Chapter 5

"Good morning, Gary. One black coffee, one bagel, heavy cream cheese and one good morning kiss."

I tried not to scowl at Nikki as she started around the desk to give me a kiss. She must have sensed that the kiss would be a bad idea, because she stopped at the corner and just looked at me.

"Did I say something wrong?" she asked, looking at my expression.

I was of two minds about how I was feeling towards Nikki at the moment. I know my feelings were not neutral but whether they were on the plus or negative side of the ledger was still in question.

Fay and I had spent a long time talking last night. Too long really because I was still running without much sleep and I was not sure I would make it to the end of the day. We talked about Luci of course. And Nikki. And us. I told her about Luci and Drew and we made love again. It was a good thing Fay was taking the day off. At least one of us would be able to function tonight. I expected I would be asleep on the couch before the evening news was over. I yawned and reached for my coffee.

"Remind me to thank Fay for calling you this morning," I said to Nikki after my first sip.

Nikki grinned at me. "Now what makes you think Fay called me?"

"How else would you know to bring me coffee when you still have your coat on?"

"Good point. I guess I will go and get ready for the day then." And with that, she headed to her own office and I went back to reading my email as the phone rang.

"This is Gary," I picked up the phone on the second ring.

"Good morning, Gary, this is Patricia. Could I impose on you for a moment?"

"Always. Here or there?"

"If you could come up?"

"I could do that. Oh, I have a message that I am holding an image for you. Would you like that electronically or printed?"

There was a pause on the line, then, "Can you print it discretely?"

"Give me 10 minutes and I will be up."

"Whenever you are ready, thank you, Gary." The line went dead and I keyed the phone and dialed Nikki.

"Yes, oh great one?"

"The colour laser on the other side, how does it do with photo stock, I haven't gotten around to testing it yet."

"Photo stock? I don't know that I have tried. Why, you have something you want to print?"

"Yes, I have a special request."

"Got something generic we can send to it?"

"Yes."

"OK, I will be right over."

I dug through the files on my PC looking for some pictures I had taken at Ellen's last birthday party and had found the right one just as Nikki came through the door.

"You have the paper?" I pointed her to the filing cabinets. I kept the paper in the second drawer, but she started at the bottom.

"She wasn't kidding, there really is rope and duct tape in here."

"Yes, and apparently I need more items."

"You do. Where's the paper?"

"Second from the top."

"Got it. I will buzz you when I have it queued up."

"OK, I am sending a wake up now so the printer can start calibrating." Nikki left without another work and I stared the imaging software and got everything ready to send. My phone rang and Nikki said she was ready to go.

"Here it comes," I said, hitting print.

"Oh, give it to me baby, hard and deep," Nikki replied.

"Not this morning, dear, I need rest," I replied as the image spooled out of my machine and over to the printer.

"I can feel it coming. Oh, here it comes, don't stop... almost, got it."

"Nikki, one of us has a dirty mind. How does it look?"

"It looks like someone had fun."

"Is it a good copy or not?"

"Depends, give me the real thing and I will tell you."

"You are a brat. Here comes the real one." As soon as it had spooled out I cleared it from my screen and reencrypted it.

"Wow!"

"I take it that it is good."

"The image or the picture?"

"In this case the image, I have seen the picture and I think it is quite good."

"I will bring it back, but it looks OK on a quick look. I don't want this exposed."

She hung up. Smart girl and as grumpy as I was, I did love her in her own way. Nikki came in a few minutes later and closed the door before handing me the picture, then came around the desk to look at it with me.

"Damn, that is a hot picture. Who took it? You?"

"No, Luci did Tuesday night."

"Any more?"

"Yes, but you will have to get both Luci and Patricia's permission to look at them." The image was good. The colour was clear and it looked like a photo. I reached for folder and a large envelope. I put the picture between two pieces of paper and laid it on top of the envelope inside the folder. I stood up and Nikki backed up a step, which gave me moment to look at her. She was wearing khakis again and a green department polo shirt. She had her hair back in a pony tail and little diamond stud earrings on. I took a second look and reached out to catch her neck and turn her head to the light.

"You haven't worn those in a while," I noted.

She turned back to me and rested her hand on my wrist.

"I haven't felt right wearing them," she responded.

"How long did you and Fay spend talking yesterday?"

"About two hours after lunch. Please don't be mad, Gary."

Rather than answer her, I pulled her towards me and kissed her, one hand tracing the base of her neck, the other stroking her ass. In turn, she has entwined her fingers in my hair and was hanging on for dear life. I slid my hand along her flank and was not surprised to find the body armor there. I was a little surprised to trace the line of a garter across her ass and I guessed she was wearing a thong or similar, because there were no panty lines across her ass. We broke her kiss and she sighed.

"It is good to do that again," she said.

"What?"

"Kiss you and not feel guilty about it," she responded. "I have been more than a little jealous of Luci. It isn't her fault, but still, I miss what we had."

"I know, I have very fond memories of it myself."

"Maybe we will get to make some new ones," she said, the question clear in the statement.

"Maybe, but that is not completely up to me. Back to work now. Tell Luci I am up in Patricia's office if she gets in before I get back." Nikki had opened the door as I was talking and I picked up the folder.

"Back from where?" Speak of the devil.

"Patricia's office. She wants a moment of my time and I will take her picture up to her," I said brandishing the folder and slipping around my desk.

"Good morning, Luci," I continued as I took her in one arm and gave her a hug, feeling more body armor, then continued out the door. "See you in a few minutes."

I rode the elevator to the 15th floor by myself, which gave me another chance to look at the picture of Patricia. It was very sexy, that is for certain. I hope Craig was enjoying himself with her and treating her right. I got off the elevator and walked around to Patricia's office where she was holding court with about a half-a-dozen other people, including two of our techs. I wondered what was up.

"Good morning," I said into the general hubbub in the room. Patricia looked up at the sound of my voice and looked very relieved to see me. She motioned me over to her desk and I looked over Eric's shoulder at her screen. He was punching keys, but nothing was happening.

"Problems?" I asked aside to Patricia. She put her hand on my shoulder and directed me out of the office and into Craig's. He was on the phone and looked up with a question. At a glance from Patricia, he finished his call and hung up as she closed the door.

"Is that for me?" she asked, indicating the folder in my hand. I passed it over to her without a word. Craig looked a question at me, but I ignored him. Not for me to say what was in my hand. Heck no. Just on the off chance it was not for him. Patricia walked over to the window and opened the folder and looked at the picture. A very lusty grin spread over her face and I got a chance to look at her. She was wearing a teal blouse that set off her blonde hair quite nicely. Her hair was up in a bun, but not one that made her look severe, more along the lines of teasing. Almost saying I am more beautiful than you can imagine, and you are going to have to imagine. She had on a simple grey wool skirt that looked like it might have a jacket that matched it somewhere. As I watched her look at the picture, the morning light shone through the window and through the sheer fabric of her blouse (I was guessing silk), you could see that she too had gone the route being followed downstairs. The more I watched, the more her breathing seemed to become irregular. I had seen her naked, in pictures anyway, and I knew that she had very pronounced nipples. She was still looking at the picture when Craig spoke up from across the room.

"Do I get to see it too?" he asked. "After all, I can assume that Gary has seen it, correct?" This last said to me.

"Yes, sir, I have. An occupational hazard I am afraid," I said, trying to make light of it.

"Yes, I can imagine," Craig responded with a rather droll tone. "Help yourself to some coffee Gary and have a seat." He got up and walked over to Patricia and rested his chin on her shoulder and wrapped his hands around her hips in a very intimate manner. Good man. I heard his gasp as he pulled Patricia closer and reached up to change the angle of the picture. I helped myself to coffee.

"Did you take this?" Clearly the question was being thrown in my direction. Fortunately I never go the chance to answer.

"No, he didn't, Craig. Down. Sit. Or kiss me." He took the last option. Smart man. I walked over the chair in front of his desk that he had indicated. Patricia sat down in the chair beside me, folder still in her hand and Craig sat down in his chair.

"Sorry, Gary, that was uncalled for."

"Not a problem, sir. I imagine I would have had the same reaction."

"No you wouldn't." This from Patricia as I stayed silent a minute more.

"So, what can I do for you this morning? I think I have spent more time up here this week than in the last six months." It was true. I rarely got out of my cave, let alone up to the executive levels.

"Jerry and I have been talking," Craig began. "He seems to think, and I agree, that we might be wasting your talents."

I took a sip of coffee to cover any thing I might have said.

"A wise man too, I see," Craig continued. "Patricia thinks that if we took all the fetters off of you, you could come up with more than one way to push this company forward."

I looked sideways at Patricia and she nodded once and let Craig continue.

"You see more and understand more than most of those experts out there," he indicated the floor of VPs that were supposed to be moving the company forward. "In one day, with one innovation, you have the ear of half the company and only two of those high paid suits out there agreed with you. By the way, they were the women, but I suspect you guessed that."

I had. I had seen the picture. Maureen Tanner was a tall, statuesque blond Amazon goddess, with a Ph. D. in mathematics and a JD and was a devil with torts. To say the woman was a genius was an understatement. She was also beautiful and while she had left her skirt on, she was in the front row and had been licking her lips when the picture was taken. And I seem to remember her writing something along the lines of wanting to solve some binary equations involving 1 and O, and she always crossed her zeros, with me. She was lead council for the company and handled a lot of the contracts the company signed. You did not try and put something over on her if you knew what was good for you.

Louise Hampton was frumpy. And that was polite. But as frumpy as she was, she had a sweet disposition unless you were on her bad side, somewhere I never wanted to be. At 50, she had started out near the bottom of the rungs in the corporate world and was now a vice-president of our largest and most successful divisions. She was a shrewd negotiator and a good friend. She could swear like a sailor and still be ladylike. How she pulled it off is something only she could do, and she did it well. She had been very direct in her note to me. She had said "it's about damn time! Now come work for me and we can take over this place!" I liked Louise.

Craig was talking again. "Jerry doesn't want to lose you, and I can understand that, so I am hoping between the four of us," and he indicated Patricia, "we can come up with some way to leverage what is between your ears without you having to spend another night on your couch, which should be replaced by the way. Where did you get that thing?" I nearly choked on my coffee when he said that and Patricia tapped my back. Actually, it seemed she was caressing my back, but who was I to complain.

"The couch is mine, sir. I have had it for a while. It used to be in my office at home but Fay ordered it gone when we last redecorated."

"Patricia, please see that he gets something better. He cannot keep that thing one more day!" I guess I was getting a new couch. I hope it was comfy.

"Now, what are we going to do with you?" Craig pinned me with the question.

"I am not sure, sir," I said, playing with the cup and letting my mind slip. "I like what I am doing."

"Yes, but we need to get you out more. If I thought putting you in a glass office was a good idea, I would do that, but Patricia says that is not such a good idea and I will follow her lead on that."

"I can just imagine me in a glass office, sir. HR would have a fit about the state of the place within the first hour saying that I was not fit to be an employee, let alone a representative of the company, not to mention that I do occasionally HAVE to sleep in my office."