Purely by Accident

by Jim Beegle

  “Does this mean I would have to move to Phoenix?” Mark asked. It was not something he really cared about knowing, but it would give him a few more moments to think while they responded.

  “Well, not right away,” Ness answered, “but at some point after the first of the year we would like you to consider a move. You can take your time with that one. We know your wife has a pretty nice job here, and those kinds of decisions are not easy to make quickly. Besides, for the better part of next year, chances are good you will be on the road.”

  “So, this has already been decided?” he asked.

  “No, no, not at all,” Ness said in a surprised tone that let Mark know that, regardless of what came out of his mouth next, he had few, if any, options in the matter. “We know this is a lot for you to think over. Take some time, and talk it over with your family. We would like you to start as soon as you can, but the decision is yours and yours alone. We are only asking you to set aside your personal feelings about what you think about the situation and consider the good of the company as a whole. We need you to take on a bigger role as we move forward with the Micronix investment. We think you are just the person to help us do that.” Mark cocked his head at this. So they were pulling all the stops out for this one. The gently implied threat that Micronix as a whole would suffer if he turned them down had been skillfully communicated. Once more Mark used the only prop available to him, the water glass, to stall.

  “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful; this is just all very shocking for me,” he finally answered, replacing the glass on the table. He did not bother to tell them that the shock going through his system was not the same one that they had planned.

  “Well, you will need to sleep on it I am sure.” When he said that Ness looked at his watch. “Speaking of sleeping on it, I think I need to do just that. It’s late and I have an early flight. Charlie will come over to the office in the morning and present you with the formal package. Why don’t you stop by in the morning and pick up Kirstin and take her over to the place and show her around? If you decide to take on this little job for us, we’ll have to get her up to speed quickly. Besides, even if you decide not to do this, we would like her to have a better feel for the project and the Dallas end of the operation anyway,” Ness said, then standing to let everyone know that the meeting was over.

  They all got up from their chairs and shook hands again. When Mark came to Kirstin he made quick arrangements to meet her in the lobby the next morning. As they left the dining room, Mark stopped in at the hostess desk and indicated to the others that he needed to visit the men’s room again before riding the elevator back down. They said their good nights and went their separate ways, Mark went to the restroom and everyone else to their suites.

  On the ride down to the lobby, the need for a drink overtook him. When he got to the main floor the almost empty bar begged for his company and he gave into the urge almost at once. He wandered in and took a seat at a small table far away from the big screen television that was on one side of the darkened room. A waitress in a short black dress immediately presented herself to him, taking his drink order and credit card. He decided to open a tab, already thinking that one drink wouldn’t be enough. She returned with his order and his card in just a few minutes. He took a sip from the glass, set it back down on the table, and began the time-honored game making a vortex in the dirty martini with the olives on the swizzle stick.

  His mind wandered to several places in a quick few minutes. He thought over the meeting he had just left, the bribe he had just been offered, and for no real reason that he was aware of, the beach in Nassau. He was still wondering what Nassau had to do with anything when a voice close by interrupted his thought processes.

  “Buy a girl a drink?” He looked up to see Kirstin standing between him and the television that he was not watching. “I came down to get a new room key and saw you come in here.”

  “I would be glad to,” he said moving a chair out from the small table so she could sit. “Please, have a seat.” He signaled to the waitress as Kirstin arranged herself in the chair. While she ordered Mark took his pipe from his pocket and packed it with tobacco. He was in the process of lighting it when the waitress left.

  “That smells nice.” She said in a light airy tone of voice. “Can you smoke in here?”

  “Humm” Mark replied, blowing out a large cloud of smoke. “Everyone says that. It tastes different than it smells. As for smoking in here …” Kirstin’s drink was delivered and she had time to take a pull from the glass “I operate under the belief that if a thing is not expressly forbidden, then it is allowed.” He put the pipe back in his mouth.

  “So,” she began after she replaced her glass on the table. “Pretty exciting stuff, huh?”

  “How do you mean?” Mark asked, knowing full well what she meant.

  “Well,” she crossed her legs and shifted in the short chair, “I mean, a vice president’s job and all that high-profile stuff that comes with it. That has to be pretty exciting I would think?” Mark took another puff from his pipe.

  “For you too, I would imagine. A big move up for you as well.” He reached for his drink and held it in the air. “Here’s to Kirstin Nash and all the good luck that has smiled on you.” Kirstin acknowledged with her own glass. “You’ll need it.” If she heard Mark’s little jab she did not reply to it. She brought her heavy drink glass up against Mark’s, accepting his salute before taking another sip.

  “So, you have decided to take the new job?” She asked.

  Mark smiled at this. “Didn’t know I had a choice.” She looked at him with a puzzled stare.

  “Sure you do. I heard them tell you to make up your own mind.” Mark could think of a hundred things he could say to her. He wanted to tell her to wake up and smell the pizza. Didn’t she have any idea what was going on? Or did she? Either way, he decided not to say any of the things that he was thinking. Besides, he was sure that whatever he said would be part of her breakfast conversations with Ness and Milton the next morning.

  “You’re right, of course.” He said after pulling on the pipe. “I will have to give it all some very serious thought.” They finished their first drinks and ordered seconds. Kirstin launched into all the things she planned on doing to see that all the problems got fixed in the software. She was careful to interject from time to time that this would only take place if Mark decided to take on the new position. Mark assured her that her thinking was sound and that he was sure she could do a wonderful job.

  After the second drink, Mark closed out the tab and wished Kirstin a good night. He had said little during the second round of drinks. Now all he wanted to do was get in his car and drive away. Before they parted in the lobby, he reconfirmed what time he would meet her in the morning.

  The drive home was quick and quiet. He pulled into the garage and noticed that Amy’s Lexus was not there. That was not so bad. He did not know if she could or would pick up anything from him that the gang from DECCO had just sprung on him. If she did, it would lead to a lot of questions that he did not want to answer right now. Finding her car missing from the garage would mean he would be free from having to take that chance. In turn, this caused him to relax just a little as he shut off the engine.

  Out of habit and reflex, he reached into the back seat to get his briefcase and found that it was missing. After a quick search of the rest of his car, he decided that he must have left it in the office or in the lab. He wasn’t sure, but didn’t really worry about it either. He was always leaving it somewhere, only to have to come back later and reclaim it. In fact, he was famous around Micronix for losing it all over the building. Over time it had become a source of amusement to the whole staff. No big deal; he would get it in the morning.

  He went in and picked up the mail in the entrance way and quickly flipped through it before putting it on the table by the door and taking himself upstairs and to bed. In a feeling that was becoming familiar to him, he was grateful t
o be going there alone tonight.

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  The next day, just as he had promised, he picked Kirstin up from the hotel and chauffeured her to the Micronix Division of DECCO. Kirstin had been to Micronix before but never in the possible role of lady of the manor. The change in her attitude was noticeable and disheartening to Mark. He had harbored a small hope that at some point he could convince Kirstin that, regardless of who was running the show, the software was not ready to ship, and would not be for a long time. He gave up on that hope when Kirstin, almost before she went into the building, insisted to the security agent at the front desk that she be issued a permanent Micronix security badge instead of the generic blue “Visitor” badges that she had worn on her previous trips to Dallas.

  Mark played tour guide to Kirstin until shortly before ten when Sandy chased him down in the software lab. She told him Mr. Milton was waiting for him in his office. Mark disengaged himself from Kirstin, leaving her in the very unfriendly hands of the software code engineers. “Why not?” he asked himself. Better she gets used to being distrusted now as opposed to later. Mark hoped she had thick skin. She was going to need it.

  Mr. Milton turned out to be as talkative in the daylight as he had been in the dark. He gave Mark a series of papers outlining things like the job description, pay scale, benefits, stock options, and family benefits, with little or no comment. Mr. Milton’s attitude was one of the simple facts; the offer had been communicated the night before, these were the details. Take the job or find something else to do. In the world of Charlie Milton, it really was that simple. When Charlie tried to nail him down to a decision time, Mark stalled. He told Mr. Milton that he had not yet had a chance to discuss the matter with his wife, which was true. What he did not tell him was he had also failed to make an effort to discuss it with Amy. He stressed the fact he did not think he would get a chance to do so until the weekend. Could he possibly be given until the end of the following week to give them his decision? Mr. Milton granted the stay, but only after letting Mark know that they would prefer to know something sooner rather than later. Mark’s promotion was just a small matter in the world of DECCO. Charlie had more important things to do and Mark was keeping him from his appointed rounds. Mark purposely cut the meeting short in order to avoid having to invite Mr. Milton to lunch or endure being invited.

  After Mr. Milton left, Mark thought about going back downstairs, rescuing Kirstin, and taking her to lunch. That option, he decided, was only marginally better than going with Charlie Milton. In the end, he decided to let Kirstin fend for herself and took Sandy to a deli around the corner from the office. He wanted to tell her what was going on so she would have time, if he decided to take the new job, to make some decision for herself. Besides, he always enjoyed her company, and her agenda never neglected filling Mark in on the latest in-house gossip. She was not surprised to hear of the offer.

  “What a perfect way to get you out of the way,” she said between mouthfuls of salad.

  “That’s what I like about you, Sandy,” he said. “You always see the worst in things.”

  “OK, wise guy,” she said looking him squarely in the face. “What else could it be?”

  “They finally recognize my charm and outstanding leadership ability, or” Sandy started to say something in reply but Mark held up his hand to prevent it, “it is the perfect way to move me out of the way.” There was a short pause after he finished speaking, then both of them broke out into laughter. They returned to work, well fed, to find Kirstin fuming in Sandy’s office. She followed him into his own office without being asked to do so. Once they were both inside the room, she closed the door and spoke not so much to him, but at him.

  “You know that was pretty rude,” she said.

  “What was?” Mark asked knowing full well what she was referring to.

  “Leaving me in the lab and then vanishing into thin air with your secretary,” Kirstin huffed.

  “We didn’t vanish. We went to lunch. Besides, we called down there to see if you wanted to go with us but they said they couldn’t find you,” Mark lied. He was amazed at how he was reacting to Kirstin the same way he had reacted so many times before to Amy. He wondered if he was reacting to her as a woman or as a personal embodiment of spite. If the truth be known, she was at best his equal in the pecking order at Micronix. Granted, a newly anointed rising star, but if push came to shove Mark could pull rank on her.

  A feeling of shame washed over him when he realized how hostile he had been toward her. Everything piling up on him was not her fault, he told himself. It had not been fair to unload like this on her.

  “By the way, the guys in the lab asked me to bring this up to you.” She put his missing briefcase on his desk. “They said you left it there yesterday.”

  “I am very bad about leaving stuff all over the building. Everyone here is very good about looking after things for me.” She made no comment to this confession. She shifted her stance and moved to change the subject.

  “I would like to review the timeline for the beta release of the software with your production managers,” she said.

  Mark could feel the anger in him rising. He knew that he had to be very careful or he would say or do something that he would regret. “Don’t you think that’s a little premature?” he asked her after a pause.

  “What do you mean?” she asked in a demanding tone.

  “The body is still warm.” She gave him a puzzled looked. “Officially, this is still my project, my division, my job, and my office. I have been offered another job, but as of yet, I have not taken it. That means that until such time as I choose which job I will do, what gets reviewed and when it is reviewed is still my call. It would do you good to keep that in mind.” He was going to say something else, but was already annoyed that he had said as much as he had in the tone that he had used. As soon as his voice died down he reminded himself of his new pledge to be fair to Kirstin, and he relaxed a little. To his surprise, Kirstin took his rebuke in stride.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, as the rose color came to her cheeks. “You’re right. I should not be trying to move in so quickly. It is still your job and your responsibility and will continue to be yours and yours alone until you decide to change that.” Mark could tell that her apology was genuine and sincere. He smiled at her, now feeling the color coming into his face.

  “It doesn’t mean you and I can’t go through the timeline,” he said, smiling and motioning for her to pull a chair up beside his desk as he booted up his computer. They spent the next few hours going over the current release status of the new software upgrade. Mark was impressed and relieved to find that Kirstin was a quick study. He was beginning to suspect the story she had been told in Phoenix about why the software was not yet ready was a different one than the facts Mark had lived with for the last few years showed. Now it was like watching a light go on in her head; she was beginning to see the reality of what still had to be done spelled out in clear detail. She began to ask questions and take notes. It pleased him, even more, when the questions she was asking, as they went through the project records, were the same one he had asked. They were so involved in studying the timelines that neither one of them heard Sandy wish them good night when she left to go home for the evening. They might have stayed until dawn if it weren’t for Kirstin mentioning something about dinner. They decided to call it a day and take up where they left off the following morning.

  “Would you mind if offered to buy you a drink, as a sort of peace offering?” Kirstin asked him as he powered down the computer on his desk. Mark thought that over for a minute before answering.

  “I suppose not. Only under one condition,” he told her.

  “What’s that?” she asked him as she gathered up her things.

  “That you let me buy the second round as an apology to you.” He smiled at her with a crooked, sheepish smile as he picked up his newly found briefcase.

  “I would like that very
much,” she said extending her hand to him. “Offer accepted.” Mark shook it as they both laughed and headed for the door to his office.

  Not only did they end up in the same bar in the hotel lobby they’d had drinks in the night before, but also at the same table. The waitress, was a different young lady although dressed in the same short-black-skirt outfit, seemed to be just as efficient and eager to help. Not long after sitting down at the small round cocktail table they were into the first round of drinks, purchased as promised, by Kirstin. There wasn’t much of a crowd in either the lobby or the bar. Just a few weeks before Christmas most people were trying to stay home and get holiday-related tasks and maybe some shopping done. Mark was grateful for the relative quiet in the place. It made it much easier to talk and be heard.

  Over the second drink, Mark began to question Kirstin about her feelings on what she had seen and what she was thinking. The second drink led to a third as they talked back and forth, mostly in coded technical terms that few people in the city, much less in the bar, could completely understand. As the ice in the drinks melted and dissolved into the fourth drink, Mark began to realize that Kirstin was not the blind automaton of Art Ness he had first thought her to be. Granted, she was still a long way from agreeing with him that the software was far from a release point. But she was at least open-minded enough to admit that the projections she made on information given to her in Phoenix might require another evaluation.

  After the fourth drink, Kirstin asked him if he would mind continuing their conversation over dinner. Mark looked at his watch while he considered her offer. It was already after nine, if he left now it would be very close to ten before he made it home. He thought for a minute more before turning down her offer with genuine regret. Instead, he asked her if she would mind joining him for breakfast the next morning. Kirstin quickly agreed to his compromise offer. They parted like the night before, in the massive hotel lobby, selecting a time that would be easy for them to meet and still get to the office early.