bedraggled kids; Sam still dressed in his dirty shorts and the torn t-shirt, and noticed Kate’s air of nervous frustration.
“I should have listened more closely to your lectures on birth control.” She said it absolutely deadpanned, and it took a moment for it to sink in.
“What a terrible thing to say about these little darlings!” Her mother laughed knowingly as she let the kids into the house. “But it does give me a small sense of justice to see them running you ragged. You were quite a handful.”
“Oh please, give me strength. I was nothing compared to Sam.” Kate rolled her eyes. “And that’s not even mentioning the twins. You had it easy. I’d better run or I’ll be late for my first day.”
Somehow, Kate made it to the office on time. She arrived at the large, glass-covered office building at five minutes to eight looking cool, poised, and professional in a navy pinstripe suit with an ivory silk blouse. Although she had been told that the office had a business casual dress code, for her first day she had decided to wear her most professional and businesslike suit. She wanted to try to erase all traces of her appearance from the day before out of Bob’s memory.
The truth was, however, that deep down she hoped it took a lot more than a dignified business suit to make Bob forget his first sight of her. The only hint of the fire in her nature was a hot pink bow that somehow managed not to clash with her deep red hair.
She walked up to a slender, young black woman who was drinking coffee at the receptionist’s desk.
“Hello, I’m Kate Winslow, I’m a temporary who’s starting work here today, and I’m supposed to ask for Mr. Simmons,” she said, smiling at the woman. “Could you please direct me to him?”
“Hi! Welcome to the madhouse. I’m Cheryl, the receptionist at this zoo. I’ll take you in to Mr. Simmons’ office. Please, follow me.” She led Kate to a corner office and knocked on the door. “Bob, the new temp from the agency is here.”
“Come in, I’m Bob Simmons. Welcome to Lassen-McRoe.” Bob looked wonderful in charcoal gray pants and a crisp, pale blue shirt. His tasteful, conservative clothes, however, were topped off by a wildly colorful tie. He shook her hand and then gestured at a chair and said, “Please, have a seat. Would you like some coffee?”
Cheryl, who was still standing at the door, volunteered to go get her some coffee and a donut. As soon as she had gone, Bob looked at Kate and gave her a wink that sent a chill clear down her spine.
“I hope you really appreciate how cool and professional I’m being today,” he said with a grin.
“I do, at least I guess I do,” Kate admitted, looking around. “But I have to confess, I hope it isn’t too easy. Nice, very nice, but is this a business office or one of those snooty British men’s clubs?”
Bob had a very large, formal office, with dark wood paneled walls. There were several framed oil paintings depicting fox hunting scenes hanging on the walls and a deep red plaid carpet on the floor. He had a dark red genuine leather armchair and a matching sofa. A triangular table in the corner had a brass lamp on it. Bob’s desk was mahogany, and huge. He also had a brass floor lamp. There was a large potted fern in the corner, and to top it all off there was a wood and brass ceiling fan.
“It is kind of anachronistic, isn’t it? It used to be the office of the Chairman of the Board until corporate was moved back to Texas. His wife thought she was a decorator. I inherited it. I’ll admit that I do like it, but I’m glad it’s not a men’s club where no women are ever allowed. If I had my way, I’d chase you around this big desk, and when I caught you,” he grinned, “I’d throw you down on the sofa.”
“You couldn’t chase me around the desk.” Kate flashed him a smile with a bit of the devil in it. “I wouldn’t run.”
“Vixen!” Bob laughed. “I can tell I’m going to have one heck of a hard time concentrating on my work today.”
“Good, that makes two of us.” Kate stopped talking abruptly as Cheryl brought in the coffee and some fresh buttermilk donuts, glazed of course.
“Let me finish explaining your job, then I’ll introduce you to Laura, my assistant controller. She will show you around the office,” Bob was saying calmly, just as Cheryl entered.
They sat there and enjoyed their morning coffee and each other’s company for a short time. For all their banter, when they finally got down to business, the sexual electricity sizzling between them turned out not to be a problem. Because they were both mature adults, their personal feelings didn’t interfere with their work. It was as if they had both tucked their awareness of each other away somewhere for future reference.
Bob went over the department structure with her, then showed her basics of the computer system, and assigned her a password. Lastly, he went over the last completed ledgers for accounts payable with her. He had been reviewing them at his desk.
Bob then took Kate to Laura’s office. It was a decided step down from his both in size and in lavish decoration, however it was more comfortable and tasteful. Laura had the same slate blue carpet as the rest of the office, but her walls were a pale rose instead of the eggshell paint that covered the rest of the offices. She had several framed pastel prints on her walls, and sleek pecan office furniture. The cool professional effect was only slightly spoiled by the stack of papers strewn all over her desk. Laura took Kate around to the workstations, most of them being small cubicles with a computer, a desk, file cabinets and several shelves.
All of them had various decorations and personal touches to provide clues to the personality of their occupants. Laura introduced Kate to everyone in the small accounting department.
Aside from Laura and Cheryl there were four, all women: Rita who did the payroll was an in her mid-fifties, plump and friendly. She had a warm motherly manner. Rita was wearing navy polyester stretch pants and a long flowing white blouse. Her cubicle was filled with potted plants and pictures of children. She told Kate they were all her grandchildren.
Mary and Jennifer, who shared an extra-large cubicle, did the billing. Mary was small, a Latino spitfire in tight blue jeans with long black hair. Jennifer was a young, pretty blond in a short red dress. Their cubicle had several pictures of Mary’s little girl and one of Jennifer’s boyfriend, and a Firefighting Hunks calendar.
Diana, tall and shapely with short brown hair and an engaging smile, did the bank reconciliations and would work with Kate on accounts payable until it was caught up. She looked neat and professional in a blue print dress. Her cubicle had several hand-drawn cartoons and pictures of her horse on the walls.
There were two other women who worked in the vault room down the hall, Sherry and Tonya. They handled the cash receipts from the eight retail stores in the district. Laura knocked at their door and identified herself, and one of them opened the door from the inside and let her in. She introduced Kate to them. Their office was stark, with only a framed picture of Tonya’s kids for decoration, but they had a stereo that was turned up loud, on a classic rock station.
Finally, Kate was shown to her cubicle. It would have been extra large, but she had one whole wall taken up with filing cabinets. Aside from a computer and a calculator, she had a long flexible sorter on her desk. It was filled to the bursting point with alphabetized invoices. There was also a bin on her desk overflowing with already filed purchase orders, packing slips and any other correspondence related to an invoice, also in alphabetical order.
Kate settled in and spent a fairly quiet
