Coming To Reason (A Long Road to Love) (21 page)

He stood and moved to the door. “Yeah, let’s call you a senior
associate.”

“Sounds much better.”

“Great, then make a list of businessmen you think you might
be able to bring in, then check it against our data file and determine which we
don’t already have.”

Carrie smiled. She had a real job now.

***

Dan entered carrying both a bowl of nuts and blueberries
and two iPads.

She squealed with delight and reached for the tablets.

He handed her the blueberries instead. “Sit and eat, while
we talk.”

Carrie returned to her chair. The tension in his shoulders
warned her their discussion would not be a happy one. But he couldn’t intend to
fire her. Dangling iPads before a firing would be beyond cruel. Giving her nuts
and berries would be a strange dismissal technique as well.

He sat down and frowned.

“Sorry, I forgot to bring the upholstery stuff this
morning.”

He leaned forward. “You haven’t yet read the
Gossep
article have you?”

She grimaced. “No. I’m quite certain it’s going to upset
me, so I intend to read it on the train home. I want to be productive and
optimistic at work today.”

“Jeff said he told you he wants you involved with bringing
clients for the farm.”

“Yes, I’ve already listed a bunch of horses I wish to
cull.”

He responded with a faint, but sad, smile. Now she worried.
Dan normal
ly
liked her humor. She set the berries aside and leaned forward on her
desk. “Dan, what is it?”

“Would you do me a favor?”

She nodded, trusting him not to ask something insane. She
never agreed in advance with Trent, because he’d ask for crazy things, like
wanting her to get a full body wax.

“Stick with your plan of not reading the article during
working hours. But at the end of the day, read it here, in the privacy of your
office. Destiny will work late tonight, so if you need a shoulder to cry on,
you’ll have it.”

She groaned. “I knew it. Angela massacred me, didn’t she?”

His eyes saddened. “Will you wait and read it this evening
before you leave?”

With a heavy sigh, she nodded. “Your request would be like not
thinking of gold monkeys, if not for the interesting task Jeff gave me.”

“He mentioned it to me. And while I think it’s a great
idea, be aware if you call these men today, they might wish to talk about the
article.”

“Eckh!”

“I suggest you spend today creating the list of potential
clients and providing backgrounds on each.”

“Excellent advice. Thank you.” She then eyed the iPads.
“Did you also bring me another distraction?”

He placed the tablets on her desk. “Mine and yours. Make
them useful.”

“I’ll try to have them so by the end of the day.”

Dan rose, but stopped at the door. “If you want to talk to
me, I’ll be here as well.” He left, closing the door behind him.

His sadness made her curious as to how bad Angela had
slaughtered her, but the two fabulous iPads that lay before her needed life
breathed into them.

A lot of life.

More than she anticipated.

Jeff brought her half his sandwich for lunch and scowled
when he saw her playing with the tablets.

“Dan wants them useful, but it turns out I have to write an
application to connect it to our system.”

“Tell him to send them back to the store,” Jeff suggested.

“No, I’m working with an Apple geek, who is very interested
in helping me do this because our data software is what most companies use and
this could open up a whole new market for them.”

“Are you getting the code copyrighted?”

“Not interested in making money. Just want a happy boss.”

Jeff shook his head and left.

The application proved to be very easy with the help of the
apple programmer. He offered her a five cent royalty per application sold or a
free iPad.

She took the royalty.

After she got off the phone, she realized the royalty should
belong to Dan, not her. She hurried to his office. As she took a seat on the
bench in the outer office, she could hear his angry voice resonate through the
closed door.

Helen kept glancing at the door when Dan’s voice would rise.
After one rather loud outburst, she did something complete
ly
out of her
comfort zone. She conversed with Carrie.

“So is the tablet thing good for anything?”

“It is now.” Carrie walked over and showed Helen all the
things she could do. “You can read company emails, examine spreadsheets, and,
thanks to me and a guy named Guy who works at Apple, you can download data from
our system. For example, let’s see how much time our consultants have been on
the phones today.”

She pulled up the report.

“Whoa.” She wondered if they all wanted lawyers or if some
needed counsel from friends or a therapist. Not even salespeople should spend
98 percent of their time on the phone.

Dan opened the door. He looked worried, until Helen shook
her head. “Carrie’s showing me all the things your new toy can do. It seems
very useful now.”

He ushered Carrie in. By the tension in his neck and the
deep crease between his brows, Dan’s day had gotten worse.

“I wanted to bring you your now useful iPad and ask you
something. I had to write an application to tap into our system, and, to do it,
I needed the approval and assistance of Apple, so I called and told this guy
named Guy what I wanted to do and while I understood our system, I didn’t have
a clue what needed to be done on his side, but together we could build the
application. I explained how extensive
ly
this system is used around the world and what a great marketing
point it would be if executives could pull down reports. He bumped me up to his
manager, who loved the idea and bumped me up to a senior V.P. who, upon
listening to my idea, patched in Guy and his manager and told them to make this
top priority.”

Carrie smiled with pride at her achievement.

“Wow,” Dan stated.

“So we wrote the preliminary code and you and I are the
limited test bunnies. However, after many months in quality control, Apple
plans to market the product worldwide. They asked me if I wanted a free iPad or
5 cents royalty on each application sold.”

“I hope you asked for the royalty.”

She nodded. “But then I realized I did this while working
for you, so the royalty should go to the company, but you’ll need to share your
tax ID and legal name with Apple.”

He shook his head. “Legally, I believe you are correct, but
you should profit from this. Not me.”

“But it could be a significant amount of money.”

Dan walked around the desk and took hold of her hands.
“Carrie, if it makes you a million dollars, I’ll be nothing but happy for you.
You deserve something nice going your way. I’ll have my lawyer draw up the
papers releasing any claim to the application.”

Wow, whatever Angela wrote must really be bad.

She breathed in and pushed the thought away. “Do you have
time to learn how to use it?”

He nodded and they sat side by side on the couch as she
taught him all about his useful iPad.

Apple had legal documents they wished Carrie to sign, as
well, which Dan had his lawyer look over. Evident
ly
forgetting Carrie remained in
the room, the lawyer yelled at him for giving his rights away to a valuable
copyright property.

“I don’t know what this girl holds over you, but—”

Dan yanked up the phone, cutting off his voice.

“Enough! Just do your job or I’ll find someone else.”

After he hung up, he rubbed his neck.

Carrie grimaced. “He doesn’t seem to like me, but I don’t
think we’ve ever met.”

“You haven’t. Charles refuses to meet or talk to you
because he’d be forced to change his mind.”

“How can someone who has never met me dislike me so much?”

He sat on the edge of his desk and stared at her, still
seated on the couch. “As you know, all candidates are investigated, which
includes people I hire for my own firm.”

“Oh….ewwwww!” She grimaced as she contemplated all her bad
luck in the last year. “I wouldn’t like me either, if that’s all I knew about myself.”

“I told him I thought you one of the finest people I’ve
ever met. Your bad luck comes from Trent.”

“I don’t regret going to work for him. I learned so much.”

Dan moved to the couch and sat beside her, his intensity
almost alarming.

“You did. You basically ran the place with far more leeway
to spread your wings working for an idiot than—”

“He’s not an idiot!” she snapped as she pushed herself up.
“I know he’s being a jerk to you, and I understand why you’re angry with him,
but underneath his prick
ly
exterior is a good man…a man I love. I will try my hardest
not to speak of Trent, but I need you to refrain from disparaging him to me.
Otherwise, I’ll have to find someplace else to work.”

Dan stood and stared out the window. “I apologize. Before
either of us says more about this, perhaps it is time for you to read the
magazine article.” He turned to face her. “And before you decide Angela made the
story up, I’ve checked out every single allegation. They’re all true.”

A sickening worry filtered into her heart. “The person you
yelled out earlier, was it Trent?”

“Yes. I get very angry when people I care about are mistreated.”

A heavy lump formed in her stomach. “I should go now.” She
ran from the room and down the hall to her office where several people crowded
at her door trying to peek in the narrow window.

Two of the three of the voyeurs she didn’t care for.

“Excuse me.”

They stood back. Doris held the
Gossep
magazine in
hand. “You gotta read this.”

She unlocked the door, slipped in, and locked it before
they could follow. Upon testing the door, one of them knocked, but she ignored
them.

She threw herself in her chair, almost sending it backwards
then made a quick note for a larger leg base.

Then with a deep breath, she extracted her copy of
Gossep
and turned to the featured article.

The first two pages showed Trent with a myriad of women,
many of whom Carrie knew. She wanted to believe the magazine had culled these
from his past, but seven of the young women worked on his new sales team and
one was Jon’s wife.

The salesgirls pressed up against him like he’d turned into
their favorite ice cream. They had pulled this shit at work, as well, but Trent
always seemed repulsed by their actions when she walked in on them. However, he
didn’t look repulsed in these shots. Damn it! She knew those sultry eyes and
slight smile. He wore them when he had sex on his mind.

Unable to look any longer at women she didn’t like being
admired by Trent, she focused on the shot with her friend Patty. She first
thought they had cropped Patty’s husband, Jon, from the picture, but the
adoration in Patty’s eyes as her palms pressed against Trent’s chest gave Carrie
strong reason to doubt Jon had been anywhere around when someone took this one.

While the salesgirls had angered her, this hurt. How could
Patty flirt so blatant
ly
with Trent? How could she do it to Jon? And Trent, did he
for one moment stop to consider how these pictures would hurt those who loved
him?

To discover his sexy bedroom eyes didn’t shine solely for
her, but took in everyone, felt like a stab to her heart. All his sultry gazes
didn’t mean a damn thing. Which meant what?

She’d never doubted his love until now. No…she had doubted
him, several times, but he always convinced her, with eyes full of love, that he
adored her as much as she did him. But seeing the same adoration bestowed on
Jon’s wife and all those horrible salesgirls, she had to face the reality. He
might not love her at all.

Unable to bear looking at Trent seducing all these women,
she turned the page, hoping for something to lessen the horror. Perhaps a
picture of him yawning as a salesgirl humped his leg.

Instead, she stared at a full-page spread of Trent and Coco
posing happi
ly
for the camera. This had to be old stock, but still, he
stared at the bitch with loving eyes. He’d told her he’d hated Coco. This
picture said otherwise.

Then she read the caption beneath the photo and her world
collapsed like a deck of cards.

Trent Lancaster and Coco Tyson enjoyed their belated engagement
party on Saturday to celebrate promises made three months ago.

Coco… He intended to marry Coco? And, by his smile, he looked
forward to the event.