"No, but I did tell her I was taking a friend out to dinner."
"Did you tell her where?"
His eyes widened. "No, but she was looking at my calendar when I walked out of the bedroom after dressing."
"You wrote our date down on the calendar?"
"Not exactly. I wrote down the reservation a week ago," he told me.
My face twisted into disbelief. "How'd you know we'd be going out tonight?"
Alex smiled and shrugged. "I figured I could get you to come with me somehow."
"The more I'm hearing the more the voices in my head are telling me to walk back to my apartment," I commented. I would have turned tail right then, but Alex pulled me back to his side.
"Wait a minute. What if we just went to another restaurant? That should get her off our trail, if she's on it in the first place," Alex suggested.
I sighed and gave a nod. "All right, but it better be worth this tight dress."
It was almost worth the tight dress. Alex drove me from my apartment to a nice little corner cafe with a menu filled with pasta and anti-pasta. I couldn't make up my mind any more than the menu, so Alex ordered for us both. We handed back our menus and I glanced out the window we sat by in our little round table and chairs.
"What do you think?" he asked me.
"I think the company's doomed," I replied.
"I meant about the cafe."
"It's doomed, too, if nobody can read their menu."
He chuckled. "You won't think it's doomed when you try their pasta," he defended them.
"Can't wait." My mind was on the business, especially my troublesome new enemy in the slinky form of Caroline Brenton.
Alex tilted his head to catch my attention. "You look lovely in that dress," he complimented.
"I wonder if we can get Caroline banished from the store," I mused.
"Did you do up your hair?" he persisted.
"Or maybe if you somehow acquired a photographic memory."
"It's a nice night."
"Ugh, if only I'd become a mad scientist like my childhood self wanted."
"Did I ever tell you I was part woodchuck?"
I whipped my head over and blinked at his grinning face. "On your mom or dad's side?" I asked him.
Alex slipped his hand over mine and smiled at me. "Why don't you want to get married?" he asked me.
I sighed and shook my head. "Because I don't know if I'm ready for anything that life-changing. I don't want to be taking my wedding cake out of the freezer in a year and having it taste like disappointment and regret."
"And you think we'd be that?"
"I don't know what to think. Everything's going on at the same time and I can barely focus on keeping my job."
"Why don't you quit? You and Mr. Smith could come live with me," he suggested.
"And be your what? Your girlfriend? Girlfriends don't last forever, and I don't want to be stuck with the short end of the straw when the happy times in the relationship are sucked dry," I told him.
He slipped his hand off mine and smiled, but there wasn't any happiness in it. "All right, you win for now. No more marriage proposals or romance until we get some of your life straightened out." He offered me his hand and his beautiful unwavering eyes. "Deal?"
I grasped his hand and gave a shake that made him cringe. "Deal. Now when do we eat?"
He sheepishly grinned and glanced past me. "You might be eating before me," he told me.
"Why?" The waiter came up with our food, or rather a plate of food. It was a plate of spaghetti with the meatball chunks situated on his side. There were also two forks on the plate. I looked from the plate to him. "These noodles don't happen to all be connected, do they?" I asked him.
Alex shrugged. "Maybe," he replied.
"And you were going to what? Push one of the meatballs toward me with your nose?" I guessed.
"Possibly." I snorted and set my head in my palm. He smiled. "It worked in Lady and the Tramp."
"So if I'm the Tramp, does that make you the Lady?" I teased.
He coughed into his fist and picked up one of the forks to push some meatballs toward me. "Not one of my best ideas, but I'd thought I'd try," he replied.
"Better luck next time, Romeo."
"I hope you don't expect us to reenact that."
"Please don't. I don't like needles, much less stabbing myself to death. But let's dig in before this plate gets cold."
Chapter 10
We dined, talked, and at ten Alex took me home. He stood in the doorway of my apartment and I turned to him with one hand on the open door. "I had a nice time," I told him.
"Even with my romantic antics?" he wondered.
I smiled, leaned forward, and pressed a chaste kiss on his cheek. "You're too cute, but don't ever change," I replied.
Alex grinned, stepped back, and bowed low at the waist. "Always your obedient servant," he answered.
"Good, because I plan on putting you through the works again tomorrow at work." I shut the door on his slumped face and turned to find Mr. Smith seated at the end of the couch. I strode over and scratched his head. "What do you think, Mr. Smith?"
"Meow," was his answer.
I sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm falling for him hard and everything's looking up."
"Meow."
"Yeah, too good to be true, but who knows? Maybe this'll last," I hoped.
The next day I arrived at work and looked around for Alex to resume our training, but Jamie found me in the break room before I found him. She came in quietly through the door when my focus was on the window that looked out onto the back room. "Have you seen Alex? I can't find the slacker anywhere," I asked her.
"Um. . ." Something was wrong. Jamie was never at a loss for words. I turned to her and saw her face was pale, and she bit her lip as she came up to me. "Mullen wants to see you," she told me.
I frowned. "About what?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. I was just up there talking with the secretaries like you asked, and Snitchie found me and told me to tell you to go up to his office."
"Right now?" I asked her.
"Right now."
My mind reeled with the possibilities of this conversation. One stood out among the rest; my date with Alex last night. "A-all right. I'll see you later, okay?" I replied.
Jamie gave me a small smile and nodded. "Sure."
I steeled myself and marched out of the break room to the elevator that led up to the offices. At each floor another stone was dropped into my stomach. By the time I reached the top floor I rattled with rocks. The elevator doors opened onto the myriad of cubicles and loose desks. The secretaries looked up from their work. They were filled with curiosity. So was I, but I dreaded the reveal. Mullen's door stood down the long hall opposite the elevator door. Many of the secretaries whispered among themselves as I passed.
I strode down the long hall, but slowed down when I noticed Snitchie seated in a chair near Mullen's door. She had a grin on her face like a cat who'd caught a mouse, and I had a feeling I was the one with the mousy ears. I passed by her and into Mullen's office where his secretary looked up from her desk. "Miss Trammel?" she guessed.
"Yes, Mr. Mullen sent-"
"I know. Go right in. He's expecting you," she told me.
I tried not to gulp too loudly as I opened the glass door and slipped into his office. It was a dark place with no windows to the outside world, but there was a large two-way mirror on the back wall opposite the door that had a great view of the main corridor of the store front. There were thick red curtains on either side of the mirror that kept the light from streaming in. The lights above me were low, but I could see there was a large desk opposite the door with a small chair in front of it and a large, cushy one in back. The cushy chair had its back turned to me.
"Good morning, Miss Trammel," a voice spoke up. The chair turned to reveal Mullen, and he had the same smile as Snitchie. He leaned forward and clasped his hands on the desk. "Miss Trammel, I'm afraid it's co
me to my attention that you have broken a time-honored rule."
"Oh?" I returned.
Mullen pulled a package from his suit jacket and threw onto his desk a couple of photos. I stepped forward and leaned over. My eyes widened when I saw my own face staring back at me. The pictures were of last night and my date with Alex. There he was holding my hand asking me to marry him, and there was that plate of spaghetti sitting between us.
"Care to explain this?" he asked me.
"They seem to be photos taken from a camera," I replied.
"And the people in it?" he persisted.
I cringed. "Alex and me," I told him.
He smiled. "Alex, is it? I see only Mr. Brenton with one of his subordinates dining after hours. Care to explain how that happened?"
I shrugged and sheepishly smiled. "We just happened to meet each other and decided to have dinner together."
He raised an eyebrow. "With both of you dressed as that, and living far from one another?" he challenged me.
"Fate's a funny thing," I replied.
Mullen frowned and tapped the pictures. "But this isn't. I'm putting you on an indefinite leave of absence, without pay, until this is cleared up," he told me.
My eyes widened and I shook my head. "But-" The words caught in my throat when I noticed the feminine figure behind the thick curtains. My eyebrows crashed down and I straightened. "I see how it is. You scratch her back and she'll scratch yours," I guessed.
Mullen's frown deepened. "This isn't personal, Miss Trammel. This is merely business," he argued.
"Uh-huh, as business-like as this," I countered as I tapped on the photos. I spun on my heels and stomped from the room before I made things worse, and before he could see the tears in my eyes. The secretary jumped when I flung open the door and hurried out.
The others in the hall looked up from their work as I sprinted by and raced into the elevator. Once inside the quiet sanctuary I burst into tears. I was essentially fired. Any sort of investigation would find I'd broken the rules. Even I couldn't deny I'd broken the rules. The elevator doors opened and I hurried across the back room to the break room. The room was empty and I grabbed my things from my locker.
I was just about to make a clean getaway when the break room opened and Alex strode in. He whipped his head to and fro, and smiled when his eyes fell on me. His pleasure didn't last when he noticed my red face, try as I could to turn away. "What's wrong?" he asked as he strode up to me. "What's happened?"
I shook my head and looked at the floor. "Just stuff," I replied.
"Stuff doesn't make girls cry," he argued.
I snorted. "You'd be surprised."
He grasped my shoulders and leaned down to catch my eyes. "George, tell me what happened," he demanded.
"What we should've expected. Mullen found out about us and he's suspended me. I'll probably be fired."
"Found out? How?"
"He had some pictures of last night. I think-I think Caroline put him on our trail and he had Snitchie follow us."
I felt Alex's hands tremble and he ground his teeth. "What the hell? They stalked us and now they're using that to get you fired? Hell no!" He released me and turned to march upstairs.
I grabbed his arm and pulled him back to me. "No, don't. We both know we shouldn't have done it, and if you do pull strings to get me out of this then everyone will know you're playing favorites," I pointed out.
"Then what are we supposed to do? Let them win everything? The store and your job?" he argued. "You know I can't be the manager of the back room without your help, and if I don't get that week of no-mistakes then my family's putting this place into merger," he reminded me.
I shook my head. "I don't know. I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of trying to save this place and getting nowhere."
He frowned. "Then let me go with you. I'll go up there and quit in protest. That might buy us some time and-"
"Just let them have this dump!" I cried out. "They can have this mess they've made and blow it all to hell for all I care!"
"What about me?" Alex and I turned to the break room door to see Jamie leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest. She frowned at both of us. "What about the rest of us? You guys just can't leave us hanging here," she protested.
I sighed and shrugged. "What do you expect us to do?"
A grin slowly slid onto her lips. "You two, nothing. Everyone else, everything."
I blinked. "I don't follow."
Jamie strode over to us, grabbed our arms and pulled us into a huddle around her. "This is how it works," she whispered, and commenced to tell us.
Chapter 11
Her plan was brilliant, insane, and probably wouldn't work. Then again, what did we have to lose? Well, besides the store and most of our jobs.
That night at seven o'clock found Alex, Jamie and me seated at my favorite booth in The Pub. I glanced at Jamie who sat beside me as cool as a cucumber. "You sure you told everybody to come? Clerks? Forklift operators? Secretaries? Stockers?" I asked her for the tenth time.
She grinned and nodded. "Yep. Even the mail delivery guy."
"But he doesn't work for the store."
"You told me to tell everybody," she argued.
I rolled my eyes and looked to my left where sat Alex. He had a glass of water in his hand that he hadn't drank from in five minutes. I gently set my hand on his arm and he jumped. I smiled. "If you're any more tense I'll be able to shoot you across the room," I teased him.
He grinned and shrugged. "I guess I've never organized something like this before."
"It won't be that hard. Well, unless nobody comes and you're stuck learning everything on your own, and in two weeks your father will call you a failure and the store'll be merged with the business and everyone will lose their jobs," I told him.
His grin slid off his pouting lips. "That doesn't make me feel any better about this idea," he mumbled.
I cast a side-glance at Jamie. "Could you repeat this strange idea of yours so Alex is comforted? Frankly, I need some comforting, too."
Jamie smiled and turned to us. "It's simple. Alex needs help with his work, right?"
"Right," I replied.
"And you're fired now, so you can't help him, right?"
"You had to remind me. . ."
"But am I right?"
"You're right," I agreed.
"And he's got to get everything right in the next two weeks, right?"
"Get on with it."
"Well, I thought maybe everybody could help him get everything right," she continued. "You know, like everybody manages what they want ordered and just give him the filled-out sheets, and the forklift guys manage the trucks. You know, like we do already, but all the credit for the good stuff goes to Alex and since everybody already knows what they're doing then nothing will go wrong."
"You forgot the part where everybody has to learn the manager job and help Alex learn their departments," I countered.
"They'll be glad to help. It's their store and jobs, too, you know," Jamie protested.
I swept my hand over the relatively empty room. "I don't see them clamoring to volunteer."
"Because I told them to be here by seven-thirty, silly," she pointed out.
I rolled my eyes. "Then why are we here at seven?"
"For the drinks," Jamie replied. "When everybody gets here we won't be able to order anything."
I groaned and slumped over the table. Alex chuckled and rubbed my back. "The drinks aren't too bad here," he agreed.
"Don't encourage here," I mumbled.
A few minutes later a trickle of Stacy workers dripped into The Pub, followed by a flood that was big enough that we had to count heads to make sure we weren't exceeding the maximum capacity for the building. I noticed Alan and Phil enter and take a seat at one of the crowded tables. After heads were counted, drinks were drunk, and the clock struck seven-thirty, Jamie led me up to the bar and jumped up onto the top where she put her fingers in her mouth. She blew a
whistle shrill enough to catch the envy of a witch and the room quieted.
"Ladies, gentlemen, and workers of Stacy," she began. "I'm here to present George Trammel, so here she is." I was half dragged onto the impromptu stage and all eyes zoomed in on me.
"All right, here's the deal. We invited you to come here tonight because the store's in trouble and so are all your jobs," I told them. A murmur arose from the crowd and I held up a hand. "Don't panic yet. We've got a chance to save everything from Mullen and the board, but we're going to have to work together and help this guy out." I gestured to Alex who stood on the bartender side of the bar behind me. He nervously smiled and waved.
"That's one of the Brentons. That Alex guy. Why does he need our help?" a clerk spoke up.
"He's the back room manager, but not if we don't help him," I replied. "His dad's trying to merge the company, and Alex is trying to stop him. He needs to go a week without making a mistake in the back room, or a lot of our jobs are done for."
"Didn't you get fired?" a secretary asked me.
"She did. Why'd she want to help us?" another wondered.
I crossed my arms and looked over the crowd. "I got fired trying to save the store, and I'm not going to let anybody else's jobs end up the same way," I replied.
"What do we have to do?" Alan spoke up.
"We've got to help Alex out and make sure he doesn't screw up," I told them. Alex cringed, but didn't argue.
"And that'll save our jobs?" someone questioned.
I shrugged. "Probably, but the alternative is a lot of us losing our jobs and Mullen will win. Do we really want management to win?"
"No!" came the resounding cheer.
"Then what are we going to do?" I asked them.
"We're going to make sure this guy doesn't mess up!" Phil shouted.
"Yeah!" cried the rallied Stacy store employees.
I held up my hands and silenced the bar. "And we can't just ensure this guy's a good manager! We have to tell any higher-ups that ask that he's a great manager!" I hoped for another resounding hurrah, but the room quieted.
"Why should we do that?" Alan wondered.
"I don't know about lying," Phil argued.
"Come on, guys, he's got to look good to keep his family off his back and away from their merger plans." I grabbed hold of Alex and hauled him onto the bar stage. "He's not that bad a guy. He's just a little green." There were still grumblings of misgivings among the party.