VELOCITY - DEE JACOB [39]
The more he talked, the more Amy liked him – which was the opposite of the last few guys who had exhibited any romantic interest in her. Tom tended to pepper whatever he said with his wry wit, while his matter-of-fact speech never suggested that any of the many adventures in his life were the least bit special or out of the ordinary.
And yet, just as she had concealed from herself her initial attraction to Tom, so too her mind tonight had now tricked her into ignoring an unpleasant fact about their circumstances. The longer she sat next to him, the more she enjoyed listening and talking to him, the greater that fact pressed on her, though she did not at all want to acknowledge it.
Then they began talking about food, about restaurants. Tom was clearly working up to something – and clearly he was liking her more as well.
“Say, do you like soft-shell crabs?” asked Tom.
“Yes! I love soft-shell crabs.”
“Well, son of a gun, I just happen to know of a great place over on the coast that does soft-shell crab like you’d never believe. And I happen to know an excellent pilot who has a spiffy red airplane and who even has a few bucks in his wallet for gas. What would you say to flying over to the coast this Saturday and have a little crab dinner? Have you home by midnight. What do you say?”
Her eyes watered. Amy opened her mouth to say, Yes, I would love to, but instead heard herself saying, “I can’t.”
“If Saturday doesn’t work, what about Sunday?”
“It’s not that. I can’t go out with you, Tom.”
“Mind if I ask why?”
She reached across the umbrella and briefly touched his hand.
“Please understand I would like to. But … it’s business. We have a business relationship. You’re a vendor, and I’m a customer – of my company, that is. There is an ethical line there that I would be afraid to cross.”
He truly looked deflated – as if someone had taken ten pounds of air out of his tires.
“Do you actually think anyone would care?” he asked.
“These days, Tom, you never know. I’m the president of the company. I approve your invoices. Anymore, just the appearance of impropriety is enough to kill a career. The rumors can be more destructive than the facts. And for me, a woman … I have to be very, very careful.”
Tom nodded solemnly, set his lemonade glass on the porch floor, and got to his feet.
“Well, it’s all right,” he said, “I understand … I guess.”
Amy stood up and said, “I’m glad you stopped by. I really enjoyed talking to you.”
“Please say good night for me to your mother.”
He waved good-bye, stepped off the porch, went to his car. He drove slowly down the street, and she watched until the car had turned the far corner. Amy then took their glasses to the kitchen. Without a word, she wrapped her arms around her mom and rested her head on her mother’s thin shoulder.
6
Wayne Reese’s campaign to transform Hi-T through Lean Six Sigma began to gather momentum, and it did so swiftly. Wayne was eager to get everything moving, and Amy, with her interim status as president, was just as eager to show results before Nigel Furst became impatient. She was pushing everyone to get on board – though at times it felt like “herding cats.” Despite a few protestations from Elaine, the financial manager, Amy fed Wayne a steady stream of money and other kinds of support. So it all came together at a speed that almost seemed astonishing for a mature, rather staid company.
Even as the introductory presentations had been going on, Wayne had been pulling strings inside Winner corporate management. He was able to secure a few of the corporation’s most experienced LSS Black Belts to jump-start the program. These experts would lay the groundwork while Hi-T’s own volunteers were being trained. Chief among the incoming Black Belts was Kurt Konani, a man in his early thirties, born in Hawaii, who was both a colleague and a friend of Wayne – as well as being Wayne’s physical opposite. In contrast to Wayne’s shaven scalp, Kurt sported a full head of thick, dark brown hair and a bushy mustache. Whereas