by Melissa Good
“Really?” Colleen goggled at the tall, dark haired woman.
Dar half shrugged. “My reputation gets me in the worst trouble,” she said. “But yeah, I think I’m going to wiggle out of that one. Way too much politics for me.”
“Me too,” Kerry agreed. “Anyway, it’s getting late and we had a late night last night, so...” She looked around at them. “I guess if you’re going to take vacation, send Mari a note. Mayte and Maria, I think if we’re moving as fast as it looks, we might need you as early as a week from Monday. That be okay?”
Both women beamed at her.
“Can we get everything in place by then?” Kerry asked Dar. “I’d like to before we take off on vacation ourselves.”
“I already sent a note to Richard Edgerton,” Dar said. “We’ll see. Everyone give Kerry your personal cell numbers, so we can keep in touch.”
Hands reached for phones as Kerry took out her new gizmo, opening the contact program on it, and they gathered around her holding out back lit devices that outlined all their faces in a gray blue light.
Dar leaned back and watched, feeling the long day creeping up on her despite the coffee. It was good, though, to sense the energy of the people around her, and see the happiness in their faces as they made their plans. She looked over to find Maria sitting next to her, watching her face. “Maria.”
“Dar,” her former admin said. “Thank you so much for this.”
Dar smiled briefly. “Let’s see if I can run a company before you thank me. I could bust out, y’know.”
“I do not think so for one moment,” Maria said, confidently. “It will be a great success.”
“With all the help, maybe so,” Dar said. “I’m sorry, by the way. I was trying to get you an early out.”
Maria reached over and touched her arm. “Mayte told me so,” she said. “And thank you, Dar, but this is better. It is so exciting to be doing something new, you see?”
“I do.”
“Okay, hon, I got everything.” Kerry patted her knee. “Time to get home. My eyelids are sticking.”
They all walked out to the lot in a group, through a Saturday evening crowd.
Mark eyed the Sport Trac as they paused by it. “Hey, is that a new ride?”
“Yeah, we started out this morning getting Dar a new car, and me a new camera,” Kerry said. “And ended up being fired and having dinner with you all. Long day.”
“Nice!” Mark circled the truck. “That’s sweet, Dar. Cooler than that beige battle wagon.”
“In fact,” Kerry opened the passenger door and removed her new camera, “C’mon over and pose. It’s an occasion.”
They gathered in front of the truck and Kerry adjusted the settings, then pressed the shutter. “Got it.” She straightened up. “I think a new future started tonight.” She put the device away as everyone said goodbye, then she slid into the seat and closed the door.
Dar got in and closed hers. They looked at each other, then Dar laughed and shook her head. She started the truck as she watched their former and future colleagues part and go off to their own cars. “Y’know? This is going to be fun.”
“Y’know? It is.” Kerry half turned as Chino poked her head between the seats. “You can have a job too, Chi. We can bring her to the office every day, Dar.”
Dar leaned over and gave the dog a kiss on the head. “We can. There’s a nice big yard in the back of it too. You like that Chi? Not be cooped up in the condo all day?”
“Growf!”
“What’s that old saying, Dar? An ill wind blows nobody good?” Kerry settled into her seat as they started home. “Or do I mean every dark cloud has a silver lining?”
“I think they mean the same thing.” Dar stifled a yawn. “Remind me to send a note to my parents letting them know what’s going on.”
“They’ll be pissed.”
“Nah,” Dar said.”My mother thinks the company’s a crock, and my dad thinks I work too hard.”
“No, I mean they’ll be pissed because you and I were fired,” Kerry clarified. “As in, we were dissed.”
Yeah, that was probably true. Dar got on the causeway and headed for the ferry terminal. It still stung. She was honest enough with herself to admit that. But things were going to be busy enough for her that she hoped that sting would fade, as she left ILS behind and entered this new adventure.
Would she be a good business owner? Dar had to wonder.
“Know what we forgot?” Kerry said, as they pulled into the resident’s lane. “To transfer the sticker from your car.”
The ferry guard came over to them uncertainly, until Dar rolled the window down and stuck her head out. “Oh, Ms. Roberts,” he said. “New car?”
“New truck,” Dar said. “I’ll get a sticker for it tomorrow at the office.”
“No problem.” He leaned on the car and glanced inside. “I’d love one of these. My baby Sea-Doo would maybe fit crosswise in the bed there.”
“Sea-Doo,” Kerry mused. “Hm.”
“Uh oh.” The guard grinned. “You forget that for Christmas?”
“Apparently I did,” Dar drawled. “Have a great night.”
He backed off and she closed the window as they were directed onto the ferry. Dar glanced around and smiled a little. Most of the cars around her were Mercedes and BMWs, and one in the front, a Mazarati. Her Lexus SUV had been borderline. Her Sport Trac definitely was out of place.
“The Grove is cute,” Kerry said. “Didn’t you used to live down there?”
“I did. Probably ten minutes from Monty’s. I liked it. You could walk to places and there are a lot of nice, old trees around.”
Kerry eyed her speculatively. “There’s a marina there. You want to look around maybe?”
Dar was silent for a moment. “You mean, move down there?” She pondered the dark waters going past them, as they crossed the channel and headed for the island side dock. “Huh.”
“Just a thought,” Kerry said. “Might as well get all our massive life changes over at one time.”
“We’ll be down there a lot. Maybe we’ll see someplace we like,” Dar said. “I don’t mind the island.”
“I don’t either. It’s gorgeous, and we have a beautiful home.” Kerry crossed her ankles. “But some of those places we drove by were pretty cute.”
“And they have unique architecture.”
“Mm.”
“Let’s see what we find,” Dar said. “But maybe let’s wait to look until we’ve got the company set up and running, our staff hired, and our vacation accomplished.”
Kerry chuckled, then she exhaled. “Oh crap.”
“What?”
“We’re going to have someone clean out our offices. I’ve got a bunch of personal stuff there,” Kerry said. “And everyone I would have thought to ask to do that is either going to be on vacation or helping us start up our new company next week.”
“Mari’ll do it,” Dar said. “I don’t have much there.”
“And we need to courier those laptops since Mark’s excuse for meeting us had nothing to do with them.” Kerry scratched Chino behind the ears. “They would probably let us go in there to drop them off and pick our stuff up.”
“I don’t want to do that,” Dar answered in a definite tone.
Kerry looked at her.
“Go in there, with security around us? Everyone staring at us? No thanks.”
“Okay, hon.” Kerry touched her arm. “Just a suggestion.”
“In fact let’s get a courier to bring them tomorrow. I want them out of our house,” Dar said. “Before something happens and the first place they point blame is at me, figuring I have some sort of half assed back door access.” She drove off the ramp and headed around the perimeter road toward their condo.
“You mean you don’t?” Kerry asked, after a brief pause.
“No,” Dar said. “I don’t.”
“Good.”
“Yeah.”
“Do me a favor though?” Kerry as
ked. “Can you take those pictures of me off your laptop before you give it back?”
Dar paused then relaxed and started laughing.
Kerry slapped her lightly. “We’ll get through this, Dardar. I know we will.”
“Idiots.” Dar let the chuckles wind down. “I’m not sure who’s going to be bit in the ass by this the most.”
“Well, nobody but me better be biting your ass.”
“Growf!”
DAR STRETCHED HER body out and felt the light tickling scratch on her navel as Kerry stirred beside her. She looked up at the ceiling and for a moment considered a normal Sunday, then she remembered the prior day. “Buh.”
“Felt good to sleep,” Kerry muttered, almost incoherently.
“Uh huh.”
Kerry snuggled up to her and she curled her arm around her back, her thumb tracing an idle pattern. “It’s gonna be weird not going to work tomorrow.”
“Mm.” Dar sighed. “I keep thinking about stuff I was going to do. My brain keeps going in circles and then tripping.”
“Aw, hon.” Kerry gave her a sleepy hug. “Give it some time. You had a lot going on.”
“Mm.”
“I love you.”
Dar smiled, unable to resist the power of that sentiment to lighten her heart. “Back atcha.” Her body relaxed, and the buzz of thoughts evaporated. “Still up for a dive today?”
“Uh huh.” Kerry nodded. “After we wake up.”
Dar took the hint and settled down, watching the slits in the shutters take on just the bare hint of pre dawn. She turned her thoughts to the things they needed to get done and contentedly ran over the tasks at hand, letting the past fade out as she considered how to structure their new company.
Their new company. Dar nodded a little. Roberts Automation. It was a name, and a plan and a future, and to have it become so sudden and so present felt just a little startling to her.
Startling but good. Good, but a little scary, since she’d spent her whole life depending on a structure around her that now she had to provide for others.
Could she succeed?
“Hon?” Kerry burred softly. “What’re you gonna do if Jose wants to come work for us?”
Dar pondered that. “Hire him,” she said after a moment. “I was just trying to figure out how I was going to do the stuff I never liked doing—like sell things. You just reminded me why I don’t have to.”
Kerry patted her on the stomach. “Sleep.”
“You made my brain wake up,” Dar complained. “Now I have a picture of Jose in my head. That wasn’t nice, Kerry.”
“Sorry.”
“Maybe I’ll get up and make us pancakes.”
Kerry was silent for a long moment. “Now you woke my brain up.” She rolled over and sighed. “Oh well. We can sleep in whenever we want for a while, huh.”
“Mm”
“Okay, let’s get up.”
They threw shirts and shorts on and wandered into the kitchen, accompanied by Chino. Kerry started pulling pans out of the cupboards while Dar busied herself with the coffee maker. Once the brew was going, Dar went over to the dining room table where their new PDAs were and picked up hers. “I have a message.”
“It’s kinda cool knowing I don’t have to worry about what’s in my work inbox.” Kerry got out the pancake mix and some eggs.
“Mm...ah, Mark created a mailing list and sent a message to all of us,” Dar said in an amused tone. “You can take the man out of the enterprise but not the reverse it seems.” She thumbed through the other lines on the screen. “Ah, my folks.” She opened it.
“Glad we tagged our personal mail to that, not the work mail,” Kerry said. “Remind me to send out an e-dress change note later.”
“My dad says, ‘Dardar, that’s some good news there. Them people look to you like the gov’mint looks to me. Ain’t no win in it.’”
With Dar’s deliberately added drawl, Kerry had no problem imagining Andrew’s speech. “He’s right.”
“And my mother adds ‘I thought that board was stupid. I didn’t realize they were that stupid.’”
Kerry chuckled.
Dar continued to read a moment. “She’s reminding us to schedule an sale of our stock options first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Can we do that?” Kerry asked, pouring the pancake batter out into six roundels on her griddle. “Oh wait, we can with the vested ones, can’t we?”
“Need to ask Richard,” Dar said. “I think we can. There weren’t any strings attached to those that required us to remain employed to sell them. Hm...I should check mine. I started getting them ten years ago. Have to see what the price was back then.”
“Legitimate profit, Dar. Most of that increase you had a significant something to do with,” Kerry said. “I remember us having a conversation about how important to the daily ops continuing to increase profit was.”
“Yeah.” Dar smiled. “I’m going to go into my office and start blueprinting.” She took the device with her and settled behind her desk, letting her elbows press against the wood surface as she considered what she wanted to do next. “First things first.”
She logged into the condo’s router and checked it, clucking her tongue as she saw the encrypted tunnel to ILS’s systems still up and passing traffic. She disconnected it and removed the configuration, pausing a moment and adjusting the access list on the device to prevent any attempt to bring it back up from the other side.
It was a bit of finality, and while she was in there, she remotely connected to the router in the cabin and did the same, feeling better once that was completed.
Then she went to her desktop and deleted the secured share folder she’d kept there that contained various diagrams and work notes she used from time to time.
Kerry appeared with a cup of coffee and a plate, and she set them down. “Whatcha doing?”
“Housekeeping,” Dar said. “Getting rid of all the hooks and links to the company I had here.” She pecked away with one hand and picked up the coffee cup with her other. “Thanks.”
“Dar? How many things are in their systems that you kept track of in your head?” Kerry asked. “Wait, hold that thought, let me get my breakfast.”
Dar pulled the plate over and cut a square of the pancakes off with her fork, spotting the embedded chocolate chips with a piratical chuckle. She had gotten the mouthful down by the time Kerry came back and she swallowed and took a sip of coffee to wash it down. “All the stuff in my head is in online documentation,” she said. “I’m not that kind of asshole.”
“Dar.” Kerry settled on the couch in the office, balancing the plate on her knees. “You’re not any kind of asshole. You just put on a very good asshole act sometimes.”
Dar finished her configuration changes and cleared her desktop, pulling up a browser.
Kerry checked her own gizmo. “I have a message from that real estate agent. Dar, I like this thing. You think we can get more for the rest of the people we’re going to be working with?”
“Sure.”
“The agent says the management company approved us,” Kerry said. “On a Sunday. They must really want tenants.” She looked up. “They say they’re willing to give us a move in first month discount if we sign papers today.”
“Do we want to do that, or look around some more?”
Kerry pondered. “I like that place a lot. There was something about it that really clicked with me.”
“Have them draw up the papers,” Dar said. We’ll take the boat over and sign them at that little marina, and then we’ll head out and do a dive. We can pick up some lunch there and take it with us.”
Kerry grinned. “Sounds like a plan. Can we have the courier meet us there, too? Get everything done at once?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“RICHARD’LL BE HERE tomorrow morning.” Dar slowed the engines to almost idle as they approached the public marina. “He said he wanted to take care of all this stuff the right way for us befo
re we got ourselves into a pickle.”
“Awesome. I’m not real fond of pickles,” Kerry said. “There’s the guest slips. I think we’ll fit in that end one, won’t we?”
Dar angled for the berth, skillfully maneuvering the Yankee into place with gentle bumps against the rubber bumpers. “Tie us up?”
“Sure.” Kerry was already heading for the stairs. She scaled down the ladder and crossed the back deck, climbing up on the transom and untying their stern rope.
Dar held them gently against the dock until Kerry finished then shut down the engines. She tugged down the sleeves on her hoodie and climbed down the ladder, making an idle check of the dive tanks valves before she hopped off onto the dock.
They walked along the dock to the marina office and spent a few minutes with the dock master, then continued on past the parking area and onto the main street beyond.
Their proposed new digs were a five minute walk, and they enjoyed the stroll, the mid morning sunlight peeking through the trees that lined the road.
“It’s nice down here,” Kerry said after a few quiet moments. “Did you move just because your aunt left you the condo?”
Dar thought about that for a minute, casting her mind back to that time. “Yeah, I guess.” She half shrugged. “I remember thinking then what a gag it would be to change my address to the island in the office systems, and how it would sting so many of those assholes who used to look down on me.”
“Down on you?”
Dar nodded. “For coming up from the ranks, being a redneck, all that. Even though I inherited the place, it was still a hoot telling people where I was moving.”
“Mm. Even my parents had heard of the place.” Kerry smiled in remembrance. “It’s nice though.”
“It is, but it’s not really my style. I like the cabin better.” Dar steered her across the parking lot to the office facilities, where she saw the agent and a tall man standing waiting for them. “Here we go.”
“Here we go,” Kerry agreed.
The agent, a woman, hurried forward. “Hello, I’m Sally Ramirez.” She offered her hand. “Thanks for meeting up with me at such short notice.”
