Oh Stupid Heart (13 page)

Carrie woke an hour
later than normal. Given the time they had spent making love, she needed the
extra rest. She took a thick strand of her hair and tickled Trent’s nose.

Last night he’d
admitted he wouldn’t mind having some nice little boys like Jon’s.

Her heart had
fluttered at his words but she’d kept the conversation light so he wouldn’t
terrify himself. “I don’t think Jon’ll give us one, no matter how much he likes
his new home.”

Trent hadn’t laughed
at her joke. Instead, he rolled on top of her and nailed her with his “I’m
serious” gaze. “I meant I would like you to make me nice children of our own.”

The weight of his
body had stirred salacious urges. “I’d like to,” she’d admitted. “Only we have
to get your company fixed first.”

Something had changed
between them last night. Their lovemaking had taken on a whole new depth.

Trent brushed away
the strand of hair she tickled him with. “What time is it?”

“Five-fifteen.”

“There’s no point in
getting in so early. The first interviewee won’t arrive until eight.”

“I want to stop by
Dan Marshal’s before work and talk to him about the level of workers he’s
sending us.”

Trent sat up and
rubbed his face. “I thought we agreed I’m in charge of this transition.”

“I said
we
would talk to him.”

“But I’m happy with
the caliber of people he’s sending.”

She sat down beside
him. “And are you happy with the number of people who have accepted. Besides
Grant and his girlfriend, has anyone else come on board?”

“I have two sales
people. Only they have to wait until I hire a new sales manager.”

“And Dan would not have
sent us either of them in a million years under Coco’s criteria. Who do you
think is going to make better long-term employees? Those two or Grant and his
girlfriend?”

When his eyes focused
on the window, she gripped his hand to return his attention to her. “There’s a
giant space between what we have and what Coco’s bringing in. The truth is,
Lancaster Chairs can’t entice top-school, advanced degree people. I think we
should consider some secondary college people with bachelor degrees and people
with limited college experience, but a history of taking courses to maintain
their skills.”

He smiled. “People
like you.”

She nodded.

He wrapped his arms
around her. “If I thought there were more like you out there, I’d be hanging
another sign in my window.”

She recalled the sad
and desperate handwritten sign Trent had placed on the lobby glass declaring
his need for an executive assistant.

“Let’s try Dan
Marshal first. He seems to have a good sense of a person’s value verses their
pedigree. He told me if I ever needed a job, he could find me one in a second.
And as I’m sure Coco has informed you many times, my pedigree is weak.”

“What do you mean he
offered to find you employment? You have employment.”

Trent missed the
whole point of her example
. She cupped his cheeks and
kissed him. “It’s what headhunters do. They constantly search for people to
sell to other people.”

“He didn’t offer to
find
me
a job.”

She laughed at his
adorable petulance. “You own a business. You are a buyer, not a potential body
to be sold.”

“All right, we’ll
change the criteria.”

“Thank you. I’ll
write up the new requirements for the systems, HR, and finance managers while
you dress.”

***

While Trent took
forever to get ready, Carrie called and asked Dan for an emergency meeting
within the hour.

“Absolutely,” Dan
replied. “I wanted to speak with you, as well.”

When Trent and Carrie
arrived at his offices, they were ushered into a conference room with two stern-faced
men. Dan arrived a few minutes after Carrie introduced herself and Trent.

“All right, shall we
begin?”

The guy named Jeff
opened his folder, but Carrie spoke first. “Trent has been impressed with the
caliber of people you are sending. However, we believe the current requirements
Coco established might be overreaching our ideal employees.” She passed Dan her
list of requirements. “We’ve lowered the criteria needed for our managers. As
you will see, they no longer require top school MBAs.” She addressed the two
shocked men. “I’m sorry, I only made one copy. I didn’t realize you’d be attending
the meeting.” She still had no idea
why
they were here.

Dan Marshal leaned
back in his chair with a satisfied smile. “It appears Carrie has recognized
your concerns, herself.” He passed her lists to the older guy. “Greg, make
copies and get them out to our people. I want these filled ASAP.”

Once the men hurried
out, he locked eyes with Carrie. “I asked them to the meeting to explain the
difficulty of placing top school candidates in your company. The only ones
accepting the interviews were those needing more interview experience. Coco’s
known as a tough nut to crack. Thus, a win would be if she offered them a job.
Naturally, they’d decline, but now had the confidence to meet with Goldman
Sachs and the like.”

“We thought as much.”
Trent leaned forward, blocking Carrie’s direct view of Dan.

Claiming her opinion
as his and taking over the conversation pissed her off, but before she stormed
over to Dan’s side of the table, she remembered their discussion about how he
needed to take the lead in changing his company so it could be his special
place.

Taking a deep breath,
she leaned back in her chair and listened to him give her opinion.

“Honestly, I’m more
interested in the quality of the person, not the school they attended,” Trent
explained.

Dan nodded. “With
these revised requirements, we should be able to show you some exceptional
people who are overlooked by the bigger companies. I’m also pleased to see you
are willing to consider female employees now, as well. You were leaving
yourself open to a sex discrimination lawsuit by requesting only male
candidates for the positions.”

Trent’s fist
clenched.

Carrie leaned forward
and covered his hand, hoping to quell the storm about to burst. “To be honest,
Dan, neither Trent nor I ever saw the requirements Coco prepared for the
positions. But I’m quite certain Trent never required top schools or male only
candidates.”

Dan arched his brow at
Trent.

“We never discussed
education levels at all. And only in one position did I insist the candidate be
a male and that was for my EA.”

Dan frowned. “First
of all, we don’t have an EA position open for you, and secondly, you have an exceptional
one.” He rolled his chair a foot to the left, enabling Carrie to see him. “Are
you planning to leave Lancaster Chairs?”

Both she and Trent
answered no at the same time. However, his loud and somewhat angry response was
the only one heard.

“I’ve been
temporarily moved to change specialist. Are you saying Grant did not come
through your office?”

He shook his head in
confusion. “Grant?”

“He’s the temporary
EA we believed you sent us.”

“I’ll double check,
but I’m certain we did not.”

Rage surged through
her body, but she breathed in a deep breath and spoke in a calm voice. “Well, I
guess Coco brought him in on the side. She’s been most insistent I’m not
qualified to be an EA.”

“She said that?” Dan
asked, as his pencil rapped upon the desk.

Carrie glanced at
Trent, expecting him to back her up.

He paused before
answering, his brow furrowed, his fingers clenched and unclenched. “I think it
would be better if I took my business elsewhere.”

“Why?” both Dan and
Carrie asked, Carrie being the louder and more upset of the two.

“We’ll talk about it
in the car.”

“No, we are going to
talk about it here, before we lose the best human resource person in the
business. I understand why you’re angry with Coco. She did exactly what I
thought, which means we were never going to find our managers. She placed
somebody outside of Dan’s resources into my position
and
opened you up
to a class action lawsuit by placing a male only requirement. To my count, she’s
had her three strikes and we should ask Dan to remove her and find us a better
human resource person. Other than sending us a former fiancée of yours as the
human resource manager, he’s done nothing wrong. Thus, he’s still at bat and
you can’t call him out.”

Trent breathed in and
then out. He then focused on Dan. “I apologize. In my mind, Coco’s strikes were
yours, as well, but you probably weren’t aware of our history, and she does
come off as professional, so Carrie’s right, it only counts as one strike
against you.”

Dan’s tight lips warned
her he didn’t care for Trent’s apology, which was a shame; it was the best
she’d ever heard him give without considerable coaching.

Dan rapped his pen
like a rabid woodpecker as he met Carrie’s gaze. “Could you step outside? Mr.
Lancaster and I need to speak privately.”

Carrie turned to
Trent, willing him to insist she remain. Unfortunately, his head jerked in the
direction of the door. She
so
did not want to leave these two alpha
males alone. She moved like molasses. Unable to depart without a final warning,
she turned and faced them. “Please keep in mind, it is in all our best
interests to resolve the problem and find our managers, so we can have better
employees and Dan and his people can be paid for their services.”

Upon delivering her
last word of advice, she reluctantly left the room.

Trent began a stare
down with Dan and he had no intention of being the first to break away, not
even to verify Carrie had left the room. He hoped she was gone, because the
apology he’d made was the last fern he intended to lay down. If Dan Marshal
didn’t pick it up, then like the Maori Indians, they’d go to war.

Finally, Dan spoke.
“You have some nerve. The only reason you got Coco Taylor is because you sent
me an email specifically requesting her.”

Trent jumped to his
feet. “The hell I did!”

Dan threw a hand up,
palm out. “You can stop the bullshit. I sent Carrie from the room so we can
discuss this, man-to-man.” He leaned forward. “If you wish to unload your
fabulous employee, I am more than willing to help you out. But don’t you even
think about throwing me and my firm under the bus to do it. Not only am I not
going to allow you to walk from our contract, but I’m charging you double for
wasting my people’s time searching against your first, and might I add,
illegal
requirement list.”

Trent came back with
fury, slamming his palms upon the table, shoving his face within inches of
Dan’s. “You will stay the hell away from Carrie! She’s mine! You will also
produce at once this email you claim I wrote or I will not only walk away from
our contract, but I will sue you for time I’ve wasted on a damn requirement
list
your
person wrote.”

Dan rose and stormed
to the door. “In my office.”

As they passed
Carrie, she fell in formation.

Trent shook his head.
“You don’t want to be a part of this.”

“Well, I am,” she
snapped. “The conference room is not sound proof and you two were yelling so
loud half the building could hear you.”

When they entered the
office, Dan frowned at the inclusion of Carrie.

“She stays. If you
really possess an email, then it’s a fake, and I’ll want her to check it out.”

Dan pulled it up and
motioned for Trent to view it from his side of the desk.

Reading it, Trent
pondered if he could take legal action against Coco. He called David, his
lawyer.

“Yes, Trent?” a weary
voice answered.

“Do you remember my
ex-fiancée, Coco?”

“Breach of promise,
crazy woman?”

“That’s the one. I’m
wondering if I can sue her back.” He explained all the shit Coco had done.
Carrie helpfully reminded him of a few items he missed, while she
simultaneously backtracked the IP address hidden somewhere in the email to
prove it came from Coco, not him.

He smirked as Carrie
pointed to the information on the screen. “Told you she’d figure it out.”

Carrie peered up at
Dan. “May I make a copy of the email?” When he nodded, she whipped out an inch
and a half black rectangle, plugged it into his computer, and insisted he watch
as she copied the file. Then she made him verify it was the only one she
copied. Finally, and Trent loved this part, she gave Dan a lecture about never
allowing people to do what she just did without direct supervision warning him
they could steal his client lists along with the wanted email.

“David, we’ll be
right over with the evidence. I have to get off before my headhunter runs off
with my most valued employee.” He hung up and stepped between the two of them.

“Stop drooling, she’s
mine.”

Dan stepped back. “It
appears we owe each other an apology.”

“I already gave you
mine.”

After a glance at
Carrie and her pleading eyes, Dan took in a deep breath. “I apologize for
believing an email, stating it was from you, was in fact from you. Had I not
believed you requested Coco, I would have never sent her. In truth, I thought
it a terrible match. She is accustomed to working at Fortune 500 companies. On
my own I would have never sent her to you, and certainly not if I had realized
you and she had a history. I will call Coco in at once and send you a list of
three people to interview. Please inform me if any or all of them are former
girlfriends, in which case, I will find you someone else.”

While Trent had not
perceived a true apology anywhere in the commentary on his love life, he let it
slide, but only because Carrie glowed with happiness at their successful
resolution.

Carrie added, “You
might not want to send her out on another job right away, because with any
luck, the police will be arresting her in the next few weeks.”

Dan stared at her in
shock. “I won’t send her anywhere but out these doors for good. I’m only
worried about what truly occurred at her prior placements. No one has ever
complained, but she’s never stayed in the same job more than two years.”

Carrie patted his arm.
“Go into your database, cull the bosses who hired her, and see if they ever
used you again in the five years after. If not, you should visit them
personally and ask if they had a problem with her.”

Dan’s eyes narrowed and
his brow furrowed. Trent almost laughed at his irritation when Carrie told him
what he should do. Trent whispered in her ear, “Better stick with me. Others
aren’t half so appreciative.”

Her cheeks turned
crimson. “I apologize, Mr. Marshal. You don’t need me telling you how to run
your business. I’m sure you’ve got people ten times brighter than me.” She took
in a heavy breath and released it. “We’ve wasted enough of your time. Thank you
so much for sticking with us. I’m sure from here on, matters will go smoother.”
She turned and rushed out the door.

Trent gave Dan a nod
and followed her out, a happy man. He was confident Dan Marshal no longer
wished to steal away his treasure. The man’s ego would never survive Carrie’s desire
to fix everything.

Once in the elevator,
he gathered her into his arms and kissed her soundly. “You are the best thing
that’s ever happened to me, both professionally and personally.”

***

Carrie loved that
Trent, while being the “decider”, remained open for input and help. She hadn’t
appreciated how rare his openness was until she’d given advice to Dan Marshal.
Instead of a smile of appreciation, she’d received a furrowed brow of
annoyance. When they arrived at Trent’s lawyer’s office, she lectured herself
not to give advice unless requested.

She walked David
through the method of capturing the IP address from the background data of an
email.

“And no one can
change the name?” David challenged.

“Sometimes spammers
will create fake IP addresses in an attempt to hide the real one, but the originating
address has to be there. In this case, there’s only one listed, and
Whoisit
says it belongs to Coco Taylor.”

David grimaced. “But can
you prove she wrote the email?”

Carrie’s happy mood
faded. “No. I can only prove it came from her computer.”

He sighed and stared
at Trent sitting on the couch. “I doubt you can get a conviction with this. If
you went after a poor nobody, you might win. But her father will put the best
computer savvy lawyer in his firm on the case, and not only will you lose, but
the judge will probably slap you with full court costs for filing a frivolous
lawsuit.”

Trent tossed the
magazine he’d been reading on the coffee table. “It was worth a shot. Any luck
on my other inquiry?”

“What…oh! Your new
hire. Let me see if the investigator’s report arrived over the weekend.” He
flipped through a stack of envelopes on his cadenza. “Yes, indeed.” He ripped
open the envelope and read.

“Well?” Trent asked.

“Your hunch was good.
She does work for
Gossep
.”

Carrie’s mouth opened
to object, but Trent spoke up. “Carrie first suspected her.”

David winked at her.
“You’re a woman of many talents. If you ever get tired of Trent, give me a
call.”

“She’s not calling
you or anybody else!” Trent stood up. “Let’s go. We’ve got a spy to uncover and
a witch to burn.”

Having two
businessmen offer her employment lightened her mood. She wasn’t the
under-skilled waste of space Coco claimed her to be.

***

After they settled in
the limo, Carrie gripped his arm, worried about his plans. “As delightful as
burning Coco sounds, we won’t be using actual fire, will we? She’d probably run
around the office setting it ablaze for spite.”

He chuckled as he
gathered her into his arms. “My intention is to blackmail her to leave quietly
or Angela will get the full story for her magazine.”

“What full story?” Carrie
did not want her relationship with Trent spread all over the front page of some
gossip rag.

“Don’t worry. No
one’s interested in you. Given the week we just went through, her editor
probably sent her undercover to find out if I’m self-destructing in some
newsworthy fashion. They love it when the rich and famous fall out of their
ivory tower.

As much as Carrie
wished to keep her private life to herself, his belief no one had the least bit
of interest in her hurt her feelings. She needed a change of topics. “Do you
think Grant works for the paper as well?”

Trent shook his head.
“No, he’s Coco’s puppet.”

“Then why is she
dating Grant?”

“It’s not for his
looks or personality. So I’m guessing she thought it would give her an edge on
getting the job. Probably why she sweetened me up at Penn Station as well.
Needed to cover her bases.”

He leaned back and
took in a deep breath. “I suspected she was a reporter even before you warned
me of the possibility.”

His response
infuriated her. “You did not! Had you believed her a reporter, you would have
fired her.”

He shrugged as if he
didn’t care she didn’t believe him, which annoyed her.

“I didn’t see any
harm Angel could do to me. However, Coco is always newsworthy and an easy
target.” He grinned. “And this time, her sly moves are going to sink her. In
fact, a major paper such as
Financial Times
might pick up the story.”

While Carrie would
love that to be true, she didn’t see it happening. “Why would
Financial
Times
care about trash talk from a gossip mag?”

“Her father sued them
last year for libel. He lost, but it cost them a fortune to defend themselves. This
time, they wouldn’t have to report the story as fact, but only state
Gossep
believed it to be true.”

She stared at him in
shock. “And forging emails and trying to get you in legal trouble is a big
enough misbehavior to get a major paper interested?”

“I can give them a
few more items she’s done. Add my recollections of her past deeds, and they’d
have a newsworthy story. But understand, my goal is not to have an article
written. I only want Coco to leave.”

Carrie rewarded his
cleverness with a kiss. After letting it linger for five minutes, he broke off
and spoke to his driver. “Sam, before we go to the temp offices, stop by Lancaster
Chairs.”

Sam slammed his palm
on the steering wheel. “We are twenty feet from your previously requested
destination! Couldn’t you have bothered to change your mind a little earlier?
Perhaps before you began mauling your employee?”

“Fine! Just let me
out here and take Carrie to work.”

He tilted Carrie’s
pouting face upward. “I understand. You want to see the witch burn, but I don’t
want her vindictive fire scorching you in the process. So I need you safely
away, and I’m making it a firm order. To reward you for giving up this bone, I’ll
let you be present when I fire Grant.”

She grinned and
nodded.

“Sam, once you drop
Carrie off, find someplace to park the car, and watch over her. You have your
gun, right?”

Sam twisted around,
his brow furrowed. “I do.”

“Well, don’t be
afraid to use it if anyone tries to kill my adorable change specialist in my
absence. Grant evidently works for Coco, so God only knows what she might order
him to do.” He leaned in and kissed Carrie one final time before leaving the
car.

***

Trent passed his
favorite lobby guard with a wave.

When he arrived at
his god-ugly temp space, Coco sat at his desk talking to someone on the phone. Spotting
him through the glass wall, she threw a kiss his way and waved. Today, he felt
no obligation to fake a smile in return.

As he entered the
office, she hung up the phone. She rose and wrapped her arms about his neck.
“I’ve wonderful news.”

Clearly Dan Marshall
had failed to tell Coco the
really
wonderful news. Damn coward! But it
didn’t matter. For Carrie and his company, he could be as brave as needed.

He removed her hands
from around his neck to prevent her from strangling him in a few moments. “Sit
down. We need to talk.”

“Yes, we do.” Coco
sat on the couch and patted the seat beside her. “I know you’ve been
disappointed with Dan’s people, so I’ve signed up with another resource
facility. They’ll need a good faith deposit of $200,000 before they can begin.”