Chapter 4:
The Meeting
Terri Hamilton sighed with impatience as
she waited for the elevator to reach her floor. She could hear the men standing
behind her snicker obscenely and she felt like turning around and whacking them
hard with her briefcase. The chime of the opening door announced her level and
she strode off the elevator, but not before she turned around and called them
both assholes. Satisfied, she walked down the hall and opened the door that
read BSB Human Resources. Piped music of the Backstreet Boys flooded the reception
area and she glared accusingly at her secretary. Startled, her secretary
quickly reached over to switch off the music and Terri shook her head in amazed
resignation. It was bad enough that she had to work for the organization, but
to be constantly bombarded with their music!
As she strode over to her office, Terri
glanced offhandedly at a guy sitting next to her secretary. He was huge, a
brute of a man, and she assumed it was the new bodyguard they had hired. She
was pissed to learn of the new employee’s status just hours before; why they
hadn’t told her sooner irked her to no end. After all, she was the personnel
manager. True, she didn’t do the hiring and firing, but she controlled just
about everything else. She wondered for the hundreth
time if it was because she was a woman in this man-dominated company she worked
for. As she punched her security code to gain access to her office, she felt a
twinge of cramps beginning. Great. Just great. A click of acceptance signaled
her to enter and she rushed in, giving the bodyguard one last look before she
slammed her door. Let him wait, she thought and hurried over to her desk for
the Midol.
Elaine Patrick, Terri’s secretary, gave
the large man before her an embarrassed smile and shrug. "I guess its not
such a good day for her," she apologized weakly.
Xavier gave her his best fake smile.
"It’s okay." He leaned toward her conspiratorily
and whispered, "Us peons have to stick together, don’t we?"
She smiled, grateful to have an ally.
"You know, if I wasn’t working for the Backstreet organization, I would
have quit a long time ago."
"Have you ever met anyone of
them?" Xavier asked politely.
"No, and neither has my boss. I think
that makes her madder than anything."
"Really."
Elaine leaned closer to him, fearful of
being overheard. "Well, she was hired originally for the Marketing
department, but she got transferred over here." Her voice became even
lower and Xavier strained to hear her. "I think she has a crush on
Kevin."
"No." Xavier gave her an
appealing look for more gossip.
Elaine sat back in her seat and nodded.
"It’s killing her that she hasn’t met him. She constantly talks about
quitting, but I think she sticks around because she never knows if she might
suddenly run into him."
"So, you’ve never seen anyone of the
guys come here?"
Elaine gave a snort of laughter.
"Nope. We have all their private information, know every aspect of their
personal and financial status, but we’ve never met them in person. Funny,
huh?"
"Funny, yeah."
Xavier gave her a satisfied grin, happy at
the information she so innocently provided.
He stared thoughtfully at the closed door
before him for a long time.
***
