Coming To Reason (A Long Road to Love)

by O'Connor, Liza

  Tall raised at brow at Carrie. “You gave yourself away with all those eye movements.”

  “Well, I’m not telepathic. I had to communicate with Destiny.

  Tall chuckled. “Next time try whispering in a foreign language. A mime can read the most subtle of body language.”

  Destiny laughed. “It had better be Spanish, because it’s the only other language I have a clue about. Even then, my education is based on the years we had Nanny Maria, who watched Spanish soaps all day.”

  Dan frowned. “You never mentioned this before.”

  “I told you about things I thought interesting. For the first four years, I struggled to make sense out of the soaps since Maria would never tell me what the words yelled out meant. Eventually, I worked it out on my own.” Noticing the scowl on her father’s face, Destiny threw both hands up. “Hey, at least I can communicate with our housekeeper now.”

  Dan chuckled. “Our housekeeper of five years had to return to Roatan this year, and she suggested her sister as her replacement. She declared the young woman hardworking and honest as a nun, so I agreed to hire her without an interview.” He grinned. “She proved to be both, but had I spoken to her, I would have discovered she didn’t know a word of English.” He turned to Tiny. “If I had your skill at mime, it wouldn’t matter, but my gestures confuse and frighten the poor maid.”

  Tiny leaned forward. “Give me an example.”

  Carrie refocused on the appetizers. Poor Dan’s inability to communicate with his maid would no doubt become Tiny and Tall’s next skit.

  ***

  Once they finished dinner, Dan dropped Tiny and Tall off at the theatre for their 8 p.m. performance before taking Carrie to the office so she could retrieve her car.

  He offered to drive behind her all the way to New Jersey to ensure she got home, but she refused. “I appreciate the concern, but this I can manage on my own.”

  His mouth opened then closed as if he wanted to argue further but after a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “For the record, I’m convinced your office would be just as beautiful if we hadn’t helped. You are more than capable of doing anything on your own.”

  She gripped his and Destiny’s hands. “It wouldn’t have been such fun without the two of you. This has been one of my best weekends ever.”

  Destiny snorted. “Man, do we need to improve your weekends.”

  Chapter 15

  While she drove home, Carrie mulled over her claim the weekend had been one of her best ever. While true, it bothered her. Why would painting and sanding be more fun than...? She struggled to think of something she and Trent had done recently.

  They’d gone to dinner at places in New Jersey, but, in retrospect, neither the food, the service, nor Trent’s mood had been enjoyable.

  She couldn’t recall the last time she and Trent had a good time on a date.

  If she couldn’t even remember, then they needed to focus on the relationship more. They’d let it slip in their priorities.

  She would have to take as much blame as Trent for their neglected relationship. Once they hired the new staff, her top priority had been to get them trained and motivated. And while this could have…should have been a joint effort, bringing them closer together, instead it became a bone of contention.

  And probably why he’d decided she needed to leave his firm.

  But then why hadn’t he followed through and made the effort to improve their relationship once she worked elsewhere?

  She rolled her eyes. When had he ever taken the initiative to fix things? Never. Without her, his company would have gone bankrupt. She should have seen to their relationship herself.

  Except, she’d focused on learning her new job instead.

  Another worry crossed her mind. What if Trent had dropped more than their relationship ball? What if the company fell apart again because he hadn’t stepped up and covered the ninety percent of his job she had handled?

  Yes, he had an EA, but most would assume their bosses capable of running their business with just a hint of assistance. However, Carrie knew better. Trent’s father had never taught him anything of use. In fact, she suspected most of what the ogre had told him would ensure his company failed.

  Upon pulling into her driveway, a peace came over her. Her sanctuary strengthened her.

  Entering the kitchen, she glanced at the blinking light. Trent had called and she hadn’t been here for him.

  She hit the play button as guilt swept over her.

  “Hey, this is Dan, calling to ensure you made it home. If we’ve jumped the gun and you haven’t arrived yet, can you call the moment you do? Destiny is worried and chewing her fingers. Soon she’ll have none left.”

  The message read off the time. Only three minutes ago. She called Dan and he picked up at once. “Everything okay?”

  She chuckled. “Just got home. Thanks for worrying about me.”

  “Not me. That would be stalkerish. Destiny worried.”

  Her smile widened as she moved to the living room and threw herself into her recliner. “Thank Destiny for being my friend and caring about me.”

  “If you’re going to interpret it in such a positive light, then I’ll admit, I had concerns as well. The radio said a fifty-car accident has shut down Route 80.”

  “When?”

  “About five minutes ago, which is why I called.”

  “Well, I’m glad I escaped one disaster, or it could have been hours before I got home. Thanks for all the help and inviting me to Tall and Tiny.”

  “I can speak for both of us. We had a great time. Maybe we can go hiking next week.”

  Carrie grimaced. “I would love to, but, I need to spend time on my relationship with Trent. I realized, as I drove home tonight, we’ve both neglected our personal lives since the turnaround began.”

  Dead silence answered her.

  “Dan, are you still there?”

  “Yes.” His voice sounded distant and somewhat distracted. He’d no doubt focused on something else while she carried on about a person he didn’t like. “I’m sorry. You don’t want to hear about my personal issues. I’ll let you go. But I had a great time tonight.”

  “Same here. See you tomorrow.”

  The line disconnected. She chewed her bottom lip, worried she’d ruined his evening by mentioning her fiancé. If Trent owed her two million, she’d get pissed when anyone said his name, too. She couldn’t make sense of his actions these days.

  Determined to find out, she called him.

  He answered on the second ring. “Trent Lancaster.”

  She spoke from her heart. “I’ve missed you.”

  Dead silence except some guy singing love songs in the background.

  “Hold on,” he stated.

  When he spoke again, the singer could no longer be heard. “I’m here.” His voice seemed to quiver.

  “You okay?”

  A ragged heavy sigh told her he wasn’t.

  “Yeah, I’m marching along like an obedient soldier.”

  “Now I know something is wrong. Is work not going well?”

  “Work’s fine.”

  “Then what’s wrong?”

  “I miss you,” he whispered. The heavy breathing after his admission sounded like he might be crying.

  “Trent, talk to me.”

  His heavy breathing stopped. “I can’t do this on the phone. Are you home?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m coming over.”

  “Good.”

  “Don’t give up on me and fall asleep.”

  “I won’t. I’ll leave the front door unlocked and be on the couch waiting for you.”

  Carrie turned on the TV, but she couldn’t concentrate on the singers auditioning for American Idol. Tonight, the whole world seemed off key.

  What sort of trouble had Trent gotten himself into? He insisted he had no troubles at work, but what else could it be?

  Having no answers, she focused on the singing contest. Two hours of bad vo
calists gave her a headache and an ill temper.

  How could people be so delusional? If they would tape themselves and play it back, they’d hear the truth. They couldn’t sing on key. This simple reality check would have saved them a public humiliation before the entire world. Didn’t they have friends who could have stopped them from making such colossal fools out of themselves?

  She glanced at her watch for the thousandth time: eleven p.m. Even if Trent had been at his Long Island estate, he should have been here by now.

  She then remembered the pile up on Route 80. Damn it! Trent was probably stuck on the interstate. She grabbed her phone and called him.

  A message declared his phone off and the mailbox full.

  Sleep dulled her brain, making it very hard to think. She pushed herself up and unlocked the door, turning the porch light on. Then she snuggled on her couch. As long as she slept lightly, she’d wake up the moment Trent—

  Carrie woke to the faint sound of her alarm clock. She pushed herself up and struggled to make sense of why she’d slept on the couch.

  Trent. He had asked to come by last night.

  She hurried to the door and checked it. Still unlocked and no note on the door. She rushed upstairs and took a shower to wake herself up. Once dressed, she returned downstairs, and cooked breakfast while listening to the DJ talk about the traffic jam on Route 80 last night. They’d had to close down the Lincoln tunnel as traffic backed up into the city. Matters hadn’t been cleared up until three this morning.

  She called Trent, then realized the time and hung up, hopefully before it rang even once. Poor thing. She hoped he hadn’t got caught too long in the mess before Sam turned around. Trent never did well in traffic jams.

  Upon eating, she hurried to the train, and caught the 5:05 so she wouldn’t be late for their 7:30 staff meeting. On the train, everybody talked about the traffic jam from the night before. A pickup truck had hit a barrier and flown across all five lanes of traffic, taking out all the cars along the way, either with physical contact or by making them swerve to avoid the contact.

  Adding to the initial fiasco, cars, unable to stop in time, piled in from behind. All told, the morning paper reported a hundred deep pile-up.

  Even worse than what Dan had thought. She decided to find a newspaper with a picture of an insurance company’s worst nightmare.

  She could almost hear her premiums going up. Chu-chink. Chu-chink.

  Once she got away from Penn Station, she stopped at a newsstand.

  While she searched for a local paper printed late enough to get the story, a magazine caught her eye. The handsome fellow on the cover looked like Trent.

  She stepped closer to the magazine and frowned upon reading the bold letters beneath his picture. New York City loses its most eligible bachelor.

  Crap!

  She pulled the Gossep magazine down and paid two dollars for the garbage. David’s investigator had proven Angela worked for Gossep. Instead of firing the girl, Trent used her presence to scare off Coco, which, at the time, Carrie had thought a brilliant idea.

  Unfortunately, having lost her initial story, Angela must have decided to report Carrie and Trent’s engagement to the world. Now she understood why he’d been so temperamental the prior week. God only knew the harassment he’d received from ‘his’ people.

  The matrons of society did not give up their bachelors to the white-trash, middle-class species easily.

  She tucked the magazine under her arm and headed to work. Two blocks from her destination, a limo pulled over in front of her and Dan’s driver popped out and opened the back door. Dan leaned out. “I’ll give you a ride.”

  She smiled and joined him. “Thank you for saving me the last couple of blocks.”

  His eyes sparkled until they lit upon the trash magazine on her lap.

  “Oh.” She flipped the magazine over. “Trent knew Angela worked for Gossep, but he let her stay. I’m dreading the article because she didn’t like me.” She stared up at the ceiling. “She loved Trent, so he no doubt comes off looking like Prince Charming.”

  “Favor?” Dan asked. His eyes hinted of repressed emotions making him very tense.

  “Stop talking about Trent. I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

  “Don’t take the magazine into our staff meeting, and don’t read it beforehand.”

  “Okay.” She couldn’t argue with his request. He didn’t need a surly new employee at the morning gathering. Without doubt, she’d be pissed as hell once she read the article.

  “And read it in the privacy of your office, with the door closed,” he added.

  Man, he must hate the magazine. Or maybe he didn’t want Trent’s face in his place of business. She couldn’t blame him in either case. He had two million reasons to dislike her fiancé.

  “You have my word.”

  He nodded and stared out the other window so she couldn’t see his face. Still, the slump of his shoulders indicated sadness within him. But he could be dreading the confrontation with his thieving employee.

  “Are you going to be able to fire Sandra?”

  “If she arrives early enough, I’ll do it beforehand. Otherwise, I will have to cut the proceedings short.”

  “Do Jeff and Greg know?”

  “No, but I intend to tell them before the meeting begins.”

  “I’m sure they’ll be pleased.”

  An arch of his right eyebrow alerted her she had missed the mark.

  “Jeff will be. Greg…” He shrugged his shoulders.

  “Why would Greg like her?”

  The car pulled to the curb.

  “Doesn’t matter. The relationship has always been one-sided.”

  Sexy, stylish Sandra and rumpled, balding Greg? She frowned realizing the magazine article probably presented her and Trent equally mismatched, but in reverse, with Trent the beautiful and stylish one.

  “I’ll try to help Greg out today.” She accepted the driver’s hand in getting out.

  Dan followed, placing his hand upon her back. “You’ll have your own stuff to deal with. Focus on yourself today.”

  When they arrived on the fifth floor, she headed to her beautiful new office. Its transformation filled her with happiness and pride. She placed the magazine in her drawer, and turned on her computer. She wrote the project manager at Top Value an email.

  Andy,

  I know you want me to fill out the survey after two weeks, but you need to know the issues I’ve incurred on first use of the chair. One is quite serious. Even though no sane person would do it twice, the first time could injure someone.

  However, on the positive side, I’m loving the chair since I’ve learned how to operate it.

  Carrie

  She attached her word doc and a note-covered diagram of the chair to the email and sent it off.

  Remembering how fast the conference room filled up, she shut down her computer, locked her office, and hurried to the conference room twenty minutes early.

  To her surprise, several people had already arrived. Scott sat on the other side of the table drawing monsters on his notepad.

  He glanced up and smirked, then eyed her engagement ring. “You know, wearing a giant rock could shorten your already short life. Some people can’t tell the difference between fake and real, and some of the stupid ones carry a knife.”

  Ever since she’d mentioned her engagement, he’d become a jerk, but given his refusal to teach an unavailable female resulted in her being taught by Jeff, she couldn’t even rally a slight annoyance with him.

  Besides, he had a good point. Some people, who walked these civilized streets, like the pimp who wanted to be her ‘good boss or bad boss’ might want her authentic diamond.

  “Thank you, for your advice. Do you think I’m safe in here?”

  He snorted. “Safe from me.”

  She ignored his last comment and returned to making notes on her paper. She wondered when her iPad would arrive. She discovered writing longhand tediously slow.


  A few other people drifted in with their coffees. They shared weekend stories. Carrie decided she should start bonding. Once they had finished telling about their weekends, she mentioned she’d seen Tall and Tiny.

  The older woman, Doris, snorted and waved at her in contempt. “Those freaks? Why?”

  Carrie glared as she struggled to control her temper. “Well, for one, because it’s the funniest and most fabulous show on Broadway.”

  The younger woman, Claire, grinned at her. “I heard someone else say the same thing. They’re magicians, right?”

  “Magicians aren’t funny,” Doris said.

  “They are extraordinary illusionists, comedians, mimes, acrobats, and much more. However, I never once considered them freaks.”

  Doris shrugged her beefy shoulders. “You wouldn’t, now would you?”

  Scott laughed as he continued to draw his monsters.

  She refocused on her notepad. Claire moved to the chair beside hers. “So, tell me something they did. I’ve been wanting to go, but my boyfriend hates Broadway shows.”

  “What does he do?”

  “He’s a mechanical engineer.”

  “Then he’ll love the way they fly about and disappear all the time. There’s got to be some great engineering going on.”

  “You think?”

  She nodded. “I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying it. It’s beyond belief.”

  More people entered, and one of the guys spoke from the other side of the table. “Are you talking about the Tall and Tiny show? The stuff they did blew my mind.” He glanced at the guys he came in with. “You gotta see it.”

  The whole room demanded examples of their greatness, which, upon hearing, they refused to believe.

  Dan walked in, and the tension in his stride stopped all conversation. Jeff followed behind him with a somber expression but a happy jaunt. Greg didn’t accompany them.

  Dan sat at the head of the table. “I apologize for being late. I had a few matters to attend to.”

  Jeff moved to a corner and leaned against the wall.

  “I dismissed Sandra Parker this morning and had her escorted from the building. If she calls any of you wishing for access to the systems or information, you are well advised to hang up. While some of you have been unknowing participants in her schemes and will have to testify at her trial, we have determined you assisted in her crime without your knowledge.”