Chapter 3

Kyle sat at his desk on Monday morning. Lisa breezed in. Her hair was back in the tight bun and she was wearing her glasses. The skirt suit she wore came to a couple inches above her knee and Kyle regarded her legs. The heels she wore enhanced the shapes of her calves.

“How’s the printing going?” she asked.

“We haven’t started yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because we don’t have the file from the bank yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because the bank had some sort of problem putting our file into production over the weekend.”

“My God! It’s nearly nine! Haven’t you called anyone?”

“I spoke to Jim at the bank. I spoke to Jim’s boss. I spoke to Jim’s boss’s boss. Freddie called Jim’s boss’s boss’s boss. They are aware of the problem and they have been working on it since four this morning.”

“Maybe I should call someone,” she replied. “Maybe I can get results when you and Freddie can’t.”

“I can’t stop you — but I think at this point it would be counterproductive.”

“Counterproductive? How?”

“Any managerial histrionics would only distract them and make the resolution take more time.”

“What should we do?” Lisa asked.

“Do you want my advice?”

She let out a petulant sigh. “Let’s have it, Kyle.”

“My advice is to take a chill pill and wait for them to fix the problem.”

“If we start printing at nine ... we won’t be done ‘til two or later.”

“That’s right.”

“That won’t give Murfee’s enough time to stuff, stamp and mail them.”

“We’ll pipeline them,” Kyle replied. “As soon as we have a batch done, we’ll courier them over to Murfee’s. I spoke to Murf himself and they’re expecting it.” Lisa paced in front of his desk. “Did you get your Greenbriar problem solved?”

“I think I got a total of six hours of sleep since Saturday morning,” she replied.

“So — you put in a week’s worth of work over the weekend.”

“We did what we could. Kirk is still steamed. I wouldn’t bring up Jason Greenbriar in front of him if I were you.”

“Lisa — I’ll call you as soon as the file comes in.”

“Okay...”

“Kyle,” Jerry called from his desk. “It looks like they’re sending us the file.”

Lisa returned to Kyle’s desk. “When can we start printing?”

“We need to receive and process the file first.”

“How long will that take?”

“This isn’t like downloading a JPEG from Facebook,” Kyle replied. “It’ll take a while.”

“How long is a while?”

“I don’t know — I’ve never received a full file before.” He locked his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling. “Extrapolating from the test files they’ve sent us — I’d estimate twenty to thirty minutes.”

“I’ll be back in twenty minutes.” Lisa stalked toward the corridor.

“I still say she’s hot,” Jerry remarked. “BILF or no, maybe I’ll ask her out.”

“YOU’ll ask Lisa to go out with you?” Kyle replied. “What do you think your odds are that she’ll agree?”

“Zero if I don’t ask. That is the secret to my success. Whenever I meet a girl who interests me, I ask her out.”

“Don’t tell me ... more often than not they say yes.”

“Hell, no. Most of the time they tell me to get lost. But, enough say yes and I ask often enough so that ... I’ll bet I get more action in a week than most guys see in a month.”

“How do you deal with the rejection? The ones that tell you to get lost?”

Jerry shrugged. “It comes with the territory — it’s part of the game. I’m like a cheetah.”

“You’re like a cheetah?” Kyle replied.

“Yeah — like a cheetah stalking gazelles. If one gets away, the cheetah doesn’t mope around saying, ‘Oh — I’m such an inadequate cheetah I couldn’t stalk that gazelle.’ No — he goes looking for another one.”

“You’re what? A junior in college? Don’t you think Lisa’s a bit old for you?”

Jerry shook his head. “I like older babes. They’re experienced and knowledgeable ... more adventuresome. Once in a while I go on a cougar hunt. Some of those MILFs are so hot you can’t spit on them. You know that a woman reaches her sexual peak in her thirties whereas a guy peaks in his teens.”

“That means you’re already over the hill.”

“I stay sharp,” Jerry replied with a smug smile. “I get plenty of practice.”

Kyle regarded him. “I cannot believe we’re having this conversation. I’ll tell you this — now is not a good time to be approaching Lisa White about anything. Not with statements up in the air and not with this Greenbriar blow-up with Kirk.”

“Good intelligence, man.”

“We have statements to print,” Kyle replied and focused his attention on his computer screen.

Lisa approached Kyle’s desk. “Did the file finish?”

“Not yet. I’m expecting it to any second now.” He watched figures on his computer screen. “You know — if we could convince Kirk to start staggering the monthend days — this wouldn’t be such a fire drill. We could spread the work out over the month.”

Lisa shook her head. “Getting statements out on the first of the month is sacrosanct to him.”

“I know. Freddie asked him about it a while ago and Kirk handed his head back to him. I spoke to Rebecca in accounting. They’d prefer to have staggered monthends, too. Maybe if the two of you spoke to him you could convince him...”

“I’m sorry, Kyle but I’m not on the best of terms with Kirk at the moment.”

“No? Why not?”

“Let’s say I didn’t have a viable Plan B ready when this Jason thing happened and leave it at that.”

“Who would’ve expected it? It’s not very reasonable to expect you to have a Plan B.”

“You know that and I know it ... it’s just that Kirk isn’t always a reasonable man.”

“Looks like the file finished.” Kyle poked his keyboard. “Yep — it’s a whole file, too. I see the trailer record. Let’s start processing...” He tapped his keyboard. “Shit!”

“Now what?” Lisa asked.

“The formatter blew up. What the hell?” Kirk leaned toward his display as he manipulated the keyboard and mouse. “They reverted to the old file format with seventeen columns.”

“Do they have to make a new file for us?” she asked. “We’ll never get this done today.”

“I’ll just revert to the old format filter,” he replied. “It’s called good programming practice, Lisa...” He tapped his keyboard. “ ... modular design ... That’s better. Now, let’s look at a few sample statements...” He brought images up onto his screen. “Looking good. Let’s print.”

Lisa followed Kyle into the machine room. He pressed keys on the printer’s console to start the job. The machine slurped blank statements from the input trays and deposited printed ones in the output bins.

“Let’s keep this beast fed,” Kyle remarked, filling one bin as the second one emptied. He took finished pages from the output trays, packed them into boxes and taped them shut.

“Jerry — bring the hand truck,” he called through the door to the outer office.

His intern wheeled the cart in. They stacked it with boxes and Jerry wheeled them out. “The first transport is away!” Kyle exclaimed.

Kyle carried boxes out of the print room. Jerry wheeled the hand truck into the office. “More to go,” Kyle said.

Jerry gestured toward the machine room. “You’re letting BILF touch the machinery?”

“An extra pair of hands.”

Jerry wheeled the cart down the corridor.

Kyle watched as the last of the statements ran through the printer. “Look at that,” he remarked. “Seventy-five thousand and only two jams.” He packed the finished pages into boxes and taped them shut. “It’s three-thirty. Murf should be able to get them all done and to the post office before deadline.”

“When I came in at nine and you hadn’t started printing — I thought we were sunk.”

“Well ... I’m good, too, and I know it. I don’t have to prove it, Lisa. Neither do you. I think you’d do well to lighten up a bit. Put a little humor in your job. I think it would help your relationship with your subordinates. I think it would help your outlook and maybe even your health.”

She shook her head. “I can’t. You don’t know how difficult it is being a woman in this position. I have to work twice as hard just to keep pace.”

“I think you’re wrong. I don’t see Rebecca being wound so tight.”

“It’s different for her,” she replied. “I have to go back to my desk. I still haven’t come up with a good alternative to the Greenbriar campaign.”

Kyle’s phone rang. He picked it up and answered a call from Cory. Kirk wants to see you in the Blue room, she said.

“When?”

Right now.

Kyle headed for the conference room. He found Lisa sitting at one end of the conference table. “Hi,” he said.

“Hi.”

Kirk stormed into the room and flipped a folder onto the table. He opened it and withdrew a shareholder statement. “Is this one of the statements we printed on Monday?” he asked and flipped it onto the table.

Kyle reviewed it. “Yes — it’s one we did. Is something wrong with it?”

Kirk’s gaze shifted between Kyle and Lisa. “This is a thing of beauty ... an absolute work of art.”

“Thanks, Kirk,” Kyle replied.

“Look,” Kirk continued, “I know you two don’t get along. No one’s come to me with any issues, but I know it — I know what goes on around here. I hear about the name-calling and the behind-the-back stuff. I don’t care how you two feel for each other outside of this office, but when you’re here, you’re part of a team. Understand?”

“Yes, Kirk,” Kyle and Lisa said in unison.

Kirk pounded the statement with his finger. “This is an example of what we can do when we put our personal animosities aside and work together. I saw it last week. I saw how Kyle reached out to you, Lisa. He swallowed his pride and reached out to you. It’s a tough thing for a guy to do, but he did it and I saw it. Remember? It happened right here.”