Rick

“You are ignoring me Rick. What is on your mind?”

Ashlea was smiling at me, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes and I could tell that I had done something to make her unhappy. That wasn’t hard to do and though I should have been worried about what she was mad about, I just wasn’t.

“Nothing, just a lot going on at work.”

She rolled her eyes and I stopped. Ashlea never wanted to hear about such mundane things as work. In fact, the more I thought about it, she was only interested in talking about herself. Which was fine most of the time, the short visits that I would make to her bedroom, but I had taken her out to dinner and there was no way to silence her like I could when we were alone. When we were alone, I chose an approach that left her unable to have these conversations. It was easier that way and I wished now for the check.

“You are always talking about work. Don’t you have enough money yet?”

Her question threw me off. I didn’t really work for money. I mean, I needed it like others did, but I did not work for that reason. I had enough money for the rest of my life. I liked my work and I didn’t think a woman like her was going to understand it. She modeled for a living and I wasn’t sure how much she got out of it as far as giving her satisfaction.

“Not yet. I like to help companies. It was what I was meant to do.”

She didn’t get it and Ashlea didn’t even try to.

“So I was thinking that you should come with me to the shoot in Barbados. We could spend some time on the beach and we could take that hot little jet of yours.”

I just shook my head. It wasn’t in the cards. I had a lot on my plate and running off with her was the last thing on my mind. She wanted me to sit there and smile, look good while she had her shoot, maybe hold stuff for her. That was not a good time to me, at all.

“I don’t think I will be able to swing it Ashlea, sorry.”

“Let me guess, work?”

I nodded my head, unapologetically. I wasn’t going to say I was sorry for what had to be done. I needed to do my job and if she had any inkling of what was on my plate, she wouldn’t have even asked.

I kept asking myself the same damn question. What was I doing here with her?

“Let’s get out of here and go to my place.”

She looked down at her plate and Ashlea made a comment that she wasn’t done. I was already getting the waiter’s attention to bring me the check. It was time for this dinner to be over. I had no more patience for all of this chatting, especially when I was bored to tears with the subject.

“Well finish up while I pay.” I almost made a comment that she wasn’t going to eat it anyways, I knew her too well, but I didn’t say a thing. Instead, I got my card out and was prepared to get up and seek him out myself. I wanted to get the hell out of here.

My phone rang and I was almost happy to hear it ring. It was a helpful distraction for Ashlea who was still chatting to me. I didn’t recognize the number, but I recognized the voice when I answered.

“What’s up?”

“I needed to talk to you about the McClennen account.”

“I gave it to you a few hours ago, what do you want to talk about?” I was just happy to hear her voice and I ignored the dirty looks I got when Ashlea realized that I was talking another woman.

“It’s okay Claire. I am not doing anything important.”

Ashlea made a scoffing sound and I turned to the side a little, telling Claire that it was fine for her to call me now. I could see Ashlea getting agitated in my peripheral vision, but I wasn’t going to try and stop it.

“So what is it that has you worried?”

“It’s the doubtful accounts. Did you notice how high they are? They should be at 3 percent for this industry and it is well over twice that amount at almost seven percent.”

I had noticed it as well, but as the economy was having troubles, I figured that it was going to see an uptick in customers that got things on credit that they were never going to pay for. It was quite high, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t necessary for the way things were going at the moment. When I mentioned my theory to her, I could tell that Claire was not in agreement with me.

“What do you think we should do?”

“I think we need to investigate the process in which they are giving out credit.  Maybe there is a flaw in their approval system that is allowing people to be approved that shouldn’t be. If that isn’t the case, then there is going to be a human error. I take it that there are incentives made to the employees who are in the customer care of this?”

“Yes.” Though I didn’t really know where she was going with this.

“Well then we might have to look into the employees. If they are getting rewarded by bonuses and commission for each sale, there may be less of a push to find sound borrowers.”

I had never thought about it like that and before she looked into anything else, I had a feeling that she was right. I was again amazed at how quickly she was able to make out the problem from all of the numbers. This was a huge company and I wasn’t even going to begin to understand how she was so far ahead already.

“If I remember correctly, the salespeople are paid fully in commission, so there is a big incentive to sign people up. You may be on to something.”

“Richard?”

It was the third time I had heard my name in the same amount of minutes. I didn’t want to look over to Ashlea, but she was making it clear that she was going to no longer be ignored. I was realizing quickly that a dinner alone would have been preferable.

“Hold on Claire.”

I covered up the phone because I didn’t want Claire to know that I was on a date. I don’t know why that was so important to me, but it was. I had my reasons.

“What?”

“I thought we were leaving?”

I looked at the plate of food that was untouched since she claimed she was still eating. I had known that she wasn’t going to touch her foot and I had been right.

“I thought you wanted to finish?”

She looked at me bashfully. “You know that I don’t need all of these carbs. I have a shoot in two days and I don’t want to be bloated for it.”

I could have argued with her, but I had learned long ago that it was going to do me no good to argue with her or to point out the obvious. Ashlea was a hard woman to deal with and the more I talked to Claire, the more I realized that I didn’t want to deal with Ashlea anymore.

“I knew you wouldn’t. I will be finished on the phone in just a minute Ashlea.”

She threatened to throw the phone away if I didn’t get off of it and for some reason I did not find it very funny. Ashlea said it in a joking manner, but I just looked at her. Turning to the side again, I held my hand up to indicate that I needed another minute. I heard her huff, but was used to her dramatics.

“Sorry about that Claire.”

“If I am bothering you and you are busy, just let me know Rick. I shouldn’t have called, I just saw that and you know, warning bells went off in my head. I wanted to see if you had seen that too or was I just looking into the percentage change too much? It is not that high, but for the industry it is.”

She was going on and I found that I didn’t mind hearing her. She was not like Ashlea or rather my feelings weren’t the same towards the two women. I heard some more sounds from across the table, but I didn’t even look up. It would only invite another exchange that wasn’t going to be any help besides making more of a scene. I liked the restaurant and I didn’t want to have an altercation with her here. I just needed another minute.

It was about that time that I was thinking that, I heard the chair legs screeched on the hardwood floor. Everyone was suddenly looking at us and I wanted to melt into the carpet. She had a knack for doing this.

“If you are just going to ignore me Rick, I am leaving!”

She stormed out and since I hadn’t covered the receiver, I was sure that Claire had heard it all. The other side of the phone was quiet and everyone in the restaurant was looking at me. It really was a mess and I just wanted to leave. I waved to the waiter to take my card so I could do just that.

“Um, sorry Rick. I didn’t know you were with someone.”

“I’m not now. No need to worry about it.”

Claire was quiet for a few more seconds before she got back into her rhythm about the new company I had given her to look over. She reminded me of myself. She got so excited about everything that had to do with the job. I looked at each client like a mystery that I had to solve, several mysteries that would weave together and make the big picture. Claire seemed to like the challenge as much as I did and I can’t say that I didn’t like her enthusiasm.

“Have you had dinner yet?”

“No Sir, I am still at the office.”

“Why don’t you come down here?”

“I thought you already got your check and had dinner?”

“It is sitting here cold in front of me. I never got to have a bite.” My plate was empty and had been for a time.

“Now you are making me feel bad.” That was basically the point.

“But I am not going to. You could have said something and you shouldn’t ignore your date. Work is just work. I will talk to you about it in the morning.”

She was rushing me off the phone and while I wanted to stop her, tell her that Ashlea didn’t even matter, it wasn’t in the cards. I didn’t have a choice but to tell her that I would see her the next day.

Hanging up, it was strange to think about how long that night was going to be. I had botched up the night’s plans that I was going to have with Ashlea. Now I needed to figure something else out because the last thing that I was going to do was sit there thinking about my employee in a way that I shouldn’t. It was a rule of mine that I had never even thought of breaking, except in a moment of weakness. But never like this. I contemplated it far more than it was right to do and I had to get Claire off my mind.

I knew just who to call to take care of that.