The Girl with the Man with a Plan Ch. 03

And she was moving fast again. I lengthened my stride, but I'd be damned if I was going to stumble again. Before I caught up, she was at Shelstein's secretary's desk. Shelstein ... the CEO.

"Polly!" the middle-aged woman exclaimed, smiling broadly. "It's great seeing you again! I didn't realize you'd be with him, but it makes sense." She gave me her attention. "Hello, Mr. Baxter. He's expecting you. Please go right in."

I had worked hard to keep my face an impassive mask, but I willed my mouth to tweak into a small smile. "Thank you," I told her, nodding. I turned toward the office door, but Polly already had the portal open, and was walking through ahead of me.

Shelstein was on his feet. "Well, HELLO, there," he announced, grinning broadly, eyes only for Polly. I had met the man once before, when I had first hired on. My secretary was gracing him with her most alluring smile, but saying nothing, waiting for me to take charge.

"Sir," I announced, "this is my secretary, Polly Pike. "I've ... um ... asked her to sit in on this." Inside, I was fuming. What the hell had she done? In my current frame of mind, I had absolutely no problem telling this man to take his company and shove it up his ass.

"Miss Pike, it's truly a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

She sat in the chair to the right. "Please, sir. Call me Polly."

He waved a hand toward the other chair, and I sat, trying hard to keep my temper in check until such time as I called it forth to do battle. Shelstein opened his mouth to say something, but Polly unceremoniously interrupted him.

"Mr. Shelstein, Mr. Baxter asked me to accompany him because of these documents." She handed him the manila envelope she'd taken away with her after her 24-hour date. "As you can see, sir, the envelope is sealed. It contains the preliminary contract that Mr. Rodriquez signed in my presence. I've had the document with me continuously ever since. I can testify, if need be, that it has never left my presence. I invite your attention to paragraph twelve, which regards exclusivity. It states that, should Mr. Rodriquez not be able to work with Mr. Baxter personally in this matter, that the entire deal is forfeit and subject to renegotiation with a competing company. I strongly suspect that the paragraph in our company's copy was removed by someone in our legal department."

The man had torn open the envelope, thumbed through the pages, and glanced momentarily at the page she had referenced. Then he smiled and nodded at her. "Thank you for delivering this," he told her, the grin still pasted on. "And now, if you'll excuse us."

Polly looked as if the man had just slugged her. She sat back hard in her chair, and any semblance of professionalism that she'd been exhibiting crumbled like a wall without mortar. Her lower lip began trembling.

"Oh, good Lord!" Shelstein interjected quickly. "Don't start crying!"

Polly looked toward me in an attempt to communicate something she couldn't say in the presence of others, her eyes filling with tears.

"Ah," Shelstein said, sitting back away from his desk and looking between the two of us, but finally settling his gaze on her. "I understand, now. You are much more than a secretary." He seemed to consider his words. "Very well, then. You're a partner. You can stay." He turned to me. "I believe you are aware of Company Directive Clause Eighteen."

I was preparing my Rage to come forth. "Yes, sir; I have been made cognizant of that particular article."

"Very strict policy, I'm afraid."

I arranged to open wide the gates of my lenience and loose my demons. "So I've been told," I answered.

"I can see only one way out of this little problem," the man said thoughtfully.

I only smiled in anticipation. I was about to unleash all of my frustrations on this poor man. I almost pitied him.

"Congratulations," he told me.

I blinked, confused. "I'm sorry. What?"

"You are the new Vice President of Sales," Shelstein said. He stood and advanced toward me, right hand outstretched. "May I be the first to welcome you to the eighth floor."

I glanced sharply at Polly, but her eyes were as big as saucers, and her mouth was open in shock. I cleared my throat, rose and shook the outstretched hand. "Um ... what happened to Reesland?"

"Golden parachute. He pulled the ripcord about three seconds after I fired him. He has no idea that quite a large chunk of that money is going to go toward defending himself in court."

I sat back down and quickly reshuffled my thoughts. "I see. And ... in the interest of preserving that same job, may I ask what he did wrong?"

"He took me for a fool, to start with. Otherwise, I'm sure you are well aware yourself what has been going on. He's been altering contracts through ... um ... an associate in the legal department; and then he's been applying pressure to the principals, both inside the company and out, to skim commissions and client payments for his own benefit. Mostly, he did it through intimidation and blackmail. It wasn't particularly well done. You and your girlfriend ... excuse me, your executive assistant ... obviously knew about him. You just didn't know that I knew.

"Your friend Rodriquez knew about him. I just got off the phone with him a few minutes ago. And that means that there are probably several other people in the industry that knew, as well. I was preparing things in-house to get rid of him; but this very lucrative contract you've negotiated forced me to move up my timeline.

"It caught Reesland flat-footed, as well. He didn't have much time to stake out Rodriquez for something to use against him. Somehow, he dug up the fact that our new client's wife had a brief affair, and he tried to use that as leverage, threatening to make it public unless he did away with that exclusivity clause you just showed me. Instead, Rodriquez called the FBI this morning, just before he called me. He was letting me know that, if the contract wasn't maintained as-is, he'd bring charges against the company, as well as Reesland.

"I had originally planned on bringing in some outside talent to fill the VP-Sales position, but after seeing you keep your cool throughout it all, I considered this the best option all around. Once again, congratulations."

I stood and held out my hand to Polly, who took it and rose from her chair. "It was nice to meet you, sir," she told him. I wondered why she was suddenly blushing. It made her look much more innocent that I knew she actually was.

"I look forward to seeing much more of you, Polly," he replied. "Especially now that we'll be working on the same floor."

Outside the office, she had the presence of mind to say goodbye to her fellow secretary, but then she grabbed my arm, spun me toward her, and threw her arms around me.

"Now, see here, Miss Pike," I admonished. "A little decorum is in order."

She laughed and put her lips near my ear. "Oh, sir! I was so afraid! I thought he was about to fire you! I thought maybe you might have done something rash back in the office."

I sighed and held her to me, ignoring the bemused looks we were getting from all quadrants. "Where did you go for those thirty minutes?"

"Nowhere. I was at my desk. I tried to get hold of Mr. Rodriquez four times, and I was told he was speaking to someone at our company. I never even imagined it was the CEO! I called three secretaries in legal. At first, they couldn't find the company lawyer we left the contract with; and later, they were all in shock because he was being led out of the building by security! And then I received word from the eighth floor that the big man himself wanted to see you ASAP! I didn't know what to do!"

I pulled back a little and looked down at her. "And why are you blushing?" I demanded.

"Because, sir. You need to celebrate your big promotion! We need to go back to the office and close the door! And we need to celebrate hard! You need to celebrate deep, deep, deep inside me! And you need to do it right now!"

She took my hand and frantically tugged me toward the elevators.

VP of Sales was actually part of my big plan; it was just happening about a year earlier than I'd anticipated. Yes, things were really, really looking up. I had worked my ass off this past year; and in another week and a half, that year would be over. From the brink of catastrophe, I was now riding high. Everything had worked out! And the future could only get better! The U.S. economy was soaring! The global economy was soaring! And, as far as the world of business was concerned, 2020 looked even better.

Yes, nothing could possibly go wrong.

TO BE CONTINUED