Lester's Pov

I ran the one flight of stairs up to the fifth floor and hurried over to Ranger's office door. Before I knocked, I took a deep breath and blew it out to get myself in order after running up the steps. I took my fist and knocked on the glass in the door that had his name printed on it and heard his gruff "Enter", opening the door I walked in to find Ranger at his desk looking over the pictures Eden had passed around in the meeting yesterday.

"Are you really serious about wanting to take RangeMan to the West Coast?" I asked him sitting down in one of his visitor chairs.

"You should know how serious I am Santos; you have been under my command for years and have helped me to start my company. In all that time have you ever not seen me serious when it comes to work?" he asked me. Ranger laid the pictures back into the file and sat back in his chair to look at me

"No you always know and have a plan for the business, but I don't think you've thought about everything this move would Intel" I said and one of his eyebrows rose "Even you could miss a few details"

"What do you want Santos?" he asked clearly annoyed. I know I was putting my neck on the line by pulling the tiger's tail, but not everyone is perfect, even if we like to think we are.

"Well if you really want me to make out this proposal and if you are, I know you would want it ASAP then you're gonna have to give me some time off to work on it. I haven't even begun to put pen to paper, because I'm running here and there or doing something for the office. You're also paying for that Burlington woman to stay here and I know you don't want to bleed money with her, so to get her out of here as soon as possible, I need this time off"

"Eden" he said and I just looked at him "Her name is Eden"

"I know, I was being polite" I said

"That's not what I hear" he said and I wondered what he was talking about

"Stephanie wants me to tell you that you're on her shit list"

"But I didn't say anything, it was Brown and Cal, mostly Cal" I whined. I knew I was throwing my friends and co-workers under the bus, but it really was them I never said a word. Ok its true, everyone here knows I've got a thing for the ladies. It gets me going when they dress in them tight dresses and those high heels that make their butts and legs look hot. I can't help it, I'm just a guy.

"Really not my problem Santos, but you will be respectful to Eden while she's here and if not it will become my problem"

"Of course" I told him. Just because she wasn't my type didn't mean I was going to be cruel to her. I was gonna squish her like a bug and send her packing back to Cali, but I wasn't gonna be cruel.

"The time off?" I asked

"Fine, I'll call Tank and let him know to change the schedule, it better be a damn good proposal Santos" he said picking up the receiver on his desk phone.

"It will be" I said. It was gonna be so good Eden wont know what hit her.

After going out with Binkie for a few hours, I came back to RangeMan, changed into a pair of shorts, and headed down to the gym. When I got in there, I found Brown and Cal working out on the free weights and decided to join them. Doing some stretches to warm my muscles up, I picked up a weight and began to work out.

"You clowns got me in a lot of hot water last night" I told them blowing out some of the air I had during the rep.

"Stephanie?" Bobby asked sitting his weights back to the floor grabbing his towel and water bottle.

"Yes"

"Hey that was all Cal" he said taking a drink

"But it was true was it not? We have all seen the types of women Santos brings home" Cal said from the bench he was laying on.

"And what about you guys?" I asked

"This isn't about us" Cal said sitting up "It's about you and now this Eden chick and the only way to win is the Santos charm"

"No it isn't" I said and he looked at me and then over to Bobby "She isn't my type, but I can win by my proposal" I told them and they busted out laughing

"Uh huh good one Santos"

I shook my head. My reputation around here was that of a jokester, a playboy, and a goof off. No one here ever takes me seriously until we are out in the field and then they all know that I am all business, but in the office they don't think I have the brains to perform like Ranger or Tank. I guess winning over Eden wasn't the only thing I had to accomplish, showing these idiots I also know a thing or two when it comes to RangeMan was another thing I needed to do. I will show them that I also have a brain and can use it, looking over and seeing them still laughing I told myself that no wonder Steph rolls her eyes at us all the time, I needed new friends.

After my so called workout and my ride back up to the fourth floor with tweedle dee and tweedle dumb, I was so glad to lock myself away inside my apartment. I walked down to my bedroom, stripped off my sweaty clothes, and went into the bathroom to shower. After my shower, I slipped another pair of shorts on and crashed on my couch flipping through the channels on my TV for a while. Not finding anything on that I cared to watch my eyes landed on my lap top that was sitting where I had, had it earlier.

"I wonder if Miss. Eden is back from where ever she and Steph went?" I asked turning on the computer. While it loaded, I grabbed a beer and sat back down in time to see Eden walk in with several bags from Macys and one from Victoria's Secret.

"Really?" I asked the screen watching as she locked the door and rested against it.

Eden's Pov

Opening the door to the house that Mr. Manoso was letting me stay in, I closed the door and leaned against it to catch my breath. Looking at the bags that I had, I sighed as it had been a long and exhausting day. I hadn't bargained for any of this, I was to come to New Jersey, present my findings to Mr. Manoso, and close the deal. Never in my itinerary was a day of shopping, lingerie buying, Mani's/pedi's, or hair styling scheduled. Stephanie was a very nice girl and all, but I wasn't here to make friends, I was here to work. Toeing off my shoes, I pushed off the door and took my bags into the bedroom.

When I got into the room the big bed looked so inviting. I placed the bags onto the bed and looked at the watch that was around my wrist, it was only five back home, where I really wanted to be and I would be trying to finish up at the office so that I could go home or if need be head over to some sights and take pictures. Time is a strange thing, there I would be still in work mode and here everyone was ready to stop for the day. Everyone here was already done with dinner and was settling in for the night and I was surprised at how tired I was and wanting to crawl into bed and let the day end.

Opening the bags that Stephanie said I just had to have, I brought out the clothes that was in them and laid them out on the bed. I could justify the shirts and jeans that I got, but when I brought out the dresses, I held them up and shook my head, Stephanie insisted that I needed them incase one of the more high profile clients asked me to a party, but I knew that wouldn't happen and knew I'd just wasted Mr. Manoso's money. I gathered all the clothes back up and put them back into the Macys bags and dropped them into the floor by my suit case. When I turned around a little pink and black bag was sitting there looking at me. It sat there mocking me, reminding me about my visit to its store. Stephanie had said that when a woman has nice sexy underwear on that she feels powerful and sexy, maybe, but not me. When I was in that store I grabbed some things they offered in my size and went to try them on. Each panty, bra, or teddy left me feeling exposed and showed the couple of fat rolls that I had. Everything I tried on made me feel so huge and by the time I came to the baby doll nightie I was so depressed. I know Stephanie meant well, but the only reason I chose the baby doll nightie was because it was the only thing that covered my problem areas and I was comfortable in wearing.

"Like I will ever wear this" I said bringing out the sheer back and while garment. The panties were all black and the shell of the nightie was black and sheer, but the bra area was white with an overlay of black lace. "Or ever have anyone to wear it for" I said wading it up and stuffing it under the clothes in a drawer.

"Wine" I said grabbing a pair of sweats and running into the bathroom to use it and change.

Going into the kitchen I uncorked the bottle of red I had opened from last night and poured a glass out. Opening another cabinet I grabbed the pack of Vienna Fingers cookies I got when Stephanie had Tank stop by the store before coming here. Carrying my glass of wine and cookies, I grabbed my lap top and settled into the couch to work on proposal for a while. While sitting there I pulled up the weather channel page and checked on the storms that were to come later tonight. I was hoping that I would see mostly green on the screen telling me it was just rain, but when the map fully loaded angry red and orange lines were in the middle of Pennsylvania and I knew this was not good.