by Kaci Hart
“That’s true but from the things I have heard and the morale that your people have around here, I can tell that they really enjoy being here. You and I know that all starts with the guy at the top.”
“Well, I do try.”
The phone rang on his desk and based on the look on his face, she could tell he didn’t want to answer.
“One second please.”
“Of course.”
“Hello. Yes….Wow, already? Ok put them on hold for me and I’ll be right with them.”
He returned his attention to Donna.
“So sorry about that. It seems I have a conference call. If I had known you were going to be stopping by, I would have had her cancel my call, or at least reschedule it. I would love to spend some time with you to answer any questions you may have about the company.”
“Oh no need to go to all that trouble for me. I’m sure we will have plenty of time for you to fill me in on all that. After all, I am going to be working here now. Also, don’t forget that you are on staff too. In positions like yours, it can get stressful so if you even need a session, let me know and I’ll pencil you in.”
He smiled at her and for the first time ever she noticed just how nice his facial features were. He was one of those guys whose attractiveness you could overlook but if you were lucky enough to catch the right look, there wasn’t a man you’d find more handsome in the world.
“I just might take you up on that offer.”
His last statement made her blush slightly to go with her slight grin before she mentally chided herself.
Really Donna! That’s a line you never cross no matter how cute he is.
Besides that, she still wasn’t looking for a boyfriend and even if she were, there was no way she was going to complicate it by letting it be her new boss. That was just asking for trouble that she wanted absolutely nothing to do with. It didn’t make him any less attractive but it helped in bringing her back to reality. She cleared her throat and spoke again.
“Well I will leave you to your meeting Nick. I will talk to you later.”
She shook his hand before turning and leaving his office. He was the last person she had expected to see when the door opened. She didn’t know that all the time he was eating at the diner, she was serving one of the Dellinger’s. Not that it mattered. He was just a regular guy but still. She walked back to her office and sat down, figuring out where everything was going to go. Not much needed to be changed except adding some credentials and personal effect to the walls and bookshelves. She always felt it was important that people knew who you were and what you were about as a counselor. It gained trust when people saw a diploma as well as family, friends and smiles on the wall.
Donna knew as she sat in her office that working there was going to be something that she would never regret.
***
Nick finished his conference call barely paying attention to the things even he himself was saying. It was a good thing that he was so prepared for the meeting that he was able to speed through the information that he had to relay without much effort. His mind was definitely somewhere else. He left his office and twenty seconds later had dashed down the hall and around the corner before bursting unannounced into Aaron’s office.
“Did you see her?”
Aaron looked at Nick, threw up a finger to tell him to hold on and finished the call he was on.
“Even though you are the boss, I know we’ve talked about you barging in here like....well like you own the place. What is it now man?”
“Yeah, sorry about. Anyway, did you see her?”
“See who?” Aaron responded, slightly annoyed.
“Donna?”
“Donna? Who is Donna?”
“C’mon man, you know Donna. Donna!”
“No. Why do you think I would see her?”
“Because she works here now?”
Aaron dropped his pen. Anyone who knew Nick could tell he was excited, and why wouldn’t he be. The only woman he had a real flame for in the past five years not only moved back to town but now worked at the same office with him. Works for him apparently.
“Whoa. How did this happen?”
“You know I’d recently been tinkering with the idea of expanding company benefits and decided I wanted to have a counselor available a few days a week. After the issue with Mr. Morgan last year, I realized that there was so much more we needed to do for everyone.”
Nick still didn’t like to think of that situation. One of his employees, Tom Morgan, had a medical emergency that happened and he almost lost his health because he was so concerned about not being at work and losing his job. Ever since then, Nick took it upon himself and worked directly with HR to develop a package of assistance and benefits that would make navigating the help available at the company better.
“I understand that fully, but what does that have to do with Donna working here?”
“I guess all that studying she was doing was to become a therapist. HR brought me a proposal a few weeks back that we submitted to a local office to provide onsite support. I guess she is one of the people that work there. I just found out about an hour ago, before my conference call.”
“Interesting. So you’re going to be working with her all the time now?”
“Not all the time. Our roles aren’t exactly going to require us to ever see each other. Unless I need therapy, our paths may never cross.”
“I don’t even like the way you said that. ‘Unless I need therapy’. Dude this is work. That is so not the route you want to take here.”
“What? It was her idea. She said that even company heads need to offload too...or something akin to that.”
“Didn’t take much twisting of your arm to convince you of that it seems. Just be careful. The reason you made so many changes around here is because you wanted to protect your employees and give them a brighter future. Don’t go jeopardizing that with a little ‘love therapy’.”
“Love therapy? Funny. I’m just excited to be working with her, but I know the line.”
“Right. It just so happens that I know you really well and somehow it seems like you are about to completely ignore the line you just spoke of.”
“Not at all my skeptical friend. Not at all.”
Chapter 5
Donna sat in her new office the following day. She had chosen to go in on Mondays and Tuesdays because she wanted to have them back to back. Sitting at her desk, no one had yet to avail themselves of her services, but it had only been two days. She figured it would take time for people to feel comfortable with the idea of speaking to someone on staff regarding their personal issues, so she had taken to introducing herself to people via email and the like by sending a newsletter out to the staff with stress reducing tips as well as contact information and appointment options for her. She was startled when she heard the knock on her door since she didn’t have anyone on her schedule yet.
She quickly got up from her desk, excited to have her first chance to help one of the people on staff there. She guessed word was finally getting around that she was there for them. She got to her door, already greeting her client.
“Hi….”
She lost a little of her energy when she saw that it was Nick on the other side of the door.
“Um… hi. That’s a first for me here. Most people that work for me are happy when I come around. Or at least they pretend to be.”
“I’m sorry Mr. Dellinger. I was a little excited when I thought you were going to be my first counseling session. I guess I might have let my disappointment show. Of course I am assuming that you are here for some other reason than counseling today.”
Nick smiled again and she couldn’t help but stare at him.
“Not at all. Not today at least. And don’t worry, I wasn’t offended at all.”
“Good. Well come on into my office then.”
“Thank you.”
“So if you’re not here for a session, what’s the reason for the head of the compa
ny stopping in on me?”
“Ah, yes that. I wanted to know what you would like for lunch today.”
“Excuse me? Oh I can’t let you buy me lunch Mr.…”
She watched her boss visibly cringe as he put a hand up to interrupt her.
“Please. Do not call me Mr. Dellinger again. I know you want to keep a professional atmosphere and I respect that but I have worked almost everyone here in the office out of calling me that and I won’t let you ruin all my hard work in one afternoon.”
“Ok, Nick it is then.”
“Now back to what I was saying. I want to buy you lunch today.”
“Right. You don’t have to do that Nick.’’
“I know that. That is why I said I want to buy you lunch rather than I have to.”
“Either way I can’t let you buy me lunch.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I won’t accept any special treatment.”
“Special treatment? Believe me there is nothing special about me buying you a meal. I do it all the time.”
Donna was surprised. What kind of womanizer was he that he would openly profess his actions like that? He must have mistaken her for any other woman that would be captivated by his money and his cute looks. Well he had another thing coming if he thought he was just going to have his way with her.
“I don’t know if I should be more upset that you just said that I’m nothing special or that you buy women meals all the time and God knows what else you are trying to do.”
“Huh? Hold on for a second. I didn’t say you weren’t special. I said buying you lunch wasn’t. I don’t know you well enough yet to tell you how special you are. Only time will tell that. What I meant was that I buy one meal for all of my new employees Donna, both male and female. This is a welcome lunch. You know I have over one hundred employees here and since I started this company, every person that is hired on, I buy them lunch within their first week. Just a small welcome.”
“Oh my. That’s certainly embarrassing of me.”
“Yeah it was. But that’s no biggie. I can see how you thought that. I imagine you have had your fair share of men with inappropriate pick up attempts.”
“To say the least. I could tell you horror stories. I guess I wasn’t expecting it to be like it is here.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“How you run the company. It’s very...family like. You take that kind of close atmosphere very seriously don’t you?”
She saw him pause to consider her question as if he’d never really thought of it like that before.
“Now that you mention it, I guess I do.”
“I see.”
“What?”
Donna looked at him, studying him for a moment before he intruded on her thoughts, a slight smile on his face.
“What? Are you all analyzing me now with your Freudian ideologies? If so that’s definitely not what I came in here for.”
“Huh? No not at all.”
“Really?”
The sarcasm in his voice made her laugh.
“Fine, maybe I was a little bit. I can’t help it. I’ve been trained to find the reasons for the things we do. In this situation it’s just not normal to see someone in your position reaching out to their employees like that when they first start. You run the company. You don’t have to meet any of your employees except your direct subordinates but not only do you require that you meet them all, but you also buy them a meal. Just not normal.”
“Whoa. So is there really something wrong with my being nice to my employees.”
“No not that at all. Companies buy food for employees all the time. You’re just a little closer to the process than I would expect. I mean, popping up at my office at lunch time personally and asking what I wanted to eat.”
“Ok. And I presume that you have already surmised my reasons. So go ahead counselor. Tell me what you’ve figured out about me in these five minutes.”
“We don’t have to do this Nick. You already said that’s not why you came here today.”
“Aaah yes, but an impromptu session isn’t bad. Besides, I am paying for it and I’m here so ‘help’ me.”
His use of air quotes when he said help made her feel he was mocking her a bit and whether he really wanted it or not, he was going to get her opinion on him. Her professional opinion, of course.
“Alright, but remember that you asked.”
“Shoot.”
“Your process of buying your new employees a meal among regular people is an attempt to make sure that you are accepted by them. You are trying to create an initial impression of a friend or a pal. I would venture to say that it stems from what is most likely a compulsive desire for all people to like and accept you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nick, everyone in town know that you come from a wealthy family and you have probably never really even known if people accepted you before or if it was just your money. Now as the boss, you want people to take you seriously but not too seriously. You don’t want them to be afraid of you like some kind of straight nosed, hard boss so instead you either try to become friends with the employees you do hire or you simply hire friends to be your employees.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“Of course you wouldn’t. It takes someone on the outside to see it. Here, take Aaron for instance. Why does he work here?”
“Because he is good at what he does.”
“Sure but aren’t there other people that are just as good, right here in town that you could have hired as well?”
“I’m sure there are but I knew him at the time.”
Donna looked at Nick for a few seconds, waiting for him to continue.
“Fine, you win. Nick is my friend but that doesn’t mean anything. Tons of people hire people that they can trust to work closest to them. That’s not abnormal. In fact, its smart business to have people that you know work for you sometimes.”
“Agreed, but even with that, I remember years ago at the diner. You guys came in on a regular basis for lunch. Not this onetime thing you are offering me. Again wanting to please your friend. You boys came in there at least two or three times a week. No offense to Ms. Shirley’s diner but the food there wasn’t nearly good enough for that.”
“I happened to really like the food there. Best corned beef on rye in the land.”
“Well I do have to admit that is a very good sandwich but it was obviously more than that..”
She caught Nick’s eyes looking directly at hers when he spoke again.
“To be frank, I can’t say that I didn’t have any other reasons for coming there.”
The first time she had met him in the office, she wasn’t sure if he was trying to say something to her. Now she felt like she was sure that he was. She tore her gaze away from his and looked at her computer, hoping and praying that her slight blush was not evident. Luckily for her, Nick continued.
“Yeah, Aaron really loved the place. I admit that he was and is my best friend and I don’t really make any apologies for that, but our lunches were different. Sometimes I just wanted to get out of the office. I didn’t take my responsibilities here very seriously at the time. Or at least not as much as I do now. And I didn’t want to eat alone. It just so happens that her greasy fries and coke were all the convincing I needed to use to get him to come with me.”
Nick stood up from the chair, looking at his watch.
“I don’t have much time left before I have to get back to work and I am sure you have some things you want to do as well, so are you going to allow me to buy your friendship and acceptance as well for at least this one day? As you so keenly have deciphered, I am badly in need of acceptance, madam counselor.”
“Tell me you aren’t really upset Nick.”
“Not at all. You are trained to see more than what’s there. I can’t fault you for that.”
“Well in that case, I guess I can find a way to accept your lunch offering. For so
me reason corned beef, greasy hot fries and a cola sound pretty fantastic right now and the last time I went by the diner, she told me they are doing a little delivery now. How about that?”
“Sure, just let me know what you want and it’ll be here by lunchtime. I gotta run to a meeting now. I’ll catch you later Donna.”
“I’ll let her know, and thanks for the welcome meal Nick.”
“No problem, anytime in fact.”