by Melissa Good
Ah well. Maybe they’d end up swimming.
“Bye.” Kerry finished her call and came over to the window, putting her knee on the padded bench and leaning against Dar’s back. “Hey, love of my life.”
“Hey.” Dar turned around and circled Kerry’s knee with one arm. “I was going to suggest going out for a float tonight, but the water’s too choppy.”
Kerry peered out the window, then at her. “And you know this how?”
Dar held up her device.
“Ah.” Kerry smiled. “Want to stop by the sporting goods store to see what we’re going to need for our trip instead? I know we could look it all up on the interwebs, but I’d like to see what it all looks like up close.”
“Sure.”
“Then let’s go.” Kerry leaned over and gave her a kiss on the lips. “That was our phone provider on the line. They’ll have a shipment for us in by Friday. I’m letting Mayte run with it.”
Dar returned the kiss, standing up and pulling Kerry upright with her. “I got a note from Gerry,” she said when they parted a little. “I think his guys like the plan, but I need to go up there next week for a day and talk to them.”
“Good. By then we should have a little gang of programmers for you to get to work with.” Kerry kept herself pressed against Dar’s body, content to absorb the warmth and affection soaking into her.
“Yup.” Dar rocked them both back and forth a little. “This is so cool.” She exhaled happily, then squeezed Kerry one more time before she released her and draped an arm over her shoulders as they headed for the door together.
This time there were no fights going on outside and they were able to get to Kerry’s car and settle themselves without incident. Dar peered both directions, but the road was clear. No sign of anyone loitering, and she leaned back in satisfaction as Kerry got the car started and they pulled out of the lot.
They headed west, crossing through the city and out to the western suburbs, pulling off the highway into one of the big malls on the edge of the county. “We can grab dinner here too,” Kerry said. “They’ve got a lot of restaurants and a Dave and Busters.”
Dar snickered. “You just want to try and beat me at skee-ball again.”
Kerry gave her a look, one blonde eyebrow arching up. “Try? I beat you like egg whites the last time, Dixiecup.”
“I got you back at the basketball.”
“And I had no handicap at that, huh?”
They parked and walked inside the mall, bypassing various stands and kiosks as they steered their steps into the big Bass Pro Shop that took up a large percentage of one side of the complex.
“Oh wow.” Kerry paused, as they studied the inside of the store. “There’s a lot of stuff here.”
Dar’s eyes were already twinkling. “This is going to be an expensive trip.” She eyed the boating section. “You think we should actually put together a real hurricane kit?”
“You’re not looking at that bucket of MREs are you?”
KERRY REVIEWED THE notes on her desk with a sense of bemusement. She selected one and dialed the contact number, pausing to wait for it to connect. “Hello, I’m looking for John Chavez.” She paused and considered a brief second. “I’m returning his call. From Roberts Automation.”
She listened to the hold music then detected the sound of a receiver being picked up in haste. “Hello?”
“Hello? Is this... Kerry, is that you?”
“Sure is,” she said. “What can I do for you, John? I assume by your note you know I’m not with ILS anymore, so I’m not sure I—”
“No, no, I know. I know.” He broke in hastily. “I guess word’s getting out and I saw your new website. I wanted to call and see what you guys were up to.”
“Well,” Kerry said. “I guess we’re up to opening up our own business. Dar and I just incorporated two weeks ago or so. Got an office going and all that.”
“Great.”
“Great?”
“Great, as in can we meet? I’d like to talk about some projects.”
Kerry pulled her phone away from her ear and stared at it, then returned it to the side of her head. “Okay, John, but you don’t even know what we’re doing so I’m not sure—”
“You’re not going into the cleaning business are you?”
“No,” Kerry said. “It’s technology, naturally, but—”
“Great,” Chavez broke in again. “That’s what I figured. We’ve got a bunch of projects, blue sky stuff. I’d love to have you look at them and let me know if we can contract you guys.” He paused. “I wanted to make sure I get on the list first.”
Kerry blinked. She opened her mouth, then closed it. Then she shook her head a little. “Sure, John, I’d love to talk to you. Want us to come down there or you want to visit our new offices? They’re in the Grove.” She checked her watch. “What day’s good for you?”
“You free today?” he asked. “I’ll bring lunch in.”
“How’s two p.m. for you? I can’t do lunch, Dar’s already picking mine up.”
“You got it! Me and Manuel will be there at two. Looking forward to it. Later!”
Kerry released the line and studied her phone with a quizzical expression. Then she turned over that note and picked up the next one. “Cherise Montez. All Dade Paper.” She tapped the note against her chin. “That’s another one I had in my contact list.” She dialed the number. “Hello, I’m looking for—oh, hi Cherise. Yes, it’s Kerry. I got your note and I—” She listened and hurriedly called up her calendar. “Well, sure I can do Monday. What’s this ab—ah, yeah, I guess it’s going around.” She listened again. “Infoworld email alert. I see.”
“Anyway, glad I got in touch with you, Kerry,” Cherise said, echoing slightly through the phone. “My senior management called me the minute they saw that, and wanted me to just sit down and talk with you about some things.”
“Sure. Looking forward to it,” Kerry said. “See you on Monday.”
She disconnected the line, then looked up as she heard a sound and found Dar’s lanky frame in her doorway. “Honey, I think word’s gotten out about our leaving.”
Dar came over and put a piece of paper down on the desk. “It has. Glad that website had your phone number on it and not mine.”
Kerry picked up the paper and examined it. “Oh, that email alert. Cherise, from All Dade Paper just called me.” She read through the article. “It’s pretty noncommittal on why we left,” she said, noting the almost complete lack of details, but the addition of a link to their new web site.
“Hamilton keeps his word,” Dar said. “And so will we.”
“Wonder how long it will take for the Herald to call us.” Kerry put the paper down. “We said we wouldn’t go after their customers, Dar, but what are we supposed to do when their customers come after us?”
Dar waggled her eyebrows. “I’m sure they’re not going to ask us for the same things they asked ILS for. Maybe we’ll catch those little projects that ILS wouldn’t even quote.”
“Uh huh. Kind of how that whole thing with Gerry and the president worked out,” Kerry said. “I don’t want us to have to worry about delivering all this stuff when we’re just only barely open.”
Dar ruffled her hair. “Then we say no. Not even ILS bid on everything, remember?”
That was true. Kerry had even made that decision a time or two when the numbers hadn’t made sense, or when the requirements were very specialized and they would require incurring unreasonable startup costs for it.
“Okay, well let’s see what all this chatter gets us,” Kerry finally said. “Who knows? Might turn out to be nothing.” She picked up the next note, and examined it. “City of Miami. Do we want to talk to them?”
Dar evaded the question and meandered off. “I’m going to go program something.”
“Chicken.”
“Speaking of, come get your lunch.” Dar winked at her, as she disappeared.
Kerry put the note down and selected a diffe
rent one, putting it next to her phone before she got up to go retrieve her share of what smelled like chicken curry. Dar had discovered a tiny Thai place down the road, and if the scent was any indication, it was a winner.
She didn’t resent Dar for assuming she’d handle the calls. They’d agreed from the outset she’d be in charge of the customer contact side of the house, with the exception of those two little special deals with the government that were pointed directly at Dar.
Dar trusted her to keep them from getting into contracts that were outside the scope they’d defined for themselves, and to keep them going in the right direction where she herself might go off into unprofitable tangents just because a project interested her.
Kerry chuckled as she crossed the floor and ducked into the adjoining office.
Dar had put the bags and boxes on the small table across from her desk, and Kerry opened the containers and set out two plates to fill, since Dar had gotten tied up in a conversation with the maintenance chief. She sorted out the brown rice and the fragrant red curry, and brought one of the plates over to the desk with a tall cup of Thai coffee.
“Thanks, gorgeous.” Dar came back in the office and went to her desk. “Lock company’ll be here Monday to do the install. I got them to agree to let us put biometrics on the offices, but they need access to the outer hallways and the maintenance rooms.”
“We can do scan cards,” Kerry said. “But we should put cameras in.” She took her own plate and perched on the window ledge with it. “Especially if we’re going to have to pass the government’s security standards.”
Dar nodded, her mouth full of chicken and rice.
“You want to try those eyeball scanners again?”
Dar shook her head.
“Palm locks, then?”
Dar shrugged and swallowed. “Better than thumb prints. That never did work for me.” She examined her thumb. “I think all that typing wore the ridges down.”
Kerry got up and came over, putting her plate down and peering at the digit. Then she leaned over and kissed it. “If the darn thing can’t read it, too bad.”
Dar grinned in response. She reached up and chucked Kerry under the chin then she went back to her plate, while Kerry settled back on the window bench to chew in silence.
“Y’know,” Dar said, after a little while. “Maybe we should have shared an office.” She studied Kerry’s relaxed form, legs extended on the bench, sun splashing across her chest. “We spend more time in each other’s anyway.”
Kerry tilted her head and smiled. “We’re such kooks. What are we going to do for Valentine’s Day, by the way? It’s coming up.”
Dar tilted her seat back and put her feet up on her desk. “Let me think about that,” she said. “Is it my turn this year to come up with a surprise?”
“Yes.”
A soft knock came at the door. “C’mon in.” Dar remained where she was, waving a fork at Maria when she came inside. “Hey, Maria.”
“Si, hello,” Maria said, bringing over a set of folders. “There are many things to take care of, but before this all gets in the box I would like to ask a favor.”
“Sure,” Dar said. “Whatever you want, yes.”
“Dar.”
Kerry chuckled. “My god you’re in a good mood,” she told Dar.
“I am,” Dar said. “Seriously, Maria, what do you think you could ask me for that I wouldn’t say yes to? You want to paint that office black or something?”
“Tcha.” Maria clucked her tongue. “No it is this, my neighbor has a young daughter, and she is looking for a first job. Could she work with us to make things in order?”
“Sure,” Dar said. “The last person you recommended was Mayte. You’re batting a thousand.” She chewed a mouthful of curry chicken and rice and swallowed. “Bring her in.”
Maria smiled at her. “Thank you, Dar. This girl, she is very nice, but also, very shy. It would be good for her to work with some nice people.” She put the folders down and then trotted out, closing the door behind her as she started to talk to Mayte in Spanish.
Kerry let her plate rest against her knee for a moment, as she glanced outside. “Ah.”
“What?”
“Our friend is back.” Kerry watched the man in the wheelchair come along the road, glancing either way before he turned in and started to make his way through the parking lot.
“Yeah?” Dar’s voice was suddenly much closer, and then she was leaning over Kerry to look out the window. “Yep, there he is all right. Not with anyone this time.” She watched him move between the cars and end up popping up onto the sidewalk, pausing before he started along the edge of the building. “Heading for the dumpster I guess.”
“Do we really have such interesting garbage?” Kerry asked. “Hey, we just had those big servers come in. Can we give him those boxes?”
“Mm.”
“I mean, it’s not like we get those kind of things all the time, and they’re pretty solid,” Kerry said. “If he could use it, why not?”
Dar scratched her nose. “Yeah, I guess. Seems weird though. Wouldn’t it make more sense if we’re going to give him anything, that we find out if there’s something more permanent than a cardboard box we could do?”
Kerry turned her head to regard her in some bemusement. “You want to help him?”
Dar shrugged a little. “Not really,” she answered honestly. “I just think I’d feel like a jackass just saying ‘hey buddy, you want a box?’”
Kerry scooped up the last of her chicken and chewed it in thoughtful silence for a minute. “Yeah maybe you have a point there. I think I just feel bad, mostly because I know your father.”
Dar leaned on her knee, bumping against Kerry’s shoulder lightly. “I feel bad about feeling bad about that. Because the guy was a jackass.”
Kerry wound her arm around Dar’s thigh and squeezed it. “Our consciences can be a bitch sometimes.”
“Sometimes,” Dar agreed, pushing off the sill and stepping back. “Anyway, I guess it’s okay to get him those crates, but we should put them in there when he’s not around, and let him think he’s snitching them from us.”
She went back over and dropped into her chair, pulling her laptop over and getting it arranged on her knees as she tilted back and put her feet back on the desktop.
Kerry got up and put her plate in the garbage, adding Dar’s to it before she gave her a kiss on the top of her head and headed out the other door.
The outer office was empty, and she crossed through it and walked along the hallway around to the back and down the back stairs. She crossed the hall and went out the back door, pausing to look around from the top step of the loading dock.
The area was empty, the dumpsters undisturbed. She waited a moment, then walked down the concrete steps and circled the big green disposals, seeing nothing but fallen leaves around them, the token South Florida acknowledgment of winter.
She walked along the edge of the service area, and looked down the long path between the back section and the front sidewalk, each side bounded with Chinese cherry hedges that were thick, and almost head high on her.
On one side, the hedges went flat to the building edge. On the other, they were a barrier to a slim open space between the property the building sat on and a wall to the next structure.
Kerry cocked her head to one side, and listened, then she slowly strolled along the path, glad for the warmth of the sunlight drenching her as she walked.
It was quiet. She saw butterflies hovering over the hedge tops. In the trees that overlooked the wall of the next yard she heard birds singing.
Midway down the path she paused, and regarded the hedge on the wall side. It had thick leaves, but she saw several broken branches, and there seemed to be a not quite natural gap in the otherwise lush foliage.
She strolled on, kicking the few loose leaves from the path with her boots, until she got to the front of the building and came around again to the entrance. Here she paused, and rega
rded the little front porch, overhung with iron lattice that held baskets of sturdy winter flowers.
“Interesting,” she commented to the empty space. Then she went in the front door and paused, surprising Mayte and a slim, red haired woman who was behind the reception desk. “Ah, hi there.”
“Kerry, hello.” Mayte turned. “This is Angelina, who has come today to start with the reception area. She is from the staffing group.”
“Hi there, Angelina.” Kerry extended a hand.
“It’s good to meet you,” Angelina said courteously. “You’re the owner, right?”
“One of them, yes,” Kerry said. “Welcome to the gang. I think by Monday you’ll actually have a phone to answer.”
Angelina smiled, showing cute dimples. “They said you were just starting. They weren’t kidding I guess. I just came in to fill out my paperwork today, they said I could start Monday.”
“Great.” Kerry waved, and moved past, trotting up the steps to her office.
She found Dar talking to a tall, tattooed man with a ponytail, dressed in jeans and a leather shirt, and she made bets with herself regarding his reason for being there. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Dar said. “This is John Robier. He makes custom signs.” She paused. “He’s looking for you.”
Kerry held out a hand. “Yes, the folks at the cafe down the road told me about you.” She regretfully lost her bet, and studied the man, who had a rugged, powerful looking face with a beard and mustache in a mix of gray and brown.
He nodded. “Said you wanted a sign?”
“We need a sign,” Dar acknowledged.
He put a much thumbed through portfolio down on Dar’s desk and opened it. “This is the stuff I do. See if you like it.”
Dar went around the back of the desk and settled into her chair, pulling over the portfolio as Kerry came around to join her. There were pictures in the notebook of signs of varying vintage and size. “I like that one.” Dar pointed at a shot of a relatively square one, with the background carved back and stained and the letters prominent, almost three dimensional. “Can you do a logo like this?” She indicated desk plate.
