“Depends. With men, it’s usually an advantage. Most women see me as a threat,” I said, and his eyes brightened.
“You don’t sound conceited, but you don’t back away from a compliment, either.”
I shrugged. “What is true is true, Mr. Dolan. Why put on false humility? Besides, I don’t want to tell you that you’re wrong the first time I’ve met you.”
He laughed so hard I thought he would have a pain in his stomach. “Where do you come from again?”
“I’m from California, but we lived in other places.”
“And you have no family here or in Boston?”
“I’m on my own, Mr. Dolan. I’m responsible for myself.”
“What brought you here, I mean, this place in particular?”
“It looked like a good place to start anew. I was tired of big-city commotion. I suppose I’m a little too old-fashioned for most of my contemporaries, but I want to have a solid beginning and be somewhere where people are more substantial. I know I can succeed here.”
He nodded, his eyes warming with his appreciation of me. “I like your determination and confidence, Lorelei. Unlike most of the young people your age I have met, you seem quite centered, but what do you know about plumbing supplies? I like all of my employees, even those who do nothing but drive trucks, to know something about what we do and have for our customers. Questions and complaints come rushing in here daily.”
“All I can tell you, Mr. Dolan, is that I am a quick learner, and I know that when I don’t know something, I should turn to someone who does and not try to fool anyone, especially a customer of yours.”
“Hmm . . . well, I’ll see about your getting the full tour and tutoring. In the meantime . . .”
He got up and went to his desk to pick up his phone and buzz Michele Levy. “Michele, I want you to try something for me. I want you to give Lorelei Patio all of the paperwork you have left to do today. That’s right. Just point it out on the computer and describe it quickly. Show her how to use the phone system. Then go take a break. Go to the lounge, and return in two hours. She’ll be right out.” He hung up and looked at me. “That okay with you, some pudding?”
“I hope there will be proof in it,” I replied.
He laughed.
I stood up. “Is that your daughter in the nurse’s uniform?”
“Julia, yes. She works ER at the hospital here. I couldn’t get her into the business. She told me she preferred human plumbing to steel and copper. Don’t know where she gets it. I get woozy at the sight of blood.”
“Most people do,” I said. “We have to appreciate those who don’t.”
He liked that; he liked it very much.
I thought that was something ironic that Daddy would have said with a smile hidden in his lips. I imagined I would spend the rest of my life thinking of things that he would have said. The longer I was away, the deeper was my understanding of what Ava meant when she told me I could never escape who and what we were.
Maybe she couldn’t, I thought, but I could.
I hoped.
I stepped out of the office. Michele Levy looked up at me with an even bigger smile of surprise than when I had first arrived with Michael Thomas.
“What did you do?” she asked in a near whisper, gazing at the inner office door.
“Told the truth,” I said.
She shook her head. That answer made no sense to her. “Bring that chair over,” she said, indicating a chair on the right, “and we’ll begin.”
I know she was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I picked up on the software they used. It wasn’t brain surgery. Actually, I held myself back a little, maybe a lot, because I was afraid she might be spooked by my intelligence and instinctive abilities.
While she was away, I completed all of the work she had set aside and answered five phone calls, two of which Mr. Dolan was waiting for. He asked me to get back to each of the other three and was on the final call when Michele returned. She looked over what I had done and then looked up at the clock.
“I don’t understand how you got all that inventory done this quickly and wrote those letters, too.”
“Computers aren’t such a mystery,” I said.
“I don’t mean the computer.” She seemed suspicious and even a little resentful, jealous.
No one likes to be easily replaced, I thought. I should be more humble, go slower. “Well, you left very good instructions,” I told her, which seemed to help.
Mr. Dolan suddenly opened his door and stepped into the outer office. “So?” he asked Michele. “Do I have her go to the business office and give them her social security number, or what?”
“She’s done it all, Mr. Dolan, and quite well.”
He nodded. “Why don’t you go home, then, Michele? Lorelei can finish the day here. Come back in the morning for a few hours to be sure she has a handle on it all,” he added, turning to me, “although I have no doubt she will.” Mr. Dolan winked at me and returned to his office.
“I don’t know who you are, Lorelei Patio, but you’ve gotten off to the best start of any employee since I’ve been here. Don’t do anything to ruin it,” Michele said.
She had started to gather her things when a young man I recognized from his photo as Mr. Dolan’s son entered. To me, he looked as if he had just gotten out of bed. He paused, looked at the two of us, and smiled.
Wiping his long pecan-brown hair away from his eyes, he asked, “Who is this, Michele?”
“A possible replacement for me, Liam,” she replied.
“My father hired you to replace Michele?” he asked me, his smile widening.
Liam had his father’s eyes and was even more handsome—and not simply because he was younger. His features were perfect, like the face of a Greek statue where so much care was taken to keep everything in proportion. He had that unshaved look and was at least an inch taller than his father. Although not as athletically built, he was tight and slim. At the moment, his khaki shirt was opened low enough to show his chest hair and a gold Cuban-link necklace that looked at least fourteen-karat. I couldn’t help but be drawn to the sexual energy in his eyes. There was a sweet but strong masculine aura radiating from him. I could deny many things about myself, perhaps, but not the underlying lusts that shaped who and what we were. If we were to succeed for Daddy, we had to generate raw sexual energy as well as, if not better and stronger than, any other young woman. Liam looked like a young man who could comfortably satisfy my desire. His smile was awash in his self-confidence, and yet there was something boyish and innocent about him that kept him from appearing too arrogant. I could imagine him crying with grateful joy at the pleasure he would find in my kiss, my embrace, my ultimate act of love.
“He’s trying me out, yes,” I said.
“I wouldn’t have to try you out. I’d hire you immediately,” he said with a softness that helped me easily imagine his lips brushing my neck and following the line of my collarbone to the small of my throat until I gasped and he pressed his mouth to mine. I could feel a stirring under my breast when I imagined this. It was as if a sleeping serpent had slowly lifted its head and flicked its tongue to taste the raging desire that had come so close.
Neither of us shifted our gaze away from the other until we heard Mr. Dolan’s office door open. He stood there glaring out at his son. If anger could take the form of tears, he’d be drowning in them, I thought.
“Hey, Dad. Congratulations on your choice of secretary. Didn’t know you had such good taste anymore.”
“Never mind your stupid remarks, Liam. Why didn’t you tend to the Sheinman account? I had to send Michael over there this morning, and he had other things to do today that were equally important.”
“Oh, I had a bad night, Dad. Matter of fact, I just managed to get out of bed.”
“What for?” his father asked, backed up, and slammed the door.
Michele looked at me and continued to gather her things a little faster.
“You’d think
he’d be in a better mood after meeting you,” Liam told me. He didn’t look even slightly shaken by his father’s rage. “I know I am.”
I returned to the paperwork. I wasn’t looking to get into the middle of this, especially so soon. Fortunately, before he could say another word, the phone rang.
“Dolan Plumbing Supply, Mr. Dolan’s office,” I said. “One moment, please.”
I buzzed Ken Dolan.
“A Mr. Marcus on the line, Mr. Dolan. Okay.” I returned to the phone call. “Mr. Marcus, Mr. Dolan is in a meeting. Could he call you back in an hour or so? Yes, sir. I’ll make a note of it. Thank you.”
Michele smiled at me. Liam just stood there gaping as if I had accomplished some major feat. How bad were the other applicants? I wondered.
“You need anyone to show you around, you drop into my office,” Liam told me. “I’d better go see if Pam is still awake,” he told Michele. “My father deliberately assigned her to me. She’s a week away from social security, so he thought she would be safe.” He worked up a charming smile mainly for my benefit.
He waited for some reaction, but neither Michele nor I responded. We watched him go, and then she turned to me. “I hope you have a steady boyfriend, Lorelei, or he’ll hit on you until you see him in nightmares.”
“He’s not my type,” I said, even though the feelings I was sensing at the base of my stomach were telling me he was, as Ava would say, prime prey.
“What’s your type?” she asked with a skeptical smile. I knew she was thinking that I would be interested in the boss’s son for obvious reasons.
“Healthier.”
“Healthier?”
“In mind and body,” I said, and she laughed before looking at the door to be sure he was gone.
She turned back to me, looking more serious. “I’m sure you’ll get an earful from Mrs. Winston, but as you can see, Liam and his father are usually at the tip of double-edged swords. Liam dropped out of college last year before they threw him out. You might know already that Mr. Dolan’s wife ran off and left him with the children years ago.”
“Yes, Mrs. Winston did tell me that much.”
“Well, you can see the result of that when it comes to Liam. He’s nothing like his father. He doesn’t have any sense of responsibility. You don’t even have to be an amateur psychiatrist to see that he’s acting out because of all his pent-up anger. Julia’s completely different. You will have trouble believing they had the same mother.”
“Children are most often different in the same families,” I said. She didn’t realize it, of course, but I was saying it more like a prayer than a fact. If there was anything I wanted to be true right then, that was it.
She looked at me oddly, obviously not expecting me to be so calm and sound so wise. “You haven’t been to college?”
“Not yet,” I said. “I might start in a year or so.”
“You seem a lot older than you claim to be. At some point, that’s true for every woman, but it looks true for you already.”
“It’s not time that matters; it’s what experiences you have within that time. My father always said that,” I added, smiling to myself.
“Well, he’s obviously a very wise man.”
“Men are men,” I said, quickly remembering the story I was giving about my family.
“What’s that mean?”
“They might come up with some wisdom from time to time, but they don’t always think first and then act. They’re led about on a leash of testosterone most of the time, especially my father.”
She laughed. “Well, Liam won’t disappoint you there. He has quite the reputation.” She looked at Mr. Dolan’s closed door and leaned toward me. “The inside joke here is that he would go home with the right pipe fitting if he couldn’t get a date.”
“If he’s depending on a date with me, he’ll empty out the warehouse,” I said.
She laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach. “You’ll have me give birth right here.”
“Oh, don’t do that. Go home.”
“I almost wish I could be a fly on the wall these next few weeks.”
“It’s not worth your curiosity, Michele. Believe me,” I said.
She nodded, obviously impressed with me but still a little skeptical. “We’ll see. I’ll see you in the morning and spend more time with you. I’ve lived here most of my life, so if you have any questions about anything in Quincy . . .”
“Thank you. Have you and your husband chosen a name for your soon-to-be-born son?”
She started to speak and then stopped. “I didn’t tell you I was having a boy. I haven’t told anyone here that, not even Mr. Dolan. We didn’t want anyone to know we had broken down and given in to find out. We haven’t even told our family. My mother would carry on about ruining the surprise. I know my grandmother would. She says all this technology takes the romance out of our lives.”
I shrugged. “I thought you did say boy. Sorry.”
“No. I mean, we are having a boy, but how . . .”
“Not much of a magic trick on my part,” I said. “There were only two choices, Michele. I just hit the right one. Maybe I’ll go find a roulette wheel.”
She laughed, but I held a steady serious look. I didn’t want her even to suspect that I had any special powers. I couldn’t explain the sharp insight that all my sisters and I possessed. Daddy had told me it was part of what helped us survive the ages. He had told me there were all sorts of vision, and many times, it was wiser to see through your feelings rather than through your eyes. At least, that was true for us.
“We’re thinking of naming him Nathaniel,” Michele said after a moment of deciding whether to share something so personal with someone she had just met. “That was my paternal grandfather’s name.”
“That’s nice. I prefer older names and not the flavor of the month.”
“Now you’re sounding more like my grandmother. How old are you, really?”
“Ages and ages,” I said. “I drank from the Fountain of Youth.”
She nodded. “I bet you did. See you in the morning.”
I watched her leave, and then the phone rang again. I could see it was an internal call. I didn’t have to wait to hear his voice to know who it was. “Mr. Dolan’s office,” I said dryly.
“I heard you’ve only been in Quincy one day and you’re staying at my great-aunt’s place,” Liam said. “How about I show you the town tonight? It looks like you’re practically a member of the family already.”
“Excuse me. Who is this?” I asked, knowing well who it was.
“Liam. Liam Dolan. We just met,” he said, sounding amazed and a little insulted.
“Oh. Sorry. You were in and out so quickly, I forgot your name. Thank you for the invitation, but I’m otherwise occupied.”
“Huh? What’s that mean?”
“Translated, that means I have things to do tonight that make my accepting your invitation impossible.”
“All night?”
“No. I think I’ll spend some time sleeping. But thank you,” I said, and hung up.
I waited to see if he would call back. A part of me wished he would, and I sat there chastising that part of me. He didn’t call back, but I had no doubt that he would not give up so easily.
Maybe it wouldn’t be long before he wished he had.
5
At the end of the day, Michael Thomas stopped in to see me. I could see from his expression that news about me had spread with electric speed through the company. I had stopped in the business office and met the head accountant, Mrs. Lovejoy, a woman in her late fifties who looked as if she had absorbed decimal points into her eyes. They were spotted black and gray. She gave me a form to fill out and mechanically explained the company’s pension plan. I sensed that despite Mr. Dolan’s eagerness to hire me, she didn’t believe I would be with the company long enough for anything she said to matter all that much.
Afterward, I returned to the office. Mr. Dolan was having a meeting with
an attorney named Stan English. From the way Stan had looked at me when he arrived, I had the feeling Mr. Dolan had already told him about me, filling his description with compliments.
“If for some reason Ken doesn’t want to keep you on, you call me,” he said, winking.
“Control yourself, Stan,” Mr. Dolan told him. “You’ve got three grandchildren.”
“And a fourth on the way.” He smiled at me. “I was eighteen once. Don’t rush your life.”
“Sorry,” Mr. Dolan told me, continuing with the lightness, “but Stan, like most lawyers, is always eager to give someone else advice. Get in here, you idiot.”
“Come see me,” Mr. English mouthed as he went into Mr. Dolan’s office. Mr. Dolan had already told me that his meeting would go past the end of the day and I should just let him know when I was leaving.
I was glad to see Michael Thomas because I anticipated Liam Dolan returning to pursue me despite my having turned him down on the phone, and I was afraid that I would weaken and go with him. I told myself it was far too soon to experiment with another romance. Buddy’s face was still vividly in my mind and in my dreams, not that I had any hope of ever seeing him again.
“Congratulations,” Michael said. He was obviously very surprised that I had been hired. “I just stopped by to see if you had changed your mind about a ride home, since from what I’ve heard, you’ve done a day’s work in a matter of hours.”
I imagined I had been a big topic of discussion. “I’m not exhausted, Michael. Thank you, but you know what I would like, if you have a few minutes?”
“Sure, what?”
“A quick tour of the showrooms. I’ve been mostly shut up in here and haven’t had the opportunity to look at an actual saddle tee fixture, and since I wrote the letter informing the wholesaler who won the bid for that and other things with us, I thought I should know how to tell it from a chocolate ice cream cone.”
Michael laughed. “Absolutely. Glad to do it.”
“I’ll just let Mr. Dolan know I’m leaving,” I said. I buzzed him and told him. I added that Michael Thomas was giving me a little tour of the company on my way out.