Shining Stars

Chapter 9

Christine was sitting at her desk, playing solitaire since she'd completed all of her work an hour ago, when the doors to the conference room opened. Minimizing her game she stood to say goodnight to the men as they emerged. Handing each one his coat she wished him a goodnight and pleasant dreams. When the last of them had gone she headed into George's office with his messages, a glass of water, and a few aspirin.

"Thanks," he said after downing the pills. Waving the pink message slips he asked, "Anything important?"

"Nothing that can't wait until tomorrow. Any closer this time?"

"No. We've had six meetings now and we're still no closer to settling this. If this keeps going we'll never reach an agreement." George glared at the bag of chips in his hands. Tossing them down he looked over at Christine sitting across from him. "You want to order in? This might take a while."

"Sure. What do you want?"

"I don't care, you pick." Leaning his head back, eyes closed, George listened as she ordered from someplace he'd never heard of. It didn't bother him; she had good tastes as he'd learned very quickly.

Their first Tuesday lunch, a tradition he'd introduced her to when Paulette had left, he'd taken her to Chez Grace; he remembered hearing her say she liked the food there. She'd stared at her menu for quite some time. He didn't really care for the place but if she did that was fine by him. When he'd asked her what she was going to get she'd grimaced and looked over the menu again.

'I don't know' she'd said. 'You?'

He'd shrugged his shoulders. 'I don't know. Whatever is fine by me.'

Christine had stared at him over the edge of the menu. 'You don't want to be here do you?' she'd said, picking up on the tone of his voice.

'Not really, but if you want to eat here that's fine; anything is fine.'

Glancing around the restaurant quickly she'd leaned forward and whispered, 'Want to go grab a burger?'

And that was that. They'd left the restaurant and gone to the nearest burger place, a greasy little dive on the corner. His Dad had been right, Christine was a goldmine, and George was eternally grateful she was the one Paulette had chosen.

"I hope you're in the mood for Mexican, Mr. Taylor. It should be here in half an hour," Christine said as she continued to gather the supplies they would need for their work, moving everything from the conference room on into the office.

That had become a joke between them. She insisted on calling him Mr. Taylor in the office and, just to be a pain, he had taken to calling her Miss Chris. When they saw each other socially, parties, charities, anything outside of the office, they dropped the titles; it was just George and Christine.

With a sigh he got up and headed over to the couch, stripping his jacket and tie, rolling up his sleeves. Picking up a folder he'd just opened it when the elevator dinged, announcing the arrival of their food. "I'll get it," he said, seeing her arms were loaded down with files and supplies.

She called out "Thanks!" as he approached the delivery boy, opening his wallet to pay for the food. Boxes in hand he went back into the office and sat down on the couch. Opening one he saw a salad something or other and handed it to her.

"And what would Poppette say if she saw you eating that?" George teased, referencing an earlier conversation about Poppette's horror are her eating habits.

"She'd put her hand to her chest and fall over in shock that I was eating something green by choice."

George laughed as he closed his mouth over the steak burrito in his hands. They ate in silence for a few moments, getting rid of the hunger pangs, before getting to work. Reviewing the notes from the previous meetings they tried for almost three hours to find an angle that hadn't been brought up yet.

"Do they know exactly how many people they want you to take on?"

"The entire board basically."

"Everyone who doesn't need a job, then."

"Yep." Shaking his head he put down the file in his hands, reaching for a corn chip. "I don't need them and I barely have the room for them. I'm not going to make the room just to appease them when I have the positions already filled with people I trust."

"And they won't accept anything else?"

"No."

"Then don't."

Lifting his eyes to look at her George wondered if he'd heard that correctly. "Don't? And do what? Risk the biggest deal of my career?" he laughed a humorless laugh. "Not likely."

Biting her lip, a sign he knew meant she was in a serious debate with herself; Christine tapped her pen on the papers in her hand. "Okay," she said, pausing to put down the papers and pen. "I can't get into any of the details but I give you my word, if you stick to your guns and don't give in, they'll take the deal."

Curious George sat up, leaning his elbows on his knees, and faced her, eye to eye. "How do you know that?"

"No," she shook her head, standing to gather the garbage from the table. "I can't tell you that. I won't say anything else, so don't ask."

Watching her clear up the office George debated with himself as to whether to trust her or not. She'd never given him reason to doubt her and yet this was a big risk. "You're giving me your word on this?" She nodded. Shaking his head he said, "I'll have to think about it. That's a big risk." Getting to his feet he looked at the clock and saw that it was close to midnight. "Come on, the cleaning people can take care of this, let's get out of here."