“Definitely.” Dar considered a moment, then interlaced her fingers and rested her chin on them. “Anytime you want to indulge, just give me a call.”
A quiet smile crossed Kerry’s face. “That’s a deal.”
KERRY MUSED QUIETLY about her evening as she changed out of her work clothes and into a T-shirt and shorts. She glanced up as a soft knock sounded and sighed. “C’mon in.”
Colleen bounded in and put her hands on her hips. “And where have you been, young lady? Don’t tell me the Gorgon has you working late already. I’m telling you, Ker, you can’t let her rope you into those kinda hours.”
“Not exactly.” Kerry chuckled, pulling out her Rollerblades. “I mean, yes, we had a late meeting, but it was down here, and we…I found someone to go eat Thai with me, so I tried out that new restaurant I was telling you about.”
“They sauté cats, y’know,” Colleen advised her, plopping down on the couch and removing her own skates from around her neck. They’d planned to go out skating, and she’d been watching for Kerry’s car. “Not that you can tell what the hell’s in there in any case.”
The blonde woman rolled her eyes. “It was chicken, Col. Just chicken, rice, some stuffed shrimp, and these really nice little doughnuts for dessert.”
She pulled on a skate and tightened the laces. “And it’s Vietnamese that uses cats, not Thai.”
“Mmm-hmm. So, should I be jealous? You’ve got a new friend at work, eh? What’s his name?” Colleen coaxed mischievously. “How’d you con him into dubious restaurants so fast?”
Kerry stopped lacing and rested her hands on her knee before looking up.
“Um. It’s a her, and it’s Dar, and she didn’t need any conning. She likes Thai.”
Colleen’s jaw dropped. “No shit? You were out having dinner with your boss, again?” She clucked under her breath. “If I didn’t know you better, I’d be thinking you were doing some first class butt kissing here.”
“Tch. You’re just pissed because I finally found someone who’ll eat that stuff with me.” She gave a soft laugh. “Besides, she’s kinda fun.”
The redhead slapped her hand to her temple. “I didn’t hear that.” She plugged both ears. “I’m not listening to you tell me that fire-breathing dragon is ‘fun.’ Kerry, this is the bitch who was going to fire you and everyone at Associated two weeks ago, remember?”
Kerry bristled unexpectedly. “Don’t call her that. She was just doing her job.”
“That’s what the Nazis said,” Colleen replied unrepentantly. “I can’t believe you’re sitting here defending her.”
Kerry finished tying her laces, then stood, balancing easily. “It’s different now, Colleen. I understand a lot more about what was going on behind all the decisions she was making. She’s not a bad person.”
“So, it’s okay for her to just fire everyone now?” The redhead stared at her. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“No. Understanding is not the same as agreeing with. It’s just that I can take what she does separate from who she is.”
Tropical Storm 113
Colleen grabbed her head with both hands. “You’re confusing the daylights out of me.”
“Well, put on your skates and let’s get going.” Kerry sighed. “Look, it’s simple—I didn’t like what she did. It’s why I decided to try and join her department, so maybe I could change her mind on things. But I do like who she is, I like her, as a person—regardless of what she does at work. You understand?”
Her friend finished tying off her skates and stood, wobbling a little. “I understand she’s charmed the hell out of you, that’s for sure.” She shook her head. “Just…Kerry, be careful, okay? I don’t want to see you throw yourself into this job, only to have it backfire on you, and have her screw you over.”
She wouldn’t do that. The words came naturally to her lips, without thought, but Kerry clamped her jaw shut on them, realizing it wasn’t something she could easily explain knowing. “I’ll be careful. I know sometimes things can get ugly, especially at the level she’s at. Thanks for being concerned about me.”
“Mmph,” Colleen grumbled. “Someone’s got to be.” She followed Kerry out the door and down the sidewalk. “So, how’s she treating you up there anyway?”
Kerry swung into an easy rhythm, heading down the paved street.
“Pretty good, really. She keeps sabotaging me with cookies. She thinks I don’t weigh enough.” She gave Colleen a wry look. “We share a lot of the same tastes in goodies.”
“Ah.” Her friend nodded. “Okay, she gets a point then.” She paused.
“But only one, mind you.” She tugged at Kerry’s shirt. “I’ve been telling you that for months.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Kerry rolled her eyes. “Come on, I’ll race you to the corner.”
Chapter Eleven
KERRY ENTERED THE conference room and gave a smiling nod to the assembled group as she slipped into a chair halfway down the table. It was the first meeting she was going to attend without Dar’s comforting presence by her side, and she was a little nervous. She put her PDA down on the table and glanced around, folding her hands together.
The meeting was to coordinate a project to replace the current technology they were using for their huge intranetwork with a more advanced type, and that affected virtually everyone in the company. Dar had meant to attend, but she was in the middle of straightening out a huge problem affecting the entire West Coast and had told Kerry to just go on, take notes, and not to agree to anything.
Easy enough. She was a little worried about Dar, though. The morning had started out fine, but after she’d taken care of the day’s urgent morning e-mail, she’d stopped by to check on something and found her boss standing by her window, staring out at the water with a grim expression. Something was bothering her. Even after only two weeks, Kerry could see it plainly. Dar had given her brief answers, a dismissive attitude that had surprisingly hurt. But there was this meeting, and they had work to do, so there was no time for her to ask any more questions.
So she sat here, instead, worrying about someone she barely knew and sitting in a meeting she was barely prepared for. Kerry sighed. Good thing it’s Friday. She glanced up as a tall, bearded man stepped to the head of the table and sat down, shuffling some papers in front of him, then looking at her with an unpleasant frown.
“Do I understand we’re not deemed important enough for Ms. Roberts to be here?”
Kerry bit her tongue for a minute, then cleared her throat. “Actually, she’s cleaning up a mess out in the western region. She asked me to sit in for her.”
The younger man sitting next to him winced. “Ouch. The Pacific deal?”
Kerry nodded. “She forced Unisys to ship those mainframes a week early, and she was pushing some of the folks out there to get a team out for install.”
The bearded man didn’t look any happier, but he grunted and focused his attention on his papers. “Well, all right, let’s get started with this.” He glanced at his neighbor. “You have a technology presentation?”
Kerry settled in, opening her PDA and scribbling a few notes as the lights dimmed and a circuit diagram flashed on the screen.
Tropical Storm 115
DAR TOOK A sip of the water on her desk and focused her attention on the woman sitting in front of her desk. The Marketing VP was busy outlining a new scheme and wanted Dar’s input on whether or not their current infrastructure would be able to handle it. She took a breath and swallowed, forcing down the nausea that had added itself to her daily headache, today’s being worse than usual, so bad that she suspected what she was suffering was actually a migraine.