Thank you for the continued support! The characters you recognize belongs to Janet Evanovich. Just playing with them.

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Chapter 14. Catalyst

At work Les Sebring instructed her in how to write bonds, and then he let her tag along two times, gave her a couple of websites to study, and two weeks later he gave her a mock examination.

"You aced it. Now we'll go down to the notary, and I can verify that you have the education and experience to write bonds for Sebring's. And then you'll do a quick written exam."

"What?" squeaked Steph. "You never told me there'd be an exam."

"Since you aced the one I gave you, and I purposefully gave a much harder one then they have at the notary you needn't worry. Come on, I'll drive you and buy a celebratory meal afterwards."

He laughed.

"And if you'll be able to work some weekends soon, I know that Bruce will make you his famous homemade lasagna."

Steph had been over at their house for dinner last week, and she and Bruce got on like a house on fire. And she had complemented Bruce on the lasagna, claiming it was even better than her mother's.

They were back at the office a couple of hours later.

"Told you so," Les said. "Congratulations!"

Steph still looked a little dazed after the exam, and their celebratory lunch, including dessert.

The phone rang, and Steph answered it. It was a client down at the TPD.

"Why don't you take it?" Les said. "I don't believe there will be any trouble, but you've got my number if you need to ask any questions."

x

The following week Steph reorganized the filing system, worked the bonds over the weekend, had dinner at Bruce and Les home, and was on her way to make a new leaflet to promote the business, when Les asked her to come into his office.

"Steph," he said. "You've been a godsend for my business. You are personable and efficient, and I love your organizational skills. Not to mention that we've collected all the skips since you began, mainly due to your work in locating them."

"But…" Steph said.

"But... You'll go crazy working here for the long haul. You've just been here for a little more than a month, and you've improved the daily run of things considerably, and soon you'll get bored. My ordinary assistant called today, and said she wanted to come back after her parental leave. But she also wondered if it would be possible to work part time. Normally I'd say no to her request, or ask my mother if she wanted to work a couple of days a week to fill in the schedule. Now I've been thinking. I'll guarantee that you will earn at least the salary we agreed on when you started, but you will work less hours, and have more responsibility, mainly writing bond's on nights and weekends. Bruce and I have discussed having a child, and I would like to be more of a family man. I'd also strongly recommend you to look for a more fulfilling job, or to take the chance to educate yourself. You've got the intelligence and drive to be a lot more than an assistant."

Steph just stared at him.

"That wasn't what I thought would follow on after the feared 'but' speech," she finally said.

"I just don't want you to end up in a dead end job, or resent that you never took the chance. I can give you some time to mull things over, and as I said, you definitely have a job here for as long as you want it. There's just not a lot of career opportunities."

He looked straight at her.

"And if you want to get out of Trenton, I have connections that could help you with that. Bigger bond's offices, that definitely could use your skills. I'm not all that connected to the Burg gossip, but I've heard about Morelli and Ranger Mañoso…"

"Morelli's not in the picture," Stephanie said. "I just need to get him to understand that."

"I may not be from the Burg, but I've lived my entire life in Trenton, and know of the Morelli family. Think about my offer to get you work someplace else. I could probably sell your organizational skills for a lot of money and you could work as a consultant."

Steph gave him a disbelieving look.

"I'm totally honest with you. I thought I had an efficient business until you improved it. And I can guarantee that my former levels of organization was way ahead of most of my colleagues and competitors on the east coast."

He smiled.

"Vinnie's office was way behind me even then…"

Plum's Bail Bonds was still in business, but Steph had heard that Lula was fired, Joyce hadn't been seen around Trenton the last couple of weeks, and Connie wasn't talking. Vinnie himself was seen at the office, but with the door open, a shadow from Harry the Hammer's detail around at all times, and rumour had it he wasn't allowed to gamble either. A Vinnie bereaved of all his jollies - no gambling, no Joyce in his office making obscene sounds, and no internet porn at work…

Steph couldn't help but wonder if things had continued as before if she hadn't seen Joyce that day. Stephanie didn't think that any of it was exactly depending on her choices, but she, Steph, had worked as a catalyst.

They heard someone come in through the front door.

"I just wanted you to start thinking of your possibilities, Steph. We'll talk more about it."

"Thank you," Steph said, and went out to talk to the person wanting to put up a collateral for her boyfriend. After Steph had checked the boyfriend and his record Steph convinced her that she should be glad that he was locked up, and maybe take the opportunity to get a new start herself. When the young woman had left Steph looked up to see a smiling Sebring.

"And the most fantastic thing about this is that I'm not even upset that you turned down business for us, I'm just happy to see that you could help someone that needed it."

"I didn't mean to…"

"Relax, Steph. The business is doing even better than before you started here. Have you thought of helping at the pro bono office in finding fathers and ex husbands not paying the alimony? I can see you doing a lot of good there, and you'd get some pay, you're not expected to work for free, but the salary is not so good. And with your instincts and experience at finding people you could do a lot in a short time."

Steph thoughtfully chewed on her lip.

"No, I hadn't thought of that. I actually asked my sister to let me find her ratfink of ex husband. He took off with all their savings and the babysitter. He even emptied the girl's

college funds, and that was mostly money from my parents. Val didn't want me to, though."

She looked up at Les and smiled.

"You've given me a lot of things to think through. And I'm feeling a boost from the fact that you think me capable of those things."

Authors note: I have no idea what it takes to be a licensed bond writer, or even if you need a license. Just humour me and my ideas on how it's done.