Coming To Reason (A Long Road to Love)

by O'Connor, Liza

  “I’m Scott Everet.” He shook her hand and sat on the edge of his desk.

  “Carrie Hanson.”

  “Where’d you work before?”

  “Lancaster Chairs.”

  He frowned. “The crazy place?”

  “It’s reformed now.”

  “So you don’t have any experience as a resource consultant?”

  “No.”

  He grimaced. “Then I’m probably not the right person to teach you.”

  “Why? Are you new, as well?”

  “No, I’ve done this for ten years.”

  To her eye, he appeared to be in his mid-twenties, leaving her to mistrust his claim.

  He must have read her doubt. “I’m thirty-three.” He returned to his side of the desk and sat down. “How about you?”

  “Twenty-five.”

  He paused as if trying to figure out their age difference. From the length of time it took, she suspected he hadn’t done well in math. She decided to save him the effort of caring.

  “My fiancé thinks I look younger than my years, as well.”

  He lost interest in his mental computations and studied his schedule. “I’m crunched today. Let me see if one of the ladies can do this. You’d get more practical advice from them.” He hurried from his room.

  Fifteen minutes later, he returned. “Follow me.”

  As he led her down the hall, she repeated a short mental prayer.

  Not Ms. Parker. Not Ms. Parker. Not Ms. Parker.

  “Sandra, this is Carrie.”

  Carrie stepped into the door and growled at God.

  Sandra Parker gave him a brilliant smile. “Go back to work, Scott. I’ll show Carrie the ropes. But you owe me, babe.”

  Once he left, her smile took on a rather dark and sinister vibe. “I remember you.”

  Carrie planned to work here for a long time, so maybe God had done her a favor. No better time to right past problems than the present. “And I owe you an apology for my prior behavior.”

  Her response caused Sandra’s eyebrows to rise to her hairline. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “How so?”

  “You flirted with the man I love, and I didn’t take it well.”

  “Wow! Didn’t see that coming. So are you doing Dan now?”

  “What? No! I’m still with Trent.” She held out her hand for Sandra to see her excessively large diamond ring.

  With great intensity, Sandra examined the stone. “I’m impressed you could land him. He’s one hot candy bar. May I?” She pointed to the ring.

  Carrie did not wish to let her look at it closer, but to make peace between them, she pulled it off and handed it over.

  Sandra attempted to slide it on her finger, but being sized for Carrie, it wouldn’t even go on the woman’s pinky. Thwarted, she held it up to the light. “What’s it appraised for?”

  “I’ve never had it appraised. It’s possible Trent did, but he never mentioned its value.”

  “Then how do you know it’s real?”

  “Because I trust him.”

  Sandra Parker snorted beneath her breath, leaving no doubt she thought Carrie an idiot, but to retain peace, Carrie ignored her rudeness.

  The woman tossed the ring to Carrie and leaned back. “So, Scott says you’re a virgin.”

  Carrie almost failed to catch her ring at the woman’s comment. She hoped Scott hadn’t used those exact words. “I’ve never been a consultant before, if that’s what you mean.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Clearly. But what I need to know is your stand on having sex with clients.”

  “Oh… It’s not happening.”

  She frowned. “May I ask why you intend to ignore a clear skill advantage? Is it your fiancé?”

  “For one. But it’s also not a skill I wish to utilize.”

  Sandra rolled her eyes and hurried from the room without another word. A moment later, she returned. A tall, thin guy with a hawkish nose stood in the doorframe, looking pissed as hell. “Jeff, this is…” She stared at Carrie to provide her name.

  Carrie stood and extended her hand. “Carrie Hanson.”

  “Jeff Bloomberg.” He shook her hand then tugged her from the room and hurried down the hall. Two doors later, he led her into an office, moved a chair to the corner, and pointed at it. “Sit there and watch. I’m expecting a client any minute now.”

  Upon sitting down, he opened a folder and spread the papers inside upon his desk. “Always review your client data before a meeting. Screw up the name of a client’s wife and you’re toast. Screw up the college his kid attends and you’ve burned a brownie point.”

  His phone rang. He answered and replied, “Be right out.” He collected the papers into a stack, walked around his desk, and checked himself in the mirror behind the door. “Always retrieve your client; do not have someone else do it. And if they arrive before their appointment and you have no client, don’t make them wait. Appreciate their time is money.”

  He disappeared from the room and Carrie admired the tidiness of his desk. Trent’s always looked like a bomb had exploded within five minutes of his arrival.

  When Jeff returned with one of Trent’s best customers, Carrie stood and smiled. “Mr. Edwards.”

  The old man chuckled and gave her a hug. “Carrie. It’s so good to see you. Are you here selling chairs?”

  “No. Trent and I decided he should run his company without me.”

  His eyes saddened. “I’m sorry, my dear. I always thought you too good for him.”

  Carrie intended to explain they hadn’t broken up, but Jeff cleared his throat and sent her death rays from his steely eyes. “Have a seat, Mr. Edwards.”

  Mr. Edwards ignored him and remained focused on Carrie. “Are you working here now?”

  She nodded.

  His smile widened. “And you’re going to be my contact?”

  “No,” both Carrie and Jeff replied at once.

  Jeff pointed at her chair and she sat. He then motioned Mr. Edwards to sit…again. “Carrie joined us today. She’s observing.”

  “Well, when she finishes observing, I would like her to handle my project.”

  A faint twitch in Jeff’s left eye hinted Mr. Edward’s request had pissed him off. “She will be doing nothing more than observing for quite some time. She’s untrained at the moment.”

  Mr. Edwards shrugged. “She’s a fast learner.” He turned to Carrie. “Give me a call when you’re ready to handle clients.”

  “Thank you for the support. However, Jeff’s really good. You don’t want to wait for me.” She based her commendation on the advice he gave her before Mr. Edwards arrived.

  Mr. Edwards huffed and turned back to Jeff. “Proceed.”

  The more Jeff spoke, the happier Carrie became. She hadn’t lied to Mr. Edwards. Jeff asked all the right questions to isolate what skills the company needed. Near the end of the meeting, he asked the time parameters for securing the logistics manager.

  “Sometime in November. Larson’s leaving in December.”

  Carrie leaned forward. “Excuse me, Mr. Edwards, but shouldn’t you have the new hire learning from Larson during October. Half your year’s product gets purchased then.”

  “Yes, of course! Thank you, Carrie.” He then turned to Jeff. “We need our logistics person before October, otherwise he’ll be in deep water come the next year.”

  “Excellent,” Jeff stated and noted the constraint. “We’ll get your man before then.”

  “Or woman,” Mr. Edwards stated. He glanced at Carrie. “There’s some top notch women in the field now, as well.”

  She rewarded him with a smile.

  When Jeff escorted Mr. Edwards from the room he motioned Carrie to follow.

  Together they walked him to the elevator and saw him off. Jeff then introduced her to the receptionist and pointed out the fax and copy machine. On their way back, he stopped at Scott’s open door and introduced her, not knowing they had already met. Scott played some war game on hi
s computer. Yeah, work buried the poor guy.

  By Scott’s request, Jeff left her in the hall as he closed the door so they could talk in private. He came out a moment later, rolling his eyes, and continued down the hall. Most of the doors remained closed. On those, she could peer through the narrow door window and he’d tell her the consultant’s name.

  When they walked past Sandra’s office, he hurried by, even though the door stood open. “You might want to avoid her,” he stated in a soft voice.

  He pointed to a dark office. “If you have a computer problem, take it here. Destiny is excellent.”

  Carrie nodded in agreement. She’d met Dan’s daughter three months ago and thought Destiny a wonderful young woman, personally and professionally, albeit prone to odd hairstyles and clothing choices.

  “Only problem is she’s part-time, and the computers seem to wait until she’s gone to go crazy.”

  “Well, if you need help and Destiny isn’t around, give me a call. I’m pretty good with them, too.”

  “Don’t tell anyone else, or you’ll never meet your quotas.” He knocked on the glass wall of Greg’s office. The harried man looked up. Pain flashed on his face as he waved them in. His left hand gripped and pulled on the small tuft of hair on the side of his otherwise bald head. “What’d she do?”

  “I wanted to let you know Carrie will be observing me the rest of the day, in case you are wondering what happened to her.”

  “You? No! Dan asked Scott to train her.”

  “Upon discovering she has a fiancé, he gave her to Sandra, who upon discovering Carrie doesn’t plan to manhandle her clients, gave her to me.”

  “Sorry, I’ll find somebody else to take her.”

  “No, I’m fine. Just wanted to let you know. Oh, and you might want to reiterate the rule against playing Internet games to Scott. Destiny says if he downloads another virus into our system, she’s going to block his access to the Web.”

  They left as Greg’s head smashed face down on his desk.

  “Is he okay?”

  “No, I think he’s having a breakdown.” Jeff glanced at his watch. “I need to get back to my office. The ladies’ room is down the hall if you need it.”

  “I do.”

  “Then come back to my office when you’re done. Don’t knock. Just come in and sit down…unless you know my client. Then say hello.”

  She nodded and hurried to the rest room. Contrary to first impressions, Jeff turned out to be a great guy. She didn’t want to miss a second of her training.

  When she returned, a guy she didn’t know sat in his office. The moment she entered, he stood up and shook her hand. Jeff gave the introductions and then motioned for Carrie to sit so his client would do the same.

  She received a brief summary of Mr. Harman’s business and his current situation. Due to a widespread infraction of the company’s code of conduct, he needed to replace half of his upper management.

  When they got to the sales manager, Carrie had some practical advice on how to ensure a smooth transition.

  Mr. Harmon chuckled as he studied her. “And how does a girl barely out of diapers know this?”

  She resented the diaper remark, but forced a stiff smile to her face. “I’m a trained change specialist and led the turnaround of Lancaster Chairs.”

  His eyebrows rose as he looked her over a bit more. His intense stare appeared more ‘stimulated’ than ‘impressed’.

  “I may wish to discuss this further with you.”

  Jeff frowned at her.

  “Oh, you have Jeff. He knows far more than me.”

  Jeff handed her a paper. “Carrie, could you make a copy of this, take it to Greg, and wait for him to process it.”

  He looked at Mr. Harmon. “I don’t want to lose a minute in finding you the best candidates possible.”

  Carrie took the paper, shook hands with Mr. Harmon, and left the room. While the request seemed reasonable for a trainee to do, she still felt like she’d gotten the boot.

  She handed the paper to Greg, who struggled to talk to someone on the phone while doing something on the computer and opening his mail at same time.

  He glanced at it and threw it into a six-inch pile.

  Jeff had told her to wait until he processed it, and now she understood why. Without prompting, it might not be processed for six months.

  She sat down in a chair and ignored Greg’s glares of annoyance, waiting for him to get off the phone. Finally, he lost patience. “Can we discuss this tonight? I’m up to my ass in alligators right now.” He hung up, took a deep breath to calm himself, and tried for a smile as he focused on Carrie. It looked more like a grimace of pain, but she appreciated the effort.

  “You seem very busy,” she said.

  He nodded once.

  “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

  “Did Jeff throw you out?”

  “He told me not to return until you processed the paperwork.”

  Greg’s face bloomed a brilliant red.

  “I’m very good with computers, and I’m a fast learner, too. If you’ll show me once, I expect I can process the entire pile for you.”

  His hue diminished. “I’ll show you how to do Jeff’s, but if you require more supervision than it takes me to do them, then you will need to read the manual for the rest of the day.”

  She pulled her chair next to his and focused on his scattered explanation of how to input the data into the program.

  She could see why he thought she wouldn’t be able to do it. No one should be able to follow such a convoluted process.

  Once he finished Jeff’s paper, he placed it in an empty tray labeled COMPLETE-FILE. “Impossible, right?”

  “No, I can do it.”

  He shook his head.

  “I can. I have a very good memory. Watch me do one and you’ll see.”

  He motioned for her to try, but his tense face and rounded shoulders indicated he had no hope and she’d lengthened his day more.

  Despite such a raincloud hanging over her, she finished the next one in half his time. When she turned to look at him, he had a genuine smile on his face. “You can process those until Jeff comes to retrieve you.”

  Carrie suspected the task would consume her entire day, but she preferred it over doing nothing.

  Three papers in, she became frustrated with the convoluted input methodology. She had to pop back and forth over six pages before she logged all the data. Why would anyone build such a god-awful interface?

  The door opened and a young woman in gothic black, wearing the tiniest leather skirt ever made, entered. Destiny beamed from ear to ear. “Greg, I’ll take the new hire off your hands.”

  “No. She’s inputting client specs.”

  Destiny grabbed the pile of yet to be done specs with one hand and Carrie’s wrist with the other. “She can do them in my office.”

  Greg’s brow furrowed. “I need them done by tonight.”

  “You have my word.” Grinning from ear to ear, Destiny pulled Carrie from the room, down the hall, and into an office with cobalt blue walls covered with giant intersecting yellow circles.

  She pointed to the chair. “Sit while I steal a seat.”

  Returning a short while later with her purloined perch, Destiny plopped down. Her impish grin warned Carrie ‘steal’ had been the key word in her quest.

  “I couldn’t believe it when Dad said you’ve come to work for us. This is so super great! So you dumped Trent? Good for you!”

  “No, we decided to be a normal couple with separate jobs.”

  “Well, different jobs is a start, at least.” She grimaced at the pile. “God, this is like a month’s work.”

  “It shouldn’t be. Did they give you access to a manual when you bought this system?”

  “Before my time. I would have bought something else. This program tops the charts on user unfriendliness. Dad says, when he bought it, the sales guy promised each consultant would be able to enter information on their own.
What a crock. The only one who can do it is Greg…and you now.” She grimaced. “Which means he’s going to shunt this job off on you, which means you won’t make your quota. But don’t worry. Dad won’t fire you.” She paused. “Did you tell him you’re still seeing Trent?”

  “Yes, but why would it matter?”

  Destiny rose and walked to her bookshelf. After fifteen minutes of pulling out binders, she returned. “No manual.”

  “Let’s pull up the program and locate the company.”

  Upon doing so, they called them. After ten minutes of being passed from one person to another, they came upon yet another person who couldn’t help them, except to provide one piece of valuable advice.

  “Your systems person should be able to help you.”

  “I am the systems manager,” Destiny replied.

  “And you can’t find anything in the electronic manual? There’s a whole section on creating customized interfaces.”

  Upon acquiring the link and finding the section on interfaces, Destiny, with Carrie providing advice, created an interface that mimicked the consultant document.

  Halfway through their project, Jeff opened the door and frowned at Carrie. “Did you at least get my data processed before you abandoned me?”

  “Yes. I didn’t mean to dessert you. I thought you’d dismissed me…politely, after I overstepped my boundaries with your client.”

  “And I rescued her from Greg’s stress. He had her inputting client specs.”

  Jeff grimaced. “I hope you failed his request. Otherwise, you could be stuck doing them for the rest of your life.”

  “No worries. Carrie and I called the software manufacturer and they gave us a link to their manual, which shows how to create input interfaces. By tomorrow, everyone can fill out their own.”

  “Wonderful,” Jeff muttered and pulled Carrie from the room. He led her to an empty office and closed the door. “I’m not going to be your pimp, so if you plan to conduct business using sex as your advantage, you need to stay the hell away from my clients.”

  Carrie struggled to make sense of his words. “Dear God, what did I say or do to make Mr. Harmon think such a thing?”

  The anger in Jeff’s eyes faded. “I didn’t see anything. However, once you left the room, he asked me to send you to his office tonight. When I insisted I could handle his needs, he admitted what he wanted handled required a woman.”