Fern's Fancies

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  As Pen had predicted, by the time Fern had parked and found the gate, his flight had departed. She barely caught a glimpse of the plane as it lifted off from the runway.

  She couldn't understand the melancholy feeling she felt when she saw the plane disappear into the sky. Now she was free to manage the branch her way, at least for awhile. She wouldn't be bothered by that irritating, overbearing man for at least two weeks.

  She should celebrate. Why didn't she have a huge smile plastered on her face? Why did she suddenly feel lonely?

  She was probably just suffering a normal letdown after the hectic confusion of the last hour. She wasn't really lonely-she'd be fine as soon as she got back to the office.

  Telling herself she didn't miss Pen was easy. Making herself believe it was impossible. She'd known the man for less than a week, for heaven's sake. He couldn't have become such an integral part of her life already, could he?

  She accomplished little the next couple of hours. Lunch at a nearby restaurant seemed boring and bland alone, although she had been accustomed to eating alone before Pen arrived. After lunch, she met with the maintenance supervisor to discuss some changes Susan wanted to make in the maintenance schedule.

  Finally, she could leave the office that seemed so empty without Pen in spite of the rest of the staff. She delivered a proposal to the attorney she and Pen had met last week. She would have felt more excitement returning to the office with the signed contract if Pen had been there to share the success.

  She remembered how he had complimented her on her presentation on the first visit to the client. Then she remembered their next client visit-to the building with the severe insect infestation. The property manager had practically drooled over Pen, and he had given every appearance of loving her attention.

  By the time she reached her office, she convinced herself there was no reason for her to miss Pen. He'd probably forgotten she even existed.

  As she entered the office, Maria was speaking on the phone. "She's coming in right now, Pen. Just hold on a couple of minutes for her to get to her office." Maria pushed the hold button, and said, "This is the second time he's called."

  "This is Fern," she said into the phone when she reached her office.

  "It's about time. Where have you been?"

  "I've been on a sales call. Did you think I decided to go off and play hooky just because the big, bad boss is gone?"

  Her outburst was greeted with silence. Omigosh, she'd done it now. Pen was the acting president of the division. He'd overlooked her smart mouth before, but surely he would take action now. She tried to force her lips to form an apology, but her voice seemed to have quit working.

  She heard Pen's sigh through the phone line. "Of course, I didn't think you'd gone out to play. I didn't mean to jump on you. It's just ? I needed to hear ? oh, forget it."

  "Forget what? Why did you call?" Fern's heart expanded in her chest as she hoped the call was a signal that he missed her as much as she missed him. "Is something wrong?"

  "Yeah, something's wrong. You're in San Antonio, and I'm in Chicago. Look, forget I said that. I just called to see if everything is okay." Pen sounded different, less confident, than his normal self.

  "Everything's fine here. I just came in from meeting with Sid Epstein, and he signed the contract."

  "That's great. Didn't he take any other proposals?" Pen sounded more normal now.

  "He already had a couple, but he liked my idea of creating a wall of plants to divide the work areas. Apparently, the other proposals included only a couple of corn plants, and I recommended a combination of palms, peace lilies, and Chinese evergreens."

  "You must have done a great sales job. Obviously, your price was higher than the competition." Even though two thousand miles away, Fern could picture the cocky grin that would accompany his comment.

  "He said an original creative design was more important to him than price, so he signed the contract immediately." Fern couldn't keep the pride out of her voice. "But what's happening in Chicago?"

  "I've been at the office less than an hour. All I've done so far is meet with the corporate vice-president of development. He's the one who assigned me to this temporary position." He paused, and Fern could visualize him shaking his head. "I'll probably be here half the night just trying to figure out Mr. Walker's appointment schedule and filing system."

  "I know you'll do a great job," Fern said.

  "Do you really think so? I felt a lot more confident before I found out about all the projects going on right now."

  Fern couldn't believe Pen had doubts about his ability to handle any situation, and she was even more surprised he shared those doubts with her. "Yes, I really think you'll do a great job. I wish I could help you."

  "Maybe you can. Do you really want to help?"

  "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it. But I don't know what a lowly branch manager can do to help the acting president of Ultimate Plant Service, Inc."

  "Will you stop talking like that? I've never said or done anything to belittle your position or build up my own. Have I?"

  Fern felt a pang of guilt. "No, but I honestly don't know what I could do to help you."

  "Just be a sounding board, and be honest with me." He laughed. "I don't need to worry you'll be a yes-man, or rather a yes-woman."

  "I guess I've pretty well demonstrated I'll speak my mind. Sometimes I wish my brain would start working before my mouth. I know I tend to overreact." She leaned back in her chair and wrapped the phone cord around her wrist.

  "Yeah, you do at that. But maybe I need somebody to keep my head on straight. I've just got here, and already I see it could be very easy to think I'm pretty important." He sighed. "Look, I have to go now. I'll call you at home tonight."

  It was soon time for the workday to end, but Fern didn't relish the idea of driving home alone to an empty house. Even though she looked forward to Pen's call, she stayed in the office an extra hour, catching up on paperwork.

  She thought of Pen when she stopped at a fast food drive through for a hamburger. Was she acquiring his taste for fast food, or was she just too apathetic to think of anything else?

  The phone was ringing and the light was flashing on her answering machine when she arrived home. She sat the bag containing her hamburger on the coffee table, kicked off her shoes, and dropped her purse beside the shoes.

  She picked up the phone as she sank into the sofa.

  "Hello."

  "You're home." The voice belonged to Pen.

  "I just walked in the door. I stayed at the office awhile to catch up on paperwork." She stretched to loosen her tight muscles. "Are you still at the office?"

  "Yeah, and it looks like I'll be here several more hours." He cleared his throat before he said, "You can just erase my messages from your answering machine without listening to them. I guess I was a little impatient."

  Fern looked at the machine. "I have five messages on my machine, so I'll have to check them to see who left the others."

  "Uh, they're all from me. Just erase them, okay?"

  "Now you've aroused my curiosity." She opened the bag and took out the hamburger.

  "I don't want you to get mad. And you will if you listen," Pen said.

  "I'm more interested in eating right now. Excuse my munching. I'm eating a burger and fries." She took a bite while she gave him a chance to respond.

  "I just finished a tuna sandwich a secretary brought me from the deli." She imagined his grimace. "It sure doesn't taste like the food we've been eating in San Antonio."

  Was it just the food that was better in San Antonio or could he be speaking about the company too? She'd better change the subject. "What's keeping you at the office so late?"

  He explained the projects that were now his responsibility. "The weekly corporate meeting is tomorrow. Every division president reports on his division, and I have to give the report for the plant service division. So I have to take a crash course tonight." r />
  "Mr. Walker must have a system to keep track of all the projects. Did you check his DayTimer? That's where I keep mine."

  "His DayTimer, huh? I never thought of that. I just looked in his files. Hold on a minute-let me check."

  She heard paper shuffling, drawers opening and closing, and objects being moved around for several minutes before Pen returned to the line.

  "Here's his DayTimer. Eureka! You're right. Here's a project planner with a page for every project. You're a genius!"

  "Hardly a genius, but I'm glad I could help."

  Pen began reviewing the various projects. Fern smiled at the excitement in his voice. "It's all here. No telling how many hours you've saved me. I knew you'd be a help."

  He explained the projects to Fern, and she responded with questions and comments. The business dealings fascinated her, but Pen intrigued her far more than anything he said.

  She stretched out on the couch and tucked a throw pillow under her head. She felt totally comfortable discussing corporate business with Pen, but the undercurrent of excitement never went away.

  "Omigosh." She sat up on the couch as she looked at her watch. "Pen, it's after nine o'clock, and you're still at the office. We've wasted all those hours you thought you saved. We've been talking for over two hours."

  When he answered, Pen's voice was unexpectedly tender. "I don't consider one minute of this time wasted. Do you?"

  What could she say? She'd loved every second. "It wasn't a waste to me, but you're the one who left home this morning to go to Fern's-to the San Antonio branch and ended up in Chicago. You're the one with the big meeting tomorrow."

  "But now I'm ready for the big meeting. I needed to organize my thoughts. I've been practicing on you."

  She took a deep breath, ready to take offense again. Then he continued, "But it's more fun practicing on you than it will be facing the corporate bigwigs tomorrow. I'm going to imagine you sitting at the table, and I'm going to pretend I'm speaking directly to you."

  "I'll be there in my imagination, but you won't need me. You'll do great on your own."

  "Good night, Fern. Sleep tight. I'll call you as soon as the meeting is over."

  "Good night. Good luck." She closed her eyes and blew a silent kiss into the phone before hanging up the receiver.

  Fern told herself she could sleep an hour later since she didn't have to pick up Pen or stop for breakfast. The next morning, however, she found herself awake at the usual time. It had been her usual time for only a few days. Why couldn't she turn over and go back to sleep?

  After several minutes of lying in bed wide awake, she got up and dressed. She arrived at the office early to use the computer to work on her speech for the Chamber of Commerce.

  Since she was to speak about starting a service business, she remembered her early years in business. She'd made a lot of mistakes, but she'd taken pride in doing everything herself. She had prospected for clients through civic organizations, then she'd made the initial sales calls on likely prospects. She had prepared the proposals herself, and when a proposal was accepted, she was the one to pick up the plants from the wholesaler, put them in decorative containers, and deliver them to the job site. The following week, she returned to water and care for the plants.

  She shook her head as she thought about how much had changed. Now she had a staff to do many of the tasks she used to do. Since she had sold to Ultimate, she knew her role would be even less significant. She hadn't realized how much she missed the early stages of her business development. Even though she had struggled with an erratic cash flow, as well as the strain of wearing several hats at the same time, her success depended totally on herself. Failure would have been her responsibility also, but she had never considered the possibility of failure.

  She had never considered the consequences of growth, either. Fern's Fancies had grown from Fern to a staff of Fern and fourteen employees without conscious planning. Her speech seemed to write itself as she thought of what she knew now that she didn't know when she started business.

  She was editing the first draft of her presentation when Maria called her to the phone.

  "The meeting's over, and I did okay." Pen's voice carried the sound of relief that escalated to elation. "In fact, I did better than okay. I was superb, if I do say so myself."

  Fern smiled in answer to the smile she envisioned on his face. "Of course, you're a very objective observer. And definitely modest and self-effacing."

  "Yeah." He chuckled. "I'm also glad it's over. I was a little nervous, I guess."

  Fern's pulse quickened. She couldn't believe he was sharing his vulnerability with her. "Hey, what's a presentation to a bunch of high muck-a-mucks to a guy who can eat a jalapeno pepper?"

  Pen chuckled. "Nothing, that's what. What have you been doing this morning?"

  "Working on my speech. You probably don't remember I'm the keynote speaker at a Chamber of Commerce workshop on starting a business."

  "I remember. When is it?"

  "Thursday morning." Smoothing the pages on her desk, she continued, "I hope it goes as well as your presentation did this morning."

  "Hey, I owe you one. You were a big help to me last night. I'll listen to your speech on the phone tonight if you want to practice."

  "Thanks, Pen, but I'm supposed to speak for forty-five minutes to an hour. I haven't timed it yet, but it's definitely too long for a phone call." Some rebellious part of her brain, or perhaps her heart, wanted him to say an hour wasn't too long.

  "Well, I'll call you tonight anyway. I've got to run now-Mr. Walker's secretary is buzzing me."

  He reluctantly hung up the phone to answer the secretary's summons. "Yes, Elizabeth?"

  Elizabeth handed him a stack of letters, saying, "You need to sign these so I can get them in this morning's mail."

  He read the correspondence, asking pertinent questions to ensure he understood the purpose of each letter before signing it. Elizabeth stood in front of the desk, shifting her weight from side to side in an apparent attempt to hurry him.

  She turned and rushed out of the office with the signed letters as soon as he handed them to her. If she hadn't been so impatient, he might have found himself thinking about Fern instead of signing the letters. When had she become so important to him?

  Two months earlier, even two weeks earlier, he would have been thrilled at the chance to run the entire division. He was on the fast track to corporate success. This temporary assignment filling in for an ailing superior was a sign of his favor from the corporate powers.

  Now he wondered if he really aspired to the corporate office. He was both financially successful and happy as a regional manager. He had an apartment, and San Antonio already felt like home. Was it the apartment and the job, or was it Fern Tate that drew him to San Antonio?

  The phone rang. Duty called. He would forget Fern until tonight. Or if he couldn't forget her, he'd force himself to concentrate on his corporate responsibilities. He was in the corporate office in Chicago, not the branch office in San Antonio.

  Fern, however, was in the branch office in San Antonio. She'd never before given any consideration to what happened in the corporate office. Now her thoughts kept drifting to Chicago, the corporate office, and Pen.

  She was glad for the distraction when Maria told her the beneficial insects, the "good guy bugs," as Pen called them, had arrived. Although she'd read articles and seen pictures of the insects, she'd never seen a real live cryptolaemus before. The bugs were shipped in a small round cardboard container.

  "It looks like a pint of barbecue sauce," Susan commented, as she came into the front office to investigate. "Have you seen the bugs yet?"

  "Not yet. I don't know if we should open them before we go to the job site," Fern answered.

  "How about just a quick peek? Just lift the lid a little, so we'll know what they look like."

  Fern's curiosity overcame her caution, and she raised one corner of the lid. Small black bugs swarmed out of
the tiny opening and flew toward the ceilings.

  Although she immediately slammed the lid shut, hundreds of the insects had escaped. "They're heading for the lights. We've got to catch them!"

  Maria punched the intercom button and screamed, "Everybody in the building-come quick. The bugs are loose! The bugs are loose!"