Chez Stinky (21 page)

Kat stood next to him and touched his bare forearm. “Thanks for tarping my house.” He turned his gaze down at her and their eyes met for a long moment. Kat’s stomach fluttered and her heart seemed to be beating extremely loudly in her chest.

They walked together toward the door and went outside around the back of the house to collect Lady. The dog scampered around them in circles as they slowly walked beside each other toward Joel’s truck.

Joel gestured at the large green Ford. “Lady loves riding in the truck. She sits up and looks straight ahead. I’ve sometimes wondered if she might think she’s driving.”

“It’s good to keep your eyes on the road. Someone has to do it.”

Joel chuckled, “Yes, she’s quite a responsible dog, when she’s not breaking things.”

Kat leaned on the truck, which was probably completely coated with mud. Oh well, so much for clean clothes. She looked up at him. “I’m heading back home tomorrow, but I’ll be back next weekend.”

Joel reached down toward the truck handle and gazed into Kat’s eyes. “I know this sounds like a line, but your eyes are an amazing color of blue. They’re exactly the color of the Cornflower crayon.”

Kat blushed but didn’t move, anticipating what might happen next. “I’ve never been compared to a Crayola before.”

Joel smiled, bowed his head and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him. As his lips touched hers, Kat closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and put her arms around his neck. An electric warmth coursed through her and the nervous feeling that had made her stomach feel funny all night finally disappeared. As she relaxed into the kiss, Joel enveloped her with both arms, wrapping her in his warm embrace.

Lady barked sharply, startling them out of the moment. Kat put her hand on Joel’s chest to separate them and looked up into his eyes.

He looked down at her. “Wow.”

“You really are a man of few words, aren’t you?”

Joel grinned and raised his eyebrows in a mock leer. “Sometimes it’s better to just shut up and enjoy the moment. I think Lady is ready to go home now. I’ll give you a call next weekend after you get back.”

As she watched Joel’s truck roll out of the driveway, the beating of Kat’s heart finally slowed down to a reasonable rate. ‘Wow’ was an understatement. She grinned up at the trees and squealed like a giddy third-grader as she ran back up the stairs into the house to pack.

After convincing Cindy to take on pet-sitting duty for the rest of the week and explaining her new dog-walking protocol, Kat packed up the car and drove back to her apartment. Since it was only for a couple days, she had opted to forgo fighting with Murphee about the cat carrier and left her in Alpine Grove. The cat probably wouldn’t be excited about being cooped up the bedroom, but Cindy had promised to check in on her. Cindy also had made it clear that this was her last pet-sitting stint out at Chez Stinky. Apparently her new marketing efforts had worked well and she was booked up with in-town dog-walking work for the foreseeable future.

Kat spent most of the two-hour drive back home mooning over Joel and his phenomenal kissing skills. Like a horny teenager, every time she recalled the kiss, a little thrill went through her body as she mentally relived the humming electricity between them.

As she opened the door to her apartment, she was greeted by the musty aroma of warm dust, the hallmark of a place that has been closed up for a while. She went around the apartment and opened the windows, starting to regret her decision to leave Murphee at Chez Stinky. Normally she liked quiet, but the stillness and emptiness of her apartment was lonely and oddly depressing. She curled up on the sofa with a novel in an effort to distract herself from thinking about the prospect of returning to work.

Walking into the office the next morning, Kat noticed a heavy feeling settle over her shoulders. The place still smelled of old electronics, burnt popcorn, and anxiety. Some things never change.

She walked through the maze of cubicles to her desk. As she moved from the entryway down the first cubicle corridor, it became apparent that some things definitely had changed. In fact, everything had changed. None of her fellow employees were located in the same cubicles they had been in when she left. She stopped at her cubicle location, but none of her stuff was there. It obviously wasn’t her cube anymore. Where was her desk? As she snaked through the labyrinth of cubicles, she waved to a few colleagues.

Bridget was one of the women she often went on walks with during lunch. “Hi, Bridget. Do you know where my desk is?”

Bridget looked up. “Hi, Kat. We missed you. Let me look at the map. Mark made a chart.”

“A chart?”

“Yes, everything was moved last weekend. When we came in on Monday, he handed out maps, so we could find our desks. I’m not sure why, but we’re not grouped by department anymore. Writers and editors like you and me are scattered all over the place.” She studied the piece of paper on her desk. “Okay, there you are! Go down and to the left.”

“Thanks Bridget. Are we walking today?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be there.”

Kat wandered down the corridor, slowly peeking into cubicle doorways to determine who was where now. At the end of the row, she found a cubicle with a map and a banker’s box filled with her stuff sitting on top of the desk. Kat picked up the map and looked at it. A graphic artist had obviously created it for Mark, neatly typing all the names on the grid of offices. She noticed that her name was not printed in a tidy Helvetica font, but appeared to have been scribbled in by hand as an afterthought.

Kat dug through her belongings and settled them into place in her new cubicle. Crammed into a corner at the back of the building, this spot was arguably worse than her prior location, which was saying something. She sighed, sat down in the chair, and looked up. One of the fluorescent lights overhead was out. Great. Casting her gaze on the computer monitor, she craned her neck to see the screen. This chair obviously wasn’t the one she’d had before. Getting up out of the chair, she crouched down and examined it more closely. It looked threadbare, stained, and tired. Not to mention uncomfortable. One of the wheels appeared to be gummed up with something disgusting. Maybe actual gum. Gross. Stealing someone’s rolling office chair was a new low.

Kat looked at the map again to find out where Chris was located. What had happened with the dreadful proposal in her absence? According to the chart, Chris still had a real office with a door. But now he was located closer to the front of the building, near the entrance. She folded up the map, put it in the pocket of her skirt, and exited her dark little corner.

Chris was seated at his desk with one arm thrown over the back of the chair. When Kat appeared in the doorway, he held up a finger at her. “I’m sure you know how busy I am,” he shouted at his phone. The disembodied voice on the other end squawked, “What? I can’t hear you. Are you on your speaker phone again? Pick up the phone, you fu…” The next words were cut off as Chris grabbed the handset. “Sorry Rob, I have to go. Like I told you, I’m super busy. Someone important is standing in my doorway right now.” He glanced up at Kat. “I really need to take this meeting. We’ll connect later.” He hung up the phone and waved at Kat. “Come in! I’m glad you stopped by.”

“I can see that. I’m back from vacation and was just checking on the proposal. Jill was supposed to put my edits into the draft.”

Chris shook his head. “Well, you know, I’m not sure. Can you check with her? I’m really busy.”

“Could you tell me what the new deadline is? I know there was an extension. How long is it?”

“You’ll need to talk to Mark about that. I need that proposal done, so you should get moving. Right now, I need to call Rob back. He’s an important contact.”

“I get the impression he had more to say to you.”

“He’s my buddy. You should see his house. It’s gotta be worth a mint. Pool, tennis court, orchards. It’s incredible!”

Chris reached for the phone as Kat turned to leave. Mark’s office was the only one that was still in the same place, so at least she knew where it was. But she couldn’t face talking to him yet. She pulled the map out of her pocket and looked for Maria’s new cubicle home. She appeared to be located in the middle of the maze, nowhere near Mark’s office, which was odd, since she was his secretary.

“Hey Maria, I’m back.”

Maria jumped up, stretched out her arms and gave Kat a big hug. “We missed you, girlfriend. Welcome back to the weirdness.”

“It’s weirder than it was. I’m trying to adjust to the new arrangement. Somebody stole my chair, too.”

“I hate to break it to you, but Mark forgot about you when he made the map. He gave me the printout to make copies for everyone, and I pointed out you weren’t anywhere on it. I penciled you in.”

“I thought that looked like your handwriting. You’re a good friend. It’s nice to be remembered.”

“See what happens when you go on vacation?”

“I have to go talk to Mark about the proposal. It will be interesting to see if he recognizes me.”

Kat walked to Mark’s office and found him in his typical posture. He was looking down, surveying his manicure, with his Teva surfer sandals up on the desk facing the doorway.

“Hi, Mark. I’m back.”

“Oh yeah. How was Tree Creek?”

“Alpine Grove. It was fine. I’m here to ask about the proposal. You got an extension, but I’d like to know when the specific due date is. Chris doesn’t seem to know.”

“You need to ask Tammy. I put her on it.”

“I thought Jill was putting in my changes, but I haven’t seen her yet.”

“Well, you won’t. She wasn’t up to the job.” Mark leaned forward and thumped his sandals on the floor as he pointed his fingernail clippers at Kat. “I came back from my run and she asked me all these
questions
. She was asking about the numbers in the proposal. Then she wanted verification for the figures. What’s with that? We have to provide verification? That’s ridiculous. We’re an established, respected company here. We shouldn’t need to justify our sales to write a proposal! She needed me to hold her hand and help her on everything. I’m the CEO. I can’t be doing that type of thing. I’ve got stuff to do. Decisions to make. So I let her go. She was completely worthless. And I didn’t like how she was dressed. She didn’t look professional enough to work here.”

Kat stood in stunned silence. Jill had been with the company for years. In addition to being friendly and fun to work with, she was the best editor Kat had ever met. “You fired her? If you didn’t have the information, couldn’t you have found someone else to answer her questions? Delegate?”

Mark stood up and leaned over his desk. “Are you questioning my decision? I’m telling you, she was a moron!”

“She was an extremely good editor.”

Mark sat down and waved his hand at her. “What are you wearing? I can’t believe you’d come to work looking like that!”

Kat looked down at her blouse. “What I always wear. A skirt and a shirt. It’s pretty standard attire.”

“Where is your desk? You aren’t near the front are you?”

“Actually no. I’m in the corner in the back of the building.”

“Good!”

Kat attempted to return to the point. “So about the deadline? Could you tell me where we are with the proposal?”

“I had Tammy put in your changes and I sent it in. If they don’t like it, too bad. We’re better than that.”

Kat shrugged her shoulders. “I hope you’re right. If we don’t get that work, the company has got a big problem.” She started to turn to leave his office.

Mark “You’re such a downer. You need to go home and change your clothes. Don’t you have something sexier you can wear?”

“I don’t think dressing sexy is generally a job requirement for writers.”

“Why do we have so many writers anyway?”

Kat narrowed her eyes. “It takes quite a few of us to explain how to use the products. Write proposals. Produce documentation. User guides. Manuals. Remember those? And all those times you called me to nag me over the weekend about emergencies? Remember all that?”

“Writers don’t sell stuff and make me money. They’re overhead. I took a one-day business course last week. Times are rough. Businesses need to cut overhead to survive. So I’m thinking of making some changes around here. We need to reduce the documentation. No one reads it, anyway. It’s not worth it.”

Kat glared at Mark. “So what you’re saying is that what I’ve been doing for more than a year is useless?”

“Yeah. I know I don’t read that crap. Why would anybody else?”

Kat’s body tensed and she dug her nails into her palms in an effort to manage her rising anger. She wanted to hit something. Preferably Mark.

Pressing her lips together, she said in a determined, level voice, “For the record, many of our customers have complimented us on our documentation, including the pieces I’ve written. Reviewers have said our easy-to-read user guides are one of the best things about our products.”

Pausing to try to calm her fury, she glared at Mark’s narrowed eyes. Why was she wasting her life here? “Since you seem to think what I do is useless, I don’t think I need to be here anymore.”