”Thank you.” Kerry took a sip of ice tea. ”We have strawberries for dessert, you know.”
”I know,” Dar chuckled softly, as she settled an arm over Kerry’s shoulders, eating one handed. ”What’s he doing now? Oh...hey...is his wife pregnant?”
Kerry peered. ”Either that, or she's been munching on the crocodile crackers overtime.” She watched. ”And he drags her up into mountains, and hands her the tail of a rattlesnake to hold onto...Jesus!” The man on the screen cooed at the angry female rattlesnake. ”You gotta love them?
No Steve. I don’t!”
She chewed. ”He’s got such a cute accent, though.” She reached over and picked up a green bean from Dar’s plate, and offered it to her.
”Here, I sautéed them in a little garlic butter. Just pretend it’s a French fry.”Dar obligingly took the bean, chewing it speculatively. ”I think I’m being condescended to,” She blinked. ”Look at him. There must be a dozen snakes under that rock. Can’t he just leave it alone? Wait, did he just say ‘shit’?”
Kerry's brow creased. ”Yeah, he just said ‘shit’. What's...oh man, Hurricane Watch
27
did you see how pale he just got?” She turned up the sound a little. ”Oh Jesus. He’s got a snake between his legs.”
Her lover burst out laughing. “Typical guy.”
”Tch, Dar. No. He’s got a rattlesnake between his legs! Look, they’re going nuts. He doesn’t know what to do!” They watched as the man on the screen eased out of the way, and scooted out of range.
”Wow. That was outrageous. I wonder if they’d show it if he actually got nailed in the nuts by a poisonous snake.”
”Well,” Dar laughed helplessly. ”At least he could get a tourniquet in place, unlike if he got bit on the face,” She sighed, and chewed a mouthful of rice. ”I think he’s an adrenaline junkie.”
She quieted for a moment. Looking
for
that
fix,
that
excitement...was that what was tugging her towards resuming the aggressiveness of competition? Otherwise, what was the attraction of going back ten years, and trying to recapture that particular bit of glory? Or was this a reaction to her turning thirty, a reassurance to her ego that she still had ‘it’?
Now, that was a depressing thought.
Conceit or a challenge it would just be fun to attempt Hmm. She took another bite of her rice, pausing as Kerry shifted and snuggled up next to her, letting her head rest on Dar’s shoulder.
“You think I should go for it?”
“Mm hmm,” Kerry nodded, her mouth full of chicken. She swallowed and licked her lips. “I love watching you fight.”
Dar forgot about crocodiles as she looked at Kerry’s profile, both eyebrows lifting in surprise. “You do?”
“Sure,” her partner cheerfully assured her. “It’s really sexy.” She found her jaw being gently gripped and her face turned so she was forced to meet Dar’s eyes. “What?”
Both dark eyebrows were up near Dar’s hairline. “Sexy?”
Kerry grinned. “Gonna do it?”
Dar drummed her fingers on the arm of the couch, a thoughtful expression on her face.
Chapter
Three
“SO, HOW’D A sharp girl like you end up in a rat’s nest like this?”
The smile was meant to make her understand it was all in good fun.
Kerry reflected, taking a thoughtful sip of her peach ice tea. ”I submitted a resumé, and it was accepted,” she replied dryly, ”and I happen to like it very much.” It had been a slow morning, unfortunately, and no crises had developed that might have excused her lunch invitation from Steven Fabricini, although, Dar had volunteered to create one if she really didn’t want to go.
”You do, huh?” Steven chuckled, scooping up a spoonful of yogurt.
“That’s hard to believe considering who you work for.”
Kerry shrugged. ”You know, people say that a lot, but I really enjoy working for Dar. She’s smart, she knows her stuff, she gives credit where credit’s due, and she stands up for her staff.” she commented, honestly. ”If you know what you’re doing, you have no problem with her.” Just like Mark Polenti had said at their first meeting. ”Of course, if you don’t...” She let the thought hang.
He laughed. ”You poor little thing. Wait until you get thrown to the fire as a sacrifice the first time she has to take the blame for something. You can’t really be that naive, can you?” He leaned forward.
”Listen, cupcake, I know her, all right? You don’t. She will turn on you like a rabid dog at the first opportunity.”
”Really.” Kerry nibbled on her sandwich. ”Well, thanks for the warning.”
”Anytime.” Fabricini smiled, then lowered his voice. ”Listen, there’s no reason we can’t work together, all right? My job here is to try and punch through these roadblocks we seem to be coming up against, and if I do it, the whole company benefits. Don’t get caught on the wrong side of that, hmm?”
“What kind of roadblocks are you talking about?” Kerry asked.
He regarded her for an instant. “Sales dried up,” he said.
“Everyone looks at this company as too slow and too old school. We can’t get our foot in the door.”
Kerry took a sip of her drink. “I see.”
“We need fresh blood, and new ideas,” he added, “new incentives for customers. We can’t rely on those old metrics of yours to drive new business. It doesn’t work anymore.”
Hurricane Watch
29
“So, you want to give them a good deal, maybe some free services up front, to get them to sign—is that it?” Kerry rested her chin on one hand, letting her other hand lay casually on the table.
He put a hand on her wrist. ”You’re a sharp kid. Everyone says so, and when this all shakes out, there could be opportunity for you, if you know what I mean.”
Kerry smiled kindly at him. ”You mean, if you dig up enough things to force Dar out, I might get her job.”
He smiled back. ”I said you were sharp.” A dangerous glint entered his eyes. ”Stick with me, cupcake.”
She wiped her lips with her napkin, and set it down neatly on her plate. ”There’s just a few things I’d like to get squared away first.” She paused.
”What’s that?” he smiled, a knowing look on his face.
”One, you need to let go of my wrist before I sink my fork into the back of your hand,” Kerry responded very mildly. ”Two, if you call me cupcake again, I’m going to file a discrimination complaint on you with our personnel department. I don’t appreciate it.”
She stood up and took her tray as he released her. “Excuse me,” she said. “I have actual work to do.”
She left him sitting there, as she counted to twenty under her breath, waiting for her heart to stop hammering in her ears from anger.
”Stupid piece of goddamned...oh. Sorry,” she muttered, as she collided with a large, animate object. “Sorry Mark.”
Mark Polenti, their MIS director, peered over her shoulder. ”You okay?” he asked. ”Hey, what did you do to puss face over there? He looks like he’s been hit in the head with an obsolete mainframe.”
Kerry took several calming breaths. ”He is such a pig.” She put her tray down in the washing area. ”He wants me to work with him to find dirt on Dar, and then had the balls to say if I did, he’d see if he could get me her job when it was all over.”