Love Therapy (Stanton Falls #2) (5 page)

“Yeah, sorry about.
 Anyway, did you see her?”

“See who?”  Aaron
responded, slightly annoyed.

“Donna?”

“Donna?  Who is
Donna?”

“C’mon man, you know
Donna.  Donna!”

“No.  Why do you
think I would see her?”

“Because she works here
now?”

Aaron dropped his pen.
 Anyone who knew Nick could tell he was excited, and why wouldn’t he be.
 The only woman he had a real flame for in the past five years not only
moved back to town but now worked at the same office with him.  Works
for
him apparently.  

“Whoa.  How did
this happen?”

“You know I’d recently
been tinkering with the idea of expanding company benefits and decided I wanted
to have a counselor available a few days a week.  After the issue with Mr.
Morgan last year, I realized that there was so much more we needed to do for
everyone.”

Nick still didn’t like
to think of that situation.  One of his employees, Tom Morgan, had a
medical emergency that happened and he almost lost his health because he was so
concerned about not being at work and losing his job.  Ever since then,
Nick took it upon himself and worked directly with HR to develop a package of
assistance and benefits that would make navigating the help available at the
company better.  

“I understand that
fully, but what does that have to do with Donna working here?”

“I guess all that
studying she was doing was to become a therapist.  HR brought me a
proposal a few weeks back that we submitted to a local office to provide onsite
support.  I guess she is one of the people that work there.  I just
found out about an hour ago, before my conference call.”

“Interesting.  So
you’re going to be working with her all the time now?”

“Not all the time.
 Our roles aren’t exactly going to require us to ever see each other.
 Unless I need therapy, our paths may never cross.”

“I don’t even like the
way you said that.  ‘Unless I need therapy’.  Dude this is work.
 That is so not the route you want to take here.”

“What?  It was her
idea.  She said that even company heads need to offload too...or something
akin to that.”

“Didn’t take much
twisting of your arm to convince you of that it seems.  Just be careful.
 The reason you made so many changes around here is because you wanted to
protect your employees and give them a brighter future.  Don’t go
jeopardizing that with a little ‘love therapy’.”

“Love therapy?
 Funny.  I’m just excited to be working with her, but I know the
line.”

“Right. It just so
happens that I know you really well and somehow it seems like you are about to
completely ignore the line you just spoke of.”

“Not at all my skeptical friend.  Not at all.”

Donna sat in her new
office the following day.  She had chosen to go in on Mondays and Tuesdays
because she wanted to have them back to back.  Sitting at her desk, no one
had yet to avail themselves of her services, but it had only been two days.
 She figured it would take time for people to feel comfortable with the
idea of speaking to someone on staff regarding their personal issues, so she
had taken to introducing herself to people via email and the like by sending a
newsletter out to the staff with stress reducing tips as well as contact
information and appointment options for her.  She was startled when she
heard the knock on her door since she didn’t have anyone on her schedule yet.
  

She quickly got up from
her desk, excited to have her first chance to help one of the people on staff
there.  She guessed word was finally getting around that she was there for
them.  She got to her door, already greeting her client.

“Hi….”

She lost a little of her
energy when she saw that it was Nick on the other side of the door.

“Um… hi.  That’s a
first for me here.  Most people that work for me are happy when I come
around.  Or at least they pretend to be.”

“I’m sorry Mr.
Dellinger.  I was a little excited when I thought you were going to be my
first counseling session.  I guess I might have let my disappointment
show.  Of course I am assuming that you are here for some other reason
than counseling today.”

Nick smiled again and
she couldn’t help but stare at him.  

“Not at all.  Not
today at least.  And don’t worry, I wasn’t offended at all.”

“Good.  Well come
on into my office then.”

“Thank you.”

“So if you’re not here
for a session, what’s the reason for the head of the company stopping in on
me?”

“Ah, yes that.  I
wanted to know what you would like for lunch today.”

“Excuse me?  Oh I
can’t let you buy me lunch Mr.…”

She watched her boss
visibly cringe as he put a hand up to interrupt her.

“Please.  Do
not
call me Mr. Dellinger again.  I know you want to keep a professional
atmosphere and I respect that but I have worked almost everyone here in the
office out of calling me that and I won’t let you ruin all my hard work in one
afternoon.”

“Ok, Nick it is then.”

“Now back to what I was
saying.  I want to buy you lunch today.”

“Right.  You don’t
have to do that Nick.’’

“I know that.  That
is why I said I
want
to buy you lunch rather than I have to.”  

“Either way I can’t let
you buy me lunch.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I won’t accept
any special treatment.”

“Special treatment?
 Believe me there is nothing special about me buying you a meal.  I
do it all the time.”

Donna was surprised.
 What kind of womanizer was he that he would openly profess his actions
like that?  He must have mistaken her for any other woman that would be
captivated by his money and his cute looks. Well he had another thing coming if
he thought he was just going to have his way with her.   

“I don’t know if I
should be more upset that you just said that I’m nothing special or that you
buy women meals all the time and God knows what else you are trying to do.”

“Huh?   Hold
on for a second.  I didn’t say you weren’t special.  I said buying
you lunch wasn’t.  I don’t know you well enough yet to tell you how
special you are.  Only time will tell that.  What I meant was that I
buy one meal for all of my new employees Donna, both male and female.  This
is a welcome lunch.  You know I have over one hundred employees here and
since I started this company, every person that is hired on, I buy them lunch
within their first week.  Just a small welcome.”

“Oh my.  That’s
certainly embarrassing of me.”

“Yeah it was.  But
that’s no biggie.  I can see how you thought that.  I imagine you
have had your fair share of men with inappropriate pick up attempts.”

“To say the least.
 I could tell you horror stories.  I guess I wasn’t expecting it to
be like it is here.”

“What do you mean by
that?”

“How you run the
company.  It’s very...family like.  You take that kind of close
atmosphere very seriously don’t you?”

She saw him pause to
consider her question as if he’d never really thought of it like that before.

“Now that you mention
it, I guess I do.”

“I see.”

“What?”

Donna looked at him,
studying him for a moment before he intruded on her thoughts, a slight smile on
his face.

“What?  Are you all
analyzing me now with your Freudian ideologies?  If so that’s definitely
not what I came in here for.”

“Huh?  No not at
all.”

“Really?”

The sarcasm in his voice
made her laugh.

“Fine, maybe I was a
little bit.  I can’t help it.  I’ve been trained to find the reasons
for the things we do.  In this situation it’s just not normal to see
someone in your position reaching out to their employees like that when they
first start.  You run the company.  You don’t have to meet any of
your employees except your direct subordinates but not only do you require that
you meet them all, but you also buy them a meal.   Just not normal.”

“Whoa.  So is there
really something wrong with my being nice to my employees.”

“No not that at all.
  Companies buy food for employees all the time.  You’re just a
little closer to the process than I would expect.  I mean, popping up at
my office at lunch time personally and asking what I wanted to eat.”

“Ok.  And I presume
that you have already surmised my reasons.  So go ahead counselor.  Tell
me what you’ve figured out about me in these five minutes.”

“We don’t have to do
this Nick.  You already said that’s not why you came here today.”

“Aaah yes, but an
impromptu session isn’t bad.  Besides, I am paying for it and I’m here so
‘help’ me.”

His use of air quotes
when he said help made her feel he was mocking her a bit and whether he really
wanted it or not, he was going to get her opinion on him.  Her
professional opinion, of course.

“Alright, but remember
that you asked.”

“Shoot.”

“Your process of buying
your new employees a meal among regular people is an attempt to make sure that
you are accepted by them.  You are trying to create an initial impression
of a friend or a pal.  I would venture to say that it stems from what is
most likely a compulsive desire for all people to like and accept you.”

“What are you talking
about?”

“Nick, everyone in town
know that you come from a wealthy family and you have probably never really
even known if people accepted you before or if it was just your money.
 Now as the boss, you want people to take you seriously but not too
seriously.  You don’t want them to be afraid of you like some kind of
straight nosed, hard boss so instead you either try to become friends with the
employees you do hire or you simply hire friends to be your employees.”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“Of course you wouldn’t.
 It takes someone on the outside to see it.  Here, take Aaron for
instance.  Why does he work here?”

“Because he is good at
what he does.”

“Sure but aren’t there
other people that are just as good, right here in town that you could have
hired as well?”

“I’m sure there are but
I knew him at the time.”

Donna looked at Nick for
a few seconds, waiting for him to continue.  

“Fine, you win.  Nick
is my friend but that doesn’t mean anything.  Tons of people hire people
that they can trust to work closest to them.  That’s not abnormal.
 In fact, its smart business to have people that you know work for you
sometimes.”

“Agreed, but even with
that, I remember years ago at the diner.  You guys came in on a regular
basis for lunch.  Not this onetime thing you are offering me.  Again
wanting to please your friend.  You boys came in there at least two or
three times a week.  No offense to Ms. Shirley’s diner but the food there
wasn’t nearly good enough for that.”

“I happened to really
like the food there. Best corned beef on rye in the land.”

“Well I do have to admit
that is a very good sandwich but it was obviously more than that
..”

She caught Nick’s eyes
looking directly at hers when he spoke again.

“To be frank, I can’t
say that I didn’t have any other reasons for coming there.”

The first time she had
met him in the office, she wasn’t sure if he was trying to say something to
her.  Now she felt like she was sure that he was.    She
tore her gaze away from his and looked at her computer, hoping and praying that
her slight blush was not evident.  Luckily for her, Nick continued.
  

“Yeah, Aaron really
loved the place.  I admit that he was and is my best friend and I don’t
really make any apologies for that, but our lunches were different.
 Sometimes I just wanted to get out of the office.  I didn’t take my
responsibilities here very seriously at the time.  Or at least not as much
as I do now.  And I didn’t want to eat alone.  It just so happens
that her greasy fries and coke were all the convincing I needed to use to get
him to come with me.”

Nick stood up from the
chair, looking at his watch.  

“I don’t have much time left
before I have to get back to work and I am sure you have some things you want
to do as well, so are you going to allow me to buy your friendship and
acceptance as well for at least this one day?  As you so keenly have
deciphered, I am badly in need of acceptance, madam counselor.”

“Tell me you aren’t
really upset Nick.”

“Not at all.  You
are trained to see more than what’s there.  I can’t fault you for that.”

“Well in that case, I
guess I can find a way to accept your lunch offering.  For some reason
corned beef, greasy hot fries and a cola sound pretty fantastic right now and
the last time I went by the diner, she told me they are doing a little delivery
now.  How about that?”

“Sure, just let me know
what you want and it’ll be here by lunchtime.  I gotta run to a meeting
now. I’ll catch you later Donna.”

“I’ll let her know, and
thanks for the welcome meal Nick.”

“No problem, anytime in
fact.”

He turned and walked out
of her office, smiling and waving before pulling her door closed again.  

As she sat there, Donna
realized that working there was definitely going to be challenging and
enjoyable.  Maybe she would learn something herself too.  

***

Nick lounged in the
living room with his father watching TV.  He didn’t even remember how he
ended up there that day, but he felt the urge to talk, something he didn’t
always openly do with his father.   

“Dad, can I ask you a
question?”

Nick’s father paused the
television and looked at his son.

“It’s about time.”

“You already knew I had
a question?”

“Of course I knew son.
 I might not be the brightest of the bunch but I do have common sense.
 Look at the TV son.”

Nick turned towards the
television and then looked back towards his father in confusion.  

“Son,
it’s
baseball.  You hate baseball and all of a sudden out of the blue you are
watching the college series of baseball with me?  Multiple hours of the
one sport that you actually can’t stand.  No my boy, you obviously need to
talk about something.  What’s on your mind?  Women?  Money
issues?”