In other men, that would irritate her. But for some reason, when Michael Attracelli acted this way, it gave her a warm, glowing feeling inside her when he cared enough to spend a few extra minutes making sure she was safe.
Chapter 4
The week went by slowly for Darci after that night. She refused to admit to herself that she was waiting expectantly for Michael’s call. But by Thursday, she was jumping each time the phone rang so she accepted that she was on tenterhooks in anticipation of his call. She told herself she was only waiting to hear about his decision on the proposal and not for any other reason.
She waited each day for some word from Jim on ATI’s decision. The date for submitting interest in the project was coming closer and she was worried that she hadn’t convinced Michael that ATI could do the job.
It was Friday afternoon when her phone rang. Unfortunately, it had been ringing off the hook all morning with vendors or team mates asking her technical questions. So she didn’t bother to look away from her computer screen when she picked up the receiver this time. Since it was a single ring, she knew it was someone inside the company. “Darcy,” was all she said. A double ring indicated an outside call.
“Darcy, its Michael. Can you come up here?” he asked.
She almost dropped the phone when she heard his voice and her heartbeat doubled instantly. “Absolutely,” she said, hoping he didn’t hear the breathlessness in her voice.
She didn’t waste any time. Darcy immediately got up from her chair and rushed down the hallway to the elevators. Less than five minutes after his phone call, she was standing inside Donna’s office. “Mr. Attracelli asked me to come up,” Darcy explained to Michael’s assistant a little breathlessly.
“Oh, just call him Michael,” Donna said, smiling and waiving aside Darcy’s formality. “And you can go on inside. He’s waiting for you.”
Darcy looked down at her flat-front khaki slacks and cream, turtle-neck sweater. She hadn’t dressed up today since she didn’t have any meetings scheduled. Now that she was about to face a vice president, and a gorgeous one at that, she was kicking herself for her inclination to dress casually this morning. She’d anticipated just working on code all day or answering questions from others. She should have been wearing a business suit, she told herself. If her idea was going to be rejected, she at least wanted to be wearing business armor in the form of a nice suit.
“You asked me to come up?” she asked tentatively after knocking softly on the door.
“Come on in,” Michael said and pushed some papers aside. “I just wanted to let you know that we’re giving you the green light. Here’s your budget and you’ll need to give me a weekly status, more often as we get closer to the client presentation,” he said, handing her a piece of paper.
Darcy’s eyes were as round as saucers as she looked at the enormous amount of money they were allocating for the project. “I didn’t’ ask for this much,” she said, scanning the items listed.
“I know. There were a few items I added. I made some alterations to your ideas, but the crux of the idea is still yours,” he said.
“What did you change?” she asked, only slightly concerned at this point.
Michael indicated that she should sit down in the chair behind her. Darcy sat down and tried to scan the items but had forgotten her glasses, assuming her idea was going to be turned down. So she couldn’t read the papers very well. “I added additional people, three to be exact. You’ll need them to do the data builds towards the end but they’ll need to be on board early on so they can set the data tables up to their specifications. I also added some new computers with additional RAM. Otherwise, you’ll be processing at a slower rate. With the amount of data you’ll be handling, you’ll need the additional power.”
He went down a list of other items and Darcy’s mind started spinning. He had added so much she didn’t know what to do with all the information.
When he was finished going through her budget, he put it to the side and looked at her. “So are you ready to start working on this? We’ll need you to ramp up quickly. You’ll be able to hire anyone you need in the company but there’s a list of recommended people from human resources on the last page. They are qualified and are available with minor project shuffling. There are also a few that are not currently on a project so they would be available to start with you immediately.”
She quickly turned to the last page and squinted down the list of fuzzy looking names. “I guess so,” she said absently. Then his words hit her and she looked up sharply at him. “What do you mean? I’m not running this effort. Jim will be doing that. I’ll just be on the project for technical advice.”
Michael shook his head and stood up, coming around to the front of his desk to lean against it. “Nope. This is your baby. You thought it up; you put in the effort so far. You get to run it. Besides, Jim is already overloaded with other tasks.”
“But I can’t do this all by myself,” she said, her eyes wide. She hated showing anyone a weakness, but she couldn’t let ATI lose this much money based only on her speculation. She wasn’t qualified to take on a task this big.
His eyes softened as he looked at her worried expression. “Yes you can,” he said gently. “If you have any questions, you can come to me for help,” he said. He glanced down at his watch. “Unfortunately, I have a meeting in five minutes. work up your initial thoughts, then get back to me in a few hours. where you should go from there. Can you meet me back here at four o’clock?” How about if you I’ll let you know
He walked back around his desk and pulled on his jacket.
“I don’t know if I’m really the best person for this job,” she said, standing up with him but her eyes were pleading for him to understand that she was not the right candidate to run an effort like this.
Michael stopped directly in front of her. His eyes were gentle but firm when he looked at her. “You’ll be fine. I’ll get you through this. I’ve asked around and heard some great things about your work. Besides, you’re the only one that has the knowledge and conviction to do this type of work. And I believe you can guide a team with your vision and enthusiasm and win the project.”
Darcy looked up at his reassuring eyes and relaxed. If he had faith in her, shouldn’t she?