by Melissa Good
"You're a rascal sometimes, you know that?"
"Bet your pooters I am."
"THIS IS INSANE." Shari shook her head.
"I know," Michelle agreed. She leaned on the railing and gazed out over the water. "But we knew something was going on. You've been saying that all week. It was just all too over the top."
Shari nodded. "I thought she was at the bottom of it all. Still not sure if she's not somehow."
Michelle sighed and dropped her head.
"Look, I know you think I'm off my rocker when it comes to Dar. Maybe I am." Shari turned and looked at her. "But you don't know her like I do and..."
"Stop." Michelle held a hand up. "Shari, let's be honest. Do you really think the person inside that million dollar bit of concrete is the same person you knew in college?"
Shari turned and looked back through the glass doors. Inside, she could see Dar walking back in from the kitchen with Kerry next to her their arms draped around each other.
She tried to remember, really, what Dar had been like back then. Awkward and rough around the edges, definitely. Almost anti-social and cocky as all get out. Sexy, in a very primal way that had appealed to Shari back then, but with an overwhelming complexity of character she had no idea what to do with.
Some things hadn't changed. Dar still had that earthy sensuality about her, but the awkwardness of youth had been replaced with a rock solid self confidence and, while she suspected Dar still wasn't a social butterfly, she handled herself far differently now than she had back then.
Back then, Dar's blunt honesty had scared Shari. She'd been faced with the potential deepening of a relationship she didn't really know if she'd wanted at all, and her reaction had been...
Okay, she knew she'd been harsh. What she hadn't expected was to have that be it. The end. Dar had walked out and she'd never come back. Shari had tried to call her a few times, but never gotten an answer, and eventually, she just found someone else to go with, and tried to forget.
The next time they'd met, she was being fired and she'd taken away the knowledge that one thoughtless brush off on her part had come back to bite her in the ass when she'd least expected it. She'd been so sure Dar would never amount to anything hadn't she?
Well.
"I think she's the same person, yeah," Shari finally said. "I just have no idea who that person was way back then."
Michelle pondered that, as she peered through the glass. Kerry was wrapped up in Dar's arms on the couch, and was indulgently feeding her cookies and milk. It was insanely precious. It was sappy. It was disgustingly romantic.
She sighed. Damn, Kerry was one lucky woman. "Okay. So what the hell are we going to do?"
"We go with them," Shari said, bluntly. "Because we have no real goddamn choice, and you know it. At least if we play into what Dar's up to, we come off looking like we have at least six brain cells between us."
"True," Michelle agreed ruefully. "I hate looking like an idiot. And you know what? That goddamn Cruickshank played us like a pair of first class ones. I think she really had the hots for her." Michelle pointed at Dar.
Shari rolled her eyes. "Doesn't everyone? Jesus Christ I am so tired of hearing every walking dick on that damn port talk about her. You'd think they'd caught a clue already she's gay and give the hell up."
"Mm. Well, let's go and get this rolling." Michelle tabled the discussion. "I think we need to have a frank discussion with our new colleagues and put a few truths on the table. I don't mind working this charade with them, but I want to know exactly where we stand first."
"Right," Shari agreed. "Let's clear the air."
Michelle stopped in mid step and turned. "Does that mean you're going to cut out the bitch for a while? I think if you do, she will."
"Me? You're the one who offered to put gloves on in there." Shari snorted. "And do yourself a favor and don't wave that belt of yours in front of her. She's got a couple of her own and she didn't learn to fight in a gym."
Michelle shrugged. "She doesn't scare me." She started to pull the sliding glass door open. "Now on the other hand, Stuart I wouldn't turn my back on." She cut the last word off as she stepped inside and gave Dar and Kerry a brief smile. "All right. We're in."
"Good." Dar licked a few crumbs off her lips. "Then let's get back to the pier. We don't have that much time."
"Fine." Michelle looked at Kerry. "Why don't you ride with me, and Shari can ride with Dar, and hopefully, when we get to the pier, everyone will be alive and capable of working together."
Kerry felt Dar's entire body tense. She sorted through her possible polite responses, discarded them, and went on to the rude ones.
Dar forestalled her, however. "All right." She gave Kerry a pat on the thigh. "Let's go." There was only a touch of resignation in her tone. "Get this over with."
Kerry got up reluctantly, wondering if she could figure out a way to sneak Chino into Dar's car.
Just in case.
IF IT WAS going to happen, at least it was happening on her turf. Dar settled her sunglasses onto her nose as she started up the car, watching Kerry reluctantly enter the passenger side of Michelle's rental.
Kerry did not like it. Every line in her body explicitly spoke about how much she didn't like it. Dar found it a little funny, and more than a little comforting to see her partner's visible agitation on her behalf and it formed a warm, friendly sensation in the pit of her stomach.
The passenger door to the Lexus opened and Shari climbed in warily, closing the door with the same reluctance as Kerry had displayed only a moment ago.
In that moment, Dar realized something. She realized that Shari was more intimidated by their being in the same space than she was, and once she'd realized that, everything changed. She relaxed into the leather of the driver's seat and put the SUV in gear, backing it out carefully and turning for the outer road and the ferry. "So."
Shari glanced at her, then looked back out the side window. "So," she repeated. "Looks like you got what you wanted."
Dar turned into the ferry dock, and pulled up in line to wait for the next boat. "That was the goal." She leaned her knee against the door and rested her arm on it.
Shari made a small, rude noise. "You know something, you really are an asshole."
Ah, at least the beating around the bush would stop now. "Sometimes," Dar agreed. "When I have to be." She finally turned and regarded Shari through her dark lenses. "But you knew that."
"I knew that." Shari confirmed. "When do you intend on letting Blondie in on your little secret?"
Dar chuckled. "Kerry saw that side of me first," she said. "She was a part of a consolidation I did."
"Guess she slept with you, so she kept her job, hm? Pity you didn't give me that option." Shari replied caustically. "I'd have given you a roll to avoid that round of resumes."
Dar regarded a seagull circling around the security kiosk, searching for dropped tidbits. "Kerry was worth keeping," she finally said. "You weren't."
"Fuck you too."
It only made her smile. "You're assuming it was personal. The fact is," Dar faced her, tipping the sunglasses down to expose her eyes, "I needed more marketing bullshit artists about as much as I needed a case of the hives."
The ferry pulled in, and Dar put the Lexus into drive, as the ramp started down.
"You're so full of shit. Business decision? Give me a break, Dar," Shari replied heatedly. "You enjoyed every damn minute of canning me."
Dar steered the car onto the ferry, taking the last position on the first lane. She set the parking break to give herself a moment to collect her thoughts. "Sure I did," she answered. "But the fact is your position was redundant."
"Bullshit."
Dar shrugged.
"You just fired me because I blew off your little declaration of love," Shari said. "So don't pull that crap with me, Dar. Lucky for little Stuart she was more receptive."
Strangely, it didn't even hurt anymore. "Know what your problem is, Shari?" Dar lazil
y watched as the next line of cars filled up, her brows lifting as Michelle's rental pulled in even with them and parked, despite the fact that they'd been right behind Dar, and should have been at the front of the next line.
How had Kerry arranged that?
"I'm sure you're going to tell me," Shari answered sarcastically.
"You're a bigger asshole than I am." Dar lifted a hand and waved at Kerry, who waggled her fingers back, then circled her thumb and first finger in an OK gesture and raised her eyebrows. Dar made the same gesture, then twitched her head slightly in Shari's direction, and switched to a lifted middle finger instead.
Kerry started laughing, inaudible behind the glass.
"Well, I've..." Shari started.
"You've been trying to get me back since then. Give it up." Dar advised her. "I don't give a shit. There's nothing you can do to me, including taking over fucking ILS, that I would give two cents for." She turned and faced her again. "Do you understand me?"
Shari stared at her. "No," she said. "I never understood you. You're from goddamned Mars."
Dar was unable to stop from producing a wicked smile. "That must make you from Uranus," she drawled pleasantly. "Are we done now?"
Shari glared at her in silence.
"SO." MICHELLE SNIFFED reflectively. "Hard as we tried to kill each other here we are."
"Here we are," Kerry agreed. "In the middle of the biggest piece of horse poop I think I've ever seen in my life."
Michelle digested that. "You know what? That's true," she agreed. "I've been part of some really screwed up deals before, but this one's in a class by itself."
And that was definitely the truth. Kerry ordered her thoughts and tried not to give in to the urge to open the car door and climb into Dar's Lexus instead. She could see Dar's shoulders from where she was, and they seemed relatively relaxed.
She hoped things were going okay. It was so hard for her to judge where Dar's head space was right now.
"And your little tricks didn't make it any easier," Michelle added.
"My tricks?" Kerry looked at her. "I don't know what you're talking about, unless you mean Andy," she said. "And that wasn't a trick, it was just insurance."
Michelle laughed. "Okay. So let's just say you putting a ringer into the loading crew was...insurance."
"He did a good job, didn't he?" Kerry countered.
"That's not the point." Michelle sounded a bit testy now.
"It is the point. He did exactly what they were paying him to do," Kerry said. "And while he was there, he found out about your dirty tricks for us."
"My dirty tricks?"
"What are you calling putting in duplicate orders?" Kerry asked. "And what are you calling trying to prevent deliveries to our ship?"
Michelle studied the passing cargo yards. "That was strategy."
Kerry snorted. "Strategy my ass."
"Insurance my ass," Michelle countered. "Shall we count that as even?"
Should they? Kerry allowed that the two tricks pretty much counteracted each other. "All right. Fair enough." She decided. "What about all the rumors being spread around our office?"
Michelle shrugged. "Shari's idea."
"Why?"
"She figured she could knock Dar off balance if she caused trouble between you two."
Kerry felt herself getting a little lightheaded with anger. Her breathing quickened and she felt her hands start to twitch, the fingers of them curling unconsciously into fists as they rested on her denim clad thighs. "That's something I'll never write off," she stated quietly.
Michelle looked at her, in some surprise. "Just talk. You must get that."
Kerry took a breath, and then released it. "Oh, sure, we do," she said. "But it's not the talk. It was the intent." Slowly, she turned and rested her elbow on the console between the seats, looking directly into Michelle's eyes. "I couldn't give a damn about this business, about this bid or about you."
Michelle blinked
"But if you or she ever do anything again that's meant to try and destroy our relationship, I'll come after you, and they'll have to arrest me to stop me." Kerry's voice was dead serious. "Am I coming through loud and clear here?"
"You're threatening me?" Michelle sounded incredulous.
"Yes," Kerry answered. "And it's not idle."
"You realize how that sounds don't you?"
Kerry nodded. "If you think I'm crazy, you're right. I am," she said. "Dar means that much to me."
Michelle cocked her head, her eyes searching Kerry's face with a new interest. "You know something? That's the one thing we really didn't count on," she said. "And I should have. All along I wanted to believe that you were just like we were."
It was Kerry's turn to look surprised.
"Two dykes with a common business motive," Michelle clarified. "Who also like hot sex," she added. "But that's not what you two are about at all."
"Um...well, actually..." Kerry found herself blushing.
Michelle pursed her lips. "I apologize for the scuttlebutt. That was dirty."
Progress, at last. "Thanks," Kerry said.
Michelle was quiet for a second. "Now you can apologize to me for bugging our offices,"
"Huh?"
"Stealing our client list?"
Kerry cocked her head in puzzlement. "We didn't," she spluttered. "I thought you did that to us!"
They both folded their arms and stared at each other.
THEY HAD, APPARENTLY, run out of insults and for a few minutes the ride across the water was quiet. If she looked to her left, Dar could see the ships squatting at their piers and she wondered what they'd find when they got there.
Chaos? Definitely. Her cell phone rang, and she checked the ID before she answered it. "Hi, Dad."
"'Lo there, Dardar," her father answered. "Got us some good news."
"Yeah?"
"Feller here, he got the juice on."
Ah. Dar gazed at the oncoming ferry dock. "Great," she said. "I'm on my way over."
"See ya." Andrew hung up.
Dar folded her phone up and set it on the center console. She hit the window switch and opened her window, leaning her elbow on the sill as Kerry did the same. "Dad," she said briefly. "They're good to go."
"Ah." Kerry said. "Does that change our plan?"
"No."
"Okay." Kerry pulled her head back inside the car. "See you in a few."
Dar closed the window and leaned back. She pondered a moment, then she turned her head and looked at Shari. "We have power."
Shari looked back at her warily. "So does that mean the deal's off? You kept us distracted long enough to get what you wanted, I guess."
"No." Dar shook her head. "Doesn't change anything." A faint, quirky smile appeared. "I just wanted you to know if I really wanted to end this right now..." Pale blue eyes peeked from behind the wraparound shades. "I could."
Shari folded her arms over her chest. "Fuck you."
Dar's smile spread into a charming Cheshire imitation. "Had your chance once. I've developed a sense of taste since then."
Shari's face twitched.
"At any rate." Dar relented, deciding there was just so much fun she could stand at any particular moment. "That's one boat we don't have to worry about completing. We can concentrate on the other three." She watched through the window as the ferry docked, glad of her sunglasses as they turned and faced almost due west.
Shari stared at the angular profile at a loss on how to counter the mixture of Dar's cool business and sarcasm. What else could she say that she hadn't already? For a month she'd been digging at Dar, poking and prodding and savaging her every chance she got.
It had gotten her exactly nowhere. For all the time she'd spent with the reporters, smearing Dar's character, her reputation, and anything else she could think of here she was at the end of the goddamned project and the bitch had still come out on top.
What the hell?
What the freaking hell? She suddenly realized that even if
Dar lost the bid, lost the publicity, and lost the business, she'd still come out on top because her goddamned son of a bitch charisma would just make everyone not give a flying crap.
Goddamn it.
GodDAMN it.
She glared at Dar who remained immune to her scathing thoughts, apparently relaxed and content with whatever was going through her mind, her fingers drumming lightly against the steering wheel. One finger held a ring, and for the first time she looked close enough at it to see the details.
It was a beautiful piece of jewelry that screamed expensive, but in a refined and understated way. Purchased, she was sure, by the well bred Midwestern bitch in the next car that had certainly been born with several silver spoons shoved up her ass.
She'd tried very hard to sell Cruickshank on the idea that Kerry was sleeping with Dar for her career. On the surface, it made perfect sense. But watching Dar's little bedmate work over the last few weeks made even Shari grudgingly accept that if she wanted to go anywhere else, she could.
Work anywhere else. Live anywhere else. Sleep with anyone else.
Then she'd tried to convince the reporter that Dar was a little psycho that possessively dominated and abused the smaller woman.
Why? That was what Cruickshank had asked.
Because Dar was a psycho. Shari had seen enough of her as a young woman to know that. She had a cold, vicious side to her that had scared the crap out of a lot people when they'd gone to school together. Raised on a military base, poor, anti-social...
Dar started whistling softly under her breath, a gently melodic sound that broke Shari's mental conversation with herself. She had her head turned away from Shari, and in the reflection from the window her expression was visible as she looked over at the other car.
Something had changed. Shari shifted and turned the other way, staring out her own window as the ferry ramp started to lower. Or maybe Dar had simply grown up and out of her past.
Maybe the reporter had been right. Shari had thought she was simply stupid.
Now she was faced with the realization that there was no way she was going to beat Dar. Not in any realm. So. Screw it. Time to get out of this piece of shit situation with anything she could. "Dar."
