Falling for the Boss (5 page)

Despite their different personalities
and an age difference of four years
, t
wo sisters had never been closer. 
Victoria
’s doorbell rang fifteen minutes later.  As soon as
Victoria
opened the door, Laci burst in and gave her big sister a hug that almost brought the two of them to the floor. 
Victoria
laughed and hugged Laci back.  “Oh, you were just what I needed to build up my confidence,” Victoria said, leading the way down the hallway
to the combination family room and kitchen
with the two bottles of wine Laci had b
r
ought.  Laci was balancing a box of pizza and a pint of chocolate brownie ice cream in her hands.

“I’m so happy for you, Vic!  It will be great for you to get out of Global Dork,” she said, using the name she’d given the company
for which
Victoria
had worked for the past two years.  “They have really been a rotten experience, but I have a good feeling about
ATI
.”

Victoria
laughed at Laci’s optimism. 
“How would you know?  You don’t know anything about the job or the company.”

Laci put the ice cream in the freezer and twirled about, her
blue
eyes sparkling at the information she was eager to share. 
“N
ot true,” she exclaimed, her first finger pointing into the air to emphasize her newfound information.  “
I looked them up on the internet and I really like the company.  First of all, it is run by Salvatorre Attracelli, a hottie if I’ve ever seen one, by the way
,
”
she said, pull
ing plates out of the cabinet.  “
I’m sure it was
an aged
picture though. 
He’s probably old and decrepit by now.”

Victoria
laughed, loving her sister’s enthusiasm.  “I didn’t get a chance to meet him.”

“Well, your hunk isn’t too bad either.  Didn’t you say
were interviewing with
Thomas Attracelli
today
?”

“Yes,
”
Victoria
said and quickly busied herself with pulling
napkins out of the pantry
for their pizza
, hiding her exited reaction to just the man’s name
. 

“
H
e’s almost as gorgeous as the older one.”  Laci took a
huge
bite of her pizza, then
put the pizza down and
uncorked the first bottle of red wine. 
“Although none of them seem to be old enough to be running a company the size of
ATI
.”

“Yes, but
Thomas will
be my boss.
  It’s never a good idea to think of co-workers that way, much less a supervisor.
”

“Well, don’t worry, he looks very nice.
  You really should get a load of the older one though.  Goodness, he
probably should have been in
movies or something
when he was younger
,
”
Laci said, dramatically fanning her face with her hand as if she were overheated. 

“How do you know?
  You’ve never met him.  How on earth could you know
what either brother looks like?
”

Laci smiled mischievously. 
“
Tommy ‘A’ is
one of the executive vice presidents.  All their pictures are on the web site along with the pictures of the other vice presidents and their
oh-so-
lofty titles.”

“
T
heir company motto is great too,” Laci continued.
 
“
‘Integrity and ethics’ is simply put.”  Laci rolled her eyes
and made an inelegant snort of disbelief
.  “As if a conglomerate the size of
ATI
can claim integrity and ethics.  Everyone knows in this day, integrity is out the door in large companies
and ethics are a matter of their own personal interpretation
.
  But at least they say that up front.  Most companies probably don’t even know how to spell the words, much less put in any lip service towards promoting the ideas.
”

“No indication of what kind of law you’ll be practicing in that statement, is there?”
Victoria
teased her younger sister, knowing Laci was studying law to protect the underdogs of the world.
 
Victoria
took the seat next to Laci on the
cream colored
sofa, her body facing her younger sister as she shook her head in disagreement. 
“
Besides,
I don’t’ believe that
all large companies are unethical and lacking in integrity
.  You might not like Global Corp, but I seriously doubt there is anything going wrong in the company.”

“I don’t like Global Corp because of the way they treated you.  Especially that incompetent boss of yours.  He made you do all the work and constantly took credit for it himself.  If that man knows how to add, I’ll marry Sal Attracelli
no matter how old he is
,” she laughed. 

Victoria
laughed as well.  “Don’t even think about it. 
If he’s running a conglomerate the size of
ATI
, he’s probably
way too old for you,”
Victoria
said then delicately took another bite of pizza.  “Speaking of which, how is Jason?”
she asked, wiping her hands primly on her napkin. 

Laci wrinkled her nose at the mention of her latest boyfriend.  “He’s getting a little strange,” she replied, then took another slice of pizza. 

Victoria
raised her eyebrows in question. 
“In what way?”

Laci
thought about the best way to describe her current boyfriend’s attitude. 
“Well, I can’t really explain it.  I just catch him staring at me sometimes with a strange look on his face.”

“Uh oh, that could be trouble,”
Victoria
teased. 
“Staring is not really a healthy past-time, you know.”

Laci
rolled her eyes and
shook her head.  “I know what you are thinking but I’m not ready to settle down.  I’m just about to finish my sixth year of schoo
l and I want to have fun.  I do
n’t want to tie myself down.  There are too many things in the world to do and try.”

“I think having babies would be a wonderful
thing to try
,”
Victoria
retorted. 

Laci sighed.  “I know your fantasy is to have babies, live in a cottage house surrounded by flowers and a vegetable garden with a husband walking through the front door at
six o’clock
each evening.  But you’re the one that wants the Brady Bunch fantasy.  I want something different.  I want to help people, make a difference in the world.”

“I know, Lac.  That’s why I love you so much.  And when you do all those things, you have to make sure to come back here and tell me all about them.” 
Victoria
took
another small bite of her pizza, placing the rest carefully on the plate
.  “And
after each of your adventures, you’ll be able to come back and wow
all your nieces and nephews.  You’ll be their favorite Aunt.”

Laci looked at her older sister, noting the smile in her eyes as she talked about possible adventures
someone else might experience
.  “Vic, have you ever considered that you might want to do
some fun and crazy
things yourself?”
  Laci had always suspected that there was a passionate streak lurking beneath the overly calm exterior of her older sister. 

Victoria
laughed.  “Oh no
!
  I just want to hear about them
.  I’m not the type of person who wants to live a crazy life.  I’m content to live vicariously through others
.  You’re the one that wants to jump out of a plane, jet ski in the middle of the ocean and save the world
all
at the same time.  I just want to have a peaceful life and watch flowers grow.”

“So why the sudden desire to do some world traveling?”

Victoria
didn’t know the answer to that question, so she just delicately shrugged her shoulders. 
She ignored the little voice in the back of her head that was telling her that Barry was too dull to understand what she wanted.  She reminded herself that she loved Barry and they had a mutual understanding of what each other wanted for their future. 
“It will be my last fling before settling down with
Barry
.”
  A
nother
picture of the very virile, very dynamic Thomas Attracelli popped into her mind. 
Victoria
quickly banished the image
for the second time that night
and forced her mind to start listing Barry’s wonderful attributes. 

“Does he know about your new job?”
Laci interrupted before
Victoria
could think of the first item on her list of good things about Barry.

Victoria
looked up sharply and gasped.  “Oh, no.  I forgot to tell him.”
  She reached for the phone and started to dial his number. 

“Didn’t you tell him you had the interview today?”
Laci asked, watching her sister dial the number t
o Barry’s office. 
Victoria
knew that Laci didn’t
like Barry. 
Laci
thought her older sister deserved someone with a little more pizzazz
, more personality and definitely more interest in
Victoria
and less interest in work
. 
According to Laci,
Barry was just as predictable as
Victoria
.  The two didn’t challenge each other in any way. 

“Well, yes but…”

“And he didn’t call you to see how it went?” Laci asked, her lawyer
’
s interrogation mode operating at full throttle. 

“Well…”
Victoria
started.  She wanted to defend Barry but was a little hurt that he hadn’t taken the time to call and find out how the interview had gone today.  She’d talked to him on the phone last night and she’d discussed how nervous she was about the interview and how much she really wanted this particular job. 

“But he didn’t take the time to call
,
”
Laci surmised, easily understanding her sister’s hesitation.
 
Victoria
listened to the receiver and sighed when Barry’s voice mail came on instead of his voice.  She hung up the phone, not wanting to give him the news in a voice mail. This was too exciting.  She wanted to wait until she could tell him in person. 

Victoria
shook her head
, thinking that Barry probably had tried to reach her but had done the same thing she’d just done, not wanting to leave a voice mail about something so important to her
.  “You have it wrong about
Barry
.  He’s just very busy.
He’ll call
tonight after he gets off work.
”

Laci glanced at the clock over the stove.  “It’s
eight o’clock
now.  What time does he leave work?”

Victoria
looked at the clock to confirm that it was really that late.  She hesitated before replying, knowing that she was damning her future husband in Laci’s eyes even further. 
“Sometimes late,”
Victoria
hesitated
, shaking her head.  “B
arry
will call as soon as he’s able.
  He’s a very busy man and has many obligations after work.
”