Adrienne had thought the grief and pain would never end. Mama and Daddy had come to New York in time for the funeral and stayed on for several weeks, but even their nurturing and praying had failed to get her off the sofa bed. It was only when Dan and Charlene threatened to start legal action to have her committed that she started thinking about the rest of her life.
Mel, his face ravaged from suffering alone and drinking too much, had cried when Dan finally let him in to see her. Adrienne could tell from the look in his eyes that she looked horrible, too. They held each other for a long time that first day. They agreed to stop talking about the past and to save for the day when they would resume their life together. That day was upon them.
Adrienne turned away from the woman and the little boy with the stubby legs and fled down another street. Her briefcase, which contained a copy of the News, a sandwich, and a plum, bumped against her right leg as she walked crosstown to Sixth Avenue. Mel accused her of trying to look like a big shot, because she carried the briefcase, but Adrienne felt that the whole world didn’t have to know that she was just a secretary. After walking six blocks, she decided the briefcase was going to tear her pantyhose, so she tucked it under her arm.
She reached the thirty-story rose-colored office building on Forty-sixth Street at 8:45 A.M. She didn’t see any of her coworkers on the way up to the twenty-fifth floor, and that was just as well. She wasn’t in the mood for small talk. Adrienne got off the elevator and paused to hold her electronic pass card in front of the sensor. After the door clicked, she walked briskly through the corridors.
Parton, Webster & Elliott was an advertising agency. Though they paid well and offered good benefits, it was still corporate America, and Adrienne found the atmosphere stifling and repressive. The fact that she had ended up in such a dead-end career was her own fault. She had dropped out of college to chase a musical rainbow.
The secretarial bull pens were called units. Each unit was set up for four people, and no attempt was made to match them in terms of personality or temperament. New hires were just shown to the nearest empty seat. Adrienne shared unit 6 with a nosy gossip named Sherry Ingles, a Jewish woman from Long Island who had been married briefly to a Puerto Rican. Sherry had been quick to inform Adrienne that she was not Hispanic and that the only reason she hadn’t changed her surname was because she had a four-year-old son who shared it.
Adrienne didn’t care one way or the other. There were two empty seats in unit 6, and she sincerely hoped that the company would start a hiring freeze before the seats were filled. Sherry was enough to deal with.
It was only after Adrienne sat down and booted up her computer that she remembered the company was getting a new president today. She wondered idly what the new boss would be like, and she picked up last week’s memo, which had an article from Advertising Age attached.
Parton, Webster & Elliott has completed a long overhaul of its management team with the appointment of 35-year-old Lloyd Cooper as president of a new division called PWE Multicultural.
Cooper, most recently V.P./Creative Director at the Chicago branch of Parton, Webster & Elliott, started his advertising career ten years ago as a summer intern with Lewis & Wyse in Chicago. “He has intellectual rigor as well as fresh energy, which is just what our new venture will need”, said CEO John Elliott.
Other recent PWE promotions include Human Resources Director Warren Kellner and Media Planning Director Regina Belvedere.
The memo also stated that all staffers were expected in the boardroom on Monday morning at 9:00 A.M. sharp to welcome Lloyd Cooper.
Adrienne took out her compact to check her hair and lipstick. She added a little blush and practiced a smile for the new president before putting the compact away. She wondered what PWE Multicultural meant.
Sherry Ingles breezed in. Her sleek black hair was pulled into a professional bun that rested on the nape of her neck. Her beige Ann Taylor dress fit perfectly. Her matching handbag and slip-on flats completed the ensemble.
“Good morning.”
“Hi, Sherry. How was your weekend?”
Sherry sighed dramatically as she sat down and removed the protective cover from her keyboard. “Horrible. My ex-husband came to see Jason and we argued the whole time.”
Sherry opened a paper bag and started munching on a roll. “What about you? Did you see Mel?”
Adrienne was tempted to tell Sherry that it was none of her business. Instead, she lied. “Yes.”
Adrienne glanced at her watch, noticed some handwritten notes from her supervisor, and turned away from Sherry before she could ask any more personal questions.
Sherry was the company gossip, and Adrienne didn’t want her business all over the office. She searched through her computer disks until she found a report she had started typing the week before. As Adrienne typed her supervisor’s revisions, she realized that her forehead was creased with worry. She and Mel had decided to give their marriage another chance, but what if it didn’t work out? What if she could not forgive him for falling asleep with a lit cigarette in his hand? What if he could not forgive her for going to the beauty salon? What if he never returned to the sweet, charming man she had once known?
Before the fire, he was kind, caring, and very romantic. He wrote love notes to her and came home with cards, stuffed animals, flowers, and candy for no reason at all. It wasn’t possible that such a loving man could disappear forever. The real Mel must be hidden, simply tormented by what had happened to them.
She was only halfway through the report when Sherry tapped her on the shoulder. “It’s time to go,” she said. Adrienne stood up and stretched, hoping that the meeting wouldn’t take too long. She sighed and followed Sherry out of the bull pen. Dozens of people clogged the corridor, and the elevators were packed. She and Sherry had to let several go by.
The boardroom table had been pushed into a corner, and rows of folding chairs filled the room. There was a podium in front and a microphone. The CEO, John Elliott, was just winding up his introductory speech as Adrienne and Sherry slipped into two seats in the front row.
“Let’s welcome Lloyd Cooper!”
A black man! Adrienne was shocked. Parton and Webster had only one African-American executive, and she worked in Human Resources.
Adrienne studied her new boss carefully as he stepped up to the podium. He was about six feet tall with close-cropped black hair, velvety smooth dark-brown skin, broad shoulders, and a neatly trimmed mustache. He used his hands a lot as he began a well-crafted speech.
“Hello, everyone. I know it’s early in the day, so I won’t take up too much of your time. Actually, time is what I’d like to talk about. The time has come for Parton, Webster and Elliott to establish itself as a leader in the field of ethnic marketing. The African-American population now totals 34.5 million and will reach 45.1 million in the next two decades. There are more than 7.6 million Hispanic households in this country, and those numbers are increasing five times faster than any other group. The 1990 census counted 6,908,638 Asians, which is a 99-percent increase over the 1980 census count of 3,466,847.”
Adrienne frowned.
There was something familiar about his voice and gestures. His eyes swept the front row and landed on her. His eyes widened, and he stammered briefly but quickly regained his composure.
Sherry whispered in Adrienne’s ear, “Do you know him?” Adrienne shook her head, puzzled. He moved away from center stage and continued his speech, not looking in her direction again.
“The combined buying power of all three groups currently exceeds 550 billion dollars per year, and that is a conservative estimate.” He paused for a moment to let the full impact of his words sink in. “Of course, PWE has always serviced those clients who wished to target one or more of these markets, but it is now time for us to take a giant leap forward. PWE Multicultural is that giant leap. It will be a full-service boutique designed to successfully influence consumer purchasing decisions in a highly innovative yet cost-effe
ctive manner.” He took a deep breath and gave his audience a disarming grin. Adrienne noticed that his two front teeth had a gap between them. It was a feature that she had always found sexy on a man.
“If my history is any indication of what is to come, I guarantee you that there will be some mistakes before our new venture is running smoothly.”
He gestured, and the lights went off. Someone started the video machine. Lloyd Cooper was funny and got quite a few laughs when he critiqued his own bad reel of TV commercials, which he had tried to get on the air early in his career. Adrienne could feel the goodwill swelling in the room. A man who started off by showing how many mistakes he’d made was a decent human being at heart.
The meeting ended with the staffers giving their new boss a heartfelt round of applause. He stepped down from the podium as the lights came back on, and their eyes met again. Adrienne felt a small charge under his gaze. He was the first to look away, a slight smile playing around his mouth. Again Sherry noticed his reaction to Adrienne.
The crowd surged toward the corridor. Adrienne allowed herself to get swept up with Sherry and a group of people from unit 10, who gossiped freely as they headed back to the elevators.
“He’s cute,” said a chirpy blonde.
“I think he’s gay,” said Sherry.
“What an awful thing to say,” said Adrienne.
“Are you saying that being gay is awful?” asked Sherry.
Adrienne felt confused. “No. I just meant that we should give our new boss a chance and that malicious gossip is wrong.”
The other women looked to Sherry for a response. “Sounds homophobic to me,” Sherry stated.
As soon as they were seated back in unit 6, Sherry started, “What was that all about?”
“What do you mean?”
Sherry stared at her with open curiosity. “I saw what happened when he looked at you. Have you two met somewhere before?”
Adrienne bit her lip, trying to remember. “No.”
“Maybe at another company?” Sherry pressed.
Adrienne thought hard for another minute, and then shook her head vigorously. “No.”
Sherry arched her eyebrows in disbelief. “You must have just forgotten.”
Adrienne turned around and went back to work without saying another word. She and Lloyd Cooper had obviously crossed paths before. But where? Before she could rack her brains, her supervisor called.
“Adrienne, could you come in, please? I have a couple of documents that need to be typed and some faxes that I need you to send right away.”
“Sure.”
Regina Belvedere was a statuesque redhead with green eyes and a warm smile. Her office was efficiently organized and decorated in an oatmeal tone. She looked up when Adrienne entered. “Guess what I’m doing next weekend?”
Adrienne smiled. “You’re going camping with Al.”
Regina sighed. “No. We broke up last week.”
“I’m so sorry, Regina,” Adrienne said sincerely.
“Thanks. I’m going to a dude ranch upstate with a singles group. According to the brochure, all the men are doctors and lawyers. How about that?”
The two women shared a laugh and then settled down to work.
When Adrienne returned to her desk almost an hour later, Sherry was hanging up her phone. “Lloyd Cooper wants to see you in his office, pronto!”
Adrienne’s heart skipped a beat. Her eyes widened in panic. “What could he possibly want?”
Sherry’s voice was a whisper. “I don’t know, but you better get moving.”
“Where is his office?”
Sherry gave her a room number that was on the other side of their floor. Adrienne ducked into the ladies’ room first and gave herself a once-over in the full-length mirror.
A few minutes later, she knocked on the closed door. A female voice answered, “Come in.”
Adrienne turned the knob and entered. “Mr. Cooper, my name is . . . ”
Eight pairs of eyes around a long glass table looked up from paperwork and stared at her. A man’s voice stopped coming out of the speakerphone on the table. Another man, who was taping the meeting on video, quickly paused the tape. Adrienne mumbled an apology and backed out. She leaned against the wall and concentrated on her breathing, which was now ragged and shallow. Sherry had been wrong. She had walked into a conference room. Locating an empty desk with a phone, she called the switchboard operator, who gave her a room number up on the thirty-fourth floor.
This time Lloyd Cooper’s voice answered Adrienne’s knock; she felt uneasy as he told her to come in. She walked past a large potted plant near the window, and a wall of framed diplomas and certificates. He was seated behind a huge mahogany-colored desk that seemed half a block away. Adrienne crossed the wide expanse of beige carpet and held out her hand.
“Hi, I’m Adrienne Jordan. Did you wish to see me?”
“Ah! So you’ve married and changed your last name.” He stood up and came around to her side of the desk, extending his hand. “Hello, Mrs. Jordan. Have a seat.”
Adrienne gulped and sat in the leather chair. She had talked to this man somewhere before. “Where do I know you from, sir?”
He chuckled mildly, but his dark-brown eyes never left hers.
“Sir? Well, that’s a switch!”
His stare was unnerving, and Adrienne was confused by his comment. “A switch?”
He laughed heartily.
Adrienne began to get annoyed. She had no time for whatever silly game her new boss was playing. She struggled to keep her voice polite. “Your voice is familiar, but I’ve never met anyone named Lloyd Cooper.” Adrienne almost added the word “sir” again but caught herself in time. She didn’t want him to start laughing at her again.
There was a knock at the door, and for a moment her comment hung in the air as Lloyd’s secretary, Sally Gomez, poked her head in.
“Yes, Sally?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Mr. Cooper, but John Elliott needs to see you right away. He says it’s urgent.”
“I’ll be in touch with you, Mrs. Jordan,” Lloyd Cooper said formally. His eyes twinkled with mischief as he dismissed her.
Adrienne puzzled over the strange encounter on her way back downstairs and then decided to let it rest. Lloyd Cooper would tell her where they’d met before in his own time. She only hoped that his memories were good ones, since he was a new executive at the company.
When she got back to her desk, a new stack of handwritten notes from Regina awaited her. The report needed a lot more work. Adrienne riffled through the notes and sighed.
Sherry started chattering away, but Adrienne ignored her nosy questions about the new boss and kept typing. She couldn’t afford to get stuck doing revisions through lunch. She was meeting Mel at noon to see an apartment. It was a two-bedroom, and the advertisement had described it as sunny and spacious. Best of all, it was in Manhattan, which meant she’d be living only minutes away from her job and Dan.
It was a busy morning. The phones rang incessantly, and Regina kept interrupting her to add more tasks to her long list of assignments. At 11 :45, she was done. Adrienne stood up and stretched, hoping that Mel would be on time. If they were late, someone else was likely to snap up the apartment.
Regina was waiting anxiously when Adrienne walked into her office. She grabbed the report eagerly and opened a thick green folder that lay on her desk. “Thanks. It will take me about fifteen minutes to read through the report. I’ll need you to start on final revisions as soon as I’m done.”
Adrienne looked at her watch in consternation. Regina noticed her distress and frowned. “What’s the matter?”
“Regina, can this wait an hour? I need to leave at noon to see an apartment. I’ll run right back, and I won’t eat lunch. Please?”
Regina sighed and rubbed her temples. “My meeting is at two.”
“The report will be ready. I promise.”
Regina ruffled the papers in front of her impatiently. �
��Okay, okay. But hurry up.”
It was noon when Adrienne reached the street. Mel was leaning against the side of the building, smoking a cigarette and stamping his feet to keep warm. Adrienne wondered why he looked so drawn and tired.
“Hi,” she said shyly.
He kissed her full on the lips. “Let’s get the show on the road!”
They started walking. Adrienne wondered if Mel was as scared as she was. He took her hand, and they smiled at each other.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said.
“But not easy.”
“No. We had a good thing going once. It won’t be easy to get that back.”
An image of Delilah lying in her crib flashed through Adrienne’s mind. She closed her eyes for a second, swallowed hard, and willed her emotions away. She didn’t want Mel to see her upset. She and Mel still had each other, and she intended to have another baby as soon as possible. To ease the tension, Adrienne told Mel about her encounter with Lloyd Cooper.
Mel seemed amused. “You worked in a lot of places before we got married, baby. I’ll bet he was some manager at one of those temp jobs. He was just having some fun with you.”
Adrienne shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Mel squeezed her hand. “I think you’re just feeling stressed out about our situation.” He kissed her on the nose. “Don’t worry about it, okay?”
Adrienne wasn’t convinced, but she smiled up at her husband anyway.
A Mighty Love Page 4
