another thing, I spent Sunday trying to get back on track with the next story. so hopefully I will feel I can continue to do this, though I have so many projects (Including a Christmas story that I didn't finish... should I even put it out?) U am working on a writing prompt book that I am going to publish in Amazon. Its 150 writing prompts for Romance stories. a journal with space for you to write a bit long hand. I'm excited!

Thirty-Seven

James looked up as the door slammed, recognizing one of the two women in charge of the computers. She stopped and looked around, then headed determinedly towards him. Since he was the only one left in the trailer, it wasn't unexpected, so he turned and faced her, waiting in neutral silence.

"I'm looking for the crew chief." The woman said, stopping in front of him.

James rotated his head and looked round the small trailer. "He ain't here." He drawled politely.

"I can see that. Where is he? I need to speak to him right now." Shari snapped.

"Wall." James sniffed. "I do believe he said he was goin to get him some lunch."

Shari looked at her watch. "When?"

"Bout half hour past."

Visibly disgusted, Shari turned and regarded the trailer. "Did he say where?" She turned again and stared at James. "With all this going on, how could he have just left?"

"He was hungry?" Mild, blue eyes blinked back at her. "Feller's entitled to have him some lunch."

"Not on my dime." The woman paused. "Did I meet you somewhere before? Or are you just from around here?"

A corner of James's lip twitched. "Ah do believe we have never met. I surely would have remembered it."

"Whatever." Shari turned and headed for the door. "When he gets back, you tell him to call me. Otherwise, I can arrange for him to find another job." She turned, pausing on the steps out. "Sure you can remember all that?"

"Ah do believe I can." Jim said. "If that there feller does come back, ah will surely tell him."

Halfway out the door, Shari stopped. "If?"

Jim got up and stretched, his hands touching the roof of the trailer as he shook the kinks out of his tall frame. "Yeap. He done took all that there paperwork with him, and ah figure he probly headed back to his office or something."

"Shit." Shari slammed the door and stomped down the steps, making the wall of the trailer shake.

James lowered his arms and chuckled, half turning as the back door opened and the supervisor returned, wiping his hands off on the tails of his shirt.

"Hey, did I hear that woman in here?" The super asked.

"Yeap." Jim nodded. "I done told her you took off for the day."

The super started laughing. "You did?" He walked over and slapped James on the back. "Damn, I like you Ugly. I'm gonna give you a damn raise." He went to his desk and looked out the window. "There she blows.. I mean goes.. what'd she want, anyway?"

James returned to his sorting task, making marks on a sheet of paper. "Ah do not know." He answered honestly. "Just wanted to talk to you."

"Ahhh.. it'll wait." The super sat down at his desk. "Last thing she asked me to do was submit one of her orders six times. What kind of bullshit was that? Must be nuts."

Jim's eyebrow lifted. One thing he was fairly sure of, was that whatever the woman did, it was for a purpose, and the purpose was probably something he wasn't going to like.

Just like he didn't like the woman herself.

"What?" Tori frowned, listening to Sinjin's voice on the cell phone. "Tell me this again?" She glanced up as Ceci re-entered the living room. "They said what?"

"It's a crock, boss." Sinjin sounded more than peeved. "Son of a bitches.. I called them to find out a ship status on the order, and they told me it was on hold because they were out of stock."

Tori's one good eye narrowed. "You didn't see that when you placed it the other day?"

"Nope. I had a seven day delivery quoted." Sinjin said. "So I called our rep, and he said there wasn't anything he could do – out of stock is out of stock… but he could get us hooked up through a distribution channel provider."

"At list price." Tori said.

"Yeah."

"Problems?" Ceci sat down on the love seat and picked up her teacup, sipping it as she watched Tori's face. It's usual good humor had vanished, and the gentle planes had hardened into a much sterner profile.

"Bastards." Tori murmured. "Sinjin, that can't be an accident. We're all using the same gear. Someone got to someone."

"That's what I thought." Sinjin agreed readily. "But the rep won't budge. Said someone above him released the shipment – some big customer apparently."

Tori folded her arm over her stomach and stared past the glass doors. "We're big customers, Sinjin."

"That's what I told him. And told him. And told him." Her MIS manager said. "I don't think there was squat he could do, Tori. I even asked to talk to his boss, and got told he was out of the country."

"Pfft." Tori snorted in derision.

'So what do you want to do? Go with the distribution order? Maybe we can shave off some costs somewhere else..?"

Tori exhaled, wondering really what her options were. If they lost the advantage their discount gave them, could she make it up somewhere else? The project was so important – could she risk it?

What would Jade do?

Tori turned her head and focused her vision on the picture just to one side of the television, the one where Jade was looking right at the camera, and seemingly right into her eyes.

Hm.

"Sinjin?"

"Still here, boss." Sinjin spoke through the ever present rattling of keys. "You got any great ideas? I was even surfing around our inventory to see if we can pull from stock, but we just don't have enough units for the full order."

"Call that jerk back up, and tell him that I said if he doesn't shake that order loose, we're going with another vendor's gear."

Silence. "Um.. okay." Sinjin hesitated.

"Company wide."

Longer silence. "You're kidding, right?"

"Nope." Tori said. "They want to lose a top tier partner? Fine. I'll get two other infrastructure companies in here giving me bids by the weekend, and believe me, my friend, they'll be more than happy not only to give us better prices, but tell the press all about it as loud as they can."

More silence.

"You want me to call him?" Tori asked.

"No, I'll do it." Sinjin recovered hastily. "No problem – matter of fact, I'd enjoy the heck out of it. Lemme call you back after I talk to him, okay?"

"Okay."

Tori folded the phone up and laid it on her stomach, letting out a long breath before she glanced over at Ceci. "Sometimes, you just have to be a bitch."

Ceci leaned on the arm of the love seat, her gray eyes wryly twinkling. "Tori, don't take this the wrong way, but you'd have to channel the Wicked Witch of the West with terminal PMS to come off as a really good bitch. You're just too cute."

Her guts still churning in side, Tori nevertheless managed a wry grin. "Yeah. I know. Jade says the same thing." She admitted. "Even my getting a tattoo really doesn't up the intimidation factor."

"You?" Ceci sat up. "Got a tattoo?"

"I sure did." Tori got up off the couch and walked over, crouching next to her mother-in-law and pulling her t-shirt down off one shoulder. "See?" She watched the puzzled, then charmed expression cross Ceci's face and smiled as their eyes met again.

"What did Jade say when she saw that?" Ceci asked. "It's absolutely gorgeous, by the way. You found a great artist."

"Mm." Tori relived the warmth of the moment. "She didn't say much. But she liked it." She got up and plopped back down onto the couch.

"I bet she did." Ceci said. "What made you decide to get that done? I never figured you for the pain loving type." She settled back in the love seat and tucked her bare feet up under her, leaning on the arm as she watched Tori squirm around on the couch.

"Well." Tori stretched out, resting her head on the thickly padded arm. "I'm not. I hate needles almost as much as Jade does."

"That's saying something." Ceci commented wryly. "I always timed her checkups for when Jim was home, because he was the only one who could hold her down long enough for them to inoculate her."

Tori spared a moment to imagine that. Her partner had a considerable amount of strength, and she could easily imagine her terrorizing the nurses. "Well, considering what happened to her in the hospital that one time, I can't say I really blame her. I know I was an adult when I had my one horror show and how it affected me, so.." She glanced up at Ceci, who now had a pensive look on her face. "Anyway, it was when Jade was in New York. I finished boxing class, and I guess that, plus talking with the guys, plus the smell of a new Harley.. I don't know. I think I just went nuts for the night."

"Ah." The older woman nodded.

They were both quiet for a brief time. Then Tori sighed. "It was just something I wanted to do." She said. "And you know, I was worried about what Jade would say."

"About that?" Ceci's eyebrows popped up like a surprised meerkat.

"About me doing it." Tori turned and grabbed her cell phone again as it rang. "Yes?" She answered it, pushing her disordered hair out of the way. "Hey Sinjin. What's up? Did you get through to that guy?"

Sinjin sounded as though he was out of the office for a change, traffic sounding behind him instead of the usual humming bustle of the MIS center. "I did, boss. He's gonna call me back." He told her. "He was not a happy guy."

"I'm not a happy gal." Tori retorted. "So we're even – did he really think he'd just get away with that game that easily?"

"I dunno." Sinjin sighed. "I'm just grabbing something for lunch – I passed JW heading to the sushi place with that reporter – glad she wasn't there when this hit the fan."

Mm. Sushi. Tori stifled a grin, recalling the little place she'd found, which had been there for years and escaped Jade's notice somehow. It was small, but the service was good and they had a table in the back where the little waitresses always recognized them. "That reporter's connected with the ship bid." She told Sinjin. "Guess they didn't antagonize Jade too badly, if she's eating with them."

"Yeah." Sinjin agreed. "She looked nice enough – not like that scruffy guy who came in here last time." A siren blared. "Well, soon I hear back on our order, I'll give you a buzz, okay? I'm almost to pizza."

"Right." Tori agreed. "Have a good pizza, Sinjin." She hung up, and felt her nostrils twitch just a trifle as she acknowledged a brief pang thinking about Jade having lunch at their spot with another woman. What did she look like? Was she hot? It was extremely unclassy, and stupid, and pointless, so she just waited it out and after a second it passed and she could mentally roll her eyes at herself.

If there was one thing she knew she could trust completely, it was Jade in that regards. Heck, Jade had turned away offers even before they were barely friends, much less involved with each other. She was steadfast and honest, and it bothered Tori to even have the littlest of reactions to the thought of anything otherwise.

Ah well. She released a long sigh, and dismissed the thought. "So anyway, that's how I ended up with a tattoo."

Ceci had been quietly watching her. "Did Jade mind you doing it? I don't really think she'd object.. I know she really wanted one when she was younger, but her father and her own dislike of the apparatus dissuaded her."

"No." Tori shook her head. "I don't think she minded at all. She thinks it's kind of.. um.. " She blushed slightly. "Well.."

"Well, it's her name on your chest." The gray eyes twinkled. "So I'm sure it's quite sexy."

"Yeah." Tori's blush deepened, and she scrubbed one hand over her cheek. "But it's not just that, I think… I think it means something else, too."

Ceci pursed her lips. "I think it means for her the kind of permanence she was always looking for." Jade's mother spoke up unexpectedly. "I didn't understand that for such a long time."

Tori nodded, a lump rising in her throat. "That's what I wanted it to mean." She could hear the husky note in her voice, and she stopped speaking, to let it clear.

Ceci fiddled with her cup, as the silence lengthened. "Want more?" She offered. "I'd offer to bake cookies, but we both know how that's going to turn out."

Tori smiled. 'Sure. How about you get some tea, and I'll bake the cookies? I've got a black eye, not a broken leg." She got up from the couch, suddenly wanting something to do. "Besides, I know they won't go to waste later on if we have extra."

"Eh." Ceci amiably joined her. "That's for sure."

"Hey, any chance of Dad stopping by after work?"

"With cookies in the offing? I couldn't twist his arm even if I could reach it."

Tori chuckled, putting aside her worries for now. There would be time enough to worry about them later.