Breathless (6 page)

know?"
"Well you seem to be so damn popular, I thought
you would know," she remarked acidly.
"Francine, I don't know what your problem with me
is specifically, but I don't appreciate the
attitude.
I'm here to work and if that offends you,
I'm sorry.
I didn't come here to be popular or play
games.
So if you have something you want to get
off your chest, please go right ahead," said Alex
finally.
She was tired of the petty demeanor she
got from Francine.
Every day was the same thing,
including the afternoon meetings with James that
Jeff seemed to be ignoring.
"You took MY job.
I petitioned long and hard to
get the accounting assistant position and here YOU
stand at what should be MY desk doing MY
job.
And as for my playing games, it looks like
you've found out what the rules are too, because,
I've never received a bouquet like this since I got
here," she declared, stomping out of the room like a
spoiled child.
Alex followed her into the reception area and
waited for her to sit down before opening her
mouth.
"Francine, I'm sorry if you didn't get this
job.
I didn't realize that you were even in
contention for it.
All I know, is that the job was
offered to me and I took it.
And for your
information, I haven't done anything to get flowers
like that from anybody here.
Just keep that in
mind, I don't play games, I play for keeps.
Now,
you and I can work together or against each other,
just remember that we don't have to like each other
to do a good job," Alex retorted.
Francine looked up at Alex finally and understood
the immediate attraction that the men in the
factory felt.
She appeared on the outside like
everyone's kid sister, but when she wanted to turn
on the charm, she blossomed into a beautiful
woman.
Francine felt a twinge of jealousy tweak
her insides.
She had always had to fight against
naturally beautiful women to gain a man's
attention.
But it was obvious that it came easily to
Alex, to be able to have whomever she set her
sights on.
"So where did the flowers come from, if you didn't
'earn' them," she bit out.
"I don't know," said Alex turning and walking back
to her desk to look over the blooms.
The flowers
were held by a simple cut glass vase of no planned
design or maker wrapped with a red ribbon and a
card attached to it.
Each rose had been sprinkled
with glitter to make them as eye catching as
possible.
Alex soon discovered that there were six
yellow and six red roses perfectly matched in shape
and size.
Alex was reaching for the card when
Francine came back in the office.
"Who delivered them," she asked Francine over her
shoulder.
"I don't know.
They were sitting there when I
came in.”
"Did you ask Larry if he saw anyone?" Alex knew
that Larry was the first one in every morning to
open the shops for the employees.”
"He hasn't come in here yet. "
Alex took the familiar path from her desk, through
James' office to Larry's door.
As she raised her
hand to knock, she caught sight of Dan Reynolds
standing next to the soda machine staring at her.
"Morning, Dan," she said.
Dan nodded hello and
walked back to the weld shop without his
soda.
Alex shook her head, knocked on the door
and went into Larry's office.
"Morning, Larry.”
"Alex, good morning, toast," he asked as it popped
up from the toaster.”
"No thanks," she responded, smiling, "Did you sign
for flowers this morning?"
"Alex, I got here at 6:30.
What delivery person in
his right mind is delivering flowers at 6:30 in the
morning?"
"Good point.
Then did you see who left roses on
my desk?"
"There's roses on your desk?"
"Yeah, I want to know who to thank. "
"Don't look at me.
I just opened the doors, came
in here and made some breakfast.”
Alex looked
down at his desk and saw the remains of eggs and
bacon on a plate there.
"Thanks, Larry.
Have a good breakfast. "
Alex left his office, went to the soda machine and
grabbed a Pepsi.
She then went back to her desk
to read the card.
Alex had just made her way to
her desk through Francine's office, who for once
wasn't staring at her, when James burst in the door
from his office.
"Where did they come from," he asked.
"Don't know.
They were here when I came in,
when Francine came in too.
And Larry said
nobody delivered them. "
"Great.
Did you read the card?"
"Just getting ready to do that now."
Alex removed the stick pin that held card to the
ribbon.
She opened the envelope and read the
card aloud, "To my red-haired lady.
I hope you've
forgiven me.”
"Have you?"
Alex looked up at James and waited for the
screaming match from last night to resume.
"Well, have you," he repeated, "I'm sure that
anyone who sends you roses would be forgiven for
just about anything.”
"James, you’re such an ass," she cursed, "You don't
know anything about me so don't stand there and
assume the worst.
Just keep your nose out of it. "
Jeff walked into the center office and found Alex
and James nose to nose with the flowers as a
backdrop.
"What a lovely assortment, Alex.
Are they from
your fiancée?"
"They're from the man who attacked me.
I also
got a bouquet last night while I was working here.”
"Damn, that settles it.
For your own protection
Alex, I don't want you working late anymore," he
declared.
Jeff saw her ready to argue and
continued on, "If you're too stubborn to be afraid,
let me do it for you.
I can't let you do it
anymore.
Neither you nor Francine are to be in
the office, after everyone else has left.
Do you
understand?"
Alex was prepared to argue but thought better of
it.
He had a point and she admitted to herself that
she was slightly scared.
"Okay, Jeff.
I won't work
late anymore," she conceded reluctantly.
James was stunned at how demure she had become
in that moment.
He expected her to rail at him
and Jeff for trying to dictate rules for her to
follow.
She had certainly fought enough with him
last night when he asked the same thing.
Alex thanked Jeff for his concern, removed the
roses from her desk and walked them to the oil
drum that sat outside of Francine's office door and
served as a garbage can.
Alex dumped the roses
into the drum, removed the ribbon from the vase
and took the vase to the glass recycling dumpster
outside.
As the vase hit the bottom of the nearly
empty dumpster, it shattered into thousands of
diamond like crystals.
Alex watched the pieces
scatter about the dumpster until they had settled
into a final destination, wiped a tear from her cheek
and -walked back to door.
Alex took a deep breath
before opening the door to the factory.
She
couldn't remember a time when she felt so alone
and so much despair.
The next several months crawled slowly for
Alex.
She was desperately lonely and missed the
calls from Tad.
His calls used to come daily, but
slowly dwindled into weekly, until they had stopped
coming at all.
Occasionally, she would read about
him in the national section of the newspaper and
send him congratulatory cards when he won major
battles on the hill.
Tad also occasionally sent Alex
cards to remind her of him and sent her a bottle of
champagne on her birthday.
Alex had worked all day on her birthday, not
mentioning the occasion to anyone.
Although, she
had made an effort to forget about the incident in
the office, roses appeared often on her desk, on her
chair and even on the hood of her car.
Alex picked
out birthday cards for all of the employees as a
special way for her to communicate with them and
let them know she was thinking about all of what
had come to be termed "her boys. "
She remembered her first day, when James
mentioned that someday she would adopt them all
and she had.
She cared for each of them as if they
were her brothers and the ones who were too old
to be brothers were often called "uncles. " She
refused to call anybody a father figure including
kindly old Bill Jefferson, who was turning 60 in
March.
Christmas had come along with a blizzard that
stacked the snow up to the loading dock door,
making going to work treacherous and
impossible.
Hasani had lost three days of
production time that week, not including the
holiday.
When the snow melted slightly, it froze
with an arctic blast that took hold of the
region.
The ice had remained for several days and
the mood in the factory was as somber as the
howling winds.
Alex and the rest of the factory
had been able to go to work, but had not been able
to send any products out because of the wind chill
and icy conditions of the trucks.
But at least she
had been able to get to work and see all of her
boys.
Alex had never seen a winter so bad, and
fortunately had the foresight to buy a car with four
wheel drive and snow tires.
Even so, she had put
provisions in her car to prevent her from freezing or
starving if she got stuck someplace.
Alex tried desperately to remove James from her
thoughts, but that proved impossible.
Her dreams
of him were becoming all too realistic when she
awoke in the mornings and expected him there
beside her.
Her body ached to be brought back to
life by the touch of a man and for a while she even
missed Tad.
At night when she was alone, she
imagined James there holding and kissing her
lovingly and in the days she fought the urge to rip
Francine's hair out when she went into James'
office.
James had spent Christmas alone.
Both Grayson
and Morgan had invited him to their homes, but he
had declined not wanting to be a wet blanket.
He
still missed Jean and when the divorce had become
final on Christmas Eve, he drank himself into a
stupor, not wanting to think about it.
James had
been moderately successful in shutting Jean out of
his mind, but his thoughts kept drifting to Alex.
At
night when the wind moaned, he would sit on his
couch and imagine her there with him, keeping him
warm with her touch and her kisses.
He
made-believe that he could feel her lips on his and
her body so soft and yielding eagerly to his touch.
He had, against his better judgment, carried on his
affair with Francine.
Somehow, it seemed easier
to have sex with her in his office, than reach out to
Alex to heal his bruised heart.
He watched as she
became more closely associated with each member
of the factory, no matter how low their
position.
She continued to rebuff the advances of
Morgan, Grayson, Dave and several other
employees and dodge innuendos.
To him she
looked like a ballet dancer, dancing around props
laid there for her trip over.
But James could see
that she was wavering.
He could sense her
loneliness growing and her need to feel accepted.
Alex for the most part, was able to keep her
distance while still befriending her
co-workers.
She accepted dinner invitations from
Jeff and his wife, Nancy, and from Harry Fletcher,
Hasani's lead government relations contact, and his
wife Suzanne.
Still, she felt lonely and curious
about what happened when the boys went out to
play.
"Maybe, I will join them," she said to herself while
driving home after dinner with the Fletcher's.
Chapter 7
Springtime had come with a blast of warm air and a
thunderstorm, melting all of the remaining snow
from a last minute snowstorm in March.
It had
snowed for two solid days and Alex had never felt
so glum.
The television offered no comfort as it
announced day after day, that more snow was on
its way.
When it was all said and done, twenty
inches of snow laid on the ground in Ashmore
Valley in a perfect white blanket.
The day after it
finished snowing, the beautiful white was covered
by a grimy black covering of soot from cars, trucks
and buses.
Alex had had enough of this cloistered life she was
leading.
Before leaving her house that morning,
she decided that if Morgan or Grayson asked her to
go out with them, she would, consequences be
damned.
"Last chance, Alex, we're on our way now," declared
Morgan, trying to coax her to go with them one
more time.
Morgan had sensed a different attitude in Alex that
day.
Alex had stopped and talked with Grayson
and Morgan at lunchtime and ended up spending
her lunch break with the entire machine shop.
It
was Friday, and as per usual, Alex had dressed
down in a pair of blue jeans and a white top.
She
had long ago taken Francine's advice and began to
dress down, while still staying professional.
She
looked radiant with her hair down framing her face
and enhancing her blue eyes.
Alex wore her
makeup simply, not overdoing it no matter what
the fashion.
Morgan was determined to make her
come with them tonight.
"Please, Alex.
You'll have a good time, I
promise.
Just come this once and if you don't
have a good time, I won't ask again," he pleaded
while leaned against one of the filing cabinets
behind her desk.
Alex laughed lightly.
She knew that was a bald
faced lie.
No matter how many times Morgan had
asked and she had said no, he always asked again,
"Liar," she replied chuckling, "You always ask and I
always said no."
"Said? As in past tense? Does that mean you'll come
with us?"
"Sure, how do I get there?"
Morgan all but kissed Alex at that moment; he
couldn't believe she was finally saying yes.
"Cool," he enthused, gave her brief directions and
hurried out of the office to tell the rest of the guys.
"She's coming," asked Grayson astounded.
"Yep, she said so herself and even asked for
directions to the O.”
"Wow, our very own red-head," said Steve listening
in.
"My very own red-head," said Morgan.
"Well see," remarked Grayson.
Grayson knew it
was going to be fun to see if Alex's cool exterior
would melt in the heat of their bar.
He
remembered the first time he saw her and felt a