Coming To Reason (A Long Road to Love) (6 page)

“Do you think it’s wise?”

So he did have a bad day!
The revelation pleased her. She
didn’t want to be so easy to replace.

“I’ve news to cheer him up.”

“I’ll let him know then. I’m glad I had a chance to say good-bye,”
Mars said.

“Are you leaving?”

“I am. The Long Island Mars is retiring and I’m taking his
place.”

“You’ll do great! I’m so happy for you.”

“Thank you. And I believe you will go on and do great things
yourself. Change can be invigorating.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

After wishing her the best in life, Mars hung up.

Carrie spent five minutes investigating the dirty drawers
of her old desk.

Note to self: bring cleaning spray and paper towels.

She tried Trent’s number again. This time, he answered on
the first ring.

“Where the hell are you? I’ve been calling you all day.”

Ah, those genetic bad phone manners.
“I left
early
this morning
to job hunt.”

“Well, if you’d have bothered to answer your damn phone, you
would know I already got you a job.”

God, he sounded as horrible as he had when she first
started working for him. Her absence must have caused a major regression. She
decided to overlook his outrage at her for not answering her phone, which now slept
with the fishies.

She’d planned to tell him about her job, but if it sounded
less than the one he had found, he’d expect her to drop Dan’s and take his, and
she couldn’t. Dan needed her help, more than he even knew.

“So tell me about the job.”
Please be less. Please be
less. Please be less!

“Secretary for the manager of a distribution center in
Trenton.”

Thumping her chest to stop from choking, she replied, “Trenton?
That’s a worse commute than going into the city.”

“Carrie, it’s in New Jersey. If it’s a long commute, then
move to Trenton.”

How could any rational person suggest such a horrible idea?
Then the reason came to her. “You’ve never been to Trenton, have you?” He no
doubt chose it because it had his name in it. Trent’s Town.

“No, but when you move there, I’m sure I’ll see plenty of
it.”

“Well, thank you for thinking about me, but—”

“Why does my phone say Dan Marshal?”

She rolled her eyes. She’d explained this to him a hundred
times. “It’s telling you I’m calling from Dan Marshal’s firm.

“You’re wasting your time. His clients don’t want
candidates with your weak qualifications.”

His words hurt, even though she knew he didn’t mean to be a
jerk.
He’s channeling his father. He’s had a lousy day and his horrid father
has popped out
.

During the last two months, when things had gone so well, she’d
almost forgotten his horrible side. His Mr. Hyde personification was why she’d
asked for a long engagement. He still had a ways to go before she’d say ‘I do’
forever.

“I’m working for Dan as a consultant,” she replied with
more calmness than she felt.

“No. You will not whore for Dan Marshal,” he yelled. “You
are taking the job in Trenton.”

“I
am
working for Dan, and no whoring is involved.”

“You know damn well how the women there act!”

“I know how Sandra Parker behaves, but she is not representative
of his better consultants.”

“You should hear what they say at my club.”

“Well, I heard today you have a harem, so
clearly
gossip isn’t
reliable.”

“Is Dan spreading lies about me?”

The anger in his voice caused her to cringe. He teetered on
the edge of becoming a raving lunatic. “No. A client of Jeff’s told him, and he
told me.”

“Jeff who? And what’s the client’s name?”

She regretted stating Jeff’s first name. No way would she
provide any further information. “You need to calm down. I didn’t believe the
rumor any more than you should believe the one about Dan’s consultants. Neither
is true. I verified this before I accepted the position.”

Her initial plan had been to suggest a night out to
celebrate her new job, but now she wanted to get off the phone and head home—
alone
.
This regression in his behavior exhausted her. She had advised against leaving
him cold turkey. Why should she suffer for his independent exuberance?

“Where are you?” he asked.

“I already told you.”

“At Dan’s, but where? In a cube or an office.”

“In an office.”

“Great, what are you wearing?”

She rubbed her right temple. “My blue suit.”

“The prudish one?”

Carrie
sighed
in exhaustion. No wonder Mars had discouraged her from talking
to Trent. “I don’t know, since until tonight, you’ve been considerate enough
not to share your thoughts about my suits.” She put him on speaker so she could
rub both temples, trying to stave off a migraine. “Did you have a bad day?”

“No. I’m fine. My new EA had to be smacked about a bit, but
she straightened up soon enough.”

“Trent! You cannot hit your employees. It doesn’t matter
how bad your day gets, you can’t—”

“Calm down. I’m kidding.”

“Thank God!” While normal
ly
Trent would never strike anyone,
when he channeled his father, all bets were off.

“I think we both need phone sex.”

She so disagreed. “No, I need to head home.” She grimaced,
expecting him to insist she stay with him in the penthouse, but he didn’t.

“It won’t take long. Remove your underwear.”

She grabbed the phone handle, killing the speaker. Never
again would she leave her door open. God how embarrassing!

“Trent, stop, we’re not having phone sex.”

“Lie down on the top of your desk and spread your legs to
each side.”

“I don’t have time.”

“I’m pulling your sweet plump ass to the very edge of the
desk, causing your skirt to rise, exposing your hairless pussy.”

“Not happening!” Even if she had been in the mood for phone
sex, she wouldn’t have gotten off on his current play. She didn’t have a
‘plump’ ass and no way in hell would she allow her tender parts ripped free of
her pubic hairs. Why would he think she’d resonate with his fantasy?

As she rolled her eyes, she spotted Dan leaning against her
office door. She placed Trent on hold. With any luck he’d continue his fantasy on
his own, since it had nothing to do with her.

Her face burned with embarrassment. She had no idea what
Dan had heard, but she knew what he
might
have heard, which mortified
her.

“Sorry, but I promise you I didn’t begin the call until
seven.”

Dan frowned. “Which makes your first day twelve hours long?”

“I don’t mind. I’m used to long hours.” Dan glanced at the
phone, no doubt thinking she meant she often had long hours of phone sex. “He
just started this.” She threw her hands up in frustration. “He turns on a porn
movie and acts out the part.”

Dan stared at his shoes in great interest.

“Sorry, you don’t want to know about Trent’s sexual
activities.”

“Not unless he becomes celibate. That would interest me.”

Carrie suspected her face glowed neon red. “Is there anything
I can do for you?” She cringed, fearing he might misinterpret her question,
given she’d been having one-way phone sex.

Please be a gentleman, please!

“I stopped by to see how your day went and ask if you
needed a ride to Penn Station. It’s rather a long haul from here.”

After a glance at the blinking light on the phone, she
focused on Dan. “You know, I
would
like a ride. If I’m lucky, he won’t
even notice I’m gone. He turns the volume up so loud I can hear…” She covered
her mouth with her hand. Dan did not need to know any further details.

She grabbed her purse and hurried from her office, turning
off the light so the blinking phone remained the
only
illumination.
Trent would no doubt give her hell for abandoning him, but he’d used up all her
patience for the night.

Dan placed his hand on the small of her back, and her Trent-induced
stress disappeared.

“So, tell me about your day.”

Happy she had someone to share her successes with, she gave
him the highlights.

When they reached Penn Station, she had yet to tell him
about Destiny’s fabulous job. He glanced at his watch. “When is your train?”

“One just left, so an hour from now.”

“How about I buy you dinner and drive you home?”

She hesitated.

“Unless you’d rather continue this conversation by cell
phone.”

“We can’t because Trent had his driver steal my personal
cell phone and then one of them, Trent, I suspect, threw it in the Hudson River.”
Thinking about him seemed to suck out the remainder of her energy. She leaned
back and closed her eyes.

Dan felt her forehead. “When did you last eat?”

“This morning, around four.”

“Jenson, take us to Giuseppe’s.”

She hoped the place served food, because his question had
woken her stomach and its rumblings declared it unhappy.

He then made a phone call. “Giuseppe, Dan. I’ve got a
starving employee on my hands. We are about fifteen minutes away. Can you have
my favorite appetizer ready when we get there? Thanks, I appreciate it… Yes,
but irrelevant… Stop interrogating me and get to cooking.” He hung up and
smiled at her. “Now, you were saying…?”

Unable to remember, she shook her head and shrugged.

“Jeff sent you to Greg and told you to wait until he
processed the client specs, which I know is a waste of Greg’s time, but until
today, only he could do them.”

She slapped her leg. “Awww, you already know.”

“I’d still like to hear it from your perspective.”

After relaying the initial events, she stopped when she got
to the point she asked Greg if he’d show her how to do them. “He was so stressed,
I feared my offer might kill him.”

“I know. I’ve lectured him about delegating, but until
today, he’s resisted the idea.”

She shared how she and Destiny made Greg’s day.

He had lost his smile by the time she finished. “I know you
like Destiny, but I need your honest opinion. Should she have been able to
resolve this before today?”

Carrie cringed at his question. “What you want to know is,
should she have a boss?”

He nodded.

“I don’t know the answer. In my experience, system managers
are most
ly
‘show and posturing’, depending on better skilled employees beneath
them to do all the work. What happened today resembled what happened at Lancaster
Chairs with a very good, but overworked systems person named Jack.

“When I arrived, the sales program database had been
improper
ly
structured, like yours. Jack had never received training in creating
reports, so no useful information could be obtained from our…” She had to stop talking
as if she still worked at Lancaster Chairs. “
the
database. In
retrospect, I’d classify his misses far more severe than Destiny’s, and I think
he’s one of the best systems people I’ve ever met.”

“Then why can you see what needs to be done so easily?”

After all the abuse she’d taken tonight from Trent, his
sincere approbation felt like balm to her soul.

“Because I have a user perspective, and I know what a
database should be able to do. I had an excellent computer professor in
college. Thus, when Greg showed me how to bounce back and forth between so many
pages, the wrongness astounded me. I knew a better interface could be written.”

She met his worried eyes.

“My guess is, either whoever gave the specs to the salesman
didn’t know what they wanted, or maybe the requirements changed since then.”

He cleared his throat and stared out the window. “
I
gave the salesman the specs, and you are right in both assumptions. I knew
general
ly
what we needed, and I’ve changed the requirements several times
since.”

“Well, the next time you change specs, let Destiny know and
she’ll have the system aligned with user needs right away.”

“I also gave the requirements for the other program you
fixed for us,” he added.

She patted his arm. “There, you aren’t at fault. The
software company had a lazy programmer customizing data for clients.

Dan faced her. His mouth opened, but he forgot whatever he
planned to say when the driver pulled to the curb and hopped from the car,
opening the door a second later. Dan got out and reached in to help her out.
Trent always walked on and left Sam to extract her. She much preferred Dan’s
consideration. It meant she didn’t have to chase him down before he entered the
restaurant.