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Taking a deep breath, she walked over to her desk and sat down. She was very early, even earlier than the receptionist and the rest of the staff, but she had wanted to familiarize herself with the goings on before the others arrived.
She had an assistant, of course, and had been kept up to date while she was away. Her concise report had been prepared and perused several times by her to make sure everything was up to speed.
They had several promising manuscripts that would make the publishing house a lot of money. The publishing process takes time, and she hoped the CEO would consider that.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed back from the desk to the small cabinet where the coffee maker was. Within seconds, the scent of the rich beans filled the office and settled her nerves. The ringing of her cell phone had her jumping.
"Relax." She muttered as she walked over to the desk to answer the call.
"Hi."
"Hi. Where are you?"
"At work."
"It's barely seven-thirty. What are you doing there so early?"
"I want to be prepared. God, David, I am trying to tell myself that it will be okay, but I have these butterflies inside my stomach."
"You are safe. Like I said before, you are excellent at your job, and any fool would know that."
"Thanks. Where are you?"
"On my way to the precinct. We caught an ugly case. Double homicide - a mother and her five-year-old."
"That's horrible. Any suspect?"
"Too early for that. Let me know what's happening, will you? I might be in the field, but text me if I don't answer. Love you."
She smiled at that and felt the warm glow inside her heart. "Love you too. Be safe."
"Always."
She hung up from him and felt herself settling. They had both lost their parents but had each other, and for that, she was eternally grateful. Taking a deep breath, she went to pour her coffee.
*****
Her assistant had been with her for five years and anticipated her needs, something she was grateful for.
"How was the trip?" Mariel Williams was a trim fifty-two-year-old woman with a plain but pleasant face and a brisk manner. She had a pile of folders in her arms as she entered the office and closed the door behind her. The place was starting to fill up with employees, but even though it was eight-thirty, Jerry had not appeared.
"Lovely." Delores stretched her hands out for the files. "I stayed in this delightful little cottage and thought about living there."
"You would not last a week." Mariel went to get coffee for herself and refresh Delores' cup.
"You sound like my friends. They happen to agree with you."
"There you go." She handed her the coffee and settled on one of the chairs with her tablet on her lap. "Everything is set for the meeting." The woman lifted the light blue eyes in question. "Are we going to be okay?"
"I hope we will be. I have the reports from the editorial meetings a few weeks ago. Then there is the report from my trip, the traveling expenses, to show that I was prudent in spending the company's money and that the trip yielded some success."
"You think they are going to be looking at that? Book fairs are vital to the publishing business."
"Considering that the company taking over are not publishers, that might not mean a damn. We have been limping along for years now, and that will come up in the meeting. They will want to know if keeping us up and running is viable.
The bottom line is the only thing that will matter to them." She sighed and reached for a folder. "And here I am, getting ahead of myself. Let's get to work, shall we?"
"You have several people to return calls to and a luncheon that needs confirmation." Mariel reminded her. "It's with that very touchy Russian writer, and he got very upset that he was not apprised of your plans to be out of the country."
