She Left Me Breathless (8 page)

Sydney looked at Meredith who immediately averted her eyes. Sydney had told Meredith that she thought she was making a mistake when she had hired Allen, Robert, and Kenneth. Their comments today only cemented what Sydney already knew. “You can be excused,” she said finally, when Meredith looked at her. “I want the documents we discussed earlier on my desk before you leave for the day.”

Without a word, Meredith gathered her things and left the room.

Sydney felt the heat rise up her neck all the way to her ears. “Can someone please explain to me how I can be in a room that’s overflowing with male testosterone, yet I’m the only one who has any God damn balls?” she asked, her voice rising several octaves.

She glanced at her executives and then turned in her seat to look Bill Amos directly in the eye. “Here’s the deal, Bill. I own Welsh Enterprises and the buck always stops with me. As the majority owner of Welsh, I also control ninety-five percent of your company. I don’t give a rat’s ass if you built EMCOR from the ground up. If you had done your job, I would have never been able to get my foot in your door. Therefore, I’m now going to give you two options. Number one, you will sell your remaining stock to me at three times what it’s worth or number two, I will slowly and systematically disassemble your entire company down to the nuts and bolts, and then I will fire every single employee.” She looked at Andrew Amos. “And I’ll start with your grandson first.” She turned back to Bill and looked at him with eyes so dark they looked black. She smiled and shrugged. “It’s just business, Bill, nothing personal.”

Bill Amos looked as if he were going to have a heart attack. He slammed his fist down on the table so hard that it knocked the carafe over. “How dare you threaten me, you ruthless, heartless bitch,” he yelled, sending spittle across the table.

Sydney leaned back in her chair and laughed. “It’s not a threat. It’s a promise.” She opened her file folder and pulled out a piece of paper. She slid it across the table.

Bill Amos picked it up. His eyes quickly scanned the document. He tossed it back down on the table.

“You know what the real kicker is? If I had been a man and just pulled off this deal, all of you,” she looked at each man in the room, “would have been patting me on the back for pulling off such a coup. Instead, I’m relegated to the title of heartless bitch and for that, I thank you. I will wear it proud.” She stood up and pushed the chair back with her legs, sending it into the wall behind her with a loud bang. “I expect to have that document signed and on my desk by the end of business today. I trust the two of you can show yourselves out and the rest of you have work to do,” she said and with that, she took her file folder and left the room.

Sydney was still fuming two hours later when Maureen tapped lightly on the door. “Come in,” she said a little too gruffly.

“Hey, Syd, rough morning?” Maureen, Sydney’s trusted assistant hesitantly asked.

Sydney shook her head. “Nah, sorry, just some rough moments.”

“Well, I have something that might cheer you up.” 

Sydney finally noticed that the giddy green-eyed blonde was bouncing on the balls of her feet and that her hands were hidden behind her back.

“I could definitely use a pick me up right about now.”

Maureen handed her the document. Sydney looked at the paper. “All right, yes,” she said, adding a fist pump in the air. Her day just got better and another piece of the puzzle just fell into place.

“It arrived a few minutes ago by courier.”

“You just made my day,” Sydney said with a grin as she looked at Bill Amos’s signature.

“I need your signature on these two documents as well so I can add my Jane Hancock and get them mailed,” Maureen said, handing Sydney the papers and a pen. Sydney signed them and handed them back to her.

She watched Maureen as she added her signature. “That looks so uncomfortable,” she said.

“What does?” Maureen asked, as she picked the papers up.

“Writing with your left hand because I swear it looks like you write upside down.”

Maureen shrugged. “You know what they say about us southpaw’s.”

“What’s that?” Sydney asked.

“We’re the only ones in our right mind and the rest of you are left out,” Maureen laughed.

“Whatever,” Sydney chuckled.    

With red painted manicured fingers, Maureen smoothed the front of her suit jacket.

Sydney could tell that her assistant wanted to say something. “Spit it out, Maureen.”

“Um, I heard about you and Meredith and I wanted to say I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

Sydney frowned. “Who told you?” she asked, thinking
damn it Meredith
. She specifically told her not to say anything. She should have known that Meredith couldn’t keep her mouth shut.

“You know how it is around here, Syd. Nothing stays secret for very long.”

“Especially when you’re head of the gossip machine, huh,” Sydney grinned.

“Hey, I can’t help it if we have a lot of little birdies flying around.”

Sydney stood up and grabbed her jacket. “Whatever,” she said, shrugging her arms into the sleeves. “Can you do me one more favor?”

“Sure.”

“Please call Bill Amos. I want him to arrange a company meeting at EMCOR with all of his people for 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning. Can you also order pastries and have a caterer set up a breakfast buffet in the main conference room at EMCOR prior to the meeting?”

“You got it.”

“I’m taking the rest of the day off but if you need to get ahold of me, call me at home.”

“I think I’m gonna take off a little early too if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all, you are coming to my party tonight, right?” Sydney asked although it was more of a statement.

“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“See you tonight then.”

Chapter 4

When Sydney left Welsh, she had decided to do some Christmas shopping. She usually spent the holiday at her mother’s house and enjoyed the day playing around with her twin twelve-year-old niece and nephew, Sara and Seth. For hours, they would sit and test out the latest and greatest new toys on the market because that is what Sydney usually bought them. The two kids had everything, her sister saw to that, so it was a challenge at Christmas and birthdays to find something they did not have. Last year, she had bought them the Wii game system along with twenty to thirty games and all the external gadgets that went along with the system. Seth loved the Wii skateboard while Sara was partial to the boxing gloves. Her sister, Liz was none too happy when Sara announced that she wanted to be a boxer like Mohammed Ali’s daughter, Alia.

After several trips up and down the aisles of Toys “R” Us, Sydney had settled on two electric rocket motorcycles. The twins would love them; she wasn’t so sure about Liz. Aunts were supposed to buy a toy that the parents hated, that was one of the fun things about being an aunt. It was almost like a golden rule with Sydney. 

The one thing she was not looking forward to on Christmas day was spending six continuous hours with her mother, Deidre. It wasn’t that she disliked her mother or anything like that. It had to do with the endless badgering and constant barrage of negative comments that came from her mother. No matter what Sydney did, it never seemed to be good enough in her mother’s eyes. If her hair was short, her mother claimed it needed to be longer. If her hair was long then her mother said she needed a haircut.

Over the years, Sydney had become accustomed to her mother’s criticisms. The baffling part was that her mother treated Liz as if the sun rose and set in Sydney’s baby sister and because of that, Liz usually ended up becoming the referee when the discussions became a little too heated. Sydney swore to Liz that her mother hated her because she looked just like her father whereas Liz, with blonde hair and blue eyes looked like their mother. Liz told her she was imagining things but later changed her mind when she overheard their mother tell Sydney that she was stubborn as a mule and took after her father unlike Liz who was levelheaded and laid back like her. From that day on Liz always came to Sydney’s defense whenever Deidre started in on her eldest daughter.    

Sydney had just finished wrapping gifts when the first slew of guests began to arrive. By the time she took a shower and changed her clothes, the party was already in full swing. She stepped into the family room and glanced around. The live band that Edna hired was singing the chorus line of
Jingle Bells
. Her stomach twisted in knots as she scanned the crowd for Caitlyn and her parents and when she didn’t see them, she was somewhat relieved, yet disappointed at the same time.

She grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. She scanned the crowd again looking for her staff. One of her rules was that if she had any type of party, the staff was to hire temporary replacements and the staff was to join in the festivities. At first, some of them had protested but when they saw that she would not budge on the rule, they had finally caved in. It was now to the point that her staff looked forward to the parties more than she did.

Edna came racing across the floor. She threw her arms around Sydney’s neck and hugged her.

“The house looks fantastic, Edna. You’ve really outdone yourself this year. Thank you for everything.”

Edna smiled warmly. “Thank you and you are most welcome.”

“Oh, there you are love,” Fred Rick yelled as he made his way across the floor toward the two women. He leaned in and planted fake kisses on Sydney’s cheeks.

Sydney smiled and shook her head. “Fred Rick, the food selection this year is over the top. You are definitely the best chef in the world.”   

“I do try, my dear,” Fred Rick said, flipping his hand flamboyantly in the air. He pretended to brush his hair back away from his face. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I see a handsome young man across the room and I can tell that he is just dying to meet me.”       

Sydney couldn’t help but shake her head as Fred Rick disappeared amongst a crowd of bodies who were dancing near the band’s stage. Sydney excused herself from Edna when she saw Jackie come in.

On the far side of the room near the Christmas tree, Allen, Kenneth, and Robert stood huddled together with their wives. The women were a bit overdressed for a Christmas party and were more suited to be at the president’s inauguration. The three men extricated themselves and headed off toward the dining room.

“Where do you suppose they are going?” Danielle VanDersmote, Robert’s wife asked.

“I’m sure their talking business, you know how dedicated our husbands are, Danielle dear,” Victoria Carmichael cooed.

“By the way, I love your dress, Victoria. Is it Vera?” Carmen Worthington, Kenneth’s wife asked.

“Heavens no, darling, It’s Versace’. I would not be caught dead in a Wang dress,” Victoria corrected as if Carmen had insulted her. “Look at her,” Victoria said with a nod of her head.

The two women looked in the direction Victoria had indicated. Sydney and Jackie stood next to the doorway that led into the foyer, talking.

“What about her?” Carmen asked.