Decorate My Palm Tree (2 page)

With that, he turned and was gone.

* * * *

Doug wondered what drew him to this woman. He needed an entanglement in his life right now as much as he needed a broken leg. Still, she drew him to her in a sexual way that surprised him. As he walked away, he reached and adjusted his boner to make walking easier. He didn’t mind if she saw what he was doing. It seemed to be interesting to find that she was not embarrassed, but was fighting something inside herself.

He was careful not to cross over that political problem that was facing everyone in offices at the moment called
sexual harassment.
He was smart and knew a whole lot of ways to get what he wanted without getting his hand caught in the cookie jar. So if he was close enough that she stepped back into him, nobody could say he rubbed against her.

He thought about her clothes and hairstyle. It was as if she was hiding from something, but he saw through it. Whatever she was hiding seemed to scream out to him. Long glossy brown hair he knew he could comb his fingers through as he held her down on a deep soft bed. There were full breasts hidden tightly under the drab tops she wore that he knew would fit just right in each of his large hands. Dark brown eyes that she hid by the long lashes as she often didn’t look at him, but he understood he could turn darker in passion. She had long legs that she covered with the long straight skirts that he knew would clutch around his thighs as he dug deep within her.

Damn, he had it bad and he was going to find out why. He would have a taste of that bound-up female and see her unwind if it was the last thing he did.

Gigi sat there for a moment in shock. Finally, she got her body working as she stood. She saw Doug turning down the outside hallway out of her sight. She hurried just as she heard someone calling out her name from behind her. Damn.

She turned to look at Marge, one of the processors who worked with walk-in customers. She took a breath, then worked with and solved Marge’s problem. But as Marge started to turn away with a relieved smile, Gigi stopped her.

“Marge, what do you know about the company party we have in December?”

Marge stopped, looking over her shoulder with a smile. “Oh, yeah, the politically correct not a Christmas party any more. Well, we do have a party and we draw names, and we exchange non-Christmas gifts and we all get smashed and naughty. Lots of fun. No dates, no spouses, no kids, and no telling, just like Vegas,
what happens at the party stays at the party.”

Gigi spoke before Marge could get away. “So where did they have the parties in the past?”

“Oh, you know, a sports bar, but that was a flop. We went to a local beach restaurant that was a lot of fun since we had our own small room. A big fancy hotel on the beach, though, that wasn’t much fun either until we went back to our rooms. We like to try something new every year.” Marge seemed to be really enthused about the party.

“Wait, Marge. Look I am new to the area plus I‘m not really into parties. I wonder if you would like to take on the planning of this year’s party?”

Marge turned around, walking away and laughing. “Oh, no, that falls to the AM and that is the title on your door. Besides, if the party is a flop, I don’t want every one mad at me for the next couple of months. Nope, not in my job description.” With that, Marge was back in the front section where there was a small reception area.

Gigi sighed and returned to her office with the title Assistant Manager on her door. This was going from bad to worse.

For the next few days, she tried the same technique on most of the people in the office, both men and women as she filled her coffee cup in the break room and when she could catch anyone alone. Twice, they turned her down. She would catch Doug watching her with that sinful smile on his full lower lip.

Damn, he was enjoying this. He wanted her to work on planning this party, but she didn’t know why?

She spent the afternoon on the phone talking to every one of the Event Planners that were listed in the
Yellow Pages
. There were only seven and the answers were frustrating. First of all, of the seven, three of them had voice mail so she left her office and cell number with instructions that it was a party before Christmas for thirty people and she could be reached twenty-four seven. One was disconnected, one told her that she only handled weddings and the last two said they were booked up until after the first of the year and couldn’t recommend anyone or anywhere.

Now, she had to get back to her snags as they piled up. She would be working late again. She worked through until the weekend, taking longer than needed on processing since her mind was on the stupid party. She had lost a full week and still had no idea where to have a place to stick thirty people that wanted to get drunk and maybe make out with each other.
Damn
.

She was one of the last out of the building, following two of the computer geek guys, and Doug who was holding the back door open. He usually locked up and set the outside alarm code on the key code box next to the door lock on the outside wall. Her company also gave her the alarm code in case of emergencies.

The two guys stepped past Doug and there seemed to be enough room, but when she went to go out, it seemed that the space between his large body and the doorframe was barely enough for her to slide through. She tried to step quickly, but she swore she felt his erection. Damn that couldn’t be possible. Without turning around, she clutched her oversized bag, hiding the fact that her nipples had tightened to nubs that would show through even the heavy top she wore.

She got a salad and diet ice tea at a drive thru, and went home past all the holiday lights to her dark home. Balancing her food, drink, and oversized bag, she got the door unlocked and stumbled in, kicking off shoes, then dropping her armload to the small kitchen table. She hit the wall switch to turn on the overhead light that she had put a smaller bulb in so that she didn’t go blind by bright lights.

She took time to take a short shower and get into loose soft men’s shorts with an over large shirt. She was halfway through her salad when her cell rang. She dug through her big bag past the papers she had brought home. She never got calls at home so she expected this one to be some sales or political related nuisance.

“Ms. Henderson, this is Cynthia Majors. I represent Events, Inc. You left a message needing to have an evening office party on December twenty-second. I think I might be able to help you out.”

Gigi took a deep breath and grabbed a pencil and paper. “Yes, I had just about given up hope. What do you have available?”

“Good, I have a dinner cruise contracted for that night just north of Sarasota. It is a lovely boat and holds one hundred fifty, very comfortably. My group is around one hundred so we would have room on this trip for another group. The boat is set up so that we could make a separate section so that your group could have a private section just for your own party. The boat leaves the dock at six-thirty and makes a nice trip up the inner causeway to view the lights and, depending on the water, it may go out John’s Pass. During the trip, a wonderful hot meal is served and I can email you a choice.”

“This sounds like it will answer exactly what I need,” Gigi said as she was taking notes. “What is the price?”

Gigi filled the full page on what the woman told her. This was going to work. She got the woman’s email, phone, and web site. She also had the woman send a contract and menu to her at the fax at work.

She slept restlessly and could hardly wait for the weekend to finish to get into the office on Monday morning. She sat in her car and waited until Doug unlocked the door. When a couple of other workers entered, she hurried across the parking lot to go into the building and head to her office.

She dumped her items quickly so she could head for the copy and fax room. Yes, the papers sat ready for her on the machine. She grabbed them and began reading as she started towards the door. She slammed into Doug, almost knocking both of them against the opposite wall.

Doug chuckled as he held her with his hands on her upper arms.

“Good morning, and what a nice way to start the day. Is that fax good or bad news?”

Gigi frowned up at his smile that showed the white teeth against his tan. Did he live at the beach? Probably lies around letting bikini-clad beauties rub suntan lotion—wait where was she. He was holding her against his long body. She jumped back, surprised and grateful that he let go immediately, staying with his back against the hall wall.

“So good or bad?”

She took a deep breath. He was such a threat to her calm interior. “I beg your pardon?”

His pleasant smile changed to the wicked one. “The fax, what did you think I meant?”

She moved to get away, heading to her office. “
Good
news, I have the party finalized.” She ducked into her office, dropping into her chair to catch her breath. What was wrong with her? She was not interested in men any longer, especially someone like Doug who probably was the type who would kiss and tell. She was sure he carved notches on his bedpost. Damn. She had to quit saying that cuss word as mom had never liked it when Dad had used it.

When she finally quit trembling, she leaned forward to read carefully, the contract. It was straightforward and exactly what Cynthia Majors had promised. She signed it so that she could scan it, then email it back to the event planner’s web site. She would run a copy and mail out the original this afternoon with a check. She looked at the menu and selected a buffet, thinking this would be better than waiting for the arguing over who wanted what.

Next, she began to type up an announcement on the party to post in the break room. It wouldn’t be a fancy one with colors and holly leaves. It was just large type telling the date, time and place of the company holiday party. She printed out two copies on plain white paper and headed with her cup to the break room.

She was properly trained, so she checked to make sure Doug wasn’t in the hall. She carefully made sure he wasn’t in the break room before she entered. She put the two notices up with the self-stick tack she had placed on the back of the paper, one of each side of the room on cabinet doors where her coworkers would see them.

As she was filling her coffee, the first couple of workers came in and saw the notices.

“Hey, this is great. I heard these dinner cruises are really nice.”

The other person agreed. “Yes, we need to arrange to have some type of transportation home so we can drink as much as we want.”

Then they saw Gigi and got quiet.

She was pleased though that the venue was acceptable. Still she kept her composure along with her usual stone-like appearance as she left with her coffee. A quick glance seeing no Doug in the hall let her get back to her office. Once there, it was time to dig into her processing since she was behind due to the stupid party planning that now was behind her.

What to wear, what to wear? It was Friday, December 22, and Doug had officially closed the office all day, with pay to his employees. Hooray for everyone. Well, Gigi would have preferred to stay and work to get ahead on her processing, but everyone else talked about shopping.

They had drawn names to exchange gifts and she had drawn the name of Charles, one of the computer geeks. Gigi went to
Radio Shack
and bought a desk set recommended by a pimply-faced kid who looked too young to work, but she figured he would know his business. It all had different smiley faces printed on it. Some of the faces smiled, some frowned, and some were even crossed eyed. The set included a thumb drive, a stacked note block, and a couple of pens. The present was the first she had bought in three years. She bought one of the simple decorated bags to put it in so that she didn’t have to think about wrapping it and having left over Christmas paper in her house.

She had hours before the party, so here she stood in front of her barely filled closet, trying to think what she would feel comfortable in at this party. She really wanted to put on one of her work outfits, but knew it wouldn’t be appropriate. She pulled out a plain blue dress she usually wore with a jacket and tried to dress it up with a scarf and a belt. It still looked like a plain blue dress.

She let out a heavy sigh, looking around. She finally went out to the garage to join the chameleons. She moved a couple of boxes and found the one she wanted, taking it back into the house. She opened the box and spread the clothes in it out on her bed. They were mostly outfits from her college days. She had packed them away when she had gained weight, but after the funeral, she had lost weight as food along with most other things held no interest for her. She pulled out a short full skirt and a long sleeved white blouse that had lots of ruffles around a low cut neckline. Okay, she could still wear her low-heeled comfortable shoes since she was going to be on a moving boat. Good excuse.

She took the two pieces and put them in the dryer on refresh. While that worked, she hesitated about repacking everything else. She waited a moment, looking at the bright colors and then opened an empty drawer at the bottom on the big dresser and laid everything in there.

With that settled, she spent the afternoon
cleaning
her clean house. This was a weekly routine. She finished, then worked nervously on herself. Shower, wash hair, shave everything important, powder and lotion and then down to the serious business. Could she do makeup? A little, but not much, maybe some mascara on her lashes would be okay without making her feel uncomfortable. She also found a lipstick that had a little more color, not bright red but a deeper pink.

She was not going to wear her hair down, so she put it into a ponytail instead of the tied knot she wore at work. She had forgotten how long it was when the brown hair hit below her shoulder blades. She pulled on the short full skirt finding that the zipper and button closed with ease. The blouse fit loose, so she had lost enough weight. She pulled and tugged at the low neckline and finally found some pins to attach the ruffles to different areas of her bra so that if she leaned over no one would get any more view than what was showing, which was quite a bit compared to what she generally provided. She grabbed an old fashioned cotton knit scarf to put around her shoulders and then with a small clutch bag and in her comfortable shoes, she was off to the location to attend a party she dreaded.
She just didn’t do parties anymore.