Page 48 of A Mighty Love

Sherry looked up. “Hey! That suit is fabulous!”

Adrienne smiled. “Thanks.”

She hung up her coat in the hall closet and settled down at her desk. There was a note from Regina Belvedere asking about the status of several projects. There had been no further word from Lloyd Cooper, and Adrienne didn’t know if he had spoken to Mallory Guest about her or not. After she booted up her computer and retrieved the information for Regina, she e-mailed Lloyd a message that was deliberately worded to conjure up memories of senior year. She really needed the extra money that a promotion would bring so that she could pay off her bills.

Girl voted Most Likely to Succeed still waiting for the chance to prove it.

Never mind that she was hardly a girl and hadn’t been for a long time. She clicked Send and waited several minutes but there was no answer. Feeling disappointed and foolish, Adrienne settled into the morning’s work. At 11:00 A.M., a little box appeared on the screen.

Adrienne Jordan has one unread message.

She clicked on her E-mail. The message was from Lloyd Cooper.

Are you available for dinner tonight?

Adrienne chuckled.

“Are you all right?” asked Sherry.

“Yes,” Adrienne said quickly. Sherry was entirely too nosy.

Sherry pressed for more information and even walked over to look at Adrienne’s computer screen. Adrienne waved her away before she could read the message and then typed her reply:

Yes, as long as the food is well done. No sushi.

Regina Belvedere bounced into the bull pen and smiled warmly at the two of them. She was wearing a dark-green suit that set off her red hair and pale-green eyes. Adrienne thought that her supervisor’s skirt was a little too short for the office, but at least she had shapely long legs to carry it off. Regina placed a hand on Adrienne’s shoulder and glanced idly at the screen.

“Is that Lloyd Cooper’s name that I see?”

Adrienne sat angrily as Regina read the message and Sherry watched them both with frank curiosity.

“Can I see you in my office?”

Adrienne sighed and followed Regina past Sherry and out of the bull pen.

As Adrienne took the visitor’s chair and Regina settled in behind her desk, she noticed that Regina’s smile was still frozen in place but that there was wariness in her eyes.

“Adrienne, what is that e-mail all about?”

“It turns out that Lloyd Cooper and I went to the same high school. He has invited me to dinner for old times’ sake.” She didn’t try to hide her annoyance at Regina’s prying questions. Now that she knew Regina’s true character, it was hard to treat her with respect. “May I go now?”

When Regina nodded, Adrienne went back to her desk and started working on the status report that Regina had requested. Adrienne sighed, wishing that she had been less frosty with her manager. Even though Regina had turned out to be a scheming tramp as far as men were concerned, she had been very understanding when Adrienne returned to work after the accident. It had been hard for Adrienne to venture out into the world after her isolation. Regina had been kind, thoughtful, and compassionate about her terrible loss.

Adrienne went back to Regina’s office to explain that her interest in their new president was strictly professional.

“Why didn’t you tell me when you found out who he was?”

It was a good question. Adrienne just shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Regina grinned. “It doesn’t matter.”

The two women smiled at each other and the crisis was past.

For the rest of the day, Adrienne did her assignments like a woman on automatic pilot. Her mind churned with reflections on the mystery that was LaMar Jenkins/Lloyd Cooper. I’m going to really press him about the new job tonight, she decided.

Adrienne thought about how she would approach the subject as she ate lunch at her desk. The ham sandwich she’d brought from home tasted like cardboard. When the phone rang, she jumped to answer, thinking it might be Lloyd.

“Hey, baby, it’s me,” said Mel.

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