Time for a little separation anxiety.

Seventeen

Tori whistled under her breath as she removed a last load of laundry from the washer and tossed it into the dryer. She set the machine and started it running, then took her basketful of already dried clothes and ambled back through the kitchen towards Jade's bedroom, closely followed by an attentive Chino.

She put the basket down on the edge of the waterbed and started sorting it's contents out. "You know what, Chino?" She addressed their pet. "Don't tell anyone, but sometimes I actually like doing this stuff."

"Gruff?"

Tori opened Jade's underwear drawer and began to store neatly folded pairs inside it. She'd gotten two of them inside when the phone rang, and she reached across the dresser to pick up the portable resting there. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Ms. Vega?" A man's voice asked. "This is Bob, from North Beach Volvo."

"Yup, it's me." Tori agreed. "The buggy ready?"

"Not quite yet, ma'am, we really want to replace the break pads. You've been kinda tough on em."

Tori frowned at the phone. "I have?"

"Well, they're showing a lot of wear.. we can let them go for a while but.."

"No – go ahead, by all means replace them." Tori interrupted him. "I just didn't think I jammed them on that much.. guess I'll have to pay more attention to how I'm driving, huh?"

The man cleared his throat. "Yeah, well, you know, a lot of people have the same problem.. must be the traffic down here. Anyway, we'll get them changed out, and my guy's gonna deliver the car back over to you round dinnertime, if that's okay."

"Great." Tori answered readily. "Sounds perfect. Thanks!" She put the phone down and went back to her folding, inspecting each item for possible holes before she tucked it away. Most of Jade's briefs were plain, and somewhat ordinary, but she did have a selection of whimsical ones most of which Tori had purchased for her.

And of course, the red silk ones. Tori smiled as she put those in the drawer, glancing at herself in the mirror as she finished. A hand lifted and riffled through her newly cut hair, and she gave the results an approving nod, pleased with her day so far.

The phone rang again, and she gave it a look of mild exasperation, before she picked up the receiver and answered it. "Hello?"

"Hi." Jade's voice responded. "You're not answering your cell phone."

Tori sucked in breath. "Oops.. sorry. It's upstairs charging." She said. "And I'm downstairs playing with your undies. What's up?"

"Ahh… glad I finally learned my lesson and don't keep you on speaTor." Jade chuckled. "Listen, I had to put the afternoon session on delay. Transmax up in New York called, with a brand new project they just threw together – needing triple their current capacity. I need to quote it."

"Hey, great." Tori smiled. "You're not going to cause me a bottleneck up there, are you? I've got a lot of very touchy accounts up in those parts."

"Would I do that to you?" Jade's voice sounded relaxed and amused. "I may have to fly up there and meet with them, though, and I heard from Quest. He's pulling together a meeting of all the bidders at the Intercontinental on Wednesday."

Tori nodded, even though her partner could not see her. "Well, you said I'd be spearheading that anyway." She remarked. "So forward the info on to me, boss, and I'll take care of it."

"Already done." Jade replied. "Looks like I'll be late. We're just going to start the sales meeting in an hour."

"I'll be waiting for you." There was a momentary silence, bringing a knowing smile to Tori's face. "Give me a buzz before you leave, okay?"

"I will." Jade answered softly. "See you later."

Tori put the phone down, her smile still lingering as she picked up her now empty basket and walked back through the living room, her mind busy with planning her strategy for Quest's meeting. A bright flash on the television broke her concentration, however, and she turned to look at the afternoon news blurb. "Oh." She paused, as they seemed to be continuing the news report from the previous night, now showing a picture of the man the police were looking for.

Tori blinked, and then she simply stared at the picture, matching the somewhat blurry details with a memory from the previous day, from the car across from theirs, in the lazy afternoon sunlight of a summer day.

Was it the same jerk?

She squinted at the picture, which seemed to be from a passport. "Son of a bitch." She whispered. "I think it is."

"So." The low, powerful voice rolled out over the room. "As you can see, the capacity will remain relatively constant across the board, throughout the international and national grids, but our focus is going to be on refining the bandwidth usage and streamlining demand service."

A grid flashed onto the screen. "The net effect of that project will be for us to be able to add another fifty percent in capacity without increasing the hardware." Jade paused and leaned on the lecturn. "Any.. further.. questions?"

She let her eyes sweep the room, suspecting the edge in her voice was suppressing the raised hands at last. "All right. Thank you, folks. That's all." Jade stepped back, acknowledging the applause in the room with a curt nod before she shut down the screens and retired the lecturn, glad the damn thing was finally over.

Finally.

Jade dropped down into her seat at the head of the presentation table, it's cool leather closing around her as the noise level in the room rose. She picked up her glass of water and drained it, glad of the moisture for her dry, scratchy throat.

The crowd of sales directors was breaking up into clusters, all carrying printed hands outs of her presentation as they discussed the session. Jade was happy to be left relatively alone, isolated at the front of the room with just enough space between her and the rest of them that even the few eyeing her hadn't gotten up the courage to approach.

Jade assumed a dour glare to reinforce the distance, exhausted from her two hour speech. It had gone over all right, she thought, but that, and the hour of questions after it had frazzled both her patience and her tolerance for occasionally stupid questions.

She did not want to entertain any more of them right now. Though the presentation room was an interior space and she could not see windows from where she was, she knew it was getting dark outside and the long day was nearing its end at last.

Jose finished off his conversation and headed her way. Jade fixed him with her glare, but the Sales VP ignored it and circled the table, taking a seat right next to her. "Good! It was very good, Jade."

"Thanks."

"We have too much people scared out there." Jose went on, resting his silver silk covered elbows on the table. "Everybody was running like chickens. Now, they see we have a plan."

"Uh huh." Jade rested her elbow on the chair arm and propped her head up on it. "We have a plan."

Jose looked at her. "What is wrong with you?"

Jade's eyebrows hiked.

"You are acting like, you do not care." Jose said. "These people, what you say to them, that matters how they do their job, Jade."

"I know." The dark haired woman agreed. "I do care. It's just been a damn long day, Jose. It may be exciting to them, but to me, it's a rehash of the same damn speech I've already given the board, given the international board, and given the lot of you down here. I'm tired of it."

The Sales VP snorted. "You have no attention. It is just like my son. He looks at one thing, and then.." Jose snapped his fingers. "It is the old news, and something else he goes to find. You are like that." He pointed at Jade. "Always, you have been like that."

Jade tried to get mad at him, but didn't find it in herself. She ended up just shrugging instead. "Yeah. And?"

Jose also shrugged. "Nothing!" He said. "I will tell you something however, Jade. Being married is good for you. I say so. My wife, she says so too. She told me she thinks you are not so much a bitch since then."

"Thanks." Jade drawled. "Your being married hasn't made you less of an asshole. How'd she figure that?"

Jose took a breath to answer, a red line creeping up his neck as he lifted his hand to shake a finger at Jade. "What did you say? I am being here so nice to you, and what is this?" His voice rose in outrage, attracting attention from the crowd still chatting around them in the room.

Jade snicTored at him. "Miss the old days, Jose?" She inquired in a velvet tone.

"Puta." He growled, slapping his hand on the table. "There is the bitch I remember."

"Oh yeah." Jade leaned forward, pinning him intently with her eyes. "It's in there. It just takes a lot more now to get it to show." She got up and twitched her sleekly tailored jacket straight. "Gentlemen." She gave the now watching salesmen a gracious nod. "Ladies." She added, to the two women directors standing nearby. "Jose." She tacked on just for fun, as she stepped around the table and headed for the door. "Have a good night."

"Wait, Jade!" One of the women directors hustled to catch up to her, the other woman close behind. "Can we steal a moment of your time?"

Jade actually growled at them. "You had three hours of my time."

The women eased out of the conference room with her. "Just a few quick things.. while you're walking?"

"Talk fast." Jade headed for the elevator. "Stacy, I've said all I wanted to say for the night in there." She hit the door button and headed into the car almost without a pause as her shoulders just barely cleared the opening.

The two women followed her hastily inside. "Isn't about the presentation." Stacy Allman said. "We wanted to talk to you about the ship contract." She glanced at the other woman. "Brenda and I happened to be in the same bar as some old friends of yours, and we got an unintentional earful."

Jade leaned against the wall as the car rose to the fourteenth floor. "Everybody got a damned earful." She said. "I got nothing but the entire time I was up there." She studied the other two women, who could have been twins in their conservative suits and stylish haircuts.

Stacy waited for the doors to open before she answered. "Jade, let us take you out for a drink." She said, as they entered the quiet, half darkened floor. "You need to hear this, and the mausoleum's really not the place, if you catch my drift."

She caught it. Jade headed for her office, holding her outer door open before following the two saleswomen inside. She wasn't especially close friends of either, but they were both relatively old timers and she'd had a somewhat common bond with the few women who had made the climb up the ladder with and around her.

Both were savvy. Stacy was from New York, and Brenda was from Los Angeles, and though both women were straight as boards, neither had ever shown the veiled aversion to Jade's lifestyle she'd detected in others in the company. "I don't know, people. It's been a long damn day."

"Cmon, Jade." Stacy followed her into her inner office, pausing to look around as Jade continued to her desk and started to pack up her briefcase. "Huh. This place looks a little different."

Jade's head lifted, and she looked around her office in mild confusion, expecting to find the carpet had been replaced in her absence or a different color wall weave installed. But the large space seemed much as she left it, so she glanced at Stacy to see what she was talking about. "What?"

"Listen, Jade, we won't keep you all night." Stacy dropped the subject and took a seat in front of Jade's desk instead. "But I really think you need to hear what we heard. How about the lounge in the Hyatt… give me a half hour, huh?"

Jade considered the question, as her peripheral vision tracked Brenda examining the collection of photos on her wall credenza shelves. "All right." She decided. "Go on. I'll meet you there in ten minutes."

"Cool." Stacy got up. "Ten minutes, in the bar. Good deal, Jade. I think once we finish up, you'll agree it wasn't a waste of either your time or ours."

Jade continued to stuff papers into her briefcase as the two left, only stopping when the door closed. She rested her knuckles on her desk and leaned her weight on them, then she grunted and straightened up, slapping one of the speed dial buttons on her phone almost without looking.

The phone only rang once before it was answered. "Hey, sweetie."

Jade's lips twitched. "You know, it could have been someone other than me calling from here." She commented wryly.

"Not on our home number." Tori replied, a smile evident in her voice. "They'd have called on the cell."

Eh. True. "You're right. Shows how long a day it's been." Jade reached up and rubbed her left temple. "I'm done with the sales crap.."

"How'd it go?"

"All right, I guess." Her partner replied. "But two of the directors caught me afterward.. apparently they've got some bs they overheard from our friends. Want to spill it to me offsite."

Silence. Jade could almost imagine the look of skeptical surprise on Tori's face. "Yeah, seemed pretty stupid to me, but I've known the two of them for ten years. They're not idiots."

"Sounds pretty bizarre."

"Anyway, I told them I'd meet them over at the Hyatt." Jade said. "Shouldn't take long. I'm sure we already heard most of it last week from the jackasses mouths." She was aware of a pensive quiet from the phone. "You interested in joining us?"

Tori chuckled, after a moment's hesitation. "I think you know me too well."

Jade smiled. "Hey, me and two straight women. What a party. Of course I'd invite you." She finished packing up her case. "Especially if you're in those cute overalls you were wearing the other day.. that'd shock all the Cubans at the Hyatt happy hour."

Tori chuckled again, but this time the sound was entirely different. "Oh, the scandals you weave, Madame West. No, you go meet your undercover friends, and get the dirt. I'll be here hanging out doing the domestic thing."

Jade's eyebrows lifted. "Domestic thing?"

"Baking cookies."

"Cookies?" Jade's ears perked up. "You're making fresh cookies?"

"The Food Network is dangerous." Tori asserted. "But if you time it right, you might get some hot from the oven." She teased. "So don't get too dirty."

"They'll be lucky if I sit down." Jade said. "See you in a little bit, Tor."

"Okay – hey, listen. Remember that story from the news last night?" Tori said. "The car at the drug store?"

"Yeah?" Jade's hand hovered over the button.

"We were there when they were. I saw the guy they're looking for. He was a creep."

It was the last thing she'd expected to hear. "Really?"

"Yeah." Tori said. "But I'll tell you all about it when you get home. Go scoot and find your snitches."

"Okay. Yeah." Jade replied. "Strange timing, I guess. Be home soon." She released the line and shouldered her briefcase, turning off the desk lamp as she headed for the door.

Middle of the summer on a Monday made for a very slow night at the bar. Jade gave the greeter at the door a nod as she entered, sweeping her eyes around the sparsely occupied lounge until she spotted her two colleagues near one of the floor to ceiling plate glass windows.

Stacy waved at her. Jade headed in that direction, only to be intercepted by a hovering and obviously bored waiter. She stopped as the man looked inquiringly at her.

"Can I get you something, ma'am? We have chocolate martinis on special tonight."

Much as the thought of a chocolate anything was intriguing her at the moment, Jade shook her head. "Jamaican coffee, please." She indicated the small group of chairs near the window. "I'll be over there."

"Right away, ma'am."

Jade continued on her way and took one of the seats opposite Stacy and Rhonda. They both had glasses in front of them, with enough half eaten fruit matter to indicate their alcoholic content. "All right. So what's up?"

"Gee, Jade.. it's great to see you too." Stacy gave her a wry grin. "Been a while."

Jade crossed her arms. "Half hour, didn't you say?" She asked pointedly. "I didn't come here to be social." She accepted the steaming mug the waiter handed her, and took a cautious sip. The coffee was hot, and pungent with a touch of rum and Tia Mariela.

"No, you never really were the social butterfly.' Stacy acknowledged. "Though we had some pretty good times back in the old days, out on the road."

"Eh." Jade tilted her head slightly. "I still remember you ending up doing the tango with the chef at that Italian place in New Mexico." She admitted. "They ever stop teasing you about it?"

Rhonda snicTored.

"No." Stacy laughed. "They haven't. Trust you to remember that one, too. I think that was the first night I ever saw you drink something other than milk." She added. "Though tough as that damn account was, we were all due it. What a hemmorhoid case that was."

Ah, yes. Jade smiled faintly, and nodded. "Yeah, it was." She agreed.

"Jade, is that the first place you banged heads with that Shari woman? I remember her from that account.. you fired her there, didn't you?" Rhonda asked. "That's why she was so familiar when she came into that bar.. I remember her pitching a fit in the building as security was throwing her out."

"Yeah." Stacy nodded. "I didn't see her when she came in, but Rho did, and then when she and whatserface.."

"Michelle Graver." Jade supplied evenly.

"Yeah, from Vista, wasn't it?"

"Yeah."

Stacy slowly twirled her straw as she sucked on it. "They sat down, and it wasn't a minute until they were yelling at each other, and the first word I recognized was your name."

Jade snorted. "Yeah, well." She shrugged one shoulder. "Shari and I go a long way back." She said. "So it wasn't the first time we'd met. I had a decision I had to make and it could have gone either way, but she'd taken the piss out of me one time and I gave her the boot."

"I remember." Rhonda signaled the waiter, and indicated their near empty glasses. "Jade? You up for a second?"

Jade glanced at her cup, which was still half full. "I'm fine."

"So, anyway." Stacy retrieved a tortilla chip from the table and loaded it with salsa. "They didn't know us from Adam's housecat. They sat at the table behind us, and let me tell you, they took into each other like nothing."

The waiter returned, putting down two fresh fruity looking drinks. "Anything else I can get you ladies? Some hors deouvres, maybe?" He picked up the basket of tortillas. "I'll get some fresh chips here.. would you like to try one of our combo plates?"

"Sure." Rhonda shooed him away. "Thanks."

Jade slowly sipped her coffee, appreciating the slight burn as the alcohol hit her in the belly. For her, that night in New Mexico had been a great one. The sense of personal vindication had nearly sent her giddy, and she'd more than welcomed the chance to share a night out with her co-worTors, though they'd never know just why their sullen and often dour regional tech manager had suddenly decided to be social.

She'd had fun. Gotten a little drunk, but not nearly as much as they had, and enjoyed the simple pleasure of sitting back and relaxing after a tough day of work. Even going back to her hotel room alone hadn't bothered her, and she remembered spending time out on the room's balcony looking out over the New Mexico desert being happy for a change.

Ah. Or she'd thought she'd been happy. Jade felt her cheeks move into a silent grin. Now she knew she'd just been satisfied because she'd had a much closer acquaintance with happy over the last couple of years. "So, they were fighting."

"Like weasels." Stacy agreed. "Graver was pissed off because of some plan of hers that'd gotten screwed up.. and I swear, I thought she said she'd offered you a job."

"She did." Jade acknowledged. "Her damn company recruited Tori and I, matter of fact."

Stacy goggled at her. "Really?"

"Had no clue who we were, but yeah." The dark haired woman chuckled. "We were in the show room night before it opened getting our gear set and they thought we were staff geeks."

Rhonda started laughing, covering her mouth hastily. "Oh, my god."

"Wasn't funny then, but I'm laughing now." Jade admitted.

"Jesus." Stacy shook her head. "So anyway, Jade… to get to the point of why we dragged you out here, and didn't just share a cup of coffee in the lunchroom… the Shari woman said she'd gotten back some information on Tori, and she told Graver they'd been going at everything the wrong way."

Just hearing Tori's name triggered Jade's baser instincts. The evening stopped being amusing, and she leaned forward slightly, her voice dropping noticeably. "Yeah?"

Stacy paused, studying Jade for a moment. "I just realized I've never met our VP of Operations." She commented incongruously. "But I think I want to."

Jade simply waited, her coffee forgotten.

Rhonda leaned forward. "What Shari said was that she had some dope on Tori, and she told Graver to just leave the whole thing to her. She said if she could get to Tori, then they didn't have anything to worry about on this ship contract."

"Jade?" Stacy uttered, into the quiet that fell. "Do you realize your eyes are actually really shooting sparks off? You're going to set the carpet on fire. Just take it easy, okay?"

With a great deal of effort, Jade forced herself to ease back into the chair. Her heartbeat was a thunder in her ears, and she could feel twitching in her forearms as though her hands wanted to clench into fists. She took a short breath, and released it. "Bitch." She enunciated precisely.

The waiter arrived with a plate of hot tidbits, which he put down, along with a fresh basket of chips. "Here you go, ladies." He turned to Jade. "Are you finished there, ma'am? Would you like another?"

Jade handed him her coffee cup. "Bring me a tall glass of milk, please."

The waiter blinked. "Milk?"

"Milk." Jade repeated. "Cold milk." She clarified, as he turned to go. After he left again, she turned back and steepled her fingers, peering at Stacy and Rhonda with half closed eyes.

"You're really pissed." Stacy murmured.

"Family trait." Jade finally answered, as her heart started to settle down. "But thanks for telling me. Not that I think they've got anything Tori wouldn't do anything but laugh at, but it's good to know."

Rhonda took a mini-taco, and handed it over to Jade, along with a napkin. "That's why we really didn't want to say this in the office, Jade. It's.. that woman's got a grudge against you and it's all personal. Even Graver said so. She said she was obsessed."

Jade mechanically took the taco and examined it, before she took a bite, chewing without tasting it and swallowing it to get it out of her mouth. "Yeah." She took the glass of milk from the attentive waiter and downed a mouthful. "She's something."

"So you think she was bs'ing?" Stacy said. "About Tori?"

Jade waited for her guts to unclench. "Yes." She replied evenly. "Shari always believes she's knows the angles on everything. Always has."

"Mm." Rhonda nodded. "Yeah, seemed like it to me. Big mouth, all air."

Stacy took a napkin and a potato puff. "Well, all I can say is I hope we wipe the floor with them. I'm really tired of their sales punks lording it over us every time we meet telling us all about the latest contract they stole from us." She settled back in her seat. "Especially since they're targeting three of my big ones up for renewal. I'm getting a lot of pressure to cut our costs, Jade."

Jade peered into her milk. "I'm not going to play their game." She said. "I've already said that. No contract gets signed that loses us money. I don't care how many they think they can take."

"We don't have a lot of leverage." Rhonda said, hesitantly. "I mean, I know our service can't be beat, but.."

"But nothing." Jade cut her off quietly. "All it's going to take is one big screwup, which they can't cover. So keep your shorts on, and don't panic."

Stacy exhaled. "Well, the trade show helped." She conceded. "I have to admit, Jade, there were six of us in the regional office watching Tech TV, and I hope your ears were burning because we were cheering you on like gangbusters. You go girl."

Jade relaxed a little and leaned back. After the first shock, her mind was now wrapping around and assimilating the information Stacy and Rhonda had given her, and with effort, separating it from the emotional charge.

"Hey, Jade?" Rhonda suddenly leaned forward.

"Yes?" Jade looked up and waited, finishing up her milk.

"Sorry if we got you angry."

A half shrug moved the silk over Jade's shoulder. "S'allright."

Stacy swirled her drink in one hand. "You know you totally freaked out most of the sales force when that whole thing with you and Tori came out. I remember we were at an incentive meeting, and everyone was just stunned."

Jade shrugged again.

"What would you have done if Alastair hadn't been cool with it?" Stacy asked curiously.

"Left."

"Just like that?"

Jade snorted. "Yeah. Just like that." She replied. "Now if you ladies don't mind, I'm gonna go home and get out of this monkey suit." She set her glass down and stood up, towering over them in the low lighting. "Thanks for the warning."

"Sure you won't have another, Jade?" Stacy held up her glass. "For old time's sake?"

"No thanks." Jade lifted a hand and waved briefly. "Night."

Stacy watched her disappear, then lifted her glass. "There's a woman who has something she wants to go home to." She chuckled wryly. "Bless her heart."

Rhonda nodded. "Glad we told her." She summed up. "Telegenics won't stand a chance now, the little bastards. She'll take em out for sure."

"For sure." Stacy touched her glass to Rhondas, and they both took a solemn drink.