Absolute Zero (11 page)

“No Sir,” she responded coolly, her eyes never leaving her mother’s.

She blinked several times, reacquainting herself with the present day, staring at her computer monitor. If she allowed herself to continue, her mind would wander to that day, that moment, that mistake that would shape the rest of her existence. As it was, there was the small burn beginning behind her eyes. Breaking down in front of her new coworkers would be a huge error in judgment, would draw attention and would allow Sam to once again make good on his final promise to her. It simply wasn’t going to happen. Instead she would concentrate on the extreme thoughtfulness of a woman baking a cake for her.
Who does that?
Who would do that for me, of all people?
Maybe the people in this town really
were
friendly?

Or maybe they just really liked
cake
…

*****

“Hmm? Oh, yeah…mmm hmm. What?”

“Ian, are you hearing anything I’m saying?” his assistant’s voice berated over the speaker phone.

“Sure. Harper wants a meeting next Monday, I’m flying back Sunday, and…” he bit his lip in concentration because she had said one other thing.
What was that?

“New facility?”

Right.
“Send the forms, I’ll approve moving forward with the project,” he stated. They were speaking of a multimillion dollar investment in a new facility and his yet his mind kept wandering to a stretchy purple tank top hiding two perfectly formed breasts.

He was clearly losing his mind.

“Ian?” She sounded like she was getting ready to lecture a five-year-old. Mrs. Craigh was quite possibly the most efficient, straight shooting, organized and firm assistant any person could ever ask for. She was also sweet when she wanted to be. Now, however, it appeared she was having difficulty with the numpty on the other end of the line that couldn’t seem to get his head out of his arse. Her tone of voice tried desperately to snap him back to the here and now and her frustration was evident.
Ack, I love this woman
…She was his third favorite person in the world, he had decided many years ago.

“Yes?” he finally answered.

“Where
are
you?”

“Er…America?” he responded somewhat dumbly.

“No! Where is your head? What are you thinking about because it sure as hell isn’t this conversation,” she responded. Her voice was much more quiet, maybe slightly concerned.

Well. there’s this lass
… Nah, definitely not a subject he was going to bring up with his assistant. Of course, she may have some advice…

On what?
It wasn’t as if he had any clear designs on his newest employee. She was just intriguing, that was all. Just intriguing. And obviously distracting. The way she ‘apologized’ this morning was so
cute
…

“Ian!?”

“What!?” he barked back before switching to a more normal tone of voice after a moment. He blew out a frustrated breath. “Right, so send me the paperwork, I’ll sign it. I need to get going, I’ll talk to you later, eh?” He punched the button on the desk phone and turned his attention to the stack of papers on the corner of his large desk. All of them demanded attention from a brain that just didn’t feel like paying them any.

He had been gone too long. The American facility could be just as productive and innovative as the lab in Scotland and yet he wasn’t pushing the issue, content to let Rand run the place as he saw fit and perhaps that was a mistake. It could be so much more. Or it could be nothing at all…

The other facilities were flourishing while the American facility stayed stagnant and it was his fault. His personal life was dictating his professional life and it was probably time to turn that around.

He needed to make a decision soon. He hadn’t been entirely forthcoming to Rand on his reasons for this impromptu trip to America. He was actually toying with the idea of selling off the American facility and concentrating his resources in Europe. As it stood, he was either going to pump capital into the American facility and help it flourish, or abandon it altogether and use the money to invest in the European facilities. Two American companies had already showed some interest in the property, the close proximity to Philadelphia and technical universities was a definite draw.

Contrary to what the employees in the facility thought, or at least according to what Anne had stated, he wasn’t nearly the rotten bastard they thought he was. He
did
care about their livelihoods.  Of course, he certainly wasn’t the same person he was when he first bought the company, though. Back then he had no idea how the decisions he made in his personal life would affect the outcome of every other facet in his life, including work.

The memories - they were fading. Always present, yes, but not with the sharp edge they used to have. Thinking back on it, last night’s reaction was a bit extreme, but completely foreseeable. It was just a bit of a shock, or maybe because the name came from a set of lips that he was having completely inappropriate thoughts about anyway. That was probably it. That name uttered from anyone else would probably not affect him in the least. The fact that it came from Anne?
Anne…

Stop thinking about her. Look at the mass of papers on your desk and concentrate.
He chided himself before doing just that.

*****

Sniff.

“Oh, god
…” Sniff, sniff.

Anne sat at her desk later that morning, her eyes wandering toward the fabric covered partition between her desk and the desk next to hers.

“Are you
shitting
me?” she heard gasped out between sniffs and a hitched breath.

More sniffing, more muttering…

“Are you OK?”  Anne asked quietly before she could stop herself.

“NOOO!”
the female voice answered emphatically. It was Em’s voice.  All of the other inhabitants of this particular office were in the lab at the time, leaving the two of them alone.

Suddenly she appeared in front of Anne’s desk, her face a mottled reddish color, her eyes rimmed with moisture. She was probably the same age as Anne, average looking, not ugly, not particularly pretty but at the moment, her face was a disaster.

“Umm. So, what’s wrong?” Anne asked, genuinely concerned. Em
did
make her a homemade cake, after all. She could return the kindness.

“McClellan called a meeting to review all of our projects,” she stated before pulling out a chair and seating herself across from Anne. She swiped at her cheeks almost violently to remove the tears. “Usually the lab manager would go and present, but he’s not here and now we all have to do it.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Anne asked tentatively.

“
Yes!
Oh my god, you have
NO
idea what it’s like presenting anything to that man! He will ask every question you didn’t anticipate, and you will feel like an absolute
ASS
when you walk out of the meeting. I’ve heard the horror stories. I can’t do this! I can’t!” she practically sobbed.

Anne sat and calmly regarded the woman in front of her. She honestly looked terrified at the prospect and it was slightly baffling. McClellan certainly didn’t seem
that
bad, at least from her few conversations with him. Yes, he had a prying mind but he didn’t seem outright nasty. From the words and expressions flowing freely from Em, it would appear she may have been mistaken.

“So, do you have a presentation?”

“No.”
Sniff.

“Ok. Do you have a format?” she asked in a placating voice. The prospect of doing anything other than memorizing the handbook, reading the company newsletter and other meaningless activities perked her up considerably.

“There’s an attachment with the email,” she stated as she swiped another tear.

“Great! See that’s not so bad, just fill it in, right?”

“Wrong! You should see it. It’s five pages long! And besides, my project…” she stated before covering her face with her hands and shaking her head, “just sucks,” she revealed her face once more and stared at Anne. “I mean it. I was going along fine and then I hit a snag and now? I have no idea where to go with this and McClellan is going to chew me up and spit me out in front of everybody.”

“What are you working on?” Anne sat straighter in her chair, her interest now fully piqued.

“Chemo side effects? You know there’re medications out there that treat nausea and bowel problems, fatigue…but I was trying to develop a drug that could treat all of them, instead of requiring the patient to take multiple meds. I actually found that some of them seem to fight each other and make some symptoms worse while relieving others. I combined them and I created a whole other problem,” she stated before burying her face in her hands.

“What’s the problem?” Anne asked.

“I’ve caused some kind of disorientation. Like the brain can’t handle the combination. Now I’m back to square one,” she stated, her words muffled behind her hands.

“Are you sure it’s the combination of the chemicals and not a side effect of the chemo itself?” Anne asked.

“You mean like Chemo Brain?” Em asked raising her head from her hands.

“Chemo Brain, Chemo Fog…whatever. It’s a side effect – some patients get it, some don’t. In some people it’s temporary and other people can experience it for years. I’m just wondering if you isolated your chemical combination as the source for the disorientation.”

“I wouldn’t even know how to do that,” Em stated forlornly. “And besides, I certainly wouldn’t be able to do that by
tomorrow.
What am I supposed to do?”

“
I
know how to do that, but to be honest? I think if you’re really trying to relieve the side effects, you should either concentrate on the brain itself or protecting the good cells that are left after chemo treatments. That’s where it all starts. You protect them from damage; you lessen the side effects –
all
of the side effects,” Anne stated.

“How do you
do
that?” Em asked as she sat up straighter.

“Oh, if I only knew…I’d be a rich woman right now. I don’t have an answer for you on that one. I
can
help you with the brain, though. Some of the side effects like fatigue, nausea and chemo fog are directly related to increased hormone levels and the brain controls that. My expertise is boosting those levels to treat aggression, but if I can boost it, I can also block it. I think I can help you,” Anne offered up a small smile.

“You would do that? Don’t you have anything you’re working on? I mean, I don’t want to get you in trouble…”

“Are you kidding? I’ve just spent the last two days memorizing your handbook. I have no clue what I’m supposed to be working on, at least not until your lab manager gets back, so yeah…I’d say I’ve got some time available to help you,” she stated with sarcasm.

“First off, grab your notes and bring them over here, email me McClellan’s format, we’ll get you squared away,” she responded with confidence. “Then we’ll hit the lab and see what we’ve got. I don’t know McClellan very well, but I’m sure if you explain what you’ve done so far, what you found and what you’re planning to work on next, he won’t be able to find fault with it.”

“Trust me, when I say he can be rotten, I’m putting it lightly. He was here like a year ago and he was a complete crotch,” she stated before a grimace appeared on her face. “Sorry, I have two teenagers; I think I’ve picked up their terminology. He was completely unpleasant,” she amended with a smile.

Was she talking about the same guy that just bought her dinner last night?
If anything, he was
too
friendly. It didn’t make sense.

“I’ll go get my stuff,” she stated in a decidedly more chipper voice. “Thank you so much for this. I really appreciate it,” she added in a sincerely grateful tone. “You’re very kind…”

I’m very bored.

“No problem, Em,” she stated instead. Her eyes followed the other woman until she cleared the wall between their desks. She rested her elbows on the sparsely populated surface, cradling her chin in both palms while waiting patiently for Em to return. At least she finally had something to work on. Granted it wasn’t her own work, but anything was better than what she was doing now; which, by the way, was a whole lot of
nothing
.

*****

“Can you make copies of…what’s
that
?” Ian asked as he eyed the odd-colored piece of cake Rand’s assistant Andrea was eating at her desk later that afternoon.

She looked guilty as she looked up, poised to stuff a forkful into her mouth.

“Um…it’s ah…birthday cake?” she answered sheepishly.

“Birthday cake? Does anyone actually get any work done in this place?” he stated his internal thought out loud before perusing the cake more closely. “It’s red.”

“It’s red velvet cake,” she explained, the fork still poised in the air.