Chapter 2

The morning after that tryst at her apartment I'm driving downtown and stop to get a Wall Street Journal and a coffee. As I walking back to my car I hear horn beep and I look up to see Mary wave to me as if I were her gardener or something. We have the "no strings" part of this relationship down pat.

Over the next two weeks I see Mary for a few fleeting moments in the hall or grabbing a coffee downstairs. We're both absorbed in our business's and it's like a speeding train of life is going by and we're stationary plotting our next move. It's a Thursday night and I'm taking the train to Hartford on Friday to pitch a buyer for a major big box chain to carry our $39.99 line of Men's Dress shoes. He's been resistant to the line, but I'm promising to put their name on them and line through the 39.99 price point and pre-price them at 34.99. If he puts them in every store I can eat over half of his discount and he can eat the rest, but he works on a shorter mark-up than most shoe sellers.

I went out to Rachel to get my tickets and give her my itinerary and make sure she knows what she has to do to cover the office tomorrow. My salesman all have to record their sales figures with her and she dumps them into a spread sheet (she called it her weekly's) so we can order shoe parts and coordinate with the factory. Once I'm ready to go I decide to stop and say hello to Mary and tell her I'll be out on Friday and if Rachel needs her she's my emergency valve.

Just as I'm turning the handle for the door I remember Allison. I hadn't checked with Mary to see how she had made out since she started. I really was that busy that she never even crossed my mind.

When I opened the door I was taken by the amount of new artwork on the walls, the unfinished projects being done, all seeming mid to almost done judging by their content. Usually these were hung on the creative room walls, but there were so many, some banner sized, they were EVERYWHERE.

"Holy crap!" I said to Susan, her receptionist and Jack of all Trades as I panned the room.

"Isn't she wonderful? Allison has got us caught up and ahead of schedule on projects we already asked extensions on." Susan said as Mary came in from the back.

"Well, well, well, Lazarus is risen. I haven't seen you for a second in a week and for just 2 seconds since the day Allison started." She said with a big smile.

"Looks like she's working out." I whispered.

"Oh, my God! She would stay all night if I let her. She's like an unending fountain of ideas and creativity. I think she's done more than me in the two weeks she's been here. A taskmaster, I tell you. Come back and see her. She had asked about you this morning." Mary said motioning me past the door to the "creative room".

Allison was in jean shorts and a long smock at a draft table working, looking much too serious and into her work. When she looked up at me she smiled.

"Hello, Mr Sparkhill, er ... Jess. I got the job!"

"I see that! How do you like it?"

"It's fantastic, just what I always imagined and I'm going to start looking for a place to live this weekend. I'm in the Residence Inn right now and it's been fun. I feel like a new person."

"You look like a new person too!" I commented. "You're smiling and that worry line in your forehead is gone."

"Oh, I was so down on myself that day. I needed this whole new start on life." She bubbled.

"But, you centered yourself and put those things behind you for your interview."

She blushed and said "Thanks to you. A complete stranger gave me a shot of reality. You're a good person to help me."

Mary had been distracted by another project and came back to the conversation saying, "Jess, IS a good person, he's even going to buy me a drink after work." She said as an underhanded invite to be with her later.

"Oh? No I can't tonight." I said regretfully. "I have to drive to Newton and meet my salesman there. He has Government purchase orders in hand and I need the actual paperwork to execute them. He just finished up in Boston and he'll fight the traffic out and meet me. His daughter gets married Saturday so I'm saving him the trip here so he can have Friday off."

"You're going to make Military shoes?" Mary asked.

"No, but they'll sell that at PX locations around the world I guess. Military shoes have to be totally American made AND assembled."

"I guess I'll have to have that drink alone at home." She said with a pout.

"I'll have a drink with you, if you think it's appropriate." Allison piped in.

Mary, who thought "having a drink" with me meant getting laid later on thought about Allison's offer and said "OK" for a chance to get to know her new employee better.

I regretted turning Mary down, but I really needed those PO's and I wanted to give my salesman, Tom Mills, a check and card for his daughter. I didn't know his daughter, but Tom was one of my best salesmen out there who knew so much of our operation since we went to overseas assembly production and really pushed our "all US parts" aspect. If I was to have a sales manager, and that point was getting close adding 3 positions before the end of the year, it would be Tom.