She Left Me Breathless

by Trin Denise

  “I’m thinkin’ the same thing,” he said, a flustered look on his face.

  “What are you doing out there?” Sydney asked, frowning.

  “Replacing this here string of lights, ma’am. When I came by ta check out my handiwork last evenin’, I noticed that this’n here string was deader than a doorknob.”

  Sydney laughed. “A dead doorknob, huh?

  He grinned at her. “Yes, ma’am. I reckon a doorknob is pretty darn dead.”

  “Yes, I suppose it is,” Sydney said, grinning. “Well, Mr. Saunders, it’s very cold out there, so why don’t you finish hanging the lights and come on inside to warm up for a few minutes. Have a cup of coffee.”

  “Thank ya, ma’am. I just might’n take ya up on the offer when I’m done.”

  Sydney looked down at the front yard. Christmas decorations were everywhere. She shut the window and closed the curtain. When she arrived home earlier, she had been so curious about the car sitting next to Meredith’s Jag, she hadn’t noticed any of the decorations on the house, nor did she notice the ones scattered around the front yard and bushes.

  The sound of voices caught her attention. She tossed her robe on the bed, grabbed an old pair of grey sweats and a t-shirt, and quickly got dressed. She made her way over to the upstairs rail and looked down into the family room. Her house was a flurry of activity with moving bodies. Everywhere she looked there seemed to be a person. Several were in the process of hanging decorations around the windows, while others were busy wrapping garland and lights around the oak rails that surrounded both staircases in the foyer.

  A young man and woman carefully slid a fifteen-foot blue spruce tree across the floor. They positioned it so that it sat directly in the middle of the large oval picture windows that overlooked the large lake near the back of the property. Two men dressed in overalls brought several boxes over to the couple. While the young man began wrapping the tree with lights, the young woman began the tedious task of sorting ornaments.

  Sydney couldn’t believe it. In the short time it took her to take a shower and talk with Mr. Saunders, her house had become organized chaos. The front door opened and a line of men and women dressed in white caterer uniforms marched through the foyer and down the main hallway toward the kitchen.

  She slowly walked over to the spiral staircase that ran down into the family room. She took the steps two at a time and stepped onto the landing.

  “You’re home,” Edna shrieked, her voice full of excitement. Before Sydney could respond, the older woman rambled over and threw her arms around Sydney’s waist, wrapping her in a big bear hug. “Let me look at you,” Edna said, holding Sydney at arm’s length.

  Edna, I’ve only been gone six days,” Sydney laughed.

  “I know, I know, but six days is an awful long time.”

  Sydney leaned forward and kissed Edna on the cheek. “Well, it’s good to see you, too,” she said and meant it. Edna had been her housekeeper for the past eight years but she was more than that to Sydney. She was like a second mother. In fact, she was more of a mother to Sydney than her own was. Sydney smiled at the way Edna looked. She was wearing a white apron over a red velvet dress that hung just above her knees. The sleeves and hemline of the dress were trimmed with white fur. She laughed at Edna’s red booties, complete with two furry red balls where they laced up. Edna had pulled her grey hair up in a bun and pinned it to the top of her head. Sydney thought the short, rotund woman looked like Mrs. Claus and she was unable to control the giggles that escaped her throat.

  Edna placed her hands on her hips, pretending to pout. “Are you making fun of me?” she asked.

  “Um, no, I think you look adorable, Mrs. Claus.”

  “Well, thank you, that means I’m in good company,” Edna grinned, making her blue eyes twinkle.

  Sydney made a sweeping gesture toward the family room with her hands. “What’s with all the decorations?”

  Edna placed her hands on her hips again. “Sydney Welsh, I swear I don’t know about you sometimes,” she said with a shake of her head.

  “What?” Sydney asked, frowning.

  “Do you know what today is?”

  “Thursday the sixteenth,” Sydney answered.

  “And what is tomorrow?”

  Sydney’s right eyebrow shot upward. “Uh, Friday.”

  “And what are we doing on Friday?” Edna patiently prodded.

  “I’m going to work, coming home, having dinner, same as any other Friday.”

  “I’m talking about tomorrow night,” Edna said, stomping her foot.

  Sydney thought about it for a moment and then it dawned on her. “Crap, I forgot all about it.”

  “I don’t know how. It’s only the biggest and best Christmas party ever,” Edna teased.

  “Aw, you’re too kind, Mrs. Claus,” Sydney teased back.

  “Yes I am. I’d love to stand here and chat but I have a house to get decorated and I need to check on Fred Rick,” Edna said, turning toward the kitchen.

  “Say hi to Mr. Claus for me,” Sydney laughed.

  Edna stopped and looked over her shoulder. “I sure will,” she said with a wink before disappearing behind the closed door.

  Sydney dodged several workers as she cut across the floor to grab the stack of mail from the coffee table. Tomorrow was the seventeenth, the day she chose for her annual Christmas party. With everything that had been going on, it had completely slipped her mind. A glance around the expansive family room made it clear that Edna and the rest of the staff had everything under control.

  Jedidiah Saunders walked into the family room. Sydney threw the mail down on the table and walked over to him. “All done, Mr. Saunders?” she asked.

  He took off his hat and gloves. “Why yes, ma’am I am,” he answered.

  “Please call me Sydney.”

  “Well then, call me Jed and I’m pleased to meet’cha,” he said, holding out his hand.

  “It’s nice to meet you, too, Jed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before,” Sydney said, taking the man’s large hand in hers. He gave it a rigorous shake before releasing it.

  “That petite little red-head hired me.” Jed scratched his head. “Ya know, I been decorating outside yer house fer the last five years and I never been invited in before.”

  Damn Meredith, Sydney thought. She was not in the least bit surprised that Meredith had not invited Jed in. One look at his bibbed overalls would have turned Meredith off instantly. Jedidiah Saunders would be deemed a peasant to Meredith and a peasant was way below her standards.

  She and Meredith had way too many conversations or better yet, arguments regarding the staff and the way Sydney interacted with them. Meredith thought the hired staff should be treated like lower class servants, not people with actual feelings. Sydney didn’t agree and the more Meredith protested, the more Sydney did just the opposite of what Meredith wanted. Sydney never regarded anyone on her payroll as servants. She believed that Edna was just as important and valuable as the Vice President of Marketing at Welsh who handled multimillion-dollar accounts and as such, Edna deserved to be treated with the same amount of respect, and sometimes more than her company execs.

  “Ya have a beautiful house, Sydney. My better half’s eyes would plum bug outta her head if she were here,” Jed said, interrupting Sydney’s thoughts.

  “Thank you, Jed. I kinda like it.”

  “Well, I best be goin’ now. Thanks fer lettin’ me warm up my fingers and toes. That was awful nice of ya.”

  Sydney walked Jed to the door. “Do you have any plans tomorrow night?”

  Jed turned to look at her. “Gerty, that’s my better half, she has some shoppin’ at the Krogers and that’s about it, I’m thinkin’. Is there somethin’ more you’d like me ta do?”

  Sydney grinned. Meredith would have a field day with the way Jed pronounced his words. His diction would drive her crazy. Sydney liked it. She thought the older man standing in front of her was quite charming. “No, Jed. I have noth
ing else that needs done. I was asking because I would like to invite you and your better half to my Christmas party tomorrow night. That is, if you don’t already have plans.”

  Jed’s eyes lit up. “Yer not pullin’ my leg?”

  Sydney smiled and shook her head. “Nope, I’m not pulling your leg. Party starts at seven and there will be plenty of food and drinks. All you need to bring is yourself and Gerty.”

  “Well, thank ya, Sydney. Gerty’ll just be beside herself when she sees yer beautiful home. I’ll see ya tomorrow then.”

  Sydney closed the door behind him and decided to go to the kitchen to see what Fred Rick had planned for tomorrow night’s menu. Knowing her flamboyant chef, she had no doubt that a few of the menu items would be hard to pronounce. As long as he had lobster, stuffed mushrooms, and the wonderful chocolate mousse concoction he made, he could fix whatever his heart desired.

  After Jed left, Sydney had gone to the kitchen to talk with Fred Rick. She had wanted to make sure he as well as everyone else in the house had what they needed for the Christmas party. Satisfied that everything was under control, she had gone up to the bedroom she had once shared with Meredith. In less than an hour’s time, she had moved all of her belongings to the first floor master bedroom.

  Meredith couldn’t understand why Sydney had designed a house where the master bedroom was located at the front of the house and to make matters worse, Meredith had argued that no one in their right mind would have the entrance to the bedroom directly off the foyer. Sydney had countered by saying that it was not directly off the foyer because you had to walk through a small hallway to get to it.

  To prove her point further, Sydney had asked Meredith what was the very first thing she did when she came home from work. Meredith made Sydney’s case for her by saying that when she got home, she wanted out of her work clothes. Exactly, Sydney had said triumphantly. Her decisions in the design were based on logic.

  After a tiring day at work, she did not want to walk all the way across the house and up the stairs to change her clothes, so it made perfect sense to have her bedroom next to the office because she usually had a briefcase and laptop in tow. Meredith however, refused to see reason and after much arguing, Sydney had finally given in and moved to the upstairs master bedroom.

  Chapter 3

  Sydney got up at 6:00 A.M. on the dot, it was the first time she had ever slept in the downstairs master bedroom, and not once had she woken in the middle of the night. When she finally opened her eyes, she had felt completely rested. It had been the best night of sleep she’d had in years. She had showered, dressed and went down to the kitchen to have her breakfast with the rest of the staff. Today was omelet, sausage, biscuits, and gravy day. Once breakfast was over, she had gone to the office, grabbed her briefcase, and headed out the door to her waiting truck.

  Her drive had been non-eventful and in no time, she turned onto Monarch Lane and drove the short distance to the Welsh Enterprise driveway.

  Situated on the outskirts of Miamisburg on Route 725, Welsh’s Corporate Headquarters building sat just a stone’s throw away from the Avery Dennison building, formerly known as the Paxar Corporation. Avery, a multibillion dollar a year company, which is known worldwide for their office and self-adhesive products, pulled off quite a coup in 2007 when they acquired one of their biggest competitors along with its merchandise security tagging divisions for a mere $1.3 billion dollars. If you ever wondered where those fancy little security alarm tags affixed to the clothing you buy at a department store come from, chances are they were purchased from Avery’s Paxar Group.

  Welsh also did business with the company, using their self-adhesive labels on the Laptop and Desktop computers manufactured under the Welsh logo. Welsh wasn’t as big as Avery but the company was on its way. With sales hitting an all time high of $2.8 billion last year, projections for this year were doubled and as of last week, they were on pace to beat that projection as well.

  Sydney waved to one of the security guards as she pulled into her reserved parking space. She shut off the engine and grabbed her briefcase. Oh great, she thought as she climbed down out of the cab.

  Allen Carmichael, Assistant Vice President of Computer Logistics swaggered over to her. “Welcome back, Sydney,” he smiled, showing a mouthful of teeth that were too perfect and too white to be his own.

  “Thanks, Allen. It’s good to be back,” Sydney said.

  “Everything is running as smooth as when you left. I took extra care to make sure there were no hitches,” he said, falling into step beside her on the sidewalk.

  “That’s good to know. I have no doubt that Welsh was in capable hands,” she said. The man reeked of arrogance. Everything about him was perfect. From his grey custom tailored pinstriped suit, to his $800 chiseled haircut. He was more suited to be on the cover of GQ and she would have preferred that to having him in her boardroom.

  “I also took the liberty and had the main conference room set up for your meeting with Bill Amos at 9:00.”

  “Thank you, Allen, that wasn’t necessary but I appreciate it,” Sydney said, sliding her badge in front of the security door reader. “Karen would have taken care of everything.”

  “Here, let me get that for you,” he said, holding the door open. “I know it’s not my job and I’m sure that Karen is very capable but I didn’t want to take the chance of anything going wrong. I know how important this meeting is to you,” he said with a smug look of satisfaction on his face.

  He was right about that. This meeting was important to her. In fact, this meeting was the catalyst that would set the stage in order for her to carry out a much larger plan. The plan she had been working on for the last two years now. The same plan that centered on the work Jackie had privately been doing for her.

  Allen followed Sydney across the lobby to Karen’s desk. Sydney couldn’t help but smile when she saw Karen. The woman’s state of dress never ceased to amaze her. Today, the twenty-seven year-old redhead was wearing a black studded dog collar around her neck with matching studded earrings. Her face was paler than usual, making her ruby red lipstick stand out against her white complexion. Sydney noticed immediately that Karen had recently cut her hair. The red two-inch strands of hair stuck up all over Karen’s head and Sydney liked it. It was so Karen. Based on the black fishnet top covering Karen’s white checked blouse, Sydney guessed that Karen was back to her Goth kick. She would have also been willing to bet that Karen was wearing a leather miniskirt and six-inch high-heeled boots that stopped just below the knee.

  Sydney watched Karen as she spoke animatedly into her headset. Her hands were flailing around in the air as she tried to make a point to whoever was on the other end of the phone. Finally satisfied that the caller understood what she was saying, she disconnected the line. Karen glanced up. Her eyes went wide and a big smile crossed her face when she saw Sydney.

  “Well, would’ya look at what the vampire’s drug in,” Karen said, standing to lean over the desk to hug Sydney.

  “I swear you people act like I’ve been gone for months. It was less than a week.”

  Karen’s facial expression turned serious. “Oh glorious one who holds domain over this wonderful establishment we call Welsh, we missed you so, so much.”

  Sydney laughed. “I swear you’re not right.”

  “I think she looks as beautiful as ever. The Florida sun did wonders for her tan, don’t you agree, Karen,” Allen said, from behind Sydney.

  “She always looks great, Allen,” Karen said, with a tinge of annoyance in her voice. The smart retort was not surprisingly, lost on Allen.

  “I will see you two ladies later. I have reports to run and we all know those little sheets of paper will not run without my help and guidance.”

  Karen and Sydney watched Allen disappear inside the elevator.

  “Pardon me while I puke,” Karen said, putting her finger in her mouth and pretending to make gagging sounds.

  “Oh he’s not that bad, Karen,” Sydn
ey chided although she felt like puking herself.

  “Not that bad? Surely, you jest wonderful employer of mine. If he bent his head down any further to kiss your ass, his neck would have snapped.”

  “Yeah, I guess he was pretty bad,” Sydney chuckled.

  “Be it far from me to ever question authority but—”

  “Since when?” Sydney teasingly interrupted.

  Karen ignored her. “As I was saying … I still can’t understand how such a pompous ass like him was ever hired to begin with.”

  “I’m not the one who hired him, Meredith did.”

  “That explains it, ‘nough said.” Karen twisted her red lips into a smirk. “The Florida sun did wonders for her tan,” she sarcastically mimicked what Allen had said. “How could he not know that you have dark skin all year round? In fact I think you are the only person I know who can get a tan sitting in the shade unlike my white albino ass.”

  “Maybe he’s not as perceptive as you are and maybe he was just trying to make small talk.”

  Karen cleared her throat. “I bet that’s not the only small thing about him.”

  Sydney lost it. She was laughing so hard that tears were in her eyes. Out of all the employees she had personally hired, Karen was one of the best. No matter what was going on in her life, Karen always had a way of making her laugh.

  “Seriously though, I am so glad to see you. Have you spoken with Caitlyn yet this morning?”

  “No, I was planning on going to see her next.”

  “Here, I want to show you something.” Karen came out from behind her desk to stand beside Sydney. She pointed at the carpet in front of the desk. “See that spot right there?”

  Sydney nodded and Karen kneeled down on her knees. She made a sweeping gesture with her hand over a two-foot section of carpet. “Can you see how the carpet is worn down in this here area?” She stood up and pulled down the edges of her skirt.

  “Those marks are from your protégé. She has driven me absolutely freaking bonkers this morning. Since six am, she has shown up at my desk every fifteen minutes asking if you have arrived yet. Those indentations you see, they’re from her pacing. For the love of God woman, will you please go see her before I have to get new carpet installed?”