David ticked off another finger.
“Second, the top performers who survive the layoffs won’t necessarily feel obliged to rally on with you. And you know why that is? Because layoffs normally affect morale. They result in decreased trust and greater stress in the workplace. Consequently, they may bail. You may find the ones you least want to leave accepting severance packages or job offers from your competition.”
David now had Mike’s full attention.
“Those negative effects bring me to my third point, decreased commitment and productivity in those who remain. Two hundred layoffs will have an unplanned for negative impact on your top performers and your company. Bet on it.”
“Even if I agree with you, David, how do I justify that to my shareholders?”
“By presenting them with the evidence. History shows that public companies that slash ten percent or more of their workforce will see their stock drop nearly forty percent in value and it may take years to recover. So, employees don’t win, shareholders don’t win. You know who wins, Mike?”
Orbitz watched David warily.
“CEOs win! Average total CEO compensation rises by twenty percent. Now, do you want people to deduce that you are the only one who stands to benefit from these layoffs? I know that’s not your intention, but others who don’t know you as well may come to a different conclusion.”
Orbitz bit his lip and looked away for a moment. Then he sighed.
“What should I do instead?”
“Have the HR consultants do a new study using the methodology I just prescribed. Then have them present it to your board. Don’t take the easy way, Mike. It’s almost always the way guaranteed to fail long-term. I know you’re a long-term man. You built this company from next to nothing. Don’t let fear cause you to make the wrong move.”
After the meeting with Orbitz, David checked his messages and realized Ronnie had texted him to say she was sick and wouldn’t be in. He recalled she had left early the day before, battling a scratchy throat and headache. It seemed as though the symptoms had escalated to the flu. He thought about immediately dashing over there but was already running late for an eleven o’clock meeting.
As he rode the elevator to his office, he received a call from the Chairman.
“David, I need you to come to Washington. We need to talk.”
Washington was where his father had resided ever since he had retired.
“I can’t make it to Washington right now, Dad. I’m dealing with a number of things here. Can’t we discuss it over the phone?”
There was a moment of silence.
“It’s about your relationship with your assistant, Ronnie Dickson. Have you been carrying on with her? I got some photos.”
David stepped out of the elevator on auto pilot.
“What photos?”
He heard the weariness in his father’s voice.
“Photos of you two at various times and places. You look quite intimate. Are you sleeping with her?”
David glanced at his watch. His meeting was about to start. He didn’t have the time for this nonsense.
“No, I’m not. But what if I told you I was in love with her?”
“Wh…what? My goodness! Have you lost your mind? You are a state representative, and you’re running around with some little tramp and claiming to be in love with her. Have you completely lost your senses?”
“Don’t you dare call her names! You know absolutely nothing about her, you judgmental… You know what? I can’t talk about this right now. I’ll speak to you later.”
The meeting was about to begin, and David needed someone on the team to fill in for Ronnie post-haste. Someone who had knowledge of the M&A. He asked his secretary to summon Lei Randall.
Lei showed up dressed in an indecently tight dress and in the meeting kept giving him cow eyes and then crossing and uncrossing her feet which allowed her dress to ride up and reveal, he could swear, her underwear.
Immediately after the meeting he called her into his office and told her to report to HR. Then he called Cheryl and briefed her as Lei made her way down.
Only to have Cheryl come up to him twenty minutes later and ask for a meeting in which she told him that she had given Lei a warning letter. In response, Lei had said she should give one to him and Ronnie Dickson too.
“What? Is she crazy?”
“She claims that she knows for a fact that you two are having an affair and has seen you having dinner after hours on more than one occasion. She asked how she could be in violation of the dress code when you two are violating the workplace policy by sleeping together.”
David groaned and squeezed his head.
He called Lei to his office himself.
“Have a seat,” he said.
She sat and slowly crossed her legs. Involuntarily, David followed the movement with his eyes and then cursed himself for his weakness.
“Is there something you want to tell me?” he asked.
She shrugged.
“Cheryl Yancey told me she gave you a warning letter because you violated the dress code and then you made certain potentially slanderous remarks.”
She glowered at him and still didn’t speak.
“Lei, I’m being lenient because you’ve got great potential. You’re bright, and you’re sharp. You’ve got a great future at Jones Law if you simply follow our rules. Coming in here dressed like a prostitute is not going to help your career.”
She looked at her fingernails.
“So what’s going to help my career then? As bright and sharp as I am that’s still not enough to get me promoted to your executive assistant.”
David could feel his adrenaline race. The hairs on the back of his neck snapped to attention. He could almost smell a confrontation coming. Maybe he should include Cheryl in this meeting. Before he could lift up the phone, Lei uncrossed her legs and abruptly sat forward. She made sure he could see her whole bosom.
“There’s nothing Ronnie Dickson can do that I can’t do better,” her tone took on a seductive edge. “I mean nothing.”
David’s back stiffened as Lei stood and began to make her way over to his desk.
“Stop right there,” he said, holding up a hand.
Lei advanced unbidden.
He stood.
“Lei, I’m warning you.”
She came behind his desk.
“You know, from the first day I set eyes on you I wanted you.” She began to run her hands up his chest.
He grabbed her wrists.
“That’s it. You’re fired. I want you to go back to your desk and pack your things.”
He suddenly had a vision of her sabotaging her files just as Justina had done. Was he destined to be plagued by woman trouble?
He held her wrists with one hand and called security with another.
As they waited for Security, she turned vicious.
“I can’t believe you’re firing me!”
“You fired yourself.’
“You have a nerve, you hypocrite. Everyone knows you’re sleeping with Ronnie Dickson. I don’t know who you think you’re fooling.
“You’d be surprised to know how wrong you are. Ronnie Dickson knows how to keep her legs closed. She’s a virtuous woman. You should take lessons. But, oh yeah, you won’t be here to do that will you?”
She blanched, and then her eyes narrowed to vicious slits.
“Drop dead. And I’ve got proof too. I took photos of you two and sent them to your dad.”
“It was you! So, in addition to all your transgressions, you’re also a stalker!”
Her lips curled.
“No, I didn’t do the work myself. I had my suspicions, so I asked a P.I. I used to date to do it for me. Now I’ve got evidence to substantiate my claims. I just sent them to your father so he could fire her. But seeing instead that you fired me, I think I’ll let the public know what their representative has been up to. That is unless you change your mind. Give me back my job and make me your legal
assistant. Then we can pretend none of this ever happened.”
David shook his head in disgust.
“Consider yourself fortunate I’m a God-fearing man.”
Security showed up a moment later to take Lei to her cubicle to clear out her things.
After all the drama David’s thoughts flew to Ronnie. At this point, he not only needed to comfort her, but he also needed her to comfort him. He dialed her up.
“How are you feeling?”
“I'll survive, I think.”
“Have you eaten?”
“Not really. No appetite.”
“I'm coming over,” he said immediately.
He bought chicken soup from a deli and took it over to her. She drank most of it as he rehashed the events of his day.
“I don’t seriously think Orbitz wants to cut the jobs, but he’s being pressured by the board. I told him it wasn’t the best business move.”
David gave a long sigh.
“I convinced him he needs to use a different methodology to analyze the job functions and determine what’s necessary and what’s not. Tell me honestly, do you think it’s my position as state representative that has influenced my advice?”
She didn’t answer for a little while as she swallowed her food and stared into her bowl.
“No, I think it’s because of your values. Everything you do is based on the values you have, whether it’s as CEO of Jones Law or as a congressman. You don’t necessarily think about what’s the expedient thing or the convenient thing or even the popular thing, but more often than not, what’s the right thing, the fair thing. I think that’s what separates you from most politicians, and from most CEOs. And that’s why I love you so much.”
David felt his chest swell with everything she’d said but especially her last statement.
“Thanks, sweetie, for that reassurance.”
Then he related the issues with Miss Randall.
Ronnie was unusually silent, and he wondered if she was angry at him for the way he’d handled that situation.
“You’re very quiet. What are you thinking?”
She shrugged and then sneezed.
“That I want to crawl back into bed.”
“Can I crawl in there with you?”
Her face colored and he realized the implication of his words.
“Sorry. That’s not what I meant. I meant that I feel really weary right now myself.”
She allowed a small smile.
“Well, the answer is no. I don’t want you to get sick too. Let’s talk later though. I feel achy right now.”
He groaned.
“I’m so inconsiderate, burdening you when you’re ill.”
“You’re not burdening me at all,” she said waving a hand dismissively. “If I’m in this for the long haul then I need to share everything with you, the good and the bad, right?”
It made him feel good to hear her say that. It made him a little more at ease.
~*~*~*~
Ronnie popped two pills and downed them with a glass of water. One day after David’s visit she was recovering from the bout of the flu, but not quite so much from David’s report of Lei Randall’s nasty behavior and her threats to publish her photos. What did the photos show? Were they kissing in any of them? People would assume they were sleeping together if the photos were so intimate.
Even if she didn’t release them, Lei would no doubt have spread her rumors throughout Jones Law. How could she show her face there again knowing that people were discussing her around the water cooler, at their cubicles, in the corridor?
And what were they saying? Probably that she was just David’s little piece, because if he really loved her and was proud to have her by his side why was it still a secret three months later. He was invited to so many functions in his capacity as congressman and she couldn’t accompany him. She could just listen as he recounted how the event went.
Ronnie sniffed and picked up her phone for a distraction. She saw a message from Anne which she tapped to open. It was entitled, “45 lessons of life - written by a 90-year-old.”
She began nodding in agreement until she got to number 14. It said, ‘If a relationship has to be a secret then you shouldn’t be in it.’
Ronnie tossed the phone on the bed and threw herself on her pillow and began to cry. How was it that she finally had the man of her dreams and she couldn’t even enjoy it? Sometimes life totally sucked.
Chapter 23
“I’m traveling to Paris next week…” David said.
Ronnie continued to type away at her computer and barely glanced up at him. After three days of absence from work, she had recovered from the flu. Apart from an occasional cough, she seemed to be back to normal, at least physically. He had noted, though, that she wasn’t her usual cheerful self. She had not stayed after hours with him the previous day and had also declined not to have lunch with him that afternoon, saying she preferred to work through lunch, eat at her desk, and leave early. While it could be an after-effect of her illness, he somehow sensed it was more than that.
‘…and I want you to accompany me.”
She finally allowed her gaze to drift up to his.
“Is it related to the M&A?”
“Not exactly.”
“Why would I travel to Paris with you, then? Aren’t we still incognito?”
He didn’t much care for the sarcasm in her tone but decided to ignore it.
“There’s a client I need to meet with there. He’s got substantial interests in Chicago, and he needs a firm based here to handle legal matters for him.”
Ronnie returned to her laptop.
“I need you there to help me,” he continued.
“Help you with what?”
“Anything I need help with. Do you think you’re just here to look pretty, young lady? I hired you to assist me,” he teased.
Her face was like stone. “David…”
“What’s wrong, baby?”
She swallowed and closed her eyes for a moment.
“The fact that everyone in this firm is talking about us and a trip to Paris with you would just be more fodder. And the fact that a shameless hussy called Lei Randall is out there threatening to release photos of us to the press. Doesn’t that bother you?”
He reached over and snapped her laptop close.
“Come here.”
He took Ronnie by the hand and led her to his office. He closed the door and took her to the sofa. Sitting down he pulled her down beside him.
“Everyone in this firm is not talking about us any more than they already have. If Lei Randall were going to release those photos, she would have done so already.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe she’s holding out for the highest bid.”
“I don’t think she will because she knows how powerful and influential my family is. I don’t think she’d be so reckless as to try to get on the wrong side of the Jones family unless she was going to be leaving the country for good.”
“A little sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Maybe. We’ll see. In any case, if she does release them, what do they show? We’re out together, maybe sharing a few kisses. Neither of us is married or underage. We’re not the same sex. It’s not as incriminating as you’d think.”
“Oh, I don’t think it’s incriminating. At least I didn’t think so at first. When I began dating you, I thought it was the rightest thing in the world, but all this secrecy has made me feel like I’m a criminal. I feel like I’m sneaking around with someone’s husband.”
He looked away. She had a point. He had really done her a disservice. And it was his intention to fix it very soon.
“I acknowledge all you’ve said, but we’re still going to Paris.”
~*~*~*~
Paris, France
“You weren’t kidding about us being on separate floors I see,” Ronnie commented drily, as she and David rode the elevator at the Paris Waldorf International Hotel and Towers. She was on the 6th floor.
David was on the 10th.
“Anything to assure my woman that I didn’t bring her to Paris to ravish her,” he whispered near her ear.
She laughed and pushed him away playfully. They got off at her floor so he could wheel her little pink suitcase into the room for her.
“Lock the door,” he said dropping a quick kiss on her cheek. “See you later.”
She closed the door and sighed.
“My woman” kept ringing in her ears. She threw her lightweight jacket on a nearby chair and kicked off her shoes. She would be so happy when she could finally shout it to the world. In the meantime, though, they were hundreds of miles away from Chicago which meant she could display her affection for him openly. And that was exactly what she would do.
A couple of hours later David called.
“Shall we eat out?” he asked.
“As opposed to eating in the hotel restaurant?”
“Yes.”
“It may be better to eat here, given we’ve got an early morning meeting with Monsieur Hermés tomorrow. We can always eat out tomorrow night. That will be our last night here.”
“Come up to my room.”
Ronnie’s heart skipped a beat. The temptation to do just that was almost palpable.
“David Jones!”
“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize that was my outside voice.”
“Sigh.”
He laughed. “See you at seven for dinner. Wear that cute little black dress.”
“What cute little black dress?”
“I don’t know. I thought all women had a cute little black dress.”
“You’re full of jokes tonight.”
“See you soon. Wear the–”
“Cute little black dress. Got it.”
Ronnie searched her clothes and found that she didn’t, in fact, have a cute little black dress, but she did have a cute black halter neck top. She paired it with a black leather skirt.
When she showed up for dinner David’s reaction was pleasing.
“Mmm! You look amazing! You do have a cute black dress.”
“Actually, this is a top and skirt.”
A Case For Love (Royals Series Book 3) Page 26