A straight-forward business deal.
Enjoy..
******
“Jack, Gloria would like to see you in her office.”
It was the one thing that no one at Stearns Inc. wanted to hear because it usually meant that you were history. Gloria Stearns believed that she owed it to the people getting bad news to get it from her direct and not from some lower minion. The current economy sucked and Stearns was downsizing and it looked like I was on my way to the unemployment line.
I knocked on the door to Gloria’s private office and heard her say “Come in.” I opened the door and stepped into her office as she came out from behind the desk and walked toward me with her hand out-stretched in greeting. I felt the same tingle in my groin that I got every time I saw her. Tall, willowy and with runway model good looks she lit any number of fires as she walked through the office. I took her hand as she said, “Jack, how nice to see you. Have a seat.”
After shaking hands she moved back behind the desk and sat down. As I took a seat she picked up a folder on her desk, glanced through it quickly, looked up at me and then back down at what I could only assume was a file on me.
“How long have you been here at Stearns Jack?”
Eleven years. I came to work for your father right out of high school.”
“It must have been hard for you to work here full time while going to college at night.”
“It wasn’t easy Miss Stearns, but your father helped me a lot.”
“Yes, I know. For some reason he never explained he looked on you almost as a son. He even loaned you the money for your education and then forgave the loan as a graduation present. Why did he do that Jack?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes you do Jack, and what’s more, so do I. Why did you do it Jack? Why did you stick your neck out like that?”
“Your father was a good man Miss Stearns and I wasn’t about to let that bitch screw up your father’s life.”
“Was the money for your education a pay-off Jack?”
“No mam. Your father had already given me the loan and had already forgiven it as a graduation present. I guess that is one of the reasons that I did it. He didn’t have to help me; he did it out of the goodness of his heart and you don’t standby and watch a man like that get shafted by some money grubbing little bitch.”
“You’re lucky that they didn’t have DNA testing back then; it could have blown your story out of the water.”
“Not really. There was a fifty-fifty chance that it would have proven my story.”
“You and daddy both did her?”
“I don’t know that your father ever did, but half of the guys in the mail room did and anyone of us could have been the father.”
“Still, what made you stand up when she said my father made her pregnant and say that she told you that she knew it wasn’t his, but was going for the big bucks?”
“Loyalty.”
“My, but you are old fashioned aren’t you.”
“As far as I’m concerned loyalty never goes out of style.”
“Any chance that the loyalty you felt toward my father could extend to other family members?”
“What do you mean?”
“Just that Jack. Any chance that your loyalty to my dad could bleed over to me?”
“I still don’t understand Miss Stearns.”
“I’m in trouble Jack and I am in desperate need of a knight in shining armor to come to my rescue.”
“I’ll do what I can Miss Stearns.”
“Maybe Jack, and maybe not. You need to know up front that my knight is going to be severely shit upon, will suffer outrageous indignities for almost five years and may very likely learn to hate the sight of me. I would like you to have dinner with me tonight Jack. We can discuss it someplace where I don’t have to worry about the walls having ears. Can I pick you up around seven?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll give you directions.”
“I don’t need directions Jack, I know where you live.”
The curiosity must have been all over my face because she said, “You’ll get the answers tonight Jack, just be patient.”
Just be patient! Easy for her to say, but not at all easy for me to do. How did she know where I lived? What did she mean with that comment about the wall having ears? What could she possibly want from me and why did she think I might do it knowing that I was going to be, as she put it, shit upon? I sat at my desk and didn’t get a damned thing done for the rest of the day. I couldn’t concentrate on my job for beans; all I could think about was our dinner that night and what she could possibly want me to do that would make me hate her on sight before it was over.
“I want you to marry me Jack.”
I was stunned. I had expected something a little way out following our conversation in the limo on the way to the restaurant, but nothing anywhere close to that. I’d no sooner settled on the seat than she looked over at me and took a deep breath.
“I’m going to hang it all out tonight Jack and I praying that I can trust you to keep what we talk about in confidence even if you decide not to do what I’m about to ask of you. To be frank I do not expect that you will do it. God knows I wouldn’t do it if it were me. The only reason I think I can ask it of you is your relationship with my dad. Do you know that it is in his will that you have a job for life at Stearns? That you can never be fired or laid off?”
“I had no idea.”
“You were never supposed to know. The only reason that I’m telling you is so that won’t fear for your job if you say no to what I’m going to ask. Can you do that Jack? Can you promise me that no matter what your decision is tonight what we talk about stays between the two of us?”
“You already know that I will Miss Stearns or we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.”
“Under the circumstances Jack I think you should start calling me Gloria. Here we are,” she said as we pulled up in front of the restaurant. “As soon as you get your first drink under your belt I’ll hit you with the bomb.”
The look on my face amused her and she smiled. “I know a thousand things have gone through your mind since this morning, but I’ll bet that wasn’t one of them, was it?”
“No mam, not anything close to that.”
“I told you Jack, it’s Gloria. So, how does the idea sound to you so far?”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand Miss St… Gloria.”
“I’ll spell it out for you Jack. For purely financial reasons I need a husband and for purely personal reasons my lover can’t be the man I marry.”
“I still don’t understand.”