“Morning, Dawna,” Lenora said with studied cheerfulness. “Lovely day, isn’t it?”
Dawna didn’t say a word. She stepped back stiffly and motioned for Lenora to enter her office. Lenora strolled in and Dawna shut the door behind her. Dawna walked behind her desk, sat back in her executive chair, and tapped her fingers together.
“Before you even say anything about the West Baltimore assignment, that’s not for me,” Lenora said, sitting in the chair across from Dawna. There, she’d gotten in the first word, Lenora thought. Gone were the days when the boss could walk all over her.
“You’ve been missing work a lot recently,” Dawna said. “Or you’re late. What the hell’s going on?”
Lenora frowned. “ ’Scuse me? I thought you wanted to talk about Peterson’s feature.”
Dawna straightened up and folded her arms across her waist. “Forget that. What I want to know is why you’re taking off work so much. You were out or late four days last week and again today.”
“I always call and talk to Jenna whenever I’m not coming in.”
“That’s not what I asked you, dammit,” Dawna said.
As they glared at each other across Dawna’s desk, Lenora knew that she had to choose her words carefully. Something was up, because this wasn’t what she had been led to expect. She didn’t want to lie outright, but she wasn’t ready to reveal much of what was going on in her personal life yet either. Dawna might use the knowledge of her lottery winnings against her. “Something came up, something personal, and it made me sick for a while.”
Dawna frowned doubtfully. “For more than a week?”
“It comes and goes.”
“What on earth is it that made you so sick?”
“I’d rather not go into it,” Lenora said firmly.
“Oh, really?” Dawna scoffed. “Well, you’d better come up with something better than that, Ms. Stone. You do know that when you’re out sick for more than three days in one week, a note from a doctor is required. I assume you have one.”
Lenora was well aware of the rule. She had never been out sick for more than a day or two prior to this, but others on the staff had been and the rule was never enforced for them. She shook her head. “No, I don’t have one. I haven’t been to the doctor’s office.”
“Then I’d suggest you go and get one.”
“But I’m not sick anymore,” Lenora protested.
“That’s your problem.”
“How am I going to get a note from a doctor? I’m not sick anymore. And the rule has never been enforced before.”
“That was before I got here,” Dawna said sternly.
Now that Lenora thought about it, Dawna was probably right. Still, she didn’t have a doctor’s note and there wasn’t much she could do about that. “You ever heard of anyone going to a doctor for an illness that’s passed?” Lenora retorted with scorn.
Dawna stared at her. “I need a doctor’s note before you resume work. That’s the rule.”
“Well, it’s a dumb rule.”
“When you return with the note, we’ll talk about your next assignment. And I need you back in here by tomorrow morning with the note. It can’t wait longer than that. Otherwise, I’ll have to let you go.”
Lenora couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She stared at Dawna, speechless. This was incredible, even for Dawna.
“And another thing,” Dawna said. “Are you doing freelance photography?”
Lenora blinked rapidly. “Why do you ask?”
“Because that’s what I heard.”
“Exactly what have you heard?” Lenora asked.
“That you’re working with Ray Shearer outside the office.”
Now where did she hear that? Lenora wondered. Especially since she hadn’t talked to Ray for days. “So what if I am? It’s on my free time. I can do what I want on my time.”
“That depends. You found Ray through the magazine, and if there is a conflict, you could have a real problem on your hands.”
“There’s no conflict.”
“Tell me exactly what you’re doing for him so I can determine that,” Dawna asked.
“It’s none of your business.” Lenora hadn’t even started the assignment with Ray and wasn’t sure she would at this point, but she wasn’t going to tell this bitch a thing.
“Fine, Lenora,” Dawna said. “I’m going to have to let you go.”
“You’re not serious. You always say I’m your best photographer.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re irreplaceable.”
Lenora sat in silence for a moment. But she quickly recovered, squaring her shoulders. “You intended to do this all along, didn’t you?” she asked. “The stuff about the assignment in West Baltimore was just a ruse to get me in here, wasn’t it?”
Dawna didn’t say a word. She just shifted her arms from around her waist and placed her hands firmly on her desk.
Lenora stood and backed away. “Fine. You can take this job and shove it. I don’t need it. I won money in the lottery—a lot. I never have to work again if I don’t want to.”
“Yeah, right, you won the lottery. And I’m dating the fucking King of Jordan.”
“If you don’t believe me, check the web. But I really don’t even care whether you believe me or not. I’m so tired of your pompous attitude. I’ll just get my things and go.”
For once, Dawna seemed to be speechless as Lenora turned and left. She passed by Jenna’s desk on the way to her office and noticed the receptionist staring at her wide-eyed.
“For real?” Jenna asked. “You won the lottery?”
Lenora stopped. “Yes. Crazy, isn’t it?”
“Damn, girl!” Jenna exclaimed. “Why are you even here?”
Lenora smiled. This was supposed to be a happy time, and it was amazing how spending a few minutes around her boss could quickly make her forget that. The new young editor in the office next to Lenora’s heard the commotion and came out. “Did I just hear that you won the lottery?” Julie asked.
Lenora nodded. Now that the news was out around the office, she actually felt relieved.
“How much?” Jenna asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Like I said, a lot. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Really?” Julie said. “Well, congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
“So you’re leaving, from what I overheard,” Jenna said, nodding toward Dawna’s office.
“Looks that way,” Lenora said.
“Good luck wherever…” Jenna paused as Dawna came out of her office and looked at Lenora.
“I’d like to talk to you in my office again, if you don’t mind,” Dawna said.
Lenora reluctantly followed Dawna back toward her office. She promised herself that if Dawna dished out any more abuse, she was not going to hang around. But Dawna seemed to have calmed down. Lenora hung in the doorway to be on the safe side.
Dawna sat and beckoned toward the chair in front of her desk. “Sit down,” she said.
Lenora hesitated.
“Please,” Dawna added.
It wasn’t often—indeed, maybe never—that Lenora had heard that word from her boss’s mouth. She warily moved to the chair and sat stiffly on the edge. She did not trust this woman, no matter how nice she pretended to be.
“I heard you speaking with Jenna and Julie. Congratulations on your winnings. Now I understand why you’ve been out so much.”
“Thanks,” Lenora said. “Is that all?”
“Well, no,” Dawna said. “Why didn’t you tell me you won the lottery? A lot of this could have been avoided.”
“I had my reasons.”
“I understand,” Dawna said. “It’s a personal choice. But if you had explained to me what was going on, I might have understood why you were taking so much time off. As it was, I had nothing to go on except that you were calling in sick almost daily yet you had no doctor’s notice.”
Lenora nodded. “I hear you.”
D
awna smiled as much as she was capable of doing. “I realize that I can be difficult, but this is an extremely tough business to run, particularly since I’m new at the Scene.”
Lenora wanted to roll her eyes skyward. To her way of thinking, there was no excuse for acting like a bitch all the time. Dawna was the meanest woman alive—or at least certainly the meanest she had ever met. But Lenora decided to keep her thoughts to herself. She really didn’t care why Dawna was so nasty all the time because she no longer had to put up with it. “Fine, no arguments here.”
“I have a question,” Dawna asked. “After you won the lottery, you didn’t quit your job right away.”
Lenora nodded in agreement.
“How long did you plan to keep working?”
“I honestly don’t know. I was still trying to decide what to do. I really do enjoy the creative side of my work as well as meeting new people and getting out in the field.”
“In that case, it’s fine if you want to stay. We will have to work something out about the freelance assignments, but I’m sure we can come to an agreement.”
Lenora tightened her lips. She shook her head. “Thanks, but no thanks. I really think it best that I end things here.”
“Why not take some time to think about it? I’ll be honest, Lenora. You really are the best photographer we have by a mile. I would hate to lose you. I would even offer you more money to stay, but you obviously don’t need it. What I do promise is to lighten up on you, if that will help.”
Lighten up? Lenora wondered if it was even possible for this woman to lighten up. Still, maybe she shouldn’t make a snap decision. Dawna was offering her time to mull things over. It couldn’t hurt to accept that. Lenora nodded. “All right. I’ll think about it.”
“Good,” Dawna said. “How much time will you need?”
“A few days?”
“Sounds fine,” Dawna said. “Why don’t you call me early next week and we’ll go from there.”
Lenora agreed and quickly made her exit from Dawna’s office. Because the option to return was still available, she didn’t need to clear out her office yet, so she decided to leave. As she walked back to her car, she dialed Gerald’s number on her cell phone. She couldn’t wait to tell him what had just happened with her boss.
Unfortunately, Gerald wasn’t answering his cell phone or his office line. That probably meant he was in a meeting. Gerald and his partners had let their receptionist go to save money and now relied on answering machines. She left a message on his office line but was disappointed not to be able to reach him. It wasn’t every day that she had the upper hand on Dawna. She dialed Monica’s number, hoping to give her the blow-by-blow account. Same thing—no answer.
She was about to call her mom when her phone rang. She checked the caller ID and was surprised to see that it was not Gerald calling her back. It was Ray. Lenora couldn’t believe she was seeing his name on her caller ID. She was late getting back to him with an estimate for his brochure, but she never expected him to follow up with her about it. She figured he would have forgotten all about her by now.
“Hi, Ray,” she said.
“Hey there. I’ve been waiting anxiously to hear back from you.”
“Yes. I’m sorry. I’ve been meaning to contact you. I got hung up with other things.” And scared, she thought. Scared of what this man did to her mind and body when she was around him. It was baffling and embarrassing.
“I figured you were busy, given all that’s happening in your life,” he said. “And although I wondered about the brochure, I really called to see how you’re doing.”
She sighed deeply. “Things have been pretty crazy at work and with a couple of my girlfriends, but I’m managing.”
“Anything I can do to help?” he asked.
She laughed. “If you have a minute, I could definitely use a sounding board.”
“I’m all ears.”
“You’ll never believe what happened at work today. I… oh, never mind. I don’t really want to burden you with my problems.” She didn’t know this man well enough to unload on him.
“It’s not a burden at all.”
“Okay, here it goes.” She reached her car and opened the door. “It’s about my boss, Dawna. It’s kind of a long story.” He couldn’t cause harm over the phone could he? she thought as she climbed into the car. And if he was willing to listen, why not tell him?
She sat in the car in the lot and proceeded to tell him in detail what happened with Dawna. She started with a little background about the rocky relationship she’d always had with her boss. Then she told him about the strange firing and rehiring episode that had just taken place, all because she didn’t go into work for a few days and returned without a doctor’s note.
“Do you think you’ll stay there?” he asked when she was done.
“I’m really leaning toward not going back.”
“Have you given much thought as to what you’ll do with your time if you don’t stay? You’re too young to retire.”
“That’s why I stayed as long as I did after winning,” she said. “What would I do? But lately I’ve been thinking about branching out on my own, starting a photography studio or something.”
“That sounds perfect for you. It’s not as easy as a lot of people assume to start a business, even a small one, but you have a lot of talent. If you work hard, you should do well.”
Ray had actually done something similar, and he obviously knew his stuff. His business appeared to be thriving, unlike Gerald’s. “Do you ever regret starting your own business and wish you were back at a nine-to-five?” she asked.
“Never. Absolutely not.”
“Really?”
“Okay, maybe I shouldn’t be so hasty to say never,” he said. “The first year or two, there were some hairy moments, I won’t lie. I seriously underestimated the time and money I would need to reach the break-even point. But I persevered and now I definitely feel that striking out on my own was the best thing I’ve ever done. Sure, I made a lot of mistakes in the beginning, and I’d do many things differently if I was starting out now. For instance, however much you think you need to make it through your first year, double it.”
Lenora listened to Ray and realized that he was a gold mine of knowledge and information. “I’d love a chance to pick your brain.”
“And I’d love to share what I know. How about you bring that proposal to me and we talk?”
“I’ll do that. Do you have time this week?”
“Hold a sec,” he said. “Let me check my schedule.”
She had jumped on the meeting with Ray without giving much thought to it. He was so pleasant and easy to talk to, a welcome change from her conversations of late with those normally around her. But could she handle a face-to-face meeting alone with him? Suddenly she realized that she didn’t feel nearly as infatuated with him as she had before. He had barely crossed her mind over the past few days. “I’m in the field all week on a job,” he said. “And since it’s a rush job, I’ll be working late, probably until dark. Can you meet over the weekend? Say Saturday afternoon? If not, it will have to wait until next week.”
“Saturday works for me,” she said. Normally she liked to leave her Saturdays open in case Gerald wanted to get together. He often didn’t know whether he would be free until after work on Friday. But Lenora looked forward to meeting with Ray and exploring the possibility of launching her own photography studio.
They decided to meet for lunch, location to be decided later, and he gave her more information about what he wanted included in the proposal for the brochure. When they were done, Lenora noticed that Gerald had tried to call her while she was talking to Ray. She debated whether to try to reach Gerald while she was still parked but chose to drive home and call him later. She was eager to get behind her desk and work on the proposal for Ray.
Chapter 26
Gerald worked late most evenings the rest of that week, and for once Lenora did not mind. It gave her more time a
nd space to work on the bid for Ray’s landscaping business. She and Ray spoke on the phone several times during the week to flesh out the details of exactly what he did and did not want included in the brochure. Lenora decided to prepare a mockup, so it was taking up a lot more of her time. But that was fine with her. She welcomed the opportunity to do something new.
Monica called on Friday evening just as she was about to wrap up her work on the mockup and walk Paws. They decided to meet for coffee.
“Treat’s on me,” Lenora said as she flipped off her computer. She stood and stretched. It had been a rewarding and productive week. Some nights she worked on the proposal until two in the morning. A break with her girlfriend sounded perfect, especially since Gerald was working late.
“No arguments from me, Miss Millionaire,” Monica joked. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Lenora was placing the leash on Paws to walk her before she met Monica when the phone rang again. “Is this Lenora Stone?” asked a strange voice on the other end.
Lenora rolled her eyes skyward. Undoubtedly one of those annoying telemarketing calls. They always came at the worst possible moment. Then again, no moment was good for one of these meddlesome calls. “Who wants to know?” Lenora asked.
“My name is Peter Jackson. I’m calling from the Northeast Dispatch newspaper.”
Lenora’s stomach dropped. Was this what she thought it was? A reporter calling about the lottery win. God, she hoped not. So far she had done such a good job of avoiding publicity. She wanted it to stay that way.
“Are you Lenora?”
“Yes,” she said reluctantly.
“Hi, Lenora. Congratulations on winning the lottery. I wanted to ask a few questions.”
Dammit! How did they find out about her? “This will have to wait until another day,” she said curtly. “I was about to go out.”
“I only need a few minutes of your time. We plan to run a story in tomorrow morning’s edition, so we really should talk now.”
“What if I don’t want to talk?”
Money Can't Buy Love Page 15