Page 46 of Saving Veronica
“No, I have a ton of homework to do, so I’ll be spread out on the kitchen table here.”
“Good, then I’ll be taking off then.” Hector tipped his hat to her and was gone. The first thing Ronnie did was wash her hand, and make a pot of coffee. As it brewed, she gathered her school work, laid it out on the table and settled herself in her rolling desk chair at the kitchen table. Ronnie had just poured herself a fresh cup of coffee and rolled herself back beneath the table to place her foot on the stool beneath, when there was a loud knock on the door. Thinking it was one of her grandparents she called out.
“Come in!”
She watched as the door opened, then grinned in surprise. “Lorna! What are you doing here?”
“Don’t get up!” Lorna said, as she dropped the items she was carrying and rushed over to her friend. After giving her a hug, she helped herself to a cup of coffee. Lorna looked around, and nodded. “I like your house.”
“Thanks, it’s cozy, and I like it.” She showed Lorna to a seat. “I was going to get a head start on my schoolwork, but now that you’re here, tell me what’s been happening?”
“Oh my god,” Lorna giggled. She ran back to the door and brought her purse, along with a huge canvas bag with her. Ronnie thought it was the one Lorna used when she went to the beach. Not that there were any beaches around here, but that was what it looked like.
After sitting down at the table she looked at her friend, and said, “You look good. I’m sorry I didn’t come to see you in the hospital.”
“Don’t be, by the time I woke, I was only there for a few days. It’s good to see you. So, tell me, what’s been going on in your life?”
“Well, even though we don’t work together anymore, and given the fact that you decided to go bungee jumping without the bungee, doing a crash-dummy dive, life has been excellent.” Lorna giggled again.
“I’ve been doing my homework you told me to do. At first, I wasn’t going to, but after I heard what happened to you, I really started thinking about what I wanted. I am not making your accident about me, but it made me think.”
“About?” Ronnie prompted when Lorna stayed silent.
“About life. I hate living with my mother. I hate that she’s always pushing her views, her ideas, her wants onto me. That they are better for me, what I should do. I’m not her. When I heard about your accident, I realized that life was short. If I wanted to get out from under Mother’s thumb, and live my life my way, I had better start doing something about it.”
“Okay, that was one of the reasons I gave you the homework, but what else is going on? You are positively glowing. Did you meet a man?”
“I did, but not in the way you think!” Lorna laughed. After several moments she took a sip of her coffee and turned serious.
“How much do you want to know about what’s going on at work?”
“Doesn’t matter, if you feel the need to tell me, I’ll listen. But is it juicy gossip?”
“You bet your ass it is.” Lorna laughed and rubbed her hands together. “First, that new executive started the Monday after you left. He was apparently in some sort of accident and he’s walking around with a cast on his foot.”
“Ouch,” Ronnie said, as she knocked her knuckles against her own cast. “I can sympathize with him. What else?”
“Two weeks ago, at Friday’s meeting, the new guy, we call him Finn, he requested that all the executives, assistants, and interns attend that meeting.”
“Everyone?” Ronnie asked in shock.
“Yes, well, I’m sure you can imagine Janis and Simon’s comments on that. I won’t get into that now, but during that meeting, Old Man Larson did his spiel, William did his, then Finn stood and gave his.”
“So, what’s he like?”
“Cool, I’ll get into that.” Lorna waved her hand and Ronnie smiled. She knew when not to rush Lorna when she told a tale. “Finn said he wanted to run a contest.” Lorna held up her hand and shook her head at her best friend. “Not until I’m done. Anyway, Finn said he wanted to run a contest. He was going to put together a fundraiser and he wanted our input. When we started raising our hands to ask questions, he stopped us. After only giving us the bare bones of what he wanted, he said that anyone working at the Foundation could enter the contest.”
“What?” Ronnie asked in shock. “How the hell did that go over with Janis and Simon?”
“It didn’t. Finn had two stipulations. One, he initiated a no-fraternization policy.”
“How’s that going to work?”
“Dating. If you’re not already dating a co-worker, you can’t take up with one. He even had Deb from HR pass out a letter for everyone to sign. From my understanding the only person who didn’t sign it was Janis.”
“Figures, go on.”
“The second stipulation was that anyone could enter the contest. We had a week to come up with an idea, and on Friday we were to present it to him in a five minute presentation. But.” Lorna drew the word out. “The executives were not, I repeat, not, allowed to tell their assistants, or an intern to do the work for them. Anyone could enter.”
