SHEIKH'S SURPRISE BABY: A Sheikh Romance (15 page)

"Fine," she said, out loud. "Just. Fine." She grabbed the revised schedule and marched down to Kolin's office. Just as she got there, Mrs. Tonetti from accounts waylaid her.

"Amanda, you're just the person I wanted to see. I've had the nicest phone call from Bob McConnell. He seems to think you're just the best thing since sliced bread and he's made me swear to him that you will the operator for all the Forlanie calls from now on."

"I... didn't know you would do that."

"For an account like Forlanie, you bet we will. Unless you have a problem with that. Please tell me you don't have a problem with that."

Amanda made a helpless gesture. "I don't, but Mr. Kolin might."

Mrs. Tonetti's face turned stony. "What's he done?"

Amanda told her about their interview, and about the schedule change. "I didn't do anything wrong," she insisted.

Mrs. Tonetti steered her into one of the conference rooms and closed the door. "Amanda, I need you to tell me if Mr. Kolin has ever been... ungentlemanly with you."

Amanda's mouth dropped open. "I... He's been... He's been quite friendly to me in the past, though today he was angry with me for no reason that I could see." She knew what Mrs. Tonetti meant, but in all honesty couldn't say more than what she had said.

Then Mrs. Tonetti dropped the delicacy and asked straight out, "Has he ever touched you?"

"No. Never."

"All right, then. Let's go talk to him."

Even though she'd been about to bang on his door and ask for an explanation of her cut hours, Amanda now didn't want even to see his face. She felt crawly inside. "Okay." Her voice had gotten very small.

Mrs. Tonetti led the way, knocked on Kolin's office door, and stuck her head in. "Greg, do you have a minute? I have some good news."

"I could use some good news," he said. His face fell when he saw Amanda enter behind Mrs. Tonetti.

"Well, then you'll be happy to hear that Amanda has already done this company proud. I had a long conversation just now with Bill McConnell of Forlanie, and he is so impressed with Amanda that he has made me promise she will do every one of Forlanie's calls in the future." She half turned. "Well done, Amanda!" she said, then turned and stared at Kolin.

"That’s... very good, yes," he managed. "Well done."

"Thank you both."

"I ran into Amanda in the hallway and made her come in here with me so we could both see your face when you got the good news. But we got to talking, and I think there might be a mix-up. Amanda tells me that there's a scheduling problem; was that it?" she asked Amanda.

"I think there's been some confusion," Amanda replied, taking her cue from Mrs. Tonetti. I had a schedule on my desk earlier, and then it disappeared and I found this one." She handed it to Kolin who was glaring again. How was it possible for anyone's eyes to be so tiny? "I'd already started work on the first one. If it was a mistake and this is the schedule I'm supposed to have, then of course I'll handle it, but I did want to check first."

"The first one was a very heavy workload," Kolin told them. "It should have been given to a more experienced girl."

"Oh, I see," Mrs. Tonetti said. Again she turned to Amanda. "Did it seem to heavy to you?"

"It was busy," she admitted. "But nothing I didn't think I could manage."

"Well there, isn't she amazing? You just give her that schedule and let's see what our girl can do."

Kolin's lips disappeared as he swapped schedules with Amanda. "If there's any problem," he said, and it sounded more like a warning than an offer of help.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," she said. "I should go now. I'm putting together a database of call information for each company so I can have everything available to me when I need it."

"You'll go far, Amanda. Won't she Greg?"

"She sure will," Kolin replied in something just this side of a growl.

"Amanda, there's something for you at the front desk, I believe," Mrs. Tonetti told her.

Amanda thanked them both and retreated.

The "something" at the desk was a vase of miniature mauve roses. The card read, "With thanks from Forlanie Resorts Group," a nicely impersonal personal touch. "Wow," she breathed.

Gretchen, the receptionist, said, "Pretty flowers."

"I'm stunned."

Gretchen shrugged. "The account managers get them a lot. Not many operators do."

"All righty, then." Amanda grabbed the vase and carried them back to her cubicle. It was only Monday and she felt like she'd already worked a full week.

Amanda's work weeks stayed heavy after her interview with Mrs. Tonetti and Mr. Kolin. Some days were nearly back-to-back calls, and she had the feeling that if Kolin couldn't punish her with less work, he was going to try to drown her with more. The truth was that she'd never worked so hard in her life. She came in early to run through her scripts and stayed late to update her database.

She was also making a lot of money. Within the first two months at the Agency she paid off everything that she'd borrowed from Helen, and was beginning to get a start on her credit card debt. It was an enormous load off her mind.

After the quarterly calls she had several in-house calls with Forlanie. The participants got to know her and many of them greeted her by name as they checked into their conferences. Every time she did one of their calls she found herself hoping that Bill McConnell would be attending, though he never was.

The next time she spoke to Donnie Kingman he thanked her for her help. "Lansdale is a loose cannon. I'm sorry you had to take the heat for us." All the gruffness had left his voice.

"It got straightened out, so no harm done, sir. The flowers were a very thoughtful touch."

"Flowers?"

"The bouquet of mini roses with the thank you note."

There was a short silence, then Kingman said, "Oh, right, the roses. Glad you liked them."

"It absolutely wasn't necessary."

"We do like to show our appreciation," he told her. He sounded amused for some reason.

"In the future, how shall I handle Mr. Lansdale?"

"Can you arrange to have his meds adjusted?"

"I... uh..." She hadn't expected that from an executive.

"Don't worry, we deal with him on a call-by-call basis. Some days he's fine, some days I'll let you know that he needs to be deep-sixed, okay?"

"Okay."

"You're a smart gal, Amanda."

"Thank you, sir."

"What color were the roses?"

"Mauve."

"Mauve. Good. Carry on, then."

Amanda lasted eighteen months. In spite of Mrs. Tonetti’s help, Greg Kolin found ways to make Amanda’s life a nightmare. Finally she gave notice. She would do one more quarter of earnings calls and then she’d be leaving for good.

On her last call with Forlanie, she said good-bye to both Donnie Kingman and Bill McConnell. Both men expressed regrets and wished her well. She realized that she was going to miss them both, but especially Bill McConnell. They’d had some interesting conversations before and after the calls she handled for his company, and she’d started to think of him as a fatherly sort of friend she simply hadn’t met yet.

At the end of the last conference call, Donnie came on the line to thank her and said, “Amanda, do you have anything else lined up?”

“Not really. I have a couple of leads, but I’m still looking.”

“I would like to invite you to interview with Forlanie’s investor relations department. I always have room on my staff for smart, personable, hard-working people. Interested?”

She was so taken aback she hardly knew what to say. “I— If you think I’d be a good fit, yes, of course I’d be interested.”

“Great.” He gave her his assistant’s email address and told her to write and ask for an appointment. “Don’t forget to mention that I told you to do it. Claire is pretty ferocious.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Sure ‘nuff,” he said and clicked off.

She told Helen about it when she got home that night.

“I knew that Forlanie guy would be good for you. They like you. I’m betting they’re thrilled that you’re getting canned so they can snatch you up.”

“Oh stop. It’s not a done deal.”

“I’m guessing it pretty much is. Just don’t screw the pooch,” Helen warned with a laugh.

“I’ll do my best,” Amanda told her. “But you know me; you can’t take me anywhere nice.” Even if it wasn’t a sure thing, she was happy to have a job interview lined up. And to work for Forlanie? It had to be better than dealing with Greg. Donnie had never been anything but completely gentlemanly with her, and Bill McConnell had always been such fun to talk to. Not that she expected she’d be talking to him very much even if she was working for his company, but it was nice to think that maybe he’d come and seek her out for a chat very occasionally.

As Helen predicted, the job turned out to be a sure thing. Ferocious Claire was perfectly charming to Amanda. She said, “Oh you’re the woman Donnie is so enthusiastic about! Let me get you all set up with the application and an appointment.”

While she was filling out the application, Claire said, “Donnie is in his office right now, and said to send you in when you finish with that.” Then she gave Amanda a thumbs-up.

Donnie was exactly what Amanda had imagined. He was short and stocky, with blue-black hair and sharp dark eyes that missed nothing. There was a sense of furious energy that swirled around him.

“It’s good to meet you at last, Amanda. Come in and sit down, please.”

“I really appreciate this, Mr. Kingman.”

“No, you just go on calling me Donnie. My whole staff does. I think it’s friendlier,” he explained in his soft drawl.

“All right, then, Donnie. I’ve brought my resume, updated with my work history at HostAssist.”

“Thanks. I’ve got a glowing recommendation from Dorothy Tonetti here, and an indifferent one from Greg Kolin. Can you tell me what that’s about?”

The request threw Amanda into an agony of indecision. “I’d prefer not to. I don’t feel it would be in anyone’s best interests to speak about my problems with Mr. Kolin. It’s over with. I can’t say that I bear him no ill will, but I’d rather not speak badly of him in front of anyone else.”

“I understand. Let’s take a look at that resume.”

She was grateful that Donnie didn’t press her about Greg. The idea of talking about the harassment which was never actually sexual or threatening, but felt like both, made Amanda uneasy.

After talking about her experience and her intentions for the future for a good ten minutes, Donnie said, “Let me explain the position. I need an assistant to our Media Relations Director. Sandra Wilder is primarily a strategist. Her office is responsible for communicating corporate themes to the media in a timely manner. What you will be doing is working in conjunction with our different departments and with senior management so that Sandy’s message is consistent with the company’s aims. You’ve worked with the media, you know how hard it can be, so I expect you to be supportive of Sandy by working hard, and making sure she has the information she needs when she needs it. Any questions?”

“I imagine I’ll have some when I start doing the job, but right now, I don’t think I can frame an intelligent one, so no, not at this time.”

Donnie laughed. “I like it that you can admit you don’t understand everything. I worry about people who always say they have a handle on everything.”

“I wouldn’t try to put one over on you. I think you’d know I was lying anyway, just based on my resume.”

“True. All right, then, let’s go talk to Sandy.”

Everything was moving so fast that Amanda hardly had time to think. She grabbed her purse and coat and went scurrying after Donnie who seemed to do everything at top speed. He introduced her to Sandy Wilder as “your new assistant.”

Sandy was a sharply-dressed middle-aged woman with a no-nonsense air about her. “Good to meet you, Amanda. Please call me Sandy. We’re big on first name friendliness around here. When can you start?”

“Now.”

“Really? That’s great. Thanks, Donnie.”

“Don’t throw her to the lions right away,” he warned.

“I’ll wait a couple of days.”

Her training began immediately and she was pleased to find that it wasn’t too demanding. Much of it was common sense, and Sandy was a good teacher. The session ran late and when Sandy asked “How late can you stay?” Amanda replied, “As late as I need to.” She wanted to hang on to this job, and more, she wanted to do well at it.

It made Sandy laugh. “Okay, but we don’t demand that you give your life to Forlanie, understood?”

“Um…”

“What I mean is that you do your best, but you don’t kill yourself over this. I might ask some overtime, but it won’t be a regular thing.”

“Okay I get it. Thanks. I just want to do well here.”

“And that’s what we want too. To be honest, when I heard that I was going to get Bill’s protégée as my assistant, I was worried.”

“Protégée? Mr. McConnell’s protégée? We’ve never even met.”

Sandy seemed surprised. “Ah, well…”

“Does everything think that there’s something going on with us?”

“Oh no, that’s not it at all. It’s just that Bill has a habit of finding talent and making room for them in the company. Donnie was one of his first finds, and I don’t know what we’d do without him.”

Amanda tried to concentrate on the job, but the word “protégée” kept racing through her mind. What on earth did people really think of her? Much as she liked Bill McConnell, she didn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea. He wasn’t her sugar daddy.

When she spoke to Helen about it that night, Helen said, “Did you go into the job without any expectations?”

“Of course.”

“Then that’s all you have to answer for. Let everyone else think what they have to think to keep their world spinning. Their opinion of you is none of your business.”

“Yeah, but it can make work hellish.”

“You made things clear to your boss, right? And to Donnie?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let it go. Stop over-thinking things. Be brilliant at your job and nobody will have the right to complain.”

It was good advice and Amanda took it to heart. Though she wished she could find out where the protégée rumor began, she tried not to let it bother her. And since Bill McConnell never visited her office, she hoped the rumor would just die.