

‘You are that good. You’re just lazy, that’s all, lazy like your father. You don’t practice enough, you’re not focused enough. You don’t appreciate the sacrifices I’ve made for you to have this chance.’

Dee kept packing.

‘What about
Cats
? I’ve talked to the producer, and he’s willing to give you an audition. You’re a shoo-in, Dee, you know that.’

‘Of course I’m a shoo-in, Mom, it’s a local production. Anyone who can carry a tune is a shoo-in.’

Her mother glared at her. ‘You know that’s not true.
The Oregonian
will be covering it, and that means people will see you, will hear you. That’s all you need, darling. That’s all you’ve ever needed.’

‘That’s all I need for what?’ She slammed a stack of T-shirts into the suitcase. ‘So I can sing with some minor chorus and give lessons to brats who don’t practice like you do, just to pay the rent?’

Dee hadn’t seen it coming. Looking back now, she should have. The sharp impact of her mother’s hand hard across her face nearly knocked her backward onto the bed. Inside her mouth, she tasted blood where her teeth had cut her cheek. For a second the world blurred in front of watery eyes, but she blinked, straightened herself, and continued to pack. She knew it always made her mother angrier when she just took the abuse, when she didn’t argue or cry or get angry. That was power, something there had been precious little of in her life until then.

‘I gave up my chances to be great when your father knocked me up. I didn’t have to do that, you know? I gave up my life for you, to see your gifts nurtured, to see you had the chance I didn’t get, and this –’ She kicked over the second suitcase already packed and sitting by the bed. ‘This is how you repay me?’

‘It’s a great opportunity, Mom, one I may never get again. And I’m good at it. I’m really good at it.’ The woman had never acknowledged Dee’s 4.0 grade point average nor the listing of good schools she could have easily gotten into. There was no need for any of that in her mother’s eyes, not when her daughter was going to be a great soprano, or a star on Broadway. Yet somehow it had never entered her mind to wonder why none of those scholarships were music scholarships.

Her mother sniffed. ‘Well, you might as well unpack, because I’m not paying for it.’

As if she even could, Dee thought. She had only managed to go to university at all because her grades were good enough for scholarships and because she always held down a part-time job or two in addition to her classes. ‘It’s already paid for, Mom, everything.’

Dee slung her bag over her shoulder and picked up the two suitcases, one in each hand. Her mother followed her into the hall, still ranting. ‘I should have listened to your father. He said we were too young to have a baby, he said I should think of myself and my career.’ Dee’s ears burned as several doors along the hall opened and students stuck their heads out to see what the noise was about. They should have known it was just Dee Henning’s mother making a scene again.

‘Dee?’

She started, not at all sorry to have the instant replay of her past interrupted.

Ellis stood at the door dressed in a tuxedo, and for a brief second the combination of his looks and the serene, slightly puzzled expression on his face made her wonder if she were dreaming. If so, she was pretty sure she didn’t want to wake up.

‘What are you still doing here?’

The memory of their encounter that morning nearly took her breath away, and she braced herself. This was it. He hadn’t forgotten. He was here to fire her. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to angst over it all night.

She scrambled to look a bit more business-like, tidying her jacket and running a hand through her hair. ‘Ellis! I wasn’t expecting you.’ In spite of herself, she felt guilty for the sandwich break she’d taken earlier.

‘I was at a fundraising dinner for the local Audubon Society. I have a meeting with Ab Con in the morning and didn’t want to fight the traffic to come back here for the files.’ He dropped into the chair across from her and held her gaze. ‘Now it’s your turn. Why are you still here?’

Her stomach somersaulted. So he expected her to have figured it out. He expected her to have already packed her things and vacated the premises.

Before she could reply, he stood and leaned over her desk. ‘These are plans of one of Marston’s plants. Wade said you had these.’

She nodded and rubbed her eyes. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll see that he gets them back.’

‘Do you have any idea what time it is?’

She shook her head.

‘Jesus, Dee, do you even know what day it is?’

Before she could answer, he grabbed her computer bag from beside her desk and slapped it down in front of her. ‘Enough! Put all that stuff in here, right now. That’s good. All of it. And the BlackBerry. Turn it off. Now put it in your bag.’

She started to protest.

He placed a finger to his lips to silence her. ‘You’re no good to me if you can’t function.’

Then this was definitely it. He was seeing her to the door just to make sure she figured it out. She swallowed hard, pulled the Scribal file back out of the computer bag, and laid it on her desk.

‘What the hell are you doing?’

‘Leaving this for Tally. I figure you’ll put her in charge until you find – a replacement.’

‘A replacement?’ He grabbed the folder and stuffed it back in her bag. ‘For what? Why would I want Tally to see this?’

‘Then you’re not … I mean, I thought …’ Her voice cracked and she blinked back tears.

‘I’m sending you home for the night – what’s left of it – so you’ll be worth a damn tomorrow.’ He helped her on with her jacket, grabbed her computer bag, and guided her out of the office toward the elevator. ‘You’re not fit to drive.’

‘I’m OK, really I am.’

He ignored her protests and punched a quick message into his BlackBerry as they entered the elevator. When they exited into the parking garage, she pulled her keys from her bag and turned toward her car, but he grabbed her arm, took the keys from her hand, and stuffed them in the pocket of his jacket. ‘I said you’re not fit to drive.’ He motioned her to a waiting limo. ‘Jeffries will drop you off on our way.’

‘But tomorrow –’

‘Jeffries will pick you up, and not one minute before eight o’clock. Are we clear?’

‘We’re clear.’

The driver opened the rear door for her while Ellis let himself in the other side and set her computer bag on the floor next to his leg.

‘Does he know where I live?’

‘He knows,’ Ellis said.

‘But I –’

‘Dee, it’s sorted.’ The limo exited the pale light of the parking garage onto the darkened street. Once they were on the freeway, she reached for her computer.

‘Leave it,’ he ordered. ‘It stays with me. It’ll be in the limo waiting for you tomorrow morning. You’re going home to sleep.’

She could feel his frequent glances in the dark, weighty, almost physical, like Ellis’s presence filled up all the space between them and pressed up against her in the quiet interior of the limo. And she didn’t know why, but she felt relieved of some burden she hadn’t known she was carrying.

When, at last, he spoke again, his voice was softer, warmer than it had been since that first night in the lounge of his office. ‘It never all gets done, Dee. Never. And the naïve, arrogant notion that you’re going to be the first to manage it is insane. It’s a hard lesson. Best learn it now and save your sanity. And mine.’ Before she could reply, he continued. ‘By the way, Wade tore me a new one for my mishandling of your situation today. Seems I owe you an apology.’ He raised a hand to thwart her response. ‘We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Now get some sleep. I’ll wake you when we get to your house.’

It wasn’t his intention to watch her sleep. In truth, he could barely see her in the light of his BlackBerry while he attempted to answer emails, but he found himself glancing at her nonetheless. And he assured himself the glances would have sufficed had she not called his name.

‘Ellis, I didn’t … I couldn’t … Honestly, I need to …’

It took him a second to realise that she was talking in her sleep. He held his breath, not sure what to do.

‘I just need a little more time, and then …’

Before he knew it, she had unbuckled her seatbelt and reached for her computer bag, practically falling forward onto his lap as Jeffries exited off I-5.

‘Dee … Dee, you’re dreaming. You need to put your seatbelt back on. Dee …’

Instead of waking up, she settled back into the deep, even breathing of sleep, her head resting in his lap, way too close to his groin for polite company. His pulse went into overdrive, his trousers suddenly set uncomfortably tight across the fly. ‘Dee!’ he whispered. ‘Dee, wake up. You were dreaming. Dee.’

But she didn’t wake up. She mumbled something unrecognisable and heaved a sigh that would have passed for a sob. Dear God, he thought, please don’t let her cry. He couldn’t bear it if she cried. He wouldn’t know what to do, and the position they were now in was already compromising enough. He held his breath, and when she whimpered softly and thrashed, he laid a hand on her arm, as much for self-preservation as anything.

She calmed to his touch and once again he felt the warm in and out of her breath on his thigh. She’d be embarrassed if she woke up like this. She’d be even more embarrassed if he woke her, as though what she had done was something worthy of shame. It wasn’t. At least not for her. He was the one who should be embarrassed. He was the one who should be ashamed. How had he missed the signs? He knew what she was up against, and a good lot of it his fault for waiting so long to make the decision to hire her. He knew how conscientious she was, and yet in his efforts to avoid her, in his efforts to keep what had happened that first night in his lounge from happening again, he hadn’t noticed, he had just let her struggle through. And with Marston being such an asshole as well, Jesus, what did he expect from a woman of her calibre? It wasn’t any easier for her than it was him. She had loved Beverly too. And she had been thrown in at the deep end, thanks to him. No one could have coped better under the circumstances. He’d tell her that when she woke up.