by Louise Clark
Chloe sighed. “I’m not trying to embarrass you, Faith, but I’m going into a war zone. I might not come back.”
“Mom! We’ve been over that. Washington was safe. It was never invaded. Nothing is going to happen to you.”
They reached The Sandwich Hut. Chloe took hold of the door and pulled. “I have to be realistic, sweetheart. We don’t know what my future is. You may be right. In fact, you probably are. But I want to make sure that my daughters are okay. That they have happy lives. Liz will graduate soon, but she has to build a career before she thinks of having a family. You, on the other hand, have a settled path. It’s time for you to start looking back at all those boys who like to look at you.”
“What will you have ladies?” asked Jake, the bald, pot-bellied owner of The Sandwich Hut. There was a twinkle in his eyes as he stood behind the counter, waiting to take their order. Evidently he’d heard part of Chloe’s ‘mom’ lecture.
“I’ll have the Southwestern Chicken Wrap,” Chloe said, “with lots of extra hot peppers.” She added cheerfully, “I don’t think they’ll do hot and spicy where I’m going, so I’m stocking up on flavor before I head out.”
“And where would that be?” Jake asked in a friendly way as he assembled the sandwich.
“Washington—”
“Hey Jake! I’ll have a big bowl of your broccoli and cheese soup.”
“Broccoli and cheese soup. Sounds good. I’ll have some too since I’m not sure how scarce food will be.”
Faith could have groaned, but Jake apparently hadn’t paid enough attention to Chloe’s conversation to think further comment was necessary. Or maybe he was too polite to say that Chloe sounded like a woman way out in left field, because there was no scarcity of food in either Washington DC or Washington State.
“Okay, ladies. Find yourselves a table.” He grinned, apparently deciding his comment was a witticism since only two tables were occupied and there was plenty of free space. “I’ll bring your meals when they’re ready.”
Faith led them to a table in a corner where she positioned herself so she could sit with her back to the wall and watch the rest of the room, not to mention the doorway.
“I want to see you happy,” Chloe continued, refusing to be diverted. “You are twenty-six years old. You’re settled in your job. You need to open yourself up to new experiences in your personal life.”
Jake emerged from behind his counter, carrying a tray. Faith watched him head their way. “Yeah, okay, Mom. I get the point.”
Chloe rolled on, as unstoppable as an avalanche. “You need to let nice young men like that good-looking systems expert get to know you.”
Jake hovered just behind Chloe’s shoulder. “Ah…Mom—”
“To unwrap your package…” Jake plunked the tray on the table. Chloe blanched and for the first time hesitated. “…so to speak.”
Jake’s lips twitched, then he winked. “Enjoy.”
After that Chloe dropped the subject, much to Faith’s relief. They were just finishing up when the door opened and Ava Taylor breezed inside.
“A ham sandwich to go, Jake, and make it quick. I’ve got a conference call in fifteen minutes and I need something to eat fast.” As Jake worked on the sandwich, Ava looked around restlessly.
Faith was able to pinpoint the moment Ava noticed her. She was an attractive woman who dressed impeccably whatever the occasion and she looked a lot more approachable than she was. The impatient expression on her round, sweet-featured face tightened with curiosity that was quickly covered by her usual polite social mask. She strode across the room. “Faith! Hello. Who is this?” She scrutinized Chloe, then smiled. The expression lit up her face in an appealing way. Her eyes remained cool and assessing. “A family member, I’ll bet.” She tapped her cheek. “Let me see. Your mother. Am I right?”
Chloe held out her hand. “Quite right. I’m Chloe Hamilton.”
“The history professor.” Ava shook her hand. “I’ve heard of you.”
“You have the better of me, then, I’m afraid.”
“This is Ava Taylor, Mom, our new COO,” Faith said.
Chloe retrieved her hand. “Of course. Faith has mentioned you.”
Ava shot Faith a look that was hard to interpret. “Has she? I must say, Mrs. Hamilton, Faith is wonderful to work with. She manages the office beautifully—”
“She should.” Chloe pushed her plate aside and threw her crumpled napkin on top of it. “My daughter has an MBA from Harvard. She is more than capable of doing any management job she chooses.”
Ava’s eyes narrowed and for an instant her features hardened dangerously, then she was smiling again so that Faith wondered if she’d misinterpreted the fleeting expression. “I depend on Faith. It’s because she is so effective in handling the day-to-day that I’m able to be more involved in marketing and sales, which is what I’m most interested in. Ah, there’s Jake with my sandwich. I’ve got to run. Faith, I’ll talk to you later. Mrs. Hamilton, nice to meet you!”
The door closed behind her with a soft thump. Chloe pushed back her chair as Faith finished the last of her ice tea. “What’s Ava like to work for?”
Faith tossed her napkin on her plate as she prepared to leave. “She’s okay. Why?”
Outside they saw Ava’s hurrying form disappear into the building that housed the NIT offices. “I’m not sure,” Chloe said slowly. “She just makes me think it would be a good idea for you to watch your back.”
That was advice that was easy to accept. “I already do, Mom.”
Chloe was parked on the street, halfway between The Sandwich Hut and the NIT building. When they reached her car she wrapped Faith in a big bear hug. “I’ll see you in a couple of weeks, sweetheart. Wish me luck!”
Faith hugged back. There was no point in suggesting Chloe shouldn’t go. When she was set on her path, nothing would stop her. “I love you, Mom.”
“Oh, I love you too, sweetheart. I’ll miss you!” She kissed Faith, then opened the car door. “Now remember—be more open! I’ve got to go!”
Chapter 4
Faith studied the spreadsheet on her computer screen. There was a discrepancy here, she was sure of it. She hadn’t found it yet, but she would. Part of her job was to check the expenses of the various NIT projects, ensuring the budget for each was followed. She also chased down suppliers, kept track of the staff and performed a myriad of other duties. Pretty much anything that had to be fixed went to Faith. And today that meant figuring out why a major project was two hundred thousand over budget at such an early point in its existence.
The variety in her job was what she loved best about it. That and the authority she’d been given when she started and the respect she’d earned since being hired straight out of college by the company founder, Ralph Warren.
She had graduated with high marks, but little experience, a lot of enthusiasm and an enormous desire to contribute. On her first day Ralph had met her enthusiasm with a whole mountain of his own, told her she needed to create a filing system and asked her to hire an accounting clerk who could also be the receptionist. As an afterthought he asked her to okay a salary range for the new hire with him before she made an offer.
In those early days there were no job descriptions at NIT and damn little structure. Everyone did what had to be done for the company to survive. Salary was a combination of a monthly paycheck, annual bonus and, when things were really tight, shares in the company in lieu of hard cash. In those days you had to believe in NIT to stick around.
Faith stuck. So did the woman she had hired in that first week. June McGuire was now more of Faith’s assistant than a clerk-receptionist, but she still kept an eye on staff comings and goings.
Faith tapped the desk with the tip of one finger. She still hadn’t found out how the project was so far off target. Budget estimates were what NIT used to create a project bid. If they won the contract they were expected to stick to their bid totals, unless the customer requested significant changes.
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br /> Maybe that was it. Maybe there were new requirements that were more costly. She contemplated the staff telephone list pinned to her bulletin board. Who was the project manager again? Oh, yeah, it was—
There was a tap on her door. Pulled from her reverie she looked up to see June hovering in her doorway. Perfect. “June! What do you know about the ArcPAC job?”
June slid through the door. Standing with her hand on the handle, she said, “They’re on time and over budget. Herb thinks they can make up the budget difference in the second leg of the project.”
“Two hundred thousand, June. That’s a lot over budget.”
June glanced out into the general office, then deliberately closed the door. “Herb says that his estimates were rounded down before the bid was submitted.”
That explained why June had shut the door. When NIT was preparing a bid, project managers created an action paper that included project strategies and outcomes, as well as a detailed budget. The executive committee, consisting of Ralph, the Chief Financial Officer, the Director of Sales, and Ava as the COO, then reviewed and sometimes revised the action paper.
Evidently a mistake had been made in the ArcPAC project during the review process. That June felt she had to close the door to mention it spoke volumes about the way NIT was evolving as a company.
“Okay, we’ll keep an eye on it. If the project continues to be over budget I’ll have to talk to Ava or Ralph.”
June nodded. “Faith, have you got a moment?”
Faith sat back. June leaned against the door, her hands behind her, evidently still holding the handle. “Of course I do.” Faith pointed to a chair. “What’s up?”
June left the door and began to pace. “It’s Angela. Her computer went down this morning just after we got in…
Faith nodded. “I called Cody Simpson to ask him to check it out.”
“I know. The thing is, he hasn’t come yet and Angela has filed her nails, gone on a long, long coffee break, called her mother, and her boyfriend, and her best friend, and who knows who else, and now she’s playing computer chess on her cell phone.” June’s hands clenched into fists that she punched, one against the other. “So far she’s had four opponents and she’s beaten each of them. It’s bad enough that she’s playing games during office hours, but she’s also wasting our time bragging about how quickly she won the games. Now she’s even got a couple of the girls watching over her shoulder.”
“Wow,” Faith said. “It’s only eleven o’clock. Angela sure gets a lot done when she’s not working.”
June stopped her pacing. She stared at Faith for a moment, then uttered a choked bark of laughter. Faith grinned at her.
June sank down into the chair. “I called Cody Simpson three times,” she said, with a sigh. “His voicemail was on.”
“Ava doesn’t want us doing anything to fix the computers,” Faith said, tapping her desk with a pen. “She says it’s Cody’s job and it’s not efficient for us to do it ourselves.”
June snorted. “How efficient is it for Angela to be filing her nails?”
Faith dropped the pen as she threw up her hands. “Not efficient at all. But I suspect there’s more to this than fixing computers. I think Ava’s making a point, establishing her authority, all that kind of stuff. So we’re stuck with this regulation. Sue is gone for six weeks. We can cope for that long. Let’s figure out a strategy to make this work.”
June thought about it. “My frustration is the result of watching Angela goof off when there’s a lot of other stuff she could be doing.”
“Right,” Faith said. “And if you’re annoyed about it, so are other people. What we need to do is find things for her to do. Have her file for you, or input data on another terminal.”
“I’ll organize that,” June said, looking brighter.
“Good. The second thing we need to do is to keep on top of the repair issue. Whenever Angela’s machine goes down I want updates on the status.” June nodded. Faith hesitated a moment, then plowed on, “I can’t expect Angela—or anyone else—to spend half their day unable to do their job. Once the repair call is made I’ll give Cody a couple of hours. If he doesn’t respond by then I’ll fix it myself.”
“What about Ava’s ultimatum?”
Faith raised her eyebrows. “What about it?”
By lunchtime Cody still hadn’t arrived and Angela had filed the stack of contracts and contract correspondence June had given her. Faith sent her to lunch and decided to deal with the crisis herself. She waited until she saw Ava head out with Ralph, probably for a business lunch, then she settled at Angela’s terminal and set to work.
She was still there when Angela came back from lunch and, wide-eyed, asked what Faith was doing. Faith ignored the question, instead demanding details on what Angela had been doing when the problem initially occurred. Angela told her, then parked herself on the edge of her desk and chattily told Faith what else she’d done to try and fix the computer before and after she’d called Cody Simpson.
“You’ve been at this for an hour,” June said, from her desk nearby. She indicated the office entryway with a wary nod.
Angela cocked her head in an interested way. “What hour?”
“I gave myself an hour to get this done,” Faith said. She had a sense of falling into a hole, then dug in a little deeper. “I asked June to let me know when my time was up.”
Angela hiked herself further up on the desk, then crossed one leg over the other. Swinging her ankle back and forth, she said, “So it’s a time management thing?”
“You could say that.” Faith glanced at the doorway. Ralph and Ava could return at any time. Although she’d been nonchalant about her decision to flaunt Ava’s rule, she really didn’t want a confrontation with her over it. She could feel sweat beading on her forehead. “Okay. I think I’ve got it. I’m going to switch off your computer. Restart it, Angela, and let me know if everything is okay. If it’s not I’ll have to update Cody Simpson and see if he can suggest any other options.”
Angela hopped off the desk. “Okay.”
Faith stood up and eased away, wanting to run, determined not to.
She’d made it back to her office when June entered. “Angela’s terminal is working fine. Ava came in just after she got it up and running again, so Angela looked busy and efficient.” She grinned and gave Faith a thumbs-up sign. “Good work, boss.”
After she’d disappeared from the doorway, Faith closed her eyes and resisted the urge to curse Cody Simpson to an eternity in a blast furnace.
By Friday evening Faith was stressed over the Cody Simpson situation and needed to decompress. Friday was Andrew’s night to visit and this week Liz had decided to join them, so instead of the lazy night she craved, she was entertaining. Again.
Liz arrived before Uncle Andrew and together they prepared lasagna, one of Andrew’s favorites, and organized a spinach salad. While they worked Liz talked about the summer job she’d secured on a paleontological dig in China, which had recently fallen through. “Funding cut,” she said, her expression drooping gloomily. “Not only would it have been an awesome experience that isn’t going to happen now, but I’m going to have to scramble to find another position.”
“That’s tough.” Liz was a graduate student in evolutionary biology at Harvard, where their mother taught American history. Unlike Faith, who had decided to go into business, Elizabeth was headed for a career as an academic, much to her parents’ satisfaction. Her field was competitive, though, and she needed the on-site experience to get ahead.
Liz spent another minute brooding, then her green, almond-shaped eyes brightened. “Do you remember the paper I told you about last semester?”
Faith nodded as she shoved the lasagna into the oven.
“Well, my professor suggested I submit it to the annual dinosaur conference. I didn’t think that it had a hope of being accepted but today I found out it was picked to be a poster paper! The presentation will be in New York in October.”
> Faith was genuinely pleased for her sister. Though they were competitors by choice, they were sisters by blood and in the end they stuck together. “What fabulous news.”
“It doesn’t make up for the China dig, but it helps.” They settled at the big kitchen table to wait for the lasagna to cook. Liz said, “Okay, enough of my news. Let’s hear what’s up with you.”
Faith didn’t want to ruin the evening by talking about work, but Liz might be hurt if she refused to confide, so she shrugged and said, “I’m having a problem with a guy at work, Cody Simpson.”
“Who’s he? I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned him before.”
“I haven’t. Cody is a mathematician and software engineer. We don’t interact much. Usually I deal with Sue Green if I have any computer problems. But Sue was in a car accident, so now I’m supposed to go to Cody for help.”
“So?”
Faith made a face. “So Cody Simpson is a jerk who is impossible to work with.”
“What makes Cody Simpson so difficult?” Liz asked.
Faith opened the bottle of red wine she’d brought to the table and poured each of them a glass. “He won’t do what I want him to.”
Elizabeth began to laugh. “Is that all? Welcome to the real world, sis.”
Faith bristled. She couldn’t help it. There was far too much snap in her voice when she said, “Cut it out, Lizzy. This has nothing to do with the real world and everything to do with a pampered geek who has never had anyone tell him he can’t!”
Liz did stop laughing, but her eyes were still brimming with amusement as she said, “Wow, this guy really has gotten to you, hasn’t he? Now why would that be?” She tapped her chin, pretending to ponder deeply. “Aha, I’ve got it! You don’t like his glasses!”
