Who Needs Decaf?. Tanya Michaels

radio.

      An elaborate musical introduction swelled through the speakers, followed by the voice of an enthusiastic singer confiding that her true love had gifted her with a partridge and a pear tree. Sheryl didn’t have a true love, herself, but she did have an ex-boyfriend. Brad Hammond, owner of Hammond Gaming Software, the company Sheryl worked for.

      On the first day of Christmas, my ex-boyfriend gave to me, a good job and a migraine.

      When she’d broken things off with Brad six months ago, Sheryl had worried it would be too awkward to continue running the miniscule public relations department at Hammond, but Brad had implored her to stay, insisting he needed her. Which had proven to be prophetic.

      Until now, Sheryl had devoted her time and energy to gaining favorable public attention for the up-and-coming software company, but their spot in the limelight had backfired on them when a Web site owner filed a lawsuit claiming theft of intellectual property. With revived public interest in Tolkien, along with some recent, popular fantasy novels and movies, HGS’s newly released fantasy-action game, Xandria Quest, had promised to be their first major success. But writer Kendra Mathers was claiming that the premise, characters and levels for the game had been stolen from her online epic fantasy story. Sheryl’s publicity skills were suddenly needed for damage control.

      “Particularly,” she muttered, “since Nathan Hall seems intent on causing damage.”

      The columnist for the Seattle Sojourner had written a couple of pieces on the pending suit, and his writing made Sheryl nervous. He managed to blend cynicism and passion in his annoyingly factual columns—she’d scanned carefully for glaring, malicious, libelous errors. Nathan Hall resonated with readers, and Sheryl worried about his insinuations that big bad Brad Hammond, “overnight success,” was now sticking it to the little guys he’d so recently been one of.

      Sheryl snorted indelicately as she approached the parking garage of the modestly sized, yet state-of-the-art building HGS leased. Big bad Brad Hammond, indeed. When she and Brad had watched the Titanic DVD together, he’d wept like a baby, and she’d spent the better part of an hour trying to console him.

      That one evening, she realized now, had encapsulated their relationship. Though a good-looking programming phenom, well on his way to becoming a rich man, Brad was a little too needy in other ways, almost painfully earnest for a man who owned a company in a fiercely competitive field. But Sheryl doubted it would be a good PR spin to release an announcement that her boss was too naive to steal from anyone.

      Maybe as a last resort.

      In her opinion, she and HGS’s attorney, Mark Campbell, had sent out some brilliant press releases, but she noted that the Sojourner hadn’t bothered to print any of them. Brad praised her work, but refused to worry much about the problem since, as he saw it, Xandria Quest was his baby and he hadn’t stolen it from anyone.

      Rolling down her window, Sheryl smiled at the parking garage attendant who sat in the small booth, his gloved hands cradling a steaming thermos of coffee. The rich aroma made her glance longingly at her own to-go container. She hadn’t allowed herself to lift it from the safety of its snug cup holder as she drove on the freeway, for fear of spilling burning liquid down the front of her ivory knit tunic and skirt.

      “Morning, Henry.”

      The man’s weathered face wrinkled into an answering smile as he tipped his uniform cap. “Ms. Dayton,” he returned, despite all the times she’d asked him to call her Sheryl. “Say, is your car acting up? Thought I heard sort of a thumba thumba thumba as you came round the corner.”

      “‘Thumba,’ huh? Nope, no ‘thumba’ here.” Her response didn’t stem completely from denial. No way was the sound more of a thumba than a thwacka.

      “Oh, okay. Well, I’m glad,” Henry said. “I’d hate to see a nice lady like you get stranded on the side of a cold road at night, after the late evenings you put in here.”

      Well, when you looked at it that way…Note to self—call mechanic on lunch break, do not end up freeway Popsicle.

      He held up a folded edition of Wednesday’s paper. “You seen the Sojourner? Your boss made headlines again.”

      Surely, with approximately two and a half million people in the metro Seattle area, reporters could find something to write about besides her boss! What new angle could Hall possibly have used for his latest piece when the case was still in the early deposition stages? Sheryl decided that along with the Christmas check she’d planned to give Henry as his annual tip, she’d also throw in a subscription to the Post-Intelligencer or Seattle Times.

      Forcing a pleasant tone, she said, “Have a nice day, Henry.”

      “You, too, Ms. Dayton.”

      Too late for that, but she nodded anyway as she pulled her car up the entrance ramp.

      In the elevator from the garage to the main lobby, Sheryl sipped her white-chocolate cappuccino and dreaded the day. Or more accurately, the fallout from Tuesday evening, which was when Brad saw his therapist each week. Brad had read somewhere that top-level executives needed balance more than anyone since so many people depended on them, and he’d gone right out and hired a shrink. Unfortunately, the quack dictated Brad and Sheryl must have a long conversation to determine exactly where they’d gone wrong, so Brad could learn and grow as a “giving, loving being” and be more successful in all future relationships.

      Well, he would have to learn and grow on his own time, not Sheryl’s. Their relationship was strictly professional now.

      The elevator dinged and the doors parted, allowing Sheryl to step into the reception area she knew so well. When they’d moved into this building from the tiny space HGS had occupied before, Sheryl and her roommate, Meka, an interior decorator, had helped Brad pick out the furnishings. Right down to the blue leather upholstered chair the plump receptionist, Denise Avery, was currently standing on.

      “Morning,” Denise said from around the thumb-tacks clenched between her lips.

      In her hands the receptionist held a shiny red-and-green garland that she was pinning onto the wall in one remaining bare corner of the room. Clearly in the spirit of the season, Denise looked adorably younger than her almost-forty years in a red jumper and green sweater, a piece of plastic ivy tucked into her bouncy blond ponytail. Her festive mood was also evident in the pot of poinsettias sitting on the small rectangular coffee table and the fake snow that adorned the window of the executive conference room.

      “Brad asked for you to report to his office immediately,” the receptionist continued before Sheryl could voice a greeting. “Unless, of course, you haven’t had coffee yet, in which case see him immediately after your stop to the breakroom.”

      Sheryl grinned and held up the fortifying cappuccino. Her favorite thing about this city, a caffeine-addict’s nirvana, was that no street corner was without either a Starbucks or Seattle’s Best Coffee. She’d had two cups of coffee at home, naturally, but that was to get her through personal grooming and the drive to the office. Each day, she needed at least one cup post-drive, and then she was good to go until afternoon fatigue set in. Woe to anyone who encountered her on a morning she didn’t get that crucial third cup.

      Her grin faded as she considered Denise’s announcement. Brad wanted to see her immediately? What an uncommonly executive order…unless he wanted to once again try to convince her to rehash each second of their brief, passionless relationship. “Did he say why he wanted me?”

      “Nathan Hall,” Denise replied, an edge to her chirpy voice.

      Exasperated, Sheryl ran a hand through her shoulder-length hair. “Right.” She’d temporarily pushed aside Henry’s comment about a new story. “I’m just going to make a quick stop in the breakroom and see if there’s a copy of this morning’s Sojourner.” She personally didn’t want to buy a copy and give the paper her money, but she should read the latest piece so that she knew what she was up against.

      As she headed down the carpeted corridor, Sheryl thought to herself that