He Remains Faithful

by Laurie Gilbreath

  Chapter 8

  Wednesday morning arrived, and Kelly had butterflies in her stomach. She really felt that the presentation was good, but it had been awhile since she was the one standing at the front of the room, trying to close the deal. She fussed over her appearance and talked to herself as she got ready. Mike came into the bathroom to take a shower and chuckled at her.

  “You seem nervous,” Mike said, smiling. “You’re a pro at this. No big deal, right? You shouldn’t be nervous.”

  Kelly knew Mike meant to encourage her, but she was a little annoyed. There was every reason to be nervous; she hadn’t done this in a long time. And if she wanted to go back to full time, she felt strongly that it had to be some of her best work. No matter what Andrew had said about Bob mourning when she left, Bob wasn’t going to ask her to come back out of sentiment. She felt as if she needed to prove herself again.

  When Kelly got to her office she turned on her computer and opened her email. She had two messages. “Blow them away, girl. Remember how good you are at this. Let me know how it goes. Megan” “Go get ‘em gorgeous (don’t sue me). If you snag them, lunch is on me. Andrew”

  At 9:00, Janice and her cohorts from Once Upon a Time arrived and were ushered to the conference room. Kelly was already there; her boards set up and the PowerPoint ready to go. As soon as everyone sat down, she began, “Hello Janice, everyone. We’ve worked hard, and I believe we have come up with something that will draw people to what you have always done while informing them of what you’re becoming. Let’s get started.”

  For approximately an hour, Kelly details the elements of the campaign and fielded questions from various members of the group. They seemed very pleased with her ideas, and from the back of the room Bob gave her a thumbs-up. At the end of the presentation, Janice stood and shook Kelly’s hand and then Bob’s. “You’ve done it again,” Janice said to Kelly. After a few more minutes of chatting, Janice and her crew left, and Kelly and Bob gave each other a high five.

  “I knew it,” Bob said. “I knew you’d be exactly what they wanted. That’s why I’m such a great boss; I know my people.”

  “I can’t thank you enough for this opportunity,” Kelly said. “I had forgotten how exhilarating work could be.”

  Bob eyed her for a moment. “Well, I’m glad you feel that way, because if you could work it out, I’d like you back full time again.”

  Kelly was bursting. She wanted to say yes right away, but she knew that she should at least talk to Mike about it. “I would love to, but I can’t answer right now. Could I have a couple of days?”

  “Of course,” said Bob. “But after lunch could we meet? I have another project in mind for you and a colleague. Sort of a collaboration. It’s a pretty big campaign, and if we get it we can really put ourselves on the map.”

  “Okay, see you then,” Kelly said.

  “About 1:30,” Bob replied and walked down to his office.

  “Sure,” Kelly said.

  As Kelly was walking by Andrew’s office, he said, “Hey, what’s the verdict?”

  Kelly did her best to look serious and somber. “Well, you win some, you lose some…”

  Andrew furrowed his brown with concern, “Oh Kelly, I’m so-“

  “And this time I won some,” Kelly said, laughing. She smiled broadly. “So you owe me lunch.”

  Andrew gave her a scolding look. “I ought to renege on the grounds of cruelty. But I am a man of my word. So where do you want to go?”

  Kelly chose the spaghetti place they had been to before. They chatted about Kelly’s success for a few minutes, and then Kelly sat back and said. “And Bob wants me back full time. In fact, I’m supposed to meet with him at 1:30 to discuss some big new account.”

  “I know,” Andrew said as he swallowed a bite of lasagna.

  “You do?” Kelly asked. “How do you know?”

  “Because I’ll be there too. Bob wants us to work together on it. It’s an account for a home improvement store. They want to get away from the manly carpenter thing and give it a feminine twist too. So if you take it, we’re both on it.”

  “Well, that will make it even more fun,” Kelly said, smiling. She looked at her watch. “I guess we’d better head back. We don’t want to be late for the meeting.”

  They walked outside. Andrew said, “If I’m going to work with you, we’ve got to get one thing straight. I’m the man; I get to call the shots.” He laughed and wagged his finger at her.

  “Oh yeah? We’ll see about that,” Kelly laughed. “Just for that chauvinistic comment, I get to drive your baby.” She reached out and grabbed his keys, and then raced to the driver’s side.

  Andrew put his hands on the door, on either side of Kelly, so that she couldn’t open the door. “I like you, Kelly Bowling, but nobody drives my baby except me.” He took the keys from her. Then he stood that way a little longer. Kelly looked at him for a moment, and then looked away uncomfortably. He stepped back and let her walk to the other side of the car.

  Kelly thought about their lunch on the way home. Should she really be working on a project with Andrew? Of course, she knew he wasn’t really flirting; there was no way he would do anything like that. But she felt a little strange about it. However, she couldn’t turn down a project when she had just been asked back full time. The problem was hers, not Andrew’s. She’d just have to control that electricity. She was a married woman, even if things weren’t all that great.

  Bob spent an hour telling Andrew and Kelly about the account. It could be one of their biggest accounts ever if they did well. Kelly and Andrew sat there for another half hour, batting ideas back and forth.

  “See,” Bob said. “I knew you two would work well together. Well, let’s adjourn this meeting and get started. We only have about six weeks to get everything done. The CEO and a couple of other executives will be here at the beginning of December to hear a full presentation.”

  “This is going to be fun,” Andrew mused, enthusiastically. “I’ve never worked with you, but I think we’ll gel. Our ideas already seem to running parallel with each other.”

  “I’m flattered. Excited too. I haven’t been on board with an account this big before. It’s like I’m getting thrown into the deep end of the pool first thing.”

  “Don’t worry, Kelly. I think you can swim,” Andrew joked.

  Kelly began working, getting some thoughts down, as soon as she returned to her office. She got on the Internet and did some research on the home improvement company to get a feel for who they were and their past advertising. She was so engrossed that she lost track of time. In the middle of a thought, the phone rang, making her jump to attention.

  “Is this Mrs. Bowling?”

  “Yes it is,” Kelly answered.

  “This is the after-school care program. Mikey and Sam have not been picked up, and it’s after 5:30.”

  “Oh my gosh!” Kelly said. “I am so sorry! I will be there right away. I’m leaving now,”

  “What a great parent they must think I am,” Kelly muttered, frustrated with herself. She drove quickly to the program, apologized again, and left with her boys. She apologized to the boys too. When she arrived home, Mike was sitting in the den, playing a game on his laptop. “I forgot about the boys. I can’t believe I did that. I’m surprised though, that they didn’t call here first.”

  “They did,” Mike said, not looking up. “But I’m really wiped out. I told them to call you at work, since you were going to have to drive home anyway.”

  Kelly temper flared. “So they were even later getting picked up because you wouldn’t get off the couch and drive minutes?”

  Mike matched her tone. “Kelly, it was only a few minutes. And besides, you were already out, and the after-school place is on your way home. What’s the big deal?"

  “It’s just another one of those things. You expect me to take care of everything.”

/>   Mike rolled his eyes. “Kelly, I do not expect you to take care of everything. I try to do my part, but this working all the time has taken some getting used to.”

  Kelly sat down beside Mike and tried to regain her composure. “You’re right. It’s only a few minutes. I guess I’ve just been wired today.”

  Mike patted her hand. “No big deal. Hey, how did it go?”

  “We got it. Bob was really pleased.”

  Mike smiled. “That’s great. I knew you could do it.”

  “There’s something else,” Kelly said, slightly nervous. “Bob wants me back full time. He’s already got a project for me.”

  Mike sat quietly for a moment. Kelly began to wonder if he was going to respond at all. When he spoke, his voice was tentative. “Are you sure you can handle all of that? The reason you went to part time was because you were so overwhelmed.”

  “That was because I had a baby and a two-year-old. They are in school now. It’s not the same thing. Besides, it would mean more money. A lot more.”

  That got Mike’s attention, just as she knew it would. “Well, can we try it for a while and see how it goes?”

  Kelly frowned, thinking. “I guess I could tell Bob that I am on for this project and then I’ll decide. I think he’ll be okay with that for now.”

  “I’d feel better about that. Then if it’s too much, you won’t be committed. And I know it was an accident, forgetting the boys can’t be a habit.”

  “I know Mike. I’ll take care of that.”