by Lauren Wood
“So where do you think the waste is coming from? This area was the highest percentage wise.”
He shrugged and told me that all of the waste was the same as before. “We have tons of scraps left over, but the boss isn’t interested in trying to use it. If we chipped it up in the T-32, we could make tater tots or even hash browns.”
“Introducing another product to use up the waste is a great idea Scott. I will make a note of that.”
Scott blushed a little and his face almost was the same color as his shirt. I thanked him for his time and went on to the next area that was causing trouble. There was a strange amount of maintenance going on in one area and there were several wrecked fork lifts that were years from scrapping.
It didn’t take long to see why that was. The man driving one almost ran me over. He was smoking a cigarette and talking on his phone. He wasn’t paying attention at all and once I noted his name on a notepad, I knew that he was going to be the name I found on the incident reports.
Maintenance in general was an issue, but I saw that by the lack of maintenance on some machines, the ones doing poorly, they were actually losing money from losing the machine way before it was supposed to become useless. This was due to a low labor cost in that sector. The loss of production made it impossible for the same amount of people to keep up. It was all starting to make sense to me.
I found Johnson and asked to see his journals for the last year. He didn’t ask any questions, but he did seem anxious when he handed them over. I don’t know why he was worried, but I had a feeling that if he was audited right now, there would be a lot of discrepancies that would be found.
“Is there any problem areas that you would like me to look at?”
He shook his head and I had to wonder how he seemed to know so little about his factory all of a sudden. I talked to him about the labor costs, but again he was very ambiguous with his answers. He only made me look harder, though I am sure he was hoping for the opposite to occur.
I left the factory and instead of going straight back to Atlanta I took the evening off in a hotel close by. I had found some things in their accounting that was questionable at best, but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do about it. I couldn’t tell the boss that he was getting reamed by his own employees, but yet that was very much my job to do that very thing.
So I spent most of Thursday pouring over everything that I had gone over and then I made another trip to the factory. Caroline called me about mid-day, worried that I had already quit, but I told her where I was. She was surprised, but happy to hear that I would be back in the morning with results.
“Did you find the problem?”
“I found several that will save them close to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more with very little changes. There is also an opportunity to turn three hundred from waste into about a half a million in useable product. I think I have everything I need here.”
I sounded a little more sure than I really was. I wasn’t sure if all of those things were going to be enough. I told Caroline that I was going to check all of my numbers again. She sounded happy to hear that it went so well. I had a feeling that she was just happy to have some help. She had made that clear before when I was being interviewed.
I just hoped I had enough to prove Rick wrong. I wanted to see his face when he saw my report, so I had to make sure that everything was perfect. I was not going to be able to prove my point if it wasn’t perfect. My reputation in the firm and maybe even my job was on the line. It was a lot of pressure as I drove back to Atlanta. I called Amy to see if she was working. She was, so I took the rest of the night in to write the report. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.
Chapter 5
Rick
When I got into work Friday morning, I didn’t have as many expectations for the day. What I did find was a report from our newest consultant and as I sat down to read it I knew then that she had knocked it out of the park. It was uncomfortable to think about it, but the fact was that she had found things in one factory, that none of us would have found. She went the extra mile and found not only efficiency savings, but production savings as well.
I didn’t have to check the numbers to find out if she was right or not. I knew she was. The amount of time that was put into the work was clear and it took me a minute before I was able to pull myself together. I had a lot of crow to eat this morning.
Caroline stopped me in the hallway. She asked about the report and I had a feeling that she was nervous about how Claire had done. There was an expectation because she had brought her into the mix. It was going to be fine though and I didn’t let Caroline hang too long wondering.
“I have seen the report and it is brilliant. You caught a good one Caroline. I am sorry that I didn’t see it sooner. Claire is going to be a great addition to the team and I owe it all to you.”
Caroline blushed from my words and it made me smile. Her reaction made me realize that I needed to give them praise more often.
Making my way to Claire’s office, she was on the phone, her words really low as I walked in.
“Am I interrupting anything?”
For a moment, I could see that I was and she was irked by my pop in. I was the president of the company she worked for and I got a look that a normal person would give the janitor using a vacuum next to them.
“No Sir.”
“I will call you back Amy.”
Claire set the phone down and smiled up at me. It was one that didn’t reach her eyes and I had to wonder what conversation she was having that was so important.
“I wanted to talk to you about your report.”
There was a flicker of nerves that made me relax finally. It was strange if I was the only one nervous about what was going on. I found myself in a moment of time where I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to congratulate her when I had been so sure that she was going to crash and burn. The worst part of that was that she knew it as well. That is why she had that grin on her face. She knew that I was here to tell her the report was good, great even.
“Yes?”
“Don’t look at me like that girl, we both know that you did a good job.”
“You sound surprised Sir.”
“Miss Adams, I do believe you are teasing me.”
“You make it easy. I do apologize for my tardiness though. It won’t happen again.”
“You bring me reports like this Claire and I won’t worry about a few minutes late.”
That was a stretch for me. I hope she realized that, but I couldn’t argue with her results. I had given her an impossible task in the time given to complete it and she had, with flying colors. What else could I say about that? I was impressed and that didn’t happen very often.
“I am glad it was to your high standards. I am thankful for the job.”
“What made you go to the factory?”
“I wasn’t given a lot of time to go through all of the numbers and they can be incomplete. I saw a few issues that I couldn’t figure out and going there seemed the best way.”
“You realize that you uncovered quite a lot of embezzling from Johnson?”
“I do. I wasn’t going to point that out right off, but that is where one of the biggest leaks is coming from.”
“Do you know what the owner said to me about this?”
“You already sent it through? I thought you would check it first.”
“I know it is right, just by the care you used to put it together.”
“Thank you. So what did Baker’s Foods have to say?”
“They gave us a bonus, as well as the normal commission.”
“That is good to hear Sir.”
“You don’t seem too thrilled.”
Claire shrugged and put her phone down. “I am just here to do a good job.”
“Well you did and to thank you, I would like to take you out to lunch.”
“That is unnecessary Sir, really.”
My brow went up and I have to s
ay that it was the first time that a woman had told me no, ever. I was not the type of man that heard no and I can’t say that I liked to hear it now. I was lost for a moment of a retort.
“What?”
“You don’t have to do that. I was just doing my job Sir.”
“Please call me Rick. Look Claire, I think we started out on a bad foot. I would like to take you out to lunch.”
I was being insistent. I wanted her to know that she needed to do as I asked, even though I wasn’t going to directly tell her she had to. Silly me, but I wanted her to want to go and I didn’t like the idea that she didn’t want to go with me. I didn’t like the idea that I had met a woman that didn’t give into my desires immediately. It was like I had no pull on her and that was not a feeling that I liked at all. I was used to getting what I wanted when it came to women and everything really.
“Well since it seems like yes is the answer you are looking for, I will cancel my previous engagement so that I can go.”
Claire was waiting for me to tell her not to cancel and that we would do it another time, but I didn’t. I just nodded my head and told her that was a good idea.
“I will come back around noon to get you.”
She agreed, but Claire didn’t want to. Was I really that rude to her at the meeting? It was in front of all of her new co-workers and when I thought about it for an extended amount of time I realized that I had been a jerk. She must have been embarrassed.
The thought made me uncomfortable and I started to understand why she was so aloof. I wasn’t used to having to think of my actions, but it was impossible not to see how I was affecting her. She had her reasons and I didn’t like the truth of that at all.
***
Noon came around and I picked Claire up like I said I would from her office down a level. She wasn’t too happy to see me and I asked her what she was working on.
“Just going over something for someone. I don’t have an assignment yet.”
“We will talk about that for lunch.”
“Good.”
The ride to the restaurant was not too long, but you wouldn’t know it by how much she fidgeted. I wouldn’t have noticed so much if it wasn’t for the long expanse of thigh. Every time she moved a little, the skirt would go higher and higher up her thigh. It was rather erotic, knowing that she didn’t really know that she was doing it. Claire was not trying to entice me, but she did, in a way that made me inwardly groan. Parts of me were acting like I was a damn teenager again. It was not the right time and I have to say that I doubted Claire was looking at me in that way.
It didn’t matter how she felt. Her damn moving was driving me crazy and at one point I was just inches from seeing her panties. The smooth skin was tanned and a nice bronze color. I had seen the start of a tattoo on her side and that intrigued me even more. Claire was not at all what she seemed and I was going to have to change my ideas of her.
“I am going to give you the McClellen account. He is a huge client, one of our biggest and even though I have made a report, I would like you to go over it for me. You have an eagle eye that we need here at Future Plans.”
“Thank you Rick. I appreciate the opportunity.”
“Is it going to be weird with us?”
“Not at all.”
I didn’t believe her, but I wanted her to know that I didn’t want it to be strange between us. After the report, I wanted her to stay with the company. She was an asset and I wanted to scoop her up, in more ways than one.
The restaurant was not far from the office and it was one of my favorite places.
“Sushi?”
The look on her face and the crinkle of her nose didn’t bode well for this.
“You don’t like it?”
“Do they have any cooked food in there?”
I wasn’t going to argue that most of the elements were cooked. Some people would never get over the idea of raw fish and seaweed.
“No, not really. Do you want to go somewhere else?”
She waved me off and started to go across the street. “I will be back in a minute.”
I was left standing there, not sure what to do with myself. This day was not going at all like I had planned. I went into the sushi place and ordered my usual. I was about to pay when Claire walked back in with a greasy bag.
“Did you just go get a burger?”
She nodded and grinned, sitting down at a table near the checkout. “I did. Now we are both happy.”
I shook my head at her and sat down across from her. There was a light surrounding her, coming out of her and the smile was breathtaking. Claire was a surprise and the more I was around her, the more I realized that I had been so wrong about her.
“So tell me about yourself Claire?”
“Not much to tell Rick. Out of college and here I am.”
“Is it what you thought it would be?”
Claire giggled a little. “Not at all.”
“Why is that?”
“The city is a bit bigger than I expected.”
“You are new to Atlanta?”
“Yeah. I have a sister that lives here, but the rest of our family is further north in Georgia.”
She didn’t seem like a small town girl, not with the mouth on her. I would have thought that she was born and raised here in the fast lane.
“I am glad you came here. Atlanta grows on you.”
“Kind of like you?”
That got me grinning. Maybe I wasn’t the only one that noticed the attraction between us.
“Am I growing on you?”
“A little.”
“Good.”
Claire sat back and sipped her soft drink from the fast food place down the street. Sadly I wanted what she was having. Not even my favorite dish looked as enticing as anything she was putting between her lips.
“Are you okay?”
Her face was worried and I told her I was fine. I had a feeling that I knew what she was talking about. What the hell was wrong with me and why the hell was my body acting like I was sixteen again?
I heard her giggle and my eyes shot up to meet the clear blue ones in front of me. The expression was priceless. That woman knew too much.
“It seems like a lot of things are growing.”
Chapter 6
Claire
I may have pushed Rick a bit too far. After I left the restaurant, I was sure that my boss was never going to look at me the same again. Maybe that was the point. It was hard to not notice how he looked at me. It was impossible not to and I liked the attention, especially from a man like him. He was rude, but he had been straightforward with me about how well the first report went. That took a lot for a man with his sized ego.
But maybe I shouldn’t have said anything about his state when we were in the sushi place. He was rock hard and staring at me and I couldn’t help it. I wanted him to know that I saw what he was looking at. I wanted him to know that I noticed and he wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding it, if that was what he was doing.
The look on Rick’s face was priceless and he had cut short the meeting rather quickly after that. I found it almost intoxicating how turned on he had been. While I wasn’t as experienced as most people my age, I still knew what went on between a man and a woman. I still understood how I could use it to my advantage. I don’t think there was a woman alive that didn’t. That’s why I felt a little guilty about it. Just a bit.
I didn’t see him the rest of the day and I was afraid that I had gone too far. It was my nerves that bothered me, but I tried to push it from my mind. There really was nothing that could be done about it now. What was done. Was done.
I made my way home and called Amber to see what she was up to. She didn’t call me back, so I left a message. There was no telling what she was doing and I knew that I would hear from her soon enough. I had a feeling that was bothering me and it was usually something going on with Amber. We had a kind of bond that was hard to explain.
The eerie feeling didn’t
leave me when I got home, it only seemed to intensify. I left another message for Amber to make sure that she was okay. I’m sure she was, but I just wanted to make sure. I had become a bit of a worry-wort since she moved to Atlanta. Now that I was here and even closer to her, that concern hadn’t diminished. It was because of what she did and her being around guys like Tony that I met in the bar.
I heard the doorbell and I immediately hoped it was Amber. She was the one I wanted to see, just to make sure everything was fine with her. When I got to the door, I was stopped in my tracks when I swung the door open. “Jack? What are you doing here?”
“Well that isn’t the greeting that I was hoping for.”
“I haven’t seen you in months and I moved a couple hundred miles away. I think that is the greeting that you should have expected.”
He shook his head, the soft blonde hair still as light as I remember. Those green eyes stared at me, like they had so many times before. What the hell was he doing here?
“Are you going to let me in?”
My first instinct was to close the door and say, “Not today, Satan.” But I knew that it was the wrong way to handle him. He had been a good boyfriend when he was getting his way, but when he didn’t, things could get ugly fast and I was not in the mood for all of that today. I just didn’t have the energy. So I decided that if I just let him in and see what he wanted, maybe he would go on and let me be when he was done.
I should have known better.
So I let him in, something that I was sure I was going to regret and once he started in on why he was there, I already did.
“What are you doing here Jack? I haven’t seen you in a while.’
“Well you left and changed your phone. Your mom wouldn’t tell me where you were.”
“That’s because she doesn’t really know, so how did you find me?” I was perturbed that he would even go to my mother after the way he acted. He was trying to come across as some man that I just up and left. It couldn’t have been any further from the truth.