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Gloria swooped in wearing a red maxi dress with at least three metal belts wrapped around her waist. “Things are looking good. You’ve done a great job on the organisation, and I understand all of our biggest clients will be here. I just hope the tyrant can be bothered to show up during his part.”
“Out.” Maggie pointed at the door.
“What do you mean?”
“I warned you that I won’t listen to that. Go find someone else who will. And if they do, I’ll fire them. It’s insidious and it stops now. Here.”
“I never,” Gloria protested.
“Yeah, you did. Never gave him a chance, and neither did I. You’ve got a fat pay cheque coming that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.” And still might not if he chose to fire her for insubordination. She wouldn’t blame him if he did. “You might try a little cooperation when all else fails.” She knew that, to others, he might not look engaged because he spent so much time working offsite on the other deal. But speculation about his work hours had to end too, particularly when almost everyone at World Wide Now set their own schedules.
One of the catering assistants popped her head in the door. “I don’t know where you’d like the cake?”
Maggie wondered if it would be rude to cut a piece and eat it now. She could use the sugar boost. “Mother, can you help her?”
“This way,” Gloria said to the young lady, once again distracted. “The frosting doesn’t have dairy, does it?”
David showed up, dapper in grey with a blue tie. Wildly she wondered if that was the one he’d shoved in her mouth the first night at her condo.
“You’ve done a nice job on the event,” he told her. “I understand you got my bio?”
“Gloria will be reading it, if that’s all right?”
He nodded.
“You can do the acknowledgements. I thought I’d handle the welcome and the staff introductions. You up for a rehearsal?”
He nodded again.
They had a large presentation room and, except for a couple of bar-height tables, it had been cleared.
Their sound person joined them, showed them how the lapel microphones worked, ran through a check then stepped back while Maggie, Gloria and David read through their lines.
“We make a good team,” Gloria said.
By the time David’s introduction had been made to the crowd, Maggie agreed. When they worked together, things ran seamlessly. David even displayed some unexpected humour that caught some laughter and a smattering of applause.
She stayed through the end. And went home alone.
He hadn’t even stuck around to say goodnight.
What had she expected? She swallowed the lump in her throat. How could she have been so shallow? David had been open, if unyielding, about his expectations of her. There weren’t many. He even cooked and made Sunday-morning lattes.
She’d been so caught up in looking at the situation through fearful eyes that she’d blown her chance to be with the one man who satisfied her more than anyone ever had. He would have continually pushed her, but the rewards she’d already experienced were more than she could have imagined.
Feeling miserable, she picked up the phone and asked Vanessa to join her for a drink. Vanessa said she had only a little time before her two men were coming over. “I’ll share,” Vanessa added.
“I’ll pass. Thanks.”
“Come on over, I’ll make you a margarita. You don’t have to stay.”
She swung by Vanessa’s but just felt more miserable when the first taste of salt hit her tongue. She wasn’t in the mood to be cheered up. What should had been a celebratory evening following the mad success of the open house had ended up echoing with loneliness, amplified by Vanessa’s uncontained enthusiasm for her night ahead.
When the hunks in leather pants and no shirts arrived, Maggie excused herself.
“Not tempted?” Vanessa asked.
“Not even a little bit.”
“You’ve got it bad,” Vanessa said. “We’ll go shopping tomorrow.”
One of the guys grabbed Vanessa’s hair and pulled back her head.
“If you survive,” Maggie said with a grin. She let herself out and went home alone.
