Romantic Acquisition Page 0,56

what sell our merchandise. If customers aren’t treated well, they’ll go find something similar at another store.”

“We get rid of employees who aren’t treating the customers well and you make sure our stores are loaded with stuff that people can only buy in our stores. Now, back to our original conversation, what other kinds of questions are those guys asking? Anything I need to be aware of?”

Kate just stared at him as if he’d grown a new head. “No,” she finally answered, sitting back in her seat defeated for the moment. “Everything is pretty normal. As I said, they’re just asking for normal audit type of information.”

“Good, good. Well, you’d better get back there and make them happy,” he said and sat back down at his computer. He immediately turned towards his computer.

Kate was obviously dismissed. She stood up and left his office, furious both with him for being so obtuse and for herself for trying to change him. Eventually, she suspected that he’d get tired of running the stores and would let someone else take charge. She just hoped the stores wouldn’t be bankrupt or disbanded before that day arrived.

She checked the conference room again, but still no sign of the three men. Kate went back to her office and sighed at the pile of work. She sat down and decided she would plow through as much as possible before Carlo, Jeff and Peter returned.

Kate was making great headway. It was the middle of the morning and, since everyone thought she was helping the ATI team, no one bothered her. She was able to get a lot of work done quickly since there were no distractions.

It was a little past one o’clock when her phone rang. She picked it up absently, “Kate Avril,” she said, glancing at an estimate for a line of clothes.

“Hey gorgeous! Long time no see!” a familiar voice said through the line.

She hesitated, not able to instantly place the voice. “Ed?” she asked, thinking it could be her old boyfriend but wasn’t positive.

“The one and only. Are you free for lunch?” he asked.

Kate looked at her desk and all the papers piled on top of it. She had a fleeting wish that Carlo would call and ask her to lunch but pushed that thought aside. Since she hadn’t heard from Carlo, she agreed to meet Ed. “Where and when?” She tried to instill some enthusiasm for the outing.

“How about our sandwich place in fifteen minutes? I’m on your side of town for a conference.”

“Sounds great. I’ll be there,” she said.

Kate grabbed her purse and flew into the conference room, hoping Carlo would be there so she could tell him where she was going and not to worry. She remembered how jealous he’d been the last time he heard about Ed so she didn’t want him to worry.

But there was still no one in the conference room. Kate thought it was strange but knew Carlo was working on several other possible acquisitions as well as the sale of Jamison’s for ATI.

She met Ed in front of a little sandwich shop a few blocks from her office. They used to meet there a few nights a week for dinner and go do something fun afterwards like dancing or ice skating on the Mall, the strip of grass that ran from the Capital to the Lincoln Memorial. Those days seemed like another life, she thought as Ed picked her up on the sidewalk and spun her around in a big bear hug.

“Oh, you look great!” he said enthusiastically as he put her down and took a look at her. “Wow! You have a slight tan. What was the occasion? Did you actually take a vacation?”

“No, well, I guess yes but not willingly,” she said, not sure if that was really an answer. Ed also looked confused. She laughingly explained how she’d spent several days on a ship in the Caribbean. They walked into the restaurant, ordered at the counter, and sat down on the stools overlooking the street while they waited for their sandwiches to be delivered to them.

“Wow! Sounds like a fantasy vacation,” he laughed.

“It was nice,” she replied.

Ed’s eyes widened. “Kate, you’re the only woman I know of who would describe a free Caribbean vacation on a yacht as ‘nice’.”

“Well, it turned out very nice,” she corrected. “I wasn’t really given a choice in the matter which is why I was so angry.”

“Was?”

“Yes. I had a good time. And Carlo is wonderful,” she said, thinking of