Romantic Acquisition Page 0,13
up, glad that her shaking legs would hold her.
“The front doors are closed right now but we can get into the store through the employee entrance at this time of the day,” she said escorting him down the hallway. Before she’d gotten ten feet out of the conference room, she was accosted by three of her staff needing questions answered. To all three of them, she pointed to her deputy’s door. “I’m sorry, I’m on a special project for David. You’ll have to go to Matt for help. He’s fully capable of answering your questions,” she said and stepped away quickly.
She showed Carlo to the elevator and as soon as the doors closed on the two of them, Carlo spoke. “Are you having problems with your work load, being our point of contact as well as managing your staff?”
Kate shook her head. “I don’t think it will be a problem. Matt is good at what he does, he just doesn’t always want to manage the team. He’s great at selecting styles for the store and getting great prices for the stock, but puts his head in the sand when personnel come to him for help.”
“Are you concerned?”
Concerned about Matt or concerned about being alone with you, she wondered to herself. “No, this is probably a good thing. He’ll have to develop more, broaden his horizons. Me being out of the picture forces the issue for him to move into more of a management role, which he’s been avoiding for too long.”
Carlo nodded his head and Kate turned to look at the lights indicating the floors they were passing. The headquarters was located on the tenth floor of this building. The department store took up the first three floors and there were other offices that occupied the rest of the building.
She fidgeted with her pearl necklace until the doors opened. She could feel Carlo staring at her and wondered what he was thinking. He was so large, he seemed to make the elevator feel smaller than usual. His broad shoulders were almost touching hers as they waited for the doors to open. She tried to step away, but there really wasn’t much room to move.
Finally, the doors opened and Kate almost sprung out of the small space. She set a quick pace through the stock rooms, barely explaining anything. The stock rooms were dark and quiet since no one would be there for at least another hour except security. She led him quickly out into the store which was still closed at this time of the morning but at least there were cleaning people moving about and some of the management staff were checking the aisles to make sure things were set up properly. The most important attribute for Kate’s peace of mind was that it wasn’t as dark as the store rooms which had seemed too intimate when Carlo was with her.
Once on the main floor of the store, she stopped and waved her arms, the pride evident in her voice. “This is the flagship store and the original one built by David’s great grandfather. It’s also my favorite,” she said, smiling as she looked up at the tall columns and intricate iron work on the walkways.
“Why?” Carlo asked.
She glanced around, loving the feeling this building evoked within her. “Lots of reasons, I guess. The historical significance is probably the main reason I like this store so much. I also like the ambiance of this store. The others all have their own flavor, but this one is the only one that really goes back in time and shows what it was like to shop in the earlier days,” she explained, running her hands along one of the jewelry counters.
“You strike me as being a little nostalgic,” he said, eyeing her black, high-waisted slacks with a wide, pink satin bow tied around her waist. Her pink silk shirt was topped by a triple strand of pearls and the only indicator of conservatism he’d seen in her dress code yet.
Kate nodded her head in response. “I’m very nostalgic. I love new things but I have a huge respect for the old as well. It shows us where we were and, if you look closely and pay attention to the details, where we are going,” she said.
Carlo agreed with her opinion and appreciated her perceptiveness. But he didn’t say anything, preferring to simply watch her face as she talked about the store.
They walked slowly around the various departments as Kate talked about how