“No,” was all he said.
Laci laughed. “Ok. I’ll accept that there’s a motivation behind this that is cloaked in privacy at the moment, but why the secrecy?”
“As you said, there are reasons for everything.”
“You’re a very mysterious man, did you know that?”
“No. I don’t believe anyone has ever told me that,” he said.
They talked about generalities while they finished their lunch then Sal walked her back to the building. “Are you finished here for the day?” he asked at the elevators.
“Yes. We’ll start again tomorrow in earnest. Today was just a preliminary discussion to understand what the main issues are.”
“Have dinner with me tomorrow night,” he said, looking down at her, looking at each of her features as he waited for her answer.
“I’m sorry but that’s impossible,” she said, trying to look away from his intense gaze. But it was as if she were hypnotized, and she held her breath, aware only of him at the moment.
“Nothing’s impossible,” he said, moving out of the way of a stranger, which moved him closer to her. Laci had to step back, unable to remain so close to his body.
“Ok, it isn’t a good idea,” she clarified.
“For who?”
Laci laughed at his directness. “For me,” she said and reached for the button to call the down elevator. But he stopped her by catching her hand.
“Why?”
“Because….” She couldn’t think with him holding her hand. She reminded herself that he was an expert at playing this game and she needed to think of the workers she represented.
“Are you afraid of me?” he asked, pulling her out of the flow of traffic as an elevator opened up and a group of people came rushing out.
Laci pulled her hand free and took a deep breath. “Look, I’m not sure what you’re trying to pull here, but I have a responsibility to the workers who employ me. Meeting with you socially would compromise that responsibility.”
“So don’t let it,” he said simply.
“I can’t turn off my emotions like that,” she said and glanced up at his face. The smile that suddenly appeared was not a good sign, she thought. “What did I say to make you laugh?”
Sal put a hand on the small of her back and led her back to the bank of elevators, pressing both the up and down buttons. “Because you admitted that I affect you. That’s good enough for me,” he said just as an elevator going down opened up. “For now,” he finished.
She stepped inside, confused. “I didn’t….” she said, but the elevator doors closed on her. Her last glimpse was of him standing there, smiling with his arms crossed over his chest looking smugly confident.
Chapter 3
Laci gritted her teeth as she unlocked her car door. That man was entirely too arrogant for his own good. “’I affect you’”, she snarled as she slammed her car door closed. “I’ll show you how much I’m going to affect you…” she said to the steering wheel. She pulled out of the parking lot, cut off another vehicle trying to enter the line of traffic and sped up just in time to make the yellow light.
Once she reached her office, Laci forced herself to stop thinking of him and his arrogant comments. She pulled the heavy files out of her drawer, searching through documents in an effort to find a way to convince ATI to meet the demands of the union workers. And each time a sexy, smiling face came into her head, she just dug in deeper to her files.
The next three days were horrible. She and Jim worked with Matt Kingsley and the ATI legal team on the negotiations for four hours each afternoon. By Friday, she was exhausted and didn’t really have anything to show for her efforts. Jim was technically the lead negotiator but Laci was more of a partner than a junior aide. So she had responsibility for half the items under negotiation and Jim had the other half. Each took turns working through the details of each issue with the ATI counterparts. By five o’clock on Friday, she had only made small dents in each of her issues but they weren’t very significant.
On the up side, neither had the ATI team. She had been able to hold her ground on all issues, not relenting on the major topics and seemed to have argued their merit well.
There was something strange about the way the ATI team was working but Laci couldn’t put her finger on what it was. She watched from the sidelines when Jim and Matt were discussing the details. There was some indefinable quality to Matt’s arguments that made her curious but the specifics were hard to pin point.
Laci pushed a pin back into her bun, wishing she could just let the whole mess of hair down. She’d started her day early this morning, getting into the office at six in an effort to refine some points she wanted to make that day. So she’d had her hair twisted up into a tight knot for almost twelve hours. The black wool suit and white silk shirt, initially a choice designed to give her confidence, was now too restrictive. She wanted to just throw off the jacket so she could move her arms more freely. And she wouldn’t mind wriggling her toes instead of having them cramped up in these tight, high heeled shoes.
She looked out the window and noticed the setting sun. It was Friday evening and she wanted to run around, dance, sing at the top of her lungs. Maybe eat a whole bowl of greasy popcorn and watch a movie – anything but sit in this luxurious conference room making no progress on minute details of union workers contract requests.
She tapped her pencil against the conference room table, irritated by the slow progress of the discussion. The other members of the group seemed to be very interested in the discussion, apparently oblivious to the fact that it was Friday night, a time to go out with friends, relax and kick up one’s heels.
She sighed as she took in the three other members of the group. All were very straight-laced, earnest looking men who took their jobs very seriously. Laci also took her job seriously but she knew when to stop and live a little. This discussion was going nowhere. In her opinion, they all needed to step back and regroup.
Laci looked across the table and wondered what Matt would do if she just reached across the table and mussed his hair. He seemed like a very strict kind of fellow. She came to the conclusion that he probably wouldn’t react very well. Maybe if she tossed her pencil….
Concentrate Laci! She was having silly thoughts and that was a bad sign. She usually got this way when she was too tired.