Chapter 109

Phil was happy when the plane touched down in Calder City. He had spent almost a week away from Hailey and he missed her. He also missed the rest of the friends he’d grown to love over the past year.

It was a workday so Hailey was still at the office. Beth said she planned to stop in for a few minutes but Phil announced he was going to the apartment and vegging out for the rest of the day. He’d return to work Monday.

Beth laughed. She was proud of how Phil had conducted himself, not only in Los Angeles but while he was nominally in charge of the office. She could see that Barton Holdings would be in good hands when she decided to step away from the helm. The more she watched her son, the more she felt like leaving things to him sooner than planned.

She had never wanted to be the company’s chairman. Oh sure, she had bitched about playing second fiddle but that was mostly just to have something to complain about to David. She would have been perfectly happy without a lot of the hassles that came with running a multinational conglomerate – things like having to go to L.A. to clean up someone else’s mess. She probably would have already left Barton if her brother had taken the job that was intended for him.

David had hinted that he was superfluous at his job. He had several people blocked from promotion who deserved to rise because the people above them had no plans to leave. He enjoyed what he did but he would be just as happy working on the floor as he was sitting in the office. He still went downstairs a few times each year if a thought hit him. Truly, she knew his talents were wasted in a cosmetics firm. He could be a working chemist just about anywhere. He’d taken the job because it was one of the few available near Calder City and, at the time, it was important that Beth be close to Barton headquarters. Her job prospects, courtesy of a low GPA during her freshman year at Heilman, were a lot murkier than his at graduation.

Now he had spent almost 20 years working on different smells and colors of makeup, cologne, perfume and soap. She wondered where he would have been if he hadn’t married her. He might be one of the top chemists at NASA or he might have been the person who came up with a cure for cancer. That thought led her to Tonya Stanton. She had called off the vendetta but the woman still worked for far less than she was worth. She still had her paycheck garnished every week for outstanding student loans and she still drove a 20-year-old car. For the first time, Beth felt guilty. Tonya might have been just as talented as David but she never got the chance to show it.

She shook those thoughts from her mind as the car service pulled up in front of the Barton Building.

“Hailey is going to be pissed if you don’t come to see her,” she said with a smile.

“I figure that she’ll see you’re back and make a break for it,” Phil said with a shrug. “At least that’s what I told her to do.”

“Setting up your poor mother for a day of drudgery after we come home from vacation!” she said with mock alarm. “Is that how I raised you?”

“Yep,” Phil answered with a laugh. “Take what I want and leave someone else to pay the bill. That’s my motto.”

Beth shook her head.

“I need to put the final touches on her birthday celebration,” Phil said. “Picco’s was supposed to reopen this week and I need to make sure they did. I also need to drive downtown to pick up the tickets to the theatre.”

“That’s fine,” Beth said. “I’ll keep Hailey occupied until you get back. Then I’ll send her home for the day. Does she know what you have planned?”

“Probably,” Phil admitted. “You can’t keep a secret around that group. I think at least one of them is a mind reader.”

“Have fun tonight,” Beth said as Phil pulled his bag out of the trunk. The car would wait and take her home later.

“We will,” Phil said. “If things work out, you’ll probably get a phone call later tonight.”

For the second year in a row, Hailey’s birthday had passed without a celebration. Unlike a year earlier, when Phil was neck deep in negotiations at Waterford and Waterford, this year he had at least recognized the significance of the date and had telephoned her to wish her “Happy Birthday.”

But, again similar to a year before, he had decided to pull out the stops for a weekend following her birthday. He decided a dinner at Picco’s should be a birthday tradition and, since the only time he’d gotten the chance to take Hailey to the theatre had been the amateur playhouse after her birthday dinner, this time he wanted to do a little more.

Since Elizabeth and David were major financial contributors, he had no trouble securing tickets at one of the numerous off-Broadway plays that came through Calder City each season. Personally, he had no interest in seeing “Night on the Brink” but Hailey had mentioned she enjoyed the book the play was based upon so he bit the bullet.

Picco’s had seen an upswing in popularity over the previous two years, particularly with the addition of summertime al fresco dining and a big band dance floor, and the Piccolo family had decided it was time to expand. The renovations had required the restaurant to close its doors during the late winter and early spring and the inevitable delays had pushed the opening back to early June.

The adjoining building had been vacant for many years – as many downtown storefronts were – and Picco’s had finally secured the site at a tax auction. The structures shared a common wall so it was little trouble making an entrance to a new section set up more like an upscale bar than a restaurant. Phil had seen the plans but he hadn’t made it across the city to see the actual finished product until that afternoon.

The restaurant was packed despite the fact that it was after lunch. He stopped at the hostess station and waited for a harried young woman to finish taking a call. She brushed a strand of stray hair out of her eyes when she hung up the phone and turned to Phil, shaking her head.

“We’re full for lunch,” she said.

“No, that’s fine,” he said. “I just stopped in to confirm my reservation for this evening and to visit with Lauren for a few minutes. If she’s too busy, I understand.”

He had spoken to Lauren Piccolo a few times since his return to the city and he knew her father was doing the same for her as his mother was doing for him. She was shadowing him during his daily routine so she would be familiar with the inner workings when the time came for her to take over the family business.

“I’m sure she’ll be happy for the break,” the young woman said. “It’s vendor day and that’s always a mess. I’ll check to make sure you’re on our list if you’ll let me have your name.”

“I’ll want it back when you’re through,” Phil said, smiling across the podium. It took a second for the woman to get the joke but eventually she laughed (or perhaps she realized he was making an unsuccessful attempt at levity and she was just being polite). “My name is Phil Warner. I made a reservation for two for seven o’clock.”

The woman’s fingers flew over her tablet and she nodded.

“Right here,” she said. “Reservation for two in one of our private rooms.”

“Perfect,” Phil replied. He was relieved that it hadn’t gotten lost. He had made the reservations before the restaurant was reopened and he’d planned to follow up much earlier but had gotten sidetracked by his trip West.

“Are you Lauren’s boyfriend?” the young woman wondered.

“Uh, no,” Phil replied. “I didn’t realize she had one. Last year she said that a restaurant is a nights and weekends proposition and it didn’t leave much time for a personal life.”

The girl nodded ruefully.

“I’ve worked here since I was 16,” she confided. “It took me seven years to work my way up to dayshift – and even now I still have to work Saturday nights. Some of my friends have the same job and they were at the upper end of seniority if they stuck around for six months. I’m in the middle after seven years. I’d still be on nights if they hadn’t expanded. We had to have a separate hostess for the new section.”

“It’s one of the perils of working for a good company,” Phil explained. “I’ve known the Piccolos for a few years. They’re really good people and I would guess that makes them really good bosses. Few people are willing to leave something good when they know the prospect of something better is unlikely.”

“That’s why I’m still here,” the girl admitted. “I worked my way through college here and kept the job when my degree in history proved to be fairly worthless.”

Phil nodded as the phone rang again.

“We’re booked solid for weeks and I still get 30 calls an hour from people expecting us to squeeze them in on 20 minutes’ notice,” she grumbled. “Just go on back to the office. Lauren and her dad are back there.”

Phil was still ruminating on his visit with Lauren Piccolo as he opened the apartment door and walked inside. He stopped in his track as two nude butts disappeared down the hallway.

Seconds later, Tiffany and Molly – both red-faced with embarrassment – came out wearing clothes.

“What are you doing home?” Tiffany asked.

“I ... live ... here,” Phil answered hesitantly. “I still live here, don’t I?”

Hailey hadn’t mentioned that they had moved out but he’d been gone for six days and things changed quickly in his little corner of the world.

“We didn’t think you’d be back until later,” Molly explained.

“So you were just laying around naked and watching TV?” Phil asked, glancing at the inane talk show on the screen.

“Pretty much,” Molly agreed with a shrug.

“Don’t let my presence deter you,” Phil noted with a smile. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen the pair naked a hundred times in the past few months – sometimes a lot closer than now.

“We thought you might be Bob,” Tiffany said. “Katelyn said he was coming over this evening. I guess the building inspectors found something wrong and he’s going to be off until next Wednesday.”

“And yet you were bare-assed on the sofa,” Phil joked. “You like to live dangerously.”

“We figure we have to break him in before we get back to the house,” Tiffany said. “I got tired of putting on a bikini to go outside when the weather got warm. We can’t even sunbathe topless here if Katelyn thinks he’s going to be in the same ZIP code.”

“Have you actually talked to Katie about this?” Phil asked. “I didn’t get the impression she was worried about it.”

The two young women exchanged glances.

“Not really,” Molly admitted. “We don’t want to make her angry. I still remember what she was like last fall.”

“I think they’re on a little firmer ground now,” Phil said. “Ask her if she minds. I mean, she still goes topless if I’m here. Bob doesn’t care and I doubt she will either.”

“Did you get things set up for tonight?” Tiffany asked to change the subject.

“Yep,” Phil said. “Dinner and a night at the theatre.”

“Are you staying in a hotel or coming back here?” Molly wondered.

Phil shrugged. He would let Hailey decide what came next. He suspected that she would want privacy.

Tiffany looked at Phil for a moment.

“You have something big planned, don’t you?” she asked with a grin.

“I’m not saying anything,” Phil told her. “I know where your allegiances lie. I want some things to stay a surprise.”

Molly rolled her eyes. She had found the engagement ring several months earlier while she was putting away Phil’s baseball equipment in a closet. She couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t proposed yet.

“We’ll find out soon enough,” she said, offering a wink. “But I think our birthday present might have to wait.”

“What did you get her?” Phil wondered.

Tiffany’s smirk answered his question but she replied verbally, as well.

“We’re going to propose a nasty night of switch and swap,” she said. “We haven’t done anything like that in a while and I figure that she’s about ready. We were going to see if tomorrow night might be good.”

“I think it might be better to wait until next weekend,” Molly said. Tiffany turned to her with a frown. Molly held up her left hand and touched her ring finger. It took Tiffany a moment but when she figured out what Molly meant she turned to Phil with a huge smile.

“It’s about time!” she said.

“Don’t say anything to her,” Phil urged. “I’ve tried to get to this point several times already and something always got in the way. I don’t want her to feel any pressure or anything.”

“Uh, this sounds really bad but ... does this mean we can’t play any more?” Tiffany asked. “I mean, you know, it’ll be official.”

“I think it’s been unofficially official for a while,” Phil said. “She and I will talk about it but I won’t put any limitations on Hailey. I’ll leave it up to her – even after we get married.”

Hailey was her usual beautiful self when she got out of the car at Picco’s. She had worked a full day in order to get everything done that she wanted to. That gave her just a little time to get ready for dinner. She barely got the chance to show Phil how much she’d missed him.

“We have the whole weekend to get reacquainted,” he assured her. She would have preferred to spend the night cuddled up on the couch with him but she knew that wasn’t possible. Molly and Tiffany had been sitting there when she got in and didn’t appear interested in moving. Katelyn and Bob were in the kitchen cooking something. More and more she missed having a private place to spend an evening.

Phil was dressed by the time she got out of the shower. She gave him a smile as he fixed his tie and hugged herself to him despite the fact she was still slightly wet.

“Kiss me before I put on lipstick,” she commanded. Phil leaned down to do as he bid, reaching down to cup Hailey’s bottom at the same time.

“Does this mean I can’t kiss you once you put on lipstick?” Phil wondered when they pulled apart. “I pretty well planned to kiss you every chance I got. I guess I’ll just have to find other places to kiss you, I suppose.”

Hailey shuddered when his lips found the nape of her neck. His hands reached around to fondle her breasts. Hailey pushed her butt backward to rest against Phil’s rapidly inflating erection. Just when she thought he might slide a hand between her legs, he pulled away.

“We only have 30 minutes before our reservations,” he said. “I’ll leave you alone while you get ready.”

“Oh, I’m ready!” Hailey said, wiggling her eyebrows at him. She also licked her lips lasciviously and Phil wondered if he shouldn’t call Picco’s to cancel the reservations.

He let out a long breath when Hailey turned to sort out what underwear (if any) she would wear that night. He went out and sat down in a chair. It was barely 10 minutes later when Hailey made her appearance. She wore a royal blue dress that fit her like a second skin and carried a matching clutch purse. It hugged her bottom and dipped low in the front to highlight her cleavage. She wore a royal blue dress that fit her like a second skin, hugging her bottom, dipping low in the front to highlight her cleavage; she carried a matching clutch purse.

“Wow!” Bob said. He had seen Hailey in all sorts of skimpy outfits but none of them had looked as good on her as this one.

“I’ll say,” Katelyn said, not the least upset at her boyfriend’s assessment of the dress. Phil just sat stunned. It took him a moment to close his mouth and stand.

“Shall we?” he asked.

“We shall,” she replied with a laugh. Phil made it a point to walk behind her to the elevator (and then to try to get a glimpse down her dress as they rode the elevator downward).

“You really do look great,” he said.

“Thank you,” Hailey replied. “I bought this just for tonight. Collette saw it in New York last spring and ordered it for me. Can you believe that?”

“I can,” Phil told her as he drove toward downtown. “It’s one of a kind and so are you.”

“Tell me about California,” she instructed. Phil wasn’t sure what was left to tell. They had spoken on the phone every evening. He had recited his daily itinerary on the phone.

“Uh,” he said, “I’m not sure I did anything you don’t already know.”

Hailey nodded. She’d been hoping to put off a serious discussion until they reached the restaurant but decided the drive would be good enough.

“DeeDee is making waves,” she told him.

Phil scoffed.

“Fuck DeeDee,” he said succinctly. “She’s nobody.”

“It’s a little more serious than that,” Hailey told him. “Uh, look, don’t be pissed at me. OK?”

Phil glanced over at Hailey’s ominous words.

“Bonnie is playing the spy,” she said. “She’s convinced DeeDee that she’s worried that you’ll boot her to the curb when you take over – or convince Beth to do it sooner. She’s playing on the little tiff you two had a few years ago.”

“I was 14 years old!” Phil said loudly, shaking his head. “She left me to walk like three miles home because she wouldn’t let me talk to Mom. What did she think I was going to do? I told Mom about it when she asked me why I hadn’t called her for a ride home.”

“I know,” Hailey told him in a soothing voice. “And she knows. She knows she made a mistake and she knows you have forgiven her.”

“I had nothing to forgive her about,” Phil pointed out. “Mom told Bonnie that she didn’t want to be disturbed for any reason. Bonnie acted in accordance to Mom’s wishes. She didn’t disturb her. Once that was explained to me, I never once blamed Bonnie. I blamed Mom for not making it clear that Dad and I get preference if we think something is important. We got that straightened out in a day or two and the world went on.”

“See, that’s not the perception at the office,” Hailey told him. “Beth had some harsh words with Bonnie the next morning.”

“She apologized for that,” Phil cut in.

“I know she did but the rumors were already out there,” Hailey said. “So anyway, Bonnie is playing double agent. She told me this morning that DeeDee is going outside the company for allies. She’s got the Mayor’s support – financially and politically. She’s also been talking to some other pretty influential people. I thought I could handle things without bringing you or your mom into the fray. I thought I was doing OK. I neutralized DeeDee’s cousin over the weekend and I let Bonnie convince me to go undercover. Now I’m wondering how I should bring this to Beth.”

“Let’s talk about this tomorrow,” Phil decided as he pulled up to the parking lot near Picco’s. “Nothing is going to happen tonight so let’s just relax and have fun. It’s your birthday celebration after all. We’ll talk about it later and formulate a plan. I think you’ve done everything right so far. Bonnie is a gem and we’ll do everything we can to keep her when Mom retires. I’m not sure where the cousin fits in but it might be time for the Mayor to lose her luster. I think Mom planned to stay in the shadows on that one but maybe she’ll come forward to let everyone know why it happened. If Melissa Hopkins is toppled, the others will go looking for cover in a hurry. You can bet on that. Now, let’s put on our happy faces and have a great night.”

Hailey was determined to do just as Phil suggested. She took his arm as they walked up the sidewalk to Picco’s. She saw an empty table on the street and suspected it was where she would have dinner with her guy.

Instead they were shown to a very private room in the back section – and Amberleigh Hayes walked through the door to act as their server for the evening.

Phil was wrong. There was something going on that evening.

In a back room only seven city blocks from where Phil and Hailey sat down to a dinner at Picco’s, Deirdre Coleman-Jennings sat down at a table with several other people.