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“Are you saying that being gay is awful?” asked Sherry.
Adrienne felt confused. “No. I just meant that we should give our new boss a chance and that malicious gossip is wrong.”
The other women looked to Sherry for a response. “Sounds homophobic to me,” Sherry stated.
As soon as they were seated back in unit 6, Sherry started, “What was that all about?”
“What do you mean?”
Sherry stared at her with open curiosity. “I saw what happened when he looked at you. Have you two met somewhere before?”
Adrienne bit her lip, trying to remember. “No.”
“Maybe at another company?” Sherry pressed.
Adrienne thought hard for another minute, and then shook her head vigorously. “No.”
Sherry arched her eyebrows in disbelief. “You must have just forgotten.”
Adrienne turned around and went back to work without saying another word. She and Lloyd Cooper had obviously crossed paths before. But where? Before she could rack her brains, her supervisor called.
“Adrienne, could you come in, please? I have a couple of documents that need to be typed and some faxes that I need you to send right away.”
“Sure.”
Regina Belvedere was a statuesque redhead with green eyes and a warm smile. Her office was efficiently organized and decorated in an oatmeal tone. She looked up when Adrienne entered. “Guess what I’m doing next weekend?”
Adrienne smiled. “You’re going camping with Al.”
Regina sighed. “No. We broke up last week.”
“I’m so sorry, Regina,” Adrienne said sincerely.
“Thanks. I’m going to a dude ranch upstate with a singles group. According to the brochure, all the men are doctors and lawyers. How about that?”
The two women shared a laugh and then settled down to work.
When Adrienne returned to her desk almost an hour later, Sherry was hanging up her phone. “Lloyd Cooper wants to see you in his office, pronto!”
Adrienne’s heart skipped a beat. Her eyes widened in panic. “What could he possibly want?”
Sherry’s voice was a whisper. “I don’t know, but you better get moving.”
“Where is his office?”
Sherry gave her a room number that was on the other side of their floor. Adrienne ducked into the ladies’ room first and gave herself a once-over in the full-length mirror.
A few minutes later, she knocked on the closed door. A female voice answered, “Come in.”
Adrienne turned the knob and entered. “Mr. Cooper, my name is . . . ”
Eight pairs of eyes around a long glass table looked up from paperwork and stared at her. A man’s voice stopped coming out of the speakerphone on the table. Another man, who was taping the meeting on video, quickly paused the tape. Adrienne mumbled an apology and backed out. She leaned against the wall and concentrated on her breathing, which was now ragged and shallow. Sherry had been wrong. She had walked into a conference room. Locating an empty desk with a phone, she called the switchboard operator, who gave her a room number up on the thirty-fourth floor.
This time Lloyd Cooper’s voice answered Adrienne’s knock; she felt uneasy as he told her to come in. She walked past a large potted plant near the window, and a wall of framed diplomas and certificates. He was seated behind a huge mahogany-colored desk that seemed half a block away. Adrienne crossed the wide expanse of beige carpet and held out her hand.
“Hi, I’m Adrienne Jordan. Did you wish to see me?”
“Ah! So you’ve married and changed your last name.” He stood up and came around to her side of the desk, extending his hand. “Hello, Mrs. Jordan. Have a seat.”
