by Melissa Good
Kerry exhaled slowly, trying to hide the relief making her knees shiver.
“Thanks, I was a little nervous after that screw-up I did in Phoenix.”
Dar leaned on the desk. “It’s all right. At least you screwed up on the 102 Melissa Good conservative side. Much as I hate to pay for bandwidth we don’t use, not having enough is a much bigger bitch for me to deal with.”
Whew. Kerry hesitated, then looked up at Dar. “I just don’t want to disappoint you, that’s all.”
Dar’s expression gentled. “No chance.” She cleared her throat. “Listen, I’ve got an appointment this afternoon, so I’m taking off. “
“Anything you need me to cover for you on?”
Dar exhaled and reached up to rub the back of her neck. “The Asia office might call. I’ve been arguing with them all week about getting new mainframes in there. See if you can reason with them.”
She looks tired, Kerry realized. “Okay. Oh, listen…um, who can I talk to here about a bank transfer problem?” she asked. “It’s mine. I mean, I think my EFT got messed up.”
Dar stood up. “Why? Didn’t it show up?” Her brow creased in concern as she regarded Kerry. “That’s not very damn funny if it’s true.”
“N-no. It did, last night, but it was…I think maybe because I transitioned, it got sent twice. Is that possible?”
Dar’s expression turned impish, just for an instant. “It’s possible,” she agreed. “But it’s far more likely you actually got paid what you were worth this time.” She headed for the door, pausing as she opened it and turned. “The position,” she indicated Kerry’s office, “came with a raise. Sorry I forgot to mention it.”
Kerry stared at the door until it closed. “Son of a gun!” she finally sputtered after a moment’s silence. “Dar, you…” She exhaled, feeling a surge of relief and surprise and something she wasn’t quite sure she could identify flood through her. “You’re something else.” Something else.
She clicked on her menu and went into the personnel program, typing in her codes and bringing up her own records. She propped her chin on her fist as she looked at the screen, not quite knowing whether to be proud or apprehensive at the amount showing.
Am I worth it? “Dar seems to think so.” She closed the program and leaned back. “I think I’m going nerd-shopping tonight. I’m tired of that old desktop.” With a slight laugh that lengthened into a more joyous one, she turned back to her project list and called up the next one, smiling all the while.
DAR HAD LONG ago decided that everyone just naturally hated going to the doctor’s office. She knew she wasn’t alone in that, and she suspected it had more to do with the loss of personal dignity than anything else. She closed her eyes and tried to call up some patience, while she sat in the examining room in a gown half the size of a cocktail napkin.
The door pushed open and Dr. Steve came in. He was an older man in his sixties, with a kindly, sweet face. “Well, well. Look who we have here.”
Dar sighed. “Hi, Dr. Steve.” She managed to keep a wry grin off her face.
The older man had been her family doctor for years and still treated her as though she were a gawky adolescent.
He assumed his stethoscope and laid it on her back, then moved around to her chest, listening with that annoyingly omniscient manner developed by Tropical Storm 103
most doctors. “Breathe.”
She obediently did so, flexing her arm a little against the pain from three bouts of blood-drawing.
“Okay, lie down.” Dr. Steve proceeded to gently examine her, his fingers steady and professional as they poked and prodded. “You’ve got a bruise here.”
“Just from the gym,” Dar said, untruthfully.
“This too?” He picked up her right hand and examined the faded bruises along the knuckles. “You’re not going back to your scary younger days are you, chipmunk?”
Dar chuckled wryly. “I’m long past that, and you know it.”
“Mmm.” The older man felt up along her neck carefully, rolling her head to one side and then to the other. “Pretty stiff.”
“Part of the problem, I think,” Dar acknowledged ruefully. “That’s where the pain usually starts.”
“Uh huh. How’ve you been sleeping?”
A shrug. “All right. About the same as always.”
“So still doing the four or five a night, huh?” Dr. Steve remarked dryly.
“You’d do yourself a favor if you’d sneak in an extra hour or two.”
Dar exhaled. “I tried. I just can’t fall asleep. And if I do, I wake up early.”
The older man leaned on his hands and studied her. “No, you never could. Your daddy was the same way.” He sighed. “How are you feeling otherwise?” He put his stethoscope against her chest and listened. “Any flutters? You feeling out of breath anytime?”
Dar thought about that. “Not that I noticed,” she replied slowly. “When the pain’s really bad, I’m more conscious of my heartbeat, feels like it’s causing the throbbing.”
“That’s natural,” Dr. Steve told her. “Sit up.”
She did so, reaching up and running a hand through her hair. “So, what’s the story? Am I dying?” The comment about her heart made her a touch nervous, and it showed. Her mouth went dry, and she swallowed uncomfortably as she waited for him to answer.
The doctor rolled his eyes. “If you are, you’re the healthiest dying person I’ve ever examined.” He leaned back against the wall in the small room. “Your blood work’s a mess, Dar. Your white cell count is down, every stress indicator we know of is up, and I’m a little worried about some of the things I see with your pressure. I scheduled you over to Miami Heart for a stress test.
No, don’t argue with me, all right? Humor me, I’m an old man, Dar. I really think you need it.”
Dar let her head drop and exhaled. “I don’t have time for that.”
He gently reached over and tipped her chin up to face him. “You don’t have time not to do it, sweetheart. Come on, they’re not busy today. It’ll take an hour, and then you can tell me you told me so, okay?”
“An hour, huh?” She hesitated, then surrendered. “All right, but I think you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“Uh huh, and you got your medical degree where?” the older man inquired pointedly. “Of course, we could dispense with all this if you’d just take my advice and take a week off, go bum around in the Keys or out on the 104 Melissa Good boat somewhere.”
A crafty look entered the pale blue eyes. “Oh, so all I have to do is agree to go on vacation, and I don’t have to go over to the Institute?”
Dr. Steve wagged a finger at her. “Oh no, you tricky little girl you. I know you, you’ll agree, then you won’t go for two years.” His voice gentled. “Dar, please. I hate to see you doing this to yourself.” He cocked his head. “It’s not going to get better, honey. It’s just going to get worse, unless you start taking it easier.”
Dar was silent for a bit, then she finally nodded. “All right, I get the message. I’ll arrange, somehow, to take a few days off.” She paused.
“Meantime, can you give me something for the damn headaches? I’ve been taking over the counter, but…”
The older man nodded. “You go to the Institute, I’ll give you a scrip for a combination painkiller and muscle relaxant. That should help. Deal?”
Dar hesitated, then capitulated. “Deal. Look, I know I feel lousy. Hey, I even got myself an assistant. How do you like that?”
“Did you?” Dr. Steve glanced up with a surprised smile. “You found someone who could put up with you? Virgin Mary, it’s a miracle.” He laughed at the look on her face. “He must be a saint.”
A dark brow lifted. “She.” Dar felt her face creasing into an unexpected smile.
His own grizzled eyebrow edged up. “Ah. I see.” He patted her knee gently. “You’ll have to introduce me to this modern day Job-ette sometime.”
Dar snorted. “C’mon, I’m not that bad.
Kerry deals with me just fine.
She’s a nice kid.” Another smile.
Dr. Steve leaned back and regarded her wisely. “If she makes you smile like that, she must be nice,” he teased, watching a faint blush color her skin.
“Now I really want to meet her.”
“I’d better get dressed and get outta here if I have to go across town. “
Dar ignored the prodding. “I’ve still got stuff to do back at the office.” She hopped off the table, grabbed her clothes and the prescription the doctor held out. “Thanks, Dr. Steve.”
He stood and patted her arm. “Good seeing you, my friend. I’ll call you when I get the results of the stress test, okay?”
“Right.” Dar sighed resignedly. “On my way.”
“HELLO, MARIA.” KERRY slipped in the door and gave the older woman a smile.
The secretary looked up from her task. “Ay, chica, come in here.” She waved Kerry in and patted the chair next to her desk. “What have you been doing? I heard two people in the lunchroom saying very lovely things about you.”
Kerry obligingly dropped into the chair. It had taken a day or two of them gingerly feeling each other out, but she felt that Maria and she had decided to like each other. Apparently Maria had felt Dar needed some help for quite some time, but she resented the usual parade of applicants, who tended to treat the secretary as...well, like a secretary. Kerry had taken her cue Tropical Storm 105
from Dar and accorded Maria a high degree of respect, deferring to her whenever possible. “Oh, this and that. Trying to get some of my work list done, you know.” She smiled. “Anything hot you need taking care of with the boss out of the office?”
Maria rolled her eyes. “When is there never hot things? You might could take a look at this.” She handed Kerry a folder. “Customer Service sent over and put it right on my desk.”
“Okay.” Kerry took it, then she glanced around. “Is Dar coming back today?”
Maria looked around as well, though they were both quite alone. “Si, she’s supposed to, but she’s at the doctor’s.”
Green eyes widened. “Just a check-up, or…”
The secretary hesitated, torn between her knowledge of Dar’s intensely private nature and her need to share her concerns. “It’s the headaches. She gets them so bad, she went to have them check her out,” she finally said. “But, shhh, she doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“Yeah, I noticed she takes a lot of aspirin, but her job’s enough to give a rock a headache.”
“Ay.” Maria sighed. “Is good you help her out. It’s terrible the way they expect so much of her.”
They both jumped a little as the door opened and Dar slid inside, giving them both a look of mild surprise. “Afternoon,” she muttered as she walked through the outer office and pushed her own door open. “Anything going on?” Kerry and Maria exchanged apprehensive glances. Dar’s demeanor was quiet and grim, and her blue eyes lacked their customary sparkle. Kerry stood up and held up the file. “Just some stuff from customer service. I was going to take care of it.”
Dar regarded her for a moment, wrestling with her conscience, then gave her assistant a nod. “Good.” She turned and went into her office, putting her briefcase down and dropping into her chair. Instead of glancing at her monitor, though, she turned her seat and gazed out of the window, watching the slow drift of clouds across horizon in the east.
A soft knock made her look around. “Yeah?” The door edged open, and Kerry poked her blonde head in. Dar exhaled and lifted a hand, motioning her in. No sense in taking out my nerves on the kid, right? “C’mere.”
Kerry obeyed, moving across the carpet and settling in the chair across from Dar’s desk, the folder clasped in both hands. She looked uncharacteristically nervous. She took a breath. “Everything okay?”
Dar spared her a wry smile. “Does everyone in the building know where I went?”
“No, just us, I guess.” Kerry obviously meant herself and Maria. “Don’t be mad at Maria for telling me, she’s just worried about you.”
Caught between annoyance and embarrassment, Dar compromised by rolling her eyes.
“Please forget I asked,” Kerry stated hastily. “Next topic. I think the whole Tucson thing is going to work out. Infrastructure was able to complete the T3 circuit on time, now they’re just waiting for the installers to get there.”
106 Melissa Good
“That’s good. I was afraid they’d screwed that one up past redemption.
Did you sit on them until they finished it?”
“Well, not exactly. I just kind of talked to the client and got some concessions from his building management to make it easier for them to finish,” Kerry explained quietly.
“Good work.” Dar hesitated. “Kerry?” Green eyes lifted and met hers.
“I’m fine, thank you for asking.”
Kerry blinked. “I know you don’t like people getting into your personal business,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to intrude or anything. I’m glad everything’s all right.”
Dar felt a quiet regret at the woman’s apology. “I…I don’t mind, not if it’s Maria, or if it’s you. I just don’t like the entire company involved.” She gave Kerry a brief smile. “You’d be surprised at what passes for juicy gossip around here.”
“That’s not something to gossip about.” Kerry frowned. “That’s rotten.”
That got her another brief grin. “I can’t say I don’t agree, and I’m not one for idle chatter myself, but it’s a fact of life here.” Dar leaned back in her chair.
Kerry pressed her lips together and nodded. “I understand.” She looked up, studying Dar’s half shadowed face. “Anyway, I’m glad things are okay.”
There was the faintest hint of a question in her tone.
Dar leaned forward and rested her arms on her desk. “Mostly,” she admitted, “I basically got told I should take a vacation and not work so hard.”
She shrugged. “Like always. I got some drugs for the headaches, and that was it.”
Kerry absorbed the revelation. “So, when was the last time you took a vacation?” She asked curiously. “I know mine was a while ago, so much stuff was going on. I went over to Marco Island for a few days.” It had been a fun excursion; she and a few of the folks from Associated had rented a small cabin on the west coast of Florida, and spent some time looking for shells, and bumming around on the beach.
Dar concentrated. “Um, I think mine was…skiing in Colorado,” she recalled. “About a week. I ended up meeting most of the trees in Aspen up close and personal.” She chuckled softly. “I finally got the hang of it on the last day, but I haven’t been back since.”
“That sounds like fun. I’ve been skiing a bunch of times. I’m not that good at it, though,” Kerry confessed with a smile. “I ran into a rabbit my last time, and went head over heels. Ended up with a broken wrist.”
“Ouch.” Dar laughed.
“So, are you going to take the doctor’s advice? Take a vacation, I mean?”
Dar looked up. “You trying to get rid of me?” Her tone was light, but wary.
“No,” Kerry answered very seriously. “I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to get a machine gun mounted on my desk in time.” She held up her hands. “Rattataataa.”
Dar couldn’t help it. She burst into laughter again, leaning back and feeling her whole body relax from the day’s tension. “And here I thought you were the peaceful sort,” she teased as she rested her elbows on her chair arms, then Tropical Storm 107
leaned her chin against her interlaced fingers. “Machine Gun Stuart, huh?”
Kerry grinned at her. “I was trap shooting champion during high school,”
she admitted. “Loved nailing those clay ducks.”
Surprised once again by the many facets she was discovering in Kerry, Dar asked, “Really?”
“Yeah.” Her assistant nodded. “Trap and debating. Bad mix, really.”
Dar chuckled at the i
mage. An idea burst into her mind, and she started talking before she really thought about what she was doing. “Listen, I’ve got to go to the South Miami office for a quick meeting. I think you should come along, so I can introduce you to the guys down there.”
“Okay,” Kerry agreed amiably, somewhat tickled at being able to make Dar laugh. “Sounds good to me, and it’s on my way home, practically, anyway.”
“Hey, we could try that Thai restaurant after the meeting. It’s right by there. I didn’t get any lunch, so…” Dar felt a little awkward but relaxed when she saw Kerry’s eyes light up. “Haven’t had that in a long time.”
“Sure,” The younger woman agreed enthusiastically. “I’ve been waiting for a chance to try it. None of my friends like Thai, so it was wait around for someone who does, or go by myself.” She made a face. “I hate doing that.”
Dar glanced at her hands. “I’ve gotten used to it over the years,” she commented lightly. “But I know what you mean.” She stood up. “Well, then, let’s get going. That meeting’s set for five o’clock.”
“I’ll get my things and meet you at the elevator,” Kerry agreed, and trotted out.
The room seems so much more empty without her in it, Dar mused. She hardly knew why she’d brought up the restaurant, other than the fact that she was hungry now, and… And.
Dar chewed her lip. “And you like spending time with the kid,” she told herself wryly. “Come on, just admit it. She’s got a fresh perspective, a whole lot different from yours, and for some crazy reason, she likes you.” A soft sigh. “Damned if I know why, either.” She sat pondering that for a moment more, then gathered her things and headed out.
“SO, HER SECRETARY goes in and gets the cup, then washes it out with vinegar!” Kerry picked up a stuffed shrimp, and took a bite. “Wow, that’s great... Where was I? Oh, I’m standing there, getting coffee, and I just looked at her.”
“Mmm.” Dar nibbled on her own shrimp and listened, getting a kick out of the stories of things she certainly never saw. “Vinegar, huh? That explains a lot about Vi.”
