Chapter 22
Murphy’s Laws of Romance #6
“If you think things are going well in a relationship, you’ve overlooked something. If you think they’re going badly, you probably haven’t seen anything yet.”
The rest of Sunday went by in a daze. When Rena came by at the end of the day Monday, she found Toni staring into space.
“That is the silliest grin I’ve ever seen.” She walked in, leaving the office door open, and sat across from Toni, studying her for several seconds. “Oh, yeah. You’re definitely glowing.” Rena looked hard at Toni. “Not that my BFF bothered to debrief me on the weekend.”
Toni blinked back to reality and responded with a skeptical quirk of her mouth.
Rena smiled. “So, you must have reconciled with the good doctor this weekend, or did you sleep through Sunday?”
Toni started tidying up her desk and all the work she hadn’t touched during the day. “The answers are ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’”
“Well, details, girl, details.” Rena rarely bothered to whisper.
With a brief survey of the many furtive glances their way by others on the floor, Toni said in a hushed tone, “Over drinks, nosey, not here.”
Rena grinned and scanned the floor behind her. “Oh, come on, give them a thrill. It’s a Monday.”
With a chuckle at Rena’s tone, Toni shook her head as she closed her briefcase and went to put on her coat.
“Well then maybe you can tell me what’s going on upstairs.”
Toni stopped at her office door and squinted at her friend. “What are you talking about?”
“I mean the cash hunt that’s going on.”
“I have no idea. What do you know?” She and Rena walked to the elevators past all the cubicles crisscrossing the Legal Department, waiting until the doors closed on the empty elevator to answer Toni. “Not much, only that the VP of Finance, Cramer, called HR and asked if there were any legal means of liquidating the employees’ 401K funds and investing it in the company as loans or something.”
“Your boss told them no, I hope?”
Rena waved away the question. “Of course she did. She suggested they talk with you and Yates.” Rena raised an eyebrow, but Toni shook her head as they walked across the main lobby.
Toni, bothered by Legal not being consulted, asked, “So you don’t know what the cash is for?”
“Only that it must be an acquisition in the offing. At least it isn’t runaway debt or something serious, or I would have heard.”
Toni grinned as the two of them walked down the street toward O’Bannon’s. If Rena hadn’t heard about the news through the grapevine, it didn’t exist.
“It’s strange,” Toni said as they dodged pedestrians, “In the six years I’ve been with Rayaneta, there haven’t been cash hunts of any kind, certainly not to the extent of entertaining highly questionable options like raiding the 401K funds. Has the Hampton purchase really set them back?”
“I donno, but it’s weird.” Rena eyed Toni as they entered the bar and sat in a booth, both ordering rum and cokes. “So tell me about the weekend. What happened?”
“Okay, you. You aren’t going to get the type of details you’re fishing for. In the past, I may have shared my few spicy encounters, but not this time.”
“Well, that’s disappointing—and new .” Rena gave her friend a mock frustrated glare. “BJ said he’d recently been studying the Kama Sutra and Chinese sex books such as The Perfumed Pillow .” She clinked glasses with Toni, and said, “ Salud ,” but sighed. “I hoped to get an after-action report.”
Toni whapped Rena on the shoulder.
Rubbing the accosted area, she said, “What? I want to know if you two had the opportunity to practice some of those positions.”
“How would I know? I haven’t read either book.” Rena gave her a narrowed-eyed glance. “The only one he utilized was The Lady of the Moon . I can recommend it.”
When Toni said nothing more, Rena huffed and changed the subject. “So did you sleep through the day or what? You certainly were cute all curled up in BJ’s lap. He looked like he’d gotten his Christmas wish.”
“I was exhausted. I slept eight hours straight. I never do that. And then another eight a few hours later.”
Rena smiled the way she did when her accountant’s mind calculated. “Hmmm. So what did you do at four-thirty in the A of M, if I’m counting correctly?”
Toni shrugged, a secret smile on her lips, and sipped her drink. Head down, in a hushed tone, she said, “I told BJ that I loved him.”
“Whoa!” Rena scrunched closer in the booth. “Seriously?”
With a laugh at Rena’s mimicking her tagline, she intoned, “ Seriously .”
“Well, that’s—”
“You can say it: completely unlike me.”
Rena smiled at her friend and after a considered silence, said, “I’m happy for you two. BJ is amazing and I can’t think of a better woman to pair him with. He has good taste.”
“Thanks, Rena, your approval is important to me.” A blush was rising to the surface, heating her face even though it was her friend, so Toni changed the subject herself, if only to share the embarrassment. “And what about you and Sam? Are you two getting serious?”
Rena gave a quirky smile at Toni’s ploy, but shrugged and said, “I think so, but we’re just enjoying each other’s company so far. “The L-word hasn’t come into play yet.”
Toni punched her arm. “Really, not even PCMR?”
“Shut up, you.” Rena punched Toni back. They both laughed and Toni suggested that Sam, BJ, and they go out to dinner tonight. “BJ’s meeting me at Andiron’s in an hour. He loves their lamb. Why don’t you two join us?”
It turned out to be a great evening. In fact, the whole week was epic.
~ ~ ~
“Crystal, you have a wonderful weekend.”
Toni’s assistant gave a wave and a smile as she left. Toni cleared her desk, looking forward to a whole two days with BJ, the two of them alone with no interruptions. They were going to a cabin near Snoqualmie Ridge. She thought of last night in his arms with a smile, still astonished that BJ loved her, sharp tongue, and all ‘graveled,’ as they’d say in Brooklyn.
He’d asked her again if she trusted him. When she’d answered with a definite “yes” and a kiss, he smiled but wanted her to remember that in the coming weeks. He gave her an intense, expectant look, so she’d said, “Okay.” He seemed to need reassurance every once in a while, which was sweet and made him seem less self-sufficient than he usually appeared, as though he needed her. Remarkable, considering how she’d treated him until recently. She was very thankful for his willingness to turn a blind eye to the past and forgive.
She hadn’t asked why he repeatedly asked for her trust. An answer wasn’t an immediate need when the next two days were theirs. He’d jokingly promised to review all forty-three activities in The Lady of the Moon , and that had dominated her thoughts ever since.
She was throwing on her jacket when who should appear but Bateman. He stood at her office door looking, well, elated, or the equivalent for someone so disagreeable. His eyes practically shone with their own light, which struck her as ominous.
“Dr. Bateman, I was just leaving.” He didn’t move. “Is there something you want?”
“Ms. Crenshaw, as per our agreement, we’ll be announcing Ackerman’s retirement on Monday.”
“What?”
“Don’t cheapen this by acting surprised. You know Starling sold us his formulas. I can only imagine how you changed his mind,” he said with another smirk. He tossed a manila envelope to her. “The lead counsel position is yours. It will also be announced on Monday. There will be workmen here Tuesday to move you and your assistant to the top floor.” He turned to leave but paused and said over his shoulder, “Congratulations.”
Toni stood there with her mouth open, but finally gathered her wits about her, and chased Bateman to the elevator. “When did this happen?”
“Starling met with us over a week ago. Why?”
“Then who in the hell did the sale agreements?”
“Ackerman and what’s his name, Childers drew up the papers.” He pointed to the manila folder trembling in her hand.
“Why wasn’t I or Yates informed? We should have at least reviewed the agreement.”
Bateman scoffed as though she were being dense, and said, “Because we thought you were too personally involved in the outcome to be objective, and Yates would tell you.” The elevators opened and he stepped in. “We’ll introduce you to the board at the corporate meeting on Tuesday. Ten sharp.”
She stared at the chairman as the doors closed, unable to think. BJ had promised. He promised. He promised he wouldn’t sell them!
She staggered back to her office through the dark and empty hallway, shaking. She sat down and tried to breathe. Toni focused on the document Bateman had thrown to her. She opened the envelope and read through the agreement, but gasped, stunned by the sale amount. Starling had sold the formulas for $105 million. Cash!
Scanning the pages, she could see the sales agreement was poorly written in keeping with the Childers tradition of crap contracts. BJ insisted they do full tests on the formulas before they purchased them, but the board, not wanting such delays, instead offered him an additional fifteen million to contractually give up any insistence on tests or any say in the development of the formulas.
Ridiculous!
They’d bought the formulas outright, untested, while Starling inexplicably gave up any control or input regarding the formulas’ use—for money. She could see how it happened. Bateman and the Board were so hungry for the formulas, they paid Starling a great deal more simply to eliminate his influence, particularly when he would be coming back to Rayaneta at the end of the year.
Toni tossed the papers across the room, deep sobs welling up. BJ had lied to her face—for money. His fake concern over how Bateman would use his discovery was an act, a sham. Had he told her what she wanted to hear just to get into her pants? Had he used her to get to Bateman?
No, he’d asked her to trust him. That bright thought faded. He’d promised not to sell the scents . He’d promised.
She’d been a fool. She grabbed a handful of Kleenex and wiped away the tears. She’d never told a man she loved him until last Sunday. It took less than a week to discover how blind and gullible she’d been.
A dizzy, sick feeling overwhelmed her, forcing her to lean on the wall. She could see it all now, how she’d been manipulated. He’d been to see Bates and Childers when he passed by the conference room last Friday with that damned envelope in his hand. It held a draft of the sales agreement. He was in the process of selling the formula when the bastard invited her to the Tough Mudder.
He’d handed Bateman unbelievable weapons. The madman would use them to make money through every unsavory method conceivable.
Crying, she stumbled to the elevator, but blew her nose and sucked it up before it opened, making it to the parking garage without a whimper. When she got to her apartment, she gave in to the need to rage and weep outright. She tore apart the picture frame holding the Tough Mudder photo BJ had given her and glared at the smiling faces in the photo. She ripped it up.