Sleigh Bells - Fern Michaels Page 0,1
his dark brown eyes were spewing sparks. He was dressed in a power suit and tie, his shirt so blinding white, it had to be new. It was all about image with Josh Eagle.
Angie looked down at her watch. “Actually, I’m leaving right on time, Mr. Eagle. My lights are off, the heat has been turned down, the security system locked and loaded, and my door is locked. It’s one minute past six. The store closes at six.”
“I called a meeting for six-fifteen for all department heads. That means you’re supposed to be in the conference room promptly at six-ten. You’re still standing here, Ms. Bradford. What’s wrong with this picture? Well?”
Angie sighed. “How many times do I have to tell you, Mr. Eagle? I do not work for you. Judge Atkins sent you papers to that effect. I have copies in case you lost yours. What part of I-am-not-one-of-your-employees don’t you understand?”
Josh Eagle looked like he was about to say something, then changed his mind. Angie started walking again, and when she got to Josh and he didn’t move, she stiff-armed him.
“You touched my person,” Josh said dramatically as he pretended to back away.
“Will you get off it already! Do you sit up there in your ivory tower and dream up ways to torment me? I did not touch you. I put my arm out so you wouldn’t touch me. In case your vision is impaired, I have a witness. Now, I suggest you get out of my way and don’t come down here again with your silly demands. This shop is off-limits to you!”
“Just a damn minute, Ms. Bradford. If you want to go to court again, I’m your man. I want to know what you’re going to do about wrapping my customers’ Christmas gifts this year. That’s the main topic to be discussed at tonight’s meeting.”
“We’ve had this same discussion every September for the past five years. You had the same discussion with my mother for the five years prior to my arrival, and the outcome has always been the same. This year is no different. Pay me to wrap your customers’gifts, and we’re in business. If you don’t pay me, I cannot help you. I’m in business to make money just the way you are. Try to wrap your feeble brain around that fact, then get back to me or have your lawyer call my lawyer. Good night, Mr. Eagle.”
Outside in the cool evening air, Angie dusted her hands together. “I thought that went rather well.” She sniffed the air. “Someone’s burning leaves. Oh, I just love that smell.”
Bess opened her car door. “I think you enjoy tormenting that man. I agree he’s sorely lacking in the charm department, but my mother always told me you can get more flies with honey than vinegar. The guy’s a hottie, that’s for sure.”
“Ha! Eye candy. The man has no substance, he’s all veneer. On top of that, he’s greedy and obnoxious. With all that going against him, I wonder how he manages to charm that string of women he parades around all the time,” Angie sniffed.
“His money charms them. Josh Eagle is considered a good catch. You know, Angie, you could throw your line in the pond. You reel him in, and all this,” Bess said, extending her arms to indicate the huge parking lot and the department store, “could be yours!”
Angie started to laugh and couldn’t stop. “Not in this life time. See you tomorrow, Bess.”
“Tell your mother I said hello.”
“Will do,” Angie called over her shoulder.
Angie sat in her car for ten minutes while she played the scene that had just transpired back in the store over and over in her mind. Would Josh Eagle drag her into court again? Probably. The man had a hate on for her that was so over-the-top she could no longer comprehend it. In the beginning she’d handled it the way she handled every challenge that came her way: fairly and honestly. She fought to win, and so far she’d won every round. Remembering the look on Josh Eagle’s face, she wondered if her luck was about to change.
Well, she would think about it later. Right now she had to stop for pizza and go to the rehab center on New Durham Road, where her mother was waiting for her.
Angie reached for her cell phone to call Tony’s Pizza on Oak Tree Road. She ordered three large pepperoni pies and was told they would be ready in ten minutes. That