Perfect Fit - Brenda Jackson [6]
It was no secret that the majority of the women in the office thought that at fifty-five Stephen Poole was drop-dead gorgeous. It was rumored that he’d been involved in a number of office affairs since his divorce eight months ago.
Ten minutes later back in her office, Sage called her staff together for a meeting. One look at their faces after she’d made the announcement and she could tell they weren’t happy that come five o’clock, they wouldn’t be going home.
“Doesn’t Mr. Poole think any of us have a life outside of work?” Nora Skinner pouted. Apparently she had a date tonight, and then again, it could be that she was still pretty pissed at Stephen Poole. It was rumored that Nora’s bed had been the first he had found his way into after his divorce, before moving on to other viable conquests.
“Yes, Nora, I’m sure he’s aware that all of us have other interests besides the Denmark Group. However, he wants us to fine-tune the proposal we gave him last week. He feels there are things it lacks. I’m sure if the four of us put our heads together, we’ll be able to come up with just what those things are without spending the entire night here.”
Sage glanced around the room at the others. “Do I have everyone’s cooperation? I’m aware this is short notice, but we need to start work on this right away.”
When everyone nodded, she couldn’t help but smile. She had to admit that she worked with a swell group. She knew Rita was a single mother, which meant she would have to make arrangements for someone else to pick up her daughter from day care. Jim was a newlywed and was probably anxious to get home to his bride, and Erica, who was married with a teenage son, would probably miss his soccer game tonight.
“Good, and I appreciate all of your hard work and dedication. And to make sure that we don’t spend the night here, let’s meet in Conference Room A in thirty minutes to begin work.”
It was a little past nine when Sage entered the apartment she shared with her fiancé, Erol Carlson. Unerringly, after closing the door behind her, her gaze was drawn to the floor-to-ceiling windows that dominated one wall in the living room and provided a panoramic view of downtown Charlotte. One of the main reasons she and Erol had selected this particular apartment over the others in the building had been for its beautiful polished hardwood floors and the view it provided of the city from twelve floors up.
After dropping her briefcase off on the desk in her office, she made her way into the kitchen to make soup and a sandwich for her dinner. This was Erol’s night to play basketball with a few of his fraternity brothers, and usually he didn’t get in until late since the guys made a habit of going out for drinks afterward. She had called him from the office earlier to let him know she would be working later than usual. He had understood. As a landscape architect who owned his own company, he knew the importance of hard work and doing what had to be done to complete any job, and for that she appreciated him immensely. There had never been any arguments between them regarding the long hours she often spent at the office. Their only disagreement had been with her reluctance to make a decision about their future together.
From the time they had met and started dating in college, Erol had made it known that he wanted them to marry as soon as they finished school. But something had held her back, although she felt they shared a pretty solid relationship. So they had moved in together and had landed jobs in their chosen professions.
After three years of living together, Erol had begun complaining. So had their respective parents, who could not understand why they would not marry. As far as everyone was concerned, they were a perfect couple. Both of them had good jobs. They had been together five years—lived together in harmony for three—and had deep respect and love for each other. Erol’s parents had been married over thirty years, just as long as hers, and most of her friends’ parents’ marriages had lasted just as long;