“Well…” Jennifer looked around her cubicle at a loss. Jennifer was Marjorie’s assistant, who was Chatterton’s actual personal assistant. Marjorie’s desk was in a real office attached to Chatterton’s and Marjorie herself was elusive, squirreled away all day, apparently busy doing things Reese couldn’t even fathom.
“I suppose you could book a hotel reservation. Normally our travel department makes flight arrangements and books hotels, but Mr. Chatterton likes one of us to personally oversee scheduling conference rooms when he’s out of town. The traveldepartment doesn’t always accommodate Mr. Chatterton’s specific needs.”
Reese tuned the woman out as Jennifer went into a story about Chatterton not being pleased with once having a conference room next to one that was hosting a jump-rope competition.
“Where and when?” she finally interrupted, grateful for the opportunity to do something—anything—besides making copies of her face in the Xerox machine to send as postcards to her brothers.
Taking this job had been meant to serve a dual purpose. She had thought to speed the Feds’s case along by helping them gather any evidence they needed, or prevent the CW from bolting and leaving them high and dry. Second, she had thought being on the inside of Delco she could conduct her own journalistic investigation into the company and their illegal dealings.
She now realized both were stupidly optimistic.
There was nothing she could do to assist Knight on this case when the only tasks required of her were ordering twelve club sandwiches and repeatedly plugging Chatterton’s phone in the charger. He didn’t like to plug it in himself because apparently, that was hard.
And there was really nothing to investigate. She had access to all the information the FBI had sitting in her suitcase at Knight’s apartment. All the evidence was there, hidden on her laptop. If there was more information to be had, she didn’t know where to find it. Even if she did, she probably wouldn’t recognize the significance of it.
Her only hope was to hover at these incessant meetings and hope Chatterton or another exec alluded to something criminal, which Knight would be taping anyway.
“Okay, so book a conference room in New Zealand. Got it.”
Jennifer handed her the file after a pregnant pause. As Reese took it, Jennifer said sternly, “Now, I’ll be at my desk if you have any problems. All Mr. Chatterton’s needs are clearly outlined in the file.”
“I got it.” How hard was it to call and say “book me a room?” A third grader could do this job.
Turning her back on Jennifer, she headed towards the cubicle that had been temporarily assigned to her. No one seemed to know exactly what to do with her, so they had stuck her in the corner by the men’s rest room, which had prompted her to decorate her desk with a scented candle.
Flipping open the file, she quickly scanned it. “Okay, meeting room for twelve, including executives from Delco, Stanfield, and Ricould.” Those names sounded familiar.
Reese scanned further. “Need lunch, need A/V, convenient to airport. No problemo.”
It wasn’t until she was passing Chatterton in the hall an hour later that she realized why those names were familiar. They were the other companies involved in the anti-trust investigation.
When Chatterton nodded and smiled at her, she blurted out, “I made your travel arrangements to Auckland, Mr. Chatterton. Everything’s all set.”
Though he looked a little startled, he smiled and nodded. “Thank you, Reese.”
Reese tipped back on her high heels, wearing a gray skirt and white blouse she had borrowed from Claire. “You know, I’ve never been to New Zealand. I’ve never even left the U.S. I bet it’s pretty there.”
She was babbling, not sure what to say, but she wanted to keep Chatterton talking. Not that she thought he was going to say anything important, but she needed to at least try.
“It’s very nice, I’ve been there several times.”
“You know they filmedLord of the Ringsthere. Well, not in Auckland but somewhere in New Zealand. It’s very green.”
There was another small silence while Chatterton looked at her, a slight smile as he seemed to make a decision. “You know, Reese, I always take an assistant with me on these trips. Marjorie can’t go, her mother is having bypass surgery. And Jennifer hates to fly. How would you like to go with me? It’s only three days, but you’d have plenty of time to sight-see in the evenings.”
Reese tried not to grin. She couldn’t ask for anything better. “Mr. Chatterton, I’d love to. That’s so generous of you considering how new I am.”
Then Chatterton gave her that smile, the creepy I’ve-got- plans-for-you smile that made her want to cross her legs. “I have great hopes for your future here, Reese. You’re just the kind of employee I’ve been looking for.”
As he walked down the hall, Reese was left with the impression that she’d just walked straight into grandma’s cottage and Chatterton was the waiting wolf.
FORTY-FIVE
Derek staredat the ceiling and willed himself to fall asleep. But he’d been doing that for ten minutes and he was still wide awake, painfully aware of Reese lying next to him.
Even though Reese had spent the night in his apartment on Tuesday, they had been so exhausted after another marathon sex session, they had both just tumbled into sleep. When he had gotten up in the morning, Reese was still sleeping.
But tonight was different. Derek had picked Reese up from work, they had gone out to dinner, then come back and had watched a movie together. Then Reese had said she was tired, and so they had come to bed and he was lying there wondering why he felt like a fifteen-year-old on his first date.