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“My whole family is mad at me about this,” Jaine grumbled.
Despite her disappointment, Gina was a nice woman. She sat down on the edge of Jaine’s desk, her expression changing to one of sympathy. “Why? What does it have to do with them?”
“My opinion exactly. My sister says I’ve embarrassed her and she won’t be able to hold her head up in church, and my fourteen-year-old niece got the entire transcript off the Web, so Shelley’s angry about that, too. My brother is angry because I’ve embarrassed him in front of the guys where he works—”
“I don’t see how, unless they’ve been comparing themselves in the rest room and he came up short,” Gina commented, then giggled.
Jaine said, “I don’t want to think about that”; then she began giggling, too. She and Gina looked at each other and burst into gales of laughter, laughing until tears welled and ruined their mascara. Sniffing, they giggled their way to the ladies’ room to repair the damage.
At nine o’clock, Jaine was called into her immediate supervisor’s office.
His name was Ashford M. deWynter. Every time she heard the name, she thought she was dreaming of Manderley. She dearly wanted to ask if the M stood for “Max,” but was afraid to find out. Maybe he was playing to the illusion, but he always dressed in a very European manner and had been known to say “shedule” instead of “schedule.”
He was also an asshole.
Some people come by it naturally. Others work very hard at it. Ashford deWynter did both.
He didn’t ask Jaine to be seated. She sat anyway, earning a frown for her presumption. She suspected the reason for this little conference and wanted to be comfortable while he chewed her out.
“Ms. Bright,” he began, looking as if he smelled something distasteful.
“Mr. deWynter,” she replied.
Another frown, from which she deduced it hadn’t been her turn to speak.
“The situation at the gate has become untenable.”
“I agree. Perhaps if you tried a court order …” She let the suggestion trail off, knowing he didn’t have the authority to obtain one even if there was a basis for it, which she doubted. The “situation” wasn’t endangering anyone, nor were the newspeople hindering the employees.
The frown became a glare. “Your facetiousness is unappreciated. You know very well this situation is your doing. It’s unseemly and distracting, and people are becoming unhappy.”
For “people,” she thought, read “his superiors.”
“How is it my doing?” she asked mildly.
“That vulgar List of yours …”
Maybe he and Leah Street had been separated at birth, she mused. “The List isn’t mine, any more than it’s Marci Dean’s. It was a collaborative effort.” What was it with everyone, holding her solely responsible for the List? Was it that mysterious “authority” again? If she had that kind of power, maybe she should start wielding it more often. She could make shoppers let her go to the head of the line, or have her street plowed first when it snowed.
“Ms. Bright,” Ashford deWynter said in quelling tones. “Please.”
Meaning, please don’t take him for an idiot. He was too late; she already did.
“Your brand of humor is very recognizable,” he added. “Perhaps you weren’t the only one involved, but you were undeniably the chief instigator. Therefore it falls to you to rectify the situation.”
Jaine might gripe about Dawna to her friends, but she wasn’t about to mention anyone else’s name to deWynter. He already knew the other three names. If he chose to believe the majority of the fault was hers, nothing she could say would change his mind.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll go to the gate at lunch and tell them you don’t appreciate all this publicity and you want them to get off Hammerstead property or you’ll have them arrested.”
He looked as if he had swallowed a mackerel. “Ah … I don’t think that would be the best way to handle things.”
“What do you suggest?”
Now, there was a question. His expression went absolutely blank.
She hid her relief. It would have shredded her ego if deWynter had been able to think of a workable solution when she hadn’t been able to come up with even an unworkable one.
“A staffer from Good Morning America has called,” she continued. “I’ll blow her off. People magazine is supposed to call, too, but I just won’t take the call. All that free publicity can’t be good for the company …”
