His Corporate Claim

by J. D. Fox

  I shook my head.

  “No, all suspects are in custody. Open the door so I can talk to you, please.”

  She shook her head furiously.

  “Leave me alone, Sam. I’m going home to Denver and I have a lot to do.”

  “Like what?”

  “Find a new damn job.”

  I nodded. “I think I might know of one.”

  “What?”

  “Open the door and I’ll tell you.”

  She huffed and pushed open the back door, but sat solidly in the middle of the seat with her arms crossed.

  “What job?”

  “I know someone who needs a new Sales Director. The old one just got promoted.”

  “And where is this magical job?”

  “I think you know them. Palmer Media.”

  “What? Did your bastard father fire Lucius?”

  “No. He gave him a promotion, and is leaving me in charge for the interim. And I figure since Palmer Corp has a policy of hiring from within—”

  “Hah!” snorted Talia.

  “And an obvious nepotism policy, I thought I’d ask my fiancée.”

  I dropped to one knee, thought the relentless Colorado sun baked the concrete to the heat of a furnace, and pulled out the ring.

  “Talia Winton, I’ve never met a woman that challenges me as much as you, or makes me want to— you know, and I can’t imagine anyone else being my wife. Marry me, please.”

  Her eyes went wide.

  “You’re insane! I’ve known you all of five days, and you want me to marry you?”

  “What am I supposed to do? Let you drive off into the sunset?”

  “Don’t be stupid, Sam. I’m going east, not west. Sunset is in the opposite direction.”

  “We could go west and hit Vegas.” I smiled at her hopefully and she scowled.

  She scoffed. “Now I know you’re crazy. No, Sam Palmer, I will not marry you in Vegas.”

  “Does this mean you’ll marry me?”

  She shook her head. “There is a lot to consider. Besides, is that Lucius’s ring you’re trying to give me?”

  “Just for now. I’ll buy you a new one.”

  “Humph,” she said. “I don’t know. This all seems rushed.” She fell silent, and I kept quiet because if I spoke next, I’d lose. I am a sales director, after all.

  “Tell you what, I’ll take that ring.”

  “You will?”

  “As a promise ring, meaning that in a year, I promise to give you my answer.”

  “A year? That’s a helluva rock for a promise ring”

  “Well, it is secondhand. But that’s my final offer. Take it or leave it.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Talia

  One year later...

  “Sam coming back today?” Eva asked.

  I nodded as I picked up the sales packets I’d collated for the big presentation I’d give in an hour. We had the opportunity to take on the social media of a large newspaper chain, and while people claim that “print is dead,” there’s life in the old gal yet. Print revenues are still robust and, with some tweaking, we can help them shore up their reach. Besides, people still like physical coupons over electronic ones. Those shoppers that carry coupons can get mailed in a total market reach to people’s houses. They were profitable and owned mostly by newspapers. It was just a matter of getting people to open them instead of chucking them, and with the new social media campaign, we could do just that.

  We’d get a chunk of print media AND electronic media, and you couldn’t beat that.

  “But what are you going to tell him?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t want to force him into anything.”

  “Talia,” she scoffed, “that man loves you.”

  My phone rang, and I held up a finger out to Eva to silence her before I picked it up.

  “Talia Winton,” I said.

  “Talia,” said my mom, “will you be home for dinner tonight?”

  Mom had improved so much that she’d moved in with me while she continued her recovery. Never a woman to sit down, she’d taken on some of the housework with the help of a housecleaner once a week and all the cooking, and was walking and talking very well. I was so proud of the progress she’d made, but we both knew it was a matter of time before she moved into a senior community. We’d already picked one out and were waiting for a vacancy to move her in. She tells me that while she loves me, she doesn’t want her daughter watching over her shoulder twenty-four seven.

  I didn’t blame her. I am a mother hen, as Sam tells me.

  “No, Mom. Sam’s coming in and taking me out to dinner.”

  “It’s one year,” yelled Eva so my mom can hear.

  “Oh, of course. Big night. What will you tell him, sweetie?”

  “You know we haven’t talked about it much lately.”

  “He’s been busy with work,” she said, “and going back and forth to Boston.”

  “Yes, I know,” I said. My voice trailed. It did seem like Sam wasn’t as interested lately. He may have forgotten, or chosen to let go of the deal we made. We’d both been so busy with work that a year had gone by before I knew it. Our work has consumed us a little bit, and with as much as he travels for the company, we haven’t been able to spend much time together. If it wasn’t for Eva, I wouldn’t have remembered myself.

  I looked at the ring that Lucius had bought and Sam gave me. He hadn’t replaced it like he said he would, and I wondered about that. So I wore the “promise ring,” though I questioned if my promise ring meant anything lately.

  “Well, I’ll let you get back to work. I just wanted to make sure.”

  “I’ll be by after work, Ms. Winton, for dinner. Operation Dinner In is a go,” yelled Eva again.

  “Do you want to talk to my mother?” I held out the phone.

  “No. She got the message.”

  “Yes, I got the message, dear. See you later, then. Fingers crossed for you.”

  When I hung up, a knock on the glass door of my -formerly Sam’s- office, made me turn my head toward it. “Um, Talia?” said Richard. We’d hired him to replace Jessica. “I need to speak to Eva for a minute.” He was tall, dark and handsome, and I noticed that Eva blushed more than usual around him.

  “Sure. Back to work, woman,” I said with mock severity.

  “You never let me have any fun.”

  “Creative Directors aren’t supposed to have fun. Now go, before I chain you to your desk.”

  “Slave driver.” She turned her attention to Richard, and he smiled covertly at Eva’s and my exchange. As she turned I saw her smirk and I wondered what evil plans she had for Richard.

  Eva was a great creative director, and the sales managers often came to her for ideas about different ads, so I wasn’t surprised that Richard had sought her out.

  The sales meeting with the newspaper went great, and aside from throwing questions at me about cost, the publisher, sales manager, and the circulation director all lapped up my proposal. Until I got a question that was meant to throw me off.

  The newspaper publisher looked at his phone and then at me.

  “What’s to stop us from implementing this in-house?”

  I smiled because I was prepared, though I knew that the whole account rested on answering this without offending the clients.

  “If you could have, you would have. But expertise in social media doesn’t come overnight. We have a whole sales area devoted to online sales and people who have college degrees in the nuances of social media. As you know, online sales is a pay-per-click metric while your company and your sales managers are used to the “we only have the whole cake to sell you,” proposition. It is a different mind and skill set, and we’ll save you costly mistakes. I’m sure that as you work with us, your people will come up to speed.”

  The circulation director smiled. “I told you that, Mr. Durst.”

  “Yes, you did,” growled the publisher. “Fine, we’ll give you our answer next week
. I’m meeting with the board then and I’ll float these ideas to them.”

  “That’s fine,” I said. “I work closely with our board of directors myself, and I know how it is. How about I give you a call, say... in a week?”

  The publisher and the other two men stood. “Make that ten days. I want to make sure we have the funding arranged. I understand you folks are very tight with your billings.”

  “That we are, Mr. Durst. It’s a different world than it used to be.”

  “So my managers tell me. It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Winton.”

  We shook hands and the three men left. Richard, who’d sat in on the meeting, raised his eyebrows.

  “You were inches from insulting him.”

  I shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it?”

  “We’ll see in ten days.”

  The phone in the conference room phone rang, and since I was closest I answered.

  “Talia,” said our new receptionist, “there is someone here to see you.”

  “Send him up,” I said.

  “No, I think you should come down.”

  I sucked on my lower lip and left the room. Looking over the railing that Lucius used to stand at to survey his workroom, I saw a police officer in uniform. From there, I saw that he was a country sheriff. What the hell?

  I approached the man.

  “Hello, I’m Talia Winton.”

  “Good. Ms. Winton, I have a warrant for your arrest.”

  My heart stuttered. What was this about?

  “For what?”

  “There was a certain incident last year.”

  “But that’s all cleared up.”

  “Apparently not, ma’am. Hold out your hands behind you and I’ll make this as easy as possible.”

  “But... but—”

  “Please don’t resist, Ms. Winton. That’s a separate charge.”

  I looked around panicked and Eva walked up to us.

  “What’s going on?” said Eva.

  “I have a warrant for Ms. Winton’s arrest.”

  “Can I see it?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Eva took the piece of paper and folded and handed it back to the sheriff.

  “It looks all in order.”

  What? This couldn’t be. And why was my former best friend telling him it was okay to take me away in handcuffs?

  “But this is a mistake.” I looked around the room, mortified for my employees to see me bound and hauled off like a criminal.

  “Just go with him,” said Eva, “and I’ll call Sam. I’m sure this is some sort of mistake. Don’t worry, it going to be okay. ”

  I’m furious, but I allow the sheriff to take me to his patrol car and he loaded me in. Instead of keeping my hands behind me though, he unlocked one cuff and hooked it to the door.

  “Are we driving all the way to Aspen?”

  “I’m afraid so. Get comfortable.”

  There was no way I would get comfortable. I was pissed and I suddenly realized why Sam had been so standoffish lately. Somehow, somewhere, this old nonsense had gotten stirred up again, and he’d had to put distance between me and him for the company’s sake.

  We arrived in Aspen at around four o’clock, and while the sun was still bright it was a little lower in the sky. But instead of pulling up to the jail, he stopped in front of the hotel the Palmers owned.

  “What is going on?” I said. “Why are we here?”

  “Just come along, Ms. Winton,” said the sheriff.

  I had no choice but to follow the officer. But when I walked into the lobby and saw the huge banner hung behind the front desk, I figured out what was going on. I smelled a rat, and this time, it wasn’t Lucius Palmer.

  “Aspen’s Charity Jail and Bail to benefit…”

  I didn’t look to see who it benefited, because I spotted Ezekiel Palmer walking toward me. He wore a tuxedo, so he must be hosting this event.

  “Mr. Palmer? Why am I here?”

  “When will you learn to call me Ezekiel? There, Roger, uncuff her now. I’ve already paid her bail.”

  “What is going on, Ezekiel?”

  “Yes, when the event organizers asked me what you were worth, I said you were priceless, but we settled on a bail of $20,000.”

  “But why?”

  “Come with me to our event room. I want you to meet some people. After all, the new Managing Director of Palmer Media needs to rub a few more elbows than you have in the past.”

  “Are you giving me a promotion? What about Sam?”

  “I have other plans for Sam. Besides, we always knew he wouldn’t stay with Palmer Media forever. Come on, I can tell you could use a drink.”

  My heart sank. His father was dragging him back to Boston, and Sam was leaving me here in Denver. This promotion was just his way of easing the pain.

  I followed with a heavy heart, but instead of entering the ballroom splayed with the jail and bail sign, we walked past it.

  “Where are we going?”

  Ezekiel knocked on another ballroom door.

  “I want you to know that this is not all my fault. Everyone here had a hand in planning it.”

  “What?”

  The door opened and Ezekiel led me inside. I looked around. All the employees from Palmer Media were here, along with Eva, and my mother, and Rose and Lily. The room was decked out for a wedding just as it had been described a year ago by the hotel’s wedding planner. White and gilt chairs were lined up for guests to sit, and erected at the head of the room was a white arch decorated with hydrangeas. Lucius stood there dressed in a tuxedo looking very nervous. He smiled at me.

  “What the hell is going on?” I said.

  Ezekiel spoke. “It takes forty minutes by air to fly from Denver, Talia, and we paid all the airfares. But you can see why we had you drive. We needed the time to get everyone ready.”

  Eva came up to me dressed in a bridesmaid’s dress and holding a bouquet.

  “What do you think?”

  “I... um, I—”

  “She’s speechless,” said a familiar voice behind me.

  I spun around to see Sam, dressed in a tuxedo too. He was gorgeous and I was caught between anger and love.

  “What?” I sputtered.

  “It’s one year. You said you’d give me your answer. And I didn’t want to wait any longer, so we set this up.”

  “You expect to marry me? Tonight?”

  He smiled. “The staff felt cheated when the wedding didn’t come off last year, so we promised them this year. They’ve outdone themselves, haven’t they?”

  “Yes... but Sam, don’t you think you should have asked me? ”

  Sam looked at the people in the room.

  “What do you think? Should I ask her?”

  “Hell, yes,” said Lucius. “I don’t want to stand here too long. Someone might get the idea that I want to get married.”

  Everyone in the room laughed and Sam smiled.

  “Okay.” Sam dropped to one knee and pulled out a blue velvet box and opened it. Inside was the most gorgeous diamond wedding ring set I’d ever seen.

  “Talia Winton, you’ve made me wait for you to be my wife, which I might forgive, but only if you say yes and marry me tonight.”

  “That’s one hell of a proposal. And if I won’t?”

  He stood and pulled me into his arms. And all that was Sam, his strength and his love for me, was in that embrace.

  “You will.”

  “Oh, will I?” I said.

  “Sure,” he said. “Because I love you for real, now and forever, and if two people ever belonged together, it’s you and me. Say yes, Talia, so we can start our lives together as husband and wife.”

  What else could I say?

  “Yes.”

  The End

 

 

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