"Okay, tell me more about the job. They're not screwing you because they think you're desperate are they?"
Sera thought about how she had started reorganizing Jeff’s files, how she had made herself comfortable in his office, had run off crying, stuck him with a whole bunch of materials and a debt she couldn't possibly pay, told him everything he did that was wrong in how he ran things ... and smiled.
"No, I don't think you have to worry about that. The guy, Jeff, is really nice. He seems very decent. He’s not very organized, and if anything, I think I could be the one that will screw him."
"Really? That good looking?"
Sera turned bright red and looked around the office to make sure she was alone in case anyone could have heard that.
"Deb, you’re an ass. And yes, now that you mention it, he is pretty good looking, but for me to even think about a guy that way is hopeless. Peter and I will never be together again, so my days with a man are over until the kids grow up. I'll just have to consider adding some new 'tools' to play with at home."
Deb laughed at Sera's quick analysis. "You know, Chad travels a great deal. I've found some ways of fixing stuff without tools ..."
"Yeah, well chocolate will just make me fat and I can't afford any more clothes. I'm still struggling to wear some of the stuff I was wearing before P.D. was born.
"Joking aside, this guy I work for ... Jeff, it's funny, but I don’t really think he wants people to know how nice he really is.”
“Are you sure you can handle being treated nicely for a change?”
“I believe it's something I could get used to rather quickly.”
“Okay, now that I've made you smile for a couple of seconds, not meaning to ruin your mood, but have you heard anything from that jerk you married?”
“Your husband’s charming sibling? No, nothing. It's like he just disappeared. If it weren't for the random checks deposited in our account twice, I'd say he disappeared completely. And honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that I need to find him to claim child support, I think I would rather he just never show up again. Except to let his mom know he's all right. I feel really sorry for Marion.”
“Yeah well, I do too, but I feel a lot worse for you. I think Marion does too. Yes, she's concerned, and if it were Chad, we'd all be freaking, but let's face it, Peter doesn't care about anyone but himself. She knows her son is a selfish pig who got lucky and married a great girl…”
“Have I told you how much I love you?” Sera’s eyes welled up, thinking her in-laws and her kids were worth the pain of knowing Peter.
“Yeah well, me too kiddo.”
Sera cleared her eyes and sat up straight. “Listen, I've got to go. I’m on my lunch break and since I don’t have any food and don’t want to spend any money, I might as well get back to work to impress the boss before he gets back."
"Tomorrow, wear that little red top with the flowers on the collar that I gave you. That's one way of impressing your boss."
“I'll think about it,” Sera smiled while making a mental note of what she could wear to a job with three men and contractors filing through regularly... definitely not the little red top Deb gave her. “Hey, you know how much I appreciate what you’re doing for us, don't you? I love you guys so much even though your brother-in-law is an idiot.”
Both women were quiet and then Sera broke the silence to ask, “And other than being a demon, how’s my little princess?”
“Let's see, she’s still about 27” long, has brown curly hair, and is kind of pretty when she’s not trying to kill me with her screaming.”
“That bad?”
“No sweetie. She’s a lot worse than bad.”
Sera hung up, relieved that she had a family and a friend like Deb. The fact that Deb was Peter’s brother’s wife was irrelevant. They were wonderful people and had been invaluable since, and even before Peter had disappeared. They were never as impressed by Peter as she had been.
Sera knew that those who didn’t know Peter probably thought she was callous about his disappearance, but she didn’t care. He up and left without a goodbye, aware of their finances, and she assumed he remembered he had left not only a wife, but four kids as well! Sera knew he was probably living it up with Brandy, or whoever the flavor of the month was. She had been in denial for a while and finally figured out he was not only impatient, stubborn, and selfish, but he was unfaithful to boot. And as for leaving her, there had been clues before he left, threats even, but Sera hadn't had the time or energy to cater to Peter's fits when she was still trying to get used to Emma's.
Sera had waited a week, out of embarrassment mostly, and then filled out a missing person’s report and explained the situation to the nice cops at the precinct. "Find him," she had said, "and remind him that he has four kids who have to eat at least three times a day.”
Sera had taken only a half hour for her lunch break. She wondered if Jeff would be back today, just as she was getting ready to start working on his desk. He had disappeared right after signing their “agreement.” Men disappearing on her seemed to be the story of her life.
Chapter 5
Jeff left his office kicking everything that got in his way. He had had a lousy morning, had hired a total stranger without even checking first with Mitch, who was after all, part owner of Mason Landscaping, and to top it off, now he was having his own doubts about hiring someone like Sera.
Sera came with tons of baggage, he didn’t know her from Adam, hadn’t done a background check on her, gave her a salary that no employee had ever been lucky enough to start out with, and had for all practical purposes written off her debt.
How would Mitch feel about this? Jeff had never bypassed Mitch since Mitch bought one third of the company business. Once again, Jeff proved to be lacking on the business side of the job. Once again, he acted like a total idiot, and once again – why not? – he hoped it had absolutely nothing to do with how attractive Sera was. He really wanted to think his judgment was more highly developed than that, although he knew from experience that man, and especially man working too hard and on a lengthy dry spell, hadn't really evolved.
Well, it was almost one o'clock now. Jeff had visited a site they had been having problems with, specifically with the irrigation system, and he couldn’t stay away from his office any longer. He had to get back to the office, talk to Mitch, and if necessary, get rid of his new hire, deal with the possibility of another breakdown on her part, and accept a great loss of money.
Jeff called a few clients from his car, and found a few other things to keep him occupied so he didn't get back until 4:10. When he reached his office building, he was surprised to find Sera’s car still parked outside. He recognized it as soon as he drove up. It was hard to believe, as tired as he was, that it had only been that morning that he was soaked to the bone after pacing around the car for a good ten minutes, waiting for her to acknowledge him.
Jeff had told Sera she could leave at 4:00. Maybe she had lost her keys again. He was going to tell her dedication was admirable, but she had a family to go home to, when he walked in and heard laughter at the end of the hallway. His office was the last office in the building and it seemed the laughter was coming from there.
What the hell was this? A circus? His office hadn't heard this much laughter ever. Was he paying everyone to slack off?
When he put his head inside the door, he saw that Sera was sitting at his desk, on his chair, and Todd, Mitch, and Alan were sitting on his desk, which apparently had been cleared of all the paper clutter he had had that morning. Wondering what shocked him most, the informal party taking place in his office, or the cleared up desk, Jeff was about to say something when Sera saw him and immediately got up to let him sit down.
The guys followed her eyes, which were full of guilt as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, but each one looked at Jeff, waved or nodded, and then turned their attention back to Sera who had been in the middle of a story or something. Whe
n Sera didn’t return to her seat or the story, they realized it was probably time to go home or get back to whatever it is they were supposed to be doing.
“I’m sorry.” Sera said as she grabbed her purse to leave. "Is 8:00 all right for tomorrow?”
“Yeah, uh ... see you then.”
He watched her leave and didn't notice Mitch watching him from across the hallway until Mitch crossed the hall and came into Jeff's office smiling.
Jeff didn't want to deal with Mitch just now, and instead, focused on the room he was in which held no semblance to the office he had left earlier that day. The place looked great, but he knew he couldn't put Mitch off too much longer.
“Mitch, we need to talk.”
“Damn straight we do.”
“Listen, I know we should have talked about this, about hiring someone to get us organized and all before I sat her down and signed a contract. I can probably foot this one on my own, or if you're totally opposed, I understand. I screwed up. I don't even know if we can afford her.”
“Yeah, we should have talked." Mitch said with understanding, but he surprised Jeff with what he said next. "We should have talked about doing something like this a long time ago. I don't know if you've had a chance to look around yet, but she filed everything in those cabinets, and they're already in alphabetical order. We might actually be able to find something now. She also set up three separate drawers that are labeled already, one for work completed, another for on-going maintenance projects, and the last one for contracts on work that still has to be done. She said she needs another file cabinet or storage to put the work completed, so she can better use that particular drawer for prospects. We've never done that, have we? She said that way you can target prospects and develop a clientele, instead of waiting for the calls.”
Mitch started laughing. “She asked if she could have my computer to set up billing, payroll, prospects etc. She actually smiled and told me computers can be used for more than just games. I think she’ll be great for us Jeff. And even if it's only until she's paid off the debt she owes, we'll be better off all around after she's been here for a while. It would be nice to finally get this business permanently in the black, if we know what’s going on and have all of the information at our fingertips.”
Jeff shook his head obviously relieved. “I thought you’d be mad.”
“The guys love her.” Mitch added as if that would put Jeff's mind at ease.
“Oh yes, and that’s obviously a great reference! Actually, I kind of wish they didn't like her that much. We’ll have to keep an eye on that if we don't want any problems.”
“An eye on what?”
“You know, it’s not just Alan and Todd, it’s all the other guys who parade in and out of this office building. You know," Jeff lowered his voice so that the others couldn't hear, "they’ll all see her and…”
“And what?” Mitch pretended to be dense.
“Well,” Jeff looked down at his shoes and shuffled his feet, “she’s a girl.”
“Holy shit, I knew I noticed something different about her!” Mitch laughed at Jeff. “You know, hiring a female is not exactly a new concept. It's been done before. Maybe for you it's new, but you just stepped out of a cave and haven’t even been out in the world for a while. Hate to tell you, but other people are hiring women too.”
“It’s not that she’s a woman, well it is really, but I just think she just looks a little too…”
“Too what?” Mitch chuckled and was not about to help his friend on this one. "Too short?"
“Well yeah, she's short, but not too short. She's just, well kind of …”
“Kind of what?”
“Damn you Mitch! She’s just too distracting. We'll never get any work done.”
“Hey, speak for yourself. I'm a married man, remember?"
"How could I forget? My sister would kill me if I forgot who you were and didn't watch out for you."
"Watch out for me, or watch over me? That’s right. That’s why you let me become a partner, so you could watch me ...” Mitch stopped and added, “By the way, distracting? I don't think anyone says 'distracting' anymore. What you mean is that she's hot, she has a great ass, and I think I’ll shut up before my wife magically reads the rest of my thoughts like she always does and I get in real trouble. Because I don't think she's distracting as much as, uh, disturbing really.”
“I'll forget you're my brother-in-law for a minute and ask you. So, you agree that she's hot?”
“I say you'd have to be blind not to notice, but she's also efficient, has some great ideas we can benefit from, seems to be very organized, she’s funny, amiable, and we all know she’s going through some rough times so I think this arrangement will benefit us all. I’m happily married, and that's not just because you're my brother-in-law, but I also know your sister is going to want to come in and check Sera out, and when she does, I think she'll like her and tell us we're all bastards for us not making Sera’s coffee in the morning."
"Yeah, I can see her taking another woman's side ..."
"I don't think we have to worry about the guys here. Todd is engaged, and Alan is so weird he might not have even noticed she is a girl. Although I find it hard to believe anyone would not notice that." Then stopping to pause, “I think it’ll be fine. Welcome to the twenty-first century amigo. By the way, this wouldn’t happen to be a personal problem you have, would it?”
“Kiss my a…”
Mitch was out of the room before he heard the rest.
Chapter 6
Sera went in to work every day at 8:00, and sometimes a little earlier. She needed time to get the kids up, and drive the older ones to their respective schools, or to the bus stop. Then, she’d take Charlie and Emma to Deb’s. Charlie would be starting school soon, so that left only Emma with Deb.
Two weeks had gone by and she’d seen Jeff for only a few minutes at a time, on four or five days. She had heard nothing good or bad about what she was doing, and had had no direction from either of the partners. She assumed they were happy with what she was doing, or she would have heard.
This morning she was at the office by 7:30. She had arrived earlier in the hope that she could also leave before 4:00. She wasn’t sure if anyone would be there yet, and was happy when she saw a car in the parking lot in front of the building so someone could let her in.
Jeff heard some tapping on the window and looked up to see who it was. He had been there since five and had started dozing off. He had already finished one pot of coffee, and decided to hold off before he made the next when he remembered his “secretary” could make it for him.
Jeff went to the front door and reminded himself to get a key copied for Sera. If he wasn’t here, she would have to wait forever until one of the guys rolled in.
Jeff looked at Sera and admired how well she looked in a pair of jeans and a white cotton shirt. So simple, yet on her it looked fantastic. He found himself responding to her in a dangerous way. Mitch was right. She wasn't distracting; she was disturbing. How Jeff would handle six months of this, he didn't know.
Sera gave Jeff a big welcoming smile and thanked him for opening the door. And sensing he didn't want her anywhere near, although any reason she imagined would have been wrong, she quickly made her way over to Mitch’s office.
As soon as she left, Jeff slammed the front door of the building, wondering once again how he would survive the next six months. He really needed to start dating again. But it was almost unnerving how anyone could be as cheerful and beautiful at this time in the morning.
Frustrated, he didn't wait for the coffee he heard her start, and walked over to his desk, found his keys, now that the piles on his desk were cleared, and left without a word. Having an extra body in the office would not be easy, especially a body like Sera’s.
Sera heard the door slam and wondered if one of the other guys had just waltzed in. She finished Jeff’s coffee and poured it in a mug he had said was his and brought it into the oth
er room, only to find that Jeff had disappeared. He had probably been waiting for her just to open the door. She’d have to ask him for a key to the office unless he wanted to wait for her every day.
Sera had figured out how to use the answering machine yesterday and checked for any new messages, finding a few that she jotted down to bring to the guys’ attention later. She started a new coffee pot, since she had only poured Jeff's from a pot that was almost empty, and went over to the computer where she would start entering all the data from their current clients.
As she waited for the computer to boot, she looked around the office and decided it was so ... The word that first came up was sterile, but to say that meant to imply that it was neat, tidy, and clean, and it was definitely not that, not yet. It wasn't really masculine either. It was just a room full of stuff. No warmth, no color, no pizazz. She wondered if any clients ever came in to arrange for their work to be done, to pay, or to sign contracts.
What had Peter done when he hired them for the job? She didn't know what Peter had done, only that she had gotten a bill saying the work was scheduled to be done and how much she owed. Peter had never mentioned anything to her.
If clients did come in, there was no welcoming area or warmth. There was no indication of the type of business they ran. The only plant they had had was in a dumpster outside and Jeff had claimed it was silk. Sera still had her doubts about that. She was sure it was dead when she threw it in the bin.
A landscaping company should have some greenery – live greenery – and a stonescaping company could use flooring or columns that reflected some of the work they did.
Something a little different would be nice. In addition to organizing, she should make it more appealing too. Looking at her surroundings, she thought of how depressing it would be to work in a stark box, but that would have to wait as well. Baby steps.
By the time the guys rolled in, Sera had almost finished entering the name, address, and the type of job that was being done for all of the current clients. She noticed when she was filing that a lot of them were current only because they still hadn’t paid, but not because the job was incomplete. Mitch had told her yesterday to feel free to set up the computer just the way she wanted it, and to make any other changes she thought fit. After all, he had added that any change would be a positive change.