Why the hell should I care? The logical answer was, of course, that she shouldn’t, but for some reason she found herself intrigued by Kerry Stuart’s potential, and her intelligence, and she really didn’t want to be the damn woman’s enemy.

She sighed. Trouble was, Kerry didn’t seem to have a mutual admiration for her. In fact, Dar was hard pressed to recall being spoken to with that much venom by someone she’d just met in quite a while.

Hmm. Dar drummed her fingers on the laptop keyboard. Their first meeting had been a disaster. Maybe…well, that last line indicates she was at least willing to listen. Perhaps I could mend fences just a little. She stuffed a laden nacho into her mouth, then started a reply.

KERRY ABSENTLY MUNCHED on a slice of lukewarm pizza as she paged through yet another spreadsheet. She’d been at it for hours, since she’d gotten home, and she realized she was about ready for a break when the screen started to go fuzzy on her.

Coincidentally, a knock rapped on her door at the same time. She stood, hissing as her back protested its tenure in the same position, and limped to the door, peeking through the security hole before pulling it open. “Hey, Colleen.” She smiled at the short redhead who bounded inside. Colleen McPherson was the first neighbor she’d met after she moved into the complex, and they’d remained close friends ever since.

“Hey, Kerry, whatcha up to?” Colleen wrinkled her snub nose and looked around. “Whoa. Hold on. Don’t tell me you are eating pizza? No, no. Must be a pod. I’m calling the FBI.”

Kerry laughed a little sheepishly. “I had no choice. I’m doing this project, and I didn’t have time to cook. I was starving.” She closed the door and 38 Melissa Good walked back over to her desk. “You want some?”

Colleen peered at the box. “Ohmigod. You actually ate half of it. I’m going to pass out,” she teased her friend. “It’s not even a veggie pizza.”

Kerry sat down, letting her arms rest on her thighs. “I’m not a vegetarian, Col. You know that,” she objected. “I just like to eat healthy. Is that a crime?”

The redhead took a slice and chewed it. “What is a crime is that you hardly eat enough to sustain a rabbit, much less a human being.” She plucked at Kerry’s shirt, which hung on her. “Now that is not healthy.”

Kerry shrugged a little. “I’m fine, I just…” She hesitated. “I get a lot of grief at home if I put on weight. It’s just easier not to.” She shrugged. “You know how it is.”

Grief was a mild way of putting it. The first year she’d been down here, things had been hectic, work was very involving, and she really didn’t have time to do much other than go to the office, come home, try to get the apartment settled, and study for her networking certifications. It led to a lot of late nights and take-out food, and an extra twenty pounds that had gotten her nothing but nagging and complaints when she’d gone home for Christmas.

Which was a lousy time for that and had caused her to end up spending most of the holiday avoiding people, her father especially. She’d vowed she’d never have to go through that again. So she stuck to carrots, and lots of walking and bike riding, which got things pretty much under control. In fact, Colleen was her walking and Rollerblading buddy, since the short redhead was constantly battling her own tendency to roundness.

Kerry sighed, because she was an admitted chowhound. She loved to eat, and it was so hard to constantly say no to that. But she did, because hearing her father’s censorious voice was even worse, and her mother never failed to ask her about it on their weekly phone calls.

Then of course, there was Brian. Her nominal fiancé. His daddy had done a big favor for her daddy, so when he asked to marry her…Daddy had said yes. Kerry didn’t dislike Brian. He was a tall, very good-looking young man with impeccable manners, intelligence, and good work ethics, who was just about to graduate law school. By all accounts, a great match, and he was crazy about her. And to be fair, she liked him. They’d been friends for years, and she’d had a lot of fun doing things together.

In fact, they seemed like a natural pair. He’d taken her to their senior prom, and one of her mother’s favorite pictures was the two of them posing in front of her parents’ house, dressed in formal wear and very serious expressions for that very occasion.

Natural. Hmm… Yeah. Kerry exhaled, then put a smile on. “So, like I said, it’s just easier. My folks give me such a hard time; you know how that is.”

Colleen rolled her eyes. “Do I ever.” She put her hands on her hips.

“Colleen Katherine McPherson, if you don’t start doing something with yourself, you’ll be big as the Queen Mary one of these fine days.” Her voice went high and singsong, to imitate her irrepressible Irish mother.

Kerry laughed. “Oh god, that’s so like her.” Colleen’s family lived nearby, and Kerry had been invited over several times for dinner. She liked the feisty redhead and was glad to have someone to just hang out with sometimes. Colleen worked for Barnett Bank as their chief teller and was a few Tropical Storm 39

years older than Kerry. She was funny and very outgoing, the legacy of growing up in a large, boisterous family.

“So, what’s the project?” Colleen looked around her apartment. “Jesus Mary, Ker, did a paper fairy poop all over here or what?”

The blonde woman leaned back in her desk chair and took another slice of pizza. “No.” She sighed. “We got bought out.”

“Ew. I heard.” The shorter girl made a face. “Are you guys in trouble?”

“Yeah,” Kerry admitted. “They’d really like to just get rid of us all and keep the customers, but I’m trying to pitch them a plan where at least some of us keep our jobs.” Her shoulders slumped. “I don’t think they’re going to buy it, though.” She spared her computer a glance as her mail indicator lit. “Here’s the confirmation, probably.” She reached over and clicked on the envelope, bringing the new message to the foreground. “Yep,” she confirmed, seeing the name of the sender.

Sent by: Dar Roberts

Subject: re: Clarification

Time: 10:45 PM

Ms. Stuart,

You bring interesting points to the table. While I have the utmost confidence in the ability of our support teams to assume responsibility for your product line, your personnel do bring a certain level of knowledge that it might be costly for us to duplicate. Please continue with your proposal.

“Oh. Wow.” Kerry breathed, as her eyes dropped below to the somewhat longer paragraph underneath.

I know that this is a very difficult process you are attempting, and I appreciate the effort you are putting into it. I think you are talented and intelligent, and I really don’t want this to be such an adversarial

situation. I realize our initial meeting got started off in the wrong direction, and that I should have assured that our project team had briefed your upper management on what to expect before we began the process. For that, I apologize.

DR

Oddly, Kerry felt lighter all of a sudden. A tiny smile edged her lips, and she sat back with a heartfelt sigh. “What do you know? She bought it. Sort of.”

Colleen had been unashamedly reading over her shoulder. “Hey.” She poked Kerry in the shoulder. “That’s not the Dar Roberts, is it?” She whistled under her breath. “They do our ACHTAPE processing. There was a foul-up one day and a whole tape spool got screwed. Our managers were raising hell all over the place, blaming them to high heaven, then this Roberts woman shows up, spends ten minutes in the vault, and finds the problem on our end.”

She rolled her eyes. “God, we didn’t hear the end of that for weeks.”


40 Melissa Good

“Well,” Kerry shook her head, “I can’t imagine there being more than one of her at that company, so I guess it is. Tall, tanned, dark hair?” She paused.

“Really blue eyes?”

Colleen gave her a rakish grin. “That’d be her. Rumor says she’s a real bitch on wheels.” She peered at the e-mail. “Hmm. Looks like she likes you, though.” She looked at Kerry, impressed. “Wow, she thinks you’re talented and intelligent. I guess she has a few brain cells after all.”

Kerry blushed. “Stop it.” She re-read the mail, and try as she would to remind herself of just how angry she’d been at Dar, the typed words made her feel pretty good anyway. Maybe because it was so unexpected. Yeah, that was it. She hadn’t figured on getting a positive response from the woman, or even a response at all, so getting this was just…so surprising. “She’s probably just patting me on the head.” Kerry finally said offhandedly. “You know—don’t get the natives restless until you steal all their diamonds, that kind of thing.”

“Probably,” Colleen agreed cheerfully. “Hey, take a break, and let’s go for a walk down to the bakery.”

Kerry hesitated. “Um…okay, sure. I could use a break. Listen, why don’t you get your bike, and I’ll meet you out on the street?” She smiled as Colleen quickly agreed, and watched as the redhead trotted out, closing the door behind her. Then she turned her attention to the screen and tapped her fingers on her keyboard, trying to decide what to reply. Be nice, be snippy, be formal?

What the hell. The worst old Cruella could do is fire her.

Sent by: Kerry Stuart

Subject: re: Clarification

Hello….

Thank you for saying what you did. You’re right—this is a tough situation, and I wish I wasn’t in it. But I am, and I have to make the best of it, so I’m going to keep on trying.