Chapter 7

The next day, Barbara was in the bank's branch-manager's office, watching her boss, Kevin Birch, conclude a phone call. She hoped she wouldn't be struck by an irresistible urge to pee.

Baby Gina was being an active little thing today, probably cranky at still being cooped up inside past her due date. The little dickens seemed to enjoy pressing on her mommy's bladder at the most inconvenient times.

"Sorry, Barb," he said with genuine contrition as he hung up the phone. They had worked together for many years, and she considered him a friend and mentor. He'd been the one that had recognized her talents and promoted her, not once, but several times, including the last one to her current job.

She knew there were times when he looked at her with unprofessional longing. He'd lost his wife to a car accident years before, and they'd had some lunch almost-dates before she became serious with Raul. But despite some ongoing risqué teasing back and forth between them, he'd always respected her marital status.

"No problem, Kevin," she replied, "what's up?"

"Um, I wanted to talk about, uh, your position, after, you know..."

Barb looked at him carefully, alarm bells going off. "After ... I have the baby?" She'd heard there might be cutbacks; her stomach lurched as she hoped she wasn't about to get bad news.

"Right."

He took off his reading glasses and dropped them absently on his desk. About once a day Barb helped him find them. He wasn't a terribly vain man, but having to use them annoyed him. Whenever he complained that they made him look old, she would counter they made him look distinguished. And he truly did, she felt, with a trim physique, attractively graying hair, and piercing eyes to match.

"Look, this is going to sound really unfair, and I'm sorry we have to have this conversation now."

She waited for him to continue, watching him fidget. When he still didn't speak she said, "Well, let's get it over with before my water breaks all over your nice furniture," she said irritably.

He looked at her, obviously chastened but a little confused by her emotion, too. "Well, okay. Um, Barb, everyone values your contribution to the organization. You've been the best loan officer I've ever had. But corporate has decided to make some changes."

"Okay."

"Yes; so, um, they have asked me, to ask you, if you would be willing to move to the corporate offices downtown when you come back from your maternity leave."

She stared at him, completely thrown off balance. "To do what?" she asked, finally.

"The official title would be vice president of loan policy. What it really means is you would be working with all the branches to make their loan operations as effective as what you've accomplished here. They're getting a lot of pressure at the top to make more loans and make more money, but they don't want to lose their shirts just throwing money around without knowing what they're doing."

"But ... for all the branches in the city?" she said, feeling overwhelmed. She unconsciously put her arms around her belly.

"Uh, no, Barb - for all the branches in the bank."

"But ... there are over a hundred..."

"Over one hundred and twenty five, actually, spread over three states. Now, I'm sorry I have to do this to you in your condition, but we need to know if you'll accept the position before you go out on leave. Understand, whether you decide to stay out three months or six months as we discussed before, is still acceptable.

"But I'm afraid we need to know if you'll come back to this new position or not. That way, we'll have time to recruit another candidate if you turn it down."

"Will my job here at the branch still be available for me to come back to?" she asked, worriedly.

He smiled. "Yes, Barb. But we're really hoping you won't want to. The new job will have some overnight travel required, but not a whole lot. You'll get a company car since you'll be driving to visit the branches, but you can also have people from the branches come to you at corporate for meetings.

"It's not something every new mother wants to take on, new job pressures and all that. But ... if it helps at all, you would receive a fifty percent increase in your base salary, along with a performance based bonus on top of that; and you'll be eligible for stock options after one year."