A Seal Upon Your Heart (5 page)

“Oh…no, sir. I’m fine here.”

He nodded and Jane watched as he took a sip of his coffee, noting that he took it black. “Mmm.” He looked into the mug and she saw his lip twitch upward into an almost smile. “You made this, I gather?”

“Yes.”

“I want you to make the coffee every morning.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You got this cleaned up very well. And you re-filed everything properly?”

“Yes sir.”

“Did you have…any difficulties putting everything back in order?”

“Not at all, Mr. Singleton. Once I knew that everything was filed in date order, it was very simple.” He seemed pleased by her response.

“This is probably a little late, but I’m Tim Singleton. If you work for me I expect you to call me Tim and not Sir, or Mr. Singleton. And I’ll call you Jane. There are a lot of responsibilities by working as an assistant. Many people work very hard for an opportunity to get out of clerical or secretarial to become an assistant. You’ve fallen into the job. However,” his eyes studied her closely, “if you can’t cut it, you will be demoted.”

“Yes, S-Tim.”

He continued. “The hours are a little crazy. The other girl will tell you how to track your time so that you get paid. Some days you might leave early, some days you might leave late. If I allow you to leave early, you will still get paid your full eight hours. You live in the…convent, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well is that going to be a problem?”

Jane couldn’t foresee a day that he would ever expect her to work 12 hours. She didn’t think it would be a problem. “I just have to be back by eight.”

He nodded. “This position does come with a higher salary. “You’ll start out at $12 dollars an hour. After ninety days the job will be offered to you permanently, with a raise…if you want it. Do you find this acceptable?” She nodded happily. Tim spent another few moments talking. He explained that after he left for court, she was to go to the personnel office to fill out her employment paperwork. He finished his coffee and placed his empty mug in the sink then he retreated down the corridor and disappeared.

Jane smiled to herself. He kept referring to Jen as that other girl, but he had remembered her name.

Tim headed for Marx’s office thinking about the girl. He had been surprised by her height; it was rather odd to see a woman that tall. She typed fast and accurately, not to mention she knew how to make a decent cup of coffee. He rather liked the new girl, much better than the other, who had referred to his wife’s filing system as ‘crazy’. His wife had been his assistant for twenty years! It was due to her ‘crazy’ filing system that he was able to work himself up to partner. Who was she to criticize when he kept catching her on her cell phone when she should be working? It was no wonder she had rushed through that report. Well, after she got the new girl trained, Tim intended to let her go. Or maybe he wouldn’t even wait that long. He didn’t want her teaching…Jane, yes Jane any bad habits.

“You sure you don’t want anything to eat?” Jane and Dhakiya were walking the short distance to a nearby pub. Her friend had offered to meet her downtown for drinks. Jane didn’t want to ‘drink’, but she wouldn’t mind having a soda or something.

“I am stuffed. I cannot even tell you the wonderful food that I had to eat. I don’t know the names of the dishes but they were so good!
Tim bought us lunch at a place called Shanghai Mama’s and I had no idea what to order, so I had what he had; a huge bowl of noodles with chicken and vegetables in some type of sauce. Then there was an egg roll and lastly sesame chicken wings!”

“You ate all of that?” Dhakiya asked in amazement.

Jane covered her smiling face. “It’s bad. I’m a glutton. But I ate every bite.”

Her friend smiled. “Tim? You call your boss by his first name?”

“Yes. But he requires it. He says, ‘You are to call me Tim and I will call you Jane.’ She mocked playfully. The two friends chuckled.

“What’s he like?”

Jane thought about that for a moment. “Well, he’s tall, like the men back home, but big too
, and very formidable. He seems very…white; lots of thick white hair that is badly in need of a trimming, and white skin. He frowns a lot…but I don’t think it’s because he’s a bad person, or mean.”

Dhakiya gave her a curious look. “Why do you say that?” 

Jane shrugged. “Just a hunch.” She thought about the picture on his desk and the smile he had for the pretty lady. Maybe tomorrow when things weren’t quite so hectic, she would see his more pleasant face.

They sat for only about an hour and Jane spent most of it talking about her job and Jen and how the young woman had told all of her business. Then Dhakiya drove her back to the school and asked her about the books and music. Jane answered honestly that it was difficult to find the privacy to enjoy them. She offered to return them.

“Consider them a small gift. But one thing,” Jane raised her brow in question. “Read the poetry out loud. I know you won’t be able to find a place to do so in the school but try, okay?”

Jane smiled and nodded. “Thank you, Sister.”

They made plans to get together on Friday and Dhakiya made her promise not to fill up on her rich boss’ food. “I’m going to cook for you and you will be able to meet my love, Rodney. You will love him as well. He’s absolutely wonderful and has two very handsome brothers…” Dhakiya’s brow went up suggestively.

Jane’s eyes got wide. “No! Don’t invite the brothers
—” 

Dhakiya chuckled. “No, just you me and Rodney…for now.”

Jane relaxed. “Thank you.” She leaned in and kissed her. “Bye Sis.”

“
Turongera
.” 

Jane checked the time and noted that everyone would be gathering in the small church for devotion. She hurried to meet them and added Jen and Tim to her prayers.

~***~

Tim walked past Jakob Marx’s pretty secretary.

“Hello Mr. Singleton.”

“Is the old bird in?”

The girl smiled. “Yes. Go right in.”

Tim did just that, knocking once before letting himself in without waiting for a response. Marx looked up from his computer and Tim took the chair opposite him leaning back and regarding the ceiling.

“Singleton. And what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

Tim raised a brow, his eyes still lazily on the ceiling. “Dinner, Saturday, you and your wife. We’ll begin with a round of golf at your country club. After dinner we’ll have some drinks, casual conversation, then I’ll go home and you and Elaina will leave me alone for another month.”

Jakob regarded his friend. “Elaina’s going to want to introduce you to a ‘friend.’”

Tim’s eyes moved to the man that had been his best friend for the last 25 years. “Absolutely out of the question.”

“Elaina calls you a ‘wonderful man’ and she has a ‘wonderful friend’ and thinks that you two will have a ‘wonderful time’ getting to know each other. I’ve tried very hard to convince her that you are neither wonderful…nor even very interesting.” Jakob hid a grin as he spoke. “But for some odd reason she’s convinced that you actually are worthy of her attention.”

Jakob stood, he wasn’t nearly as tall as Tim and where Tim was brawny, Jakob was more athletically built. Once upon a time Tim had cared about such things and he felt a moment of shame that he’d allowed his once toned body to soften.

Jakob seemed in deep concentration as he paced. “Now the female in question does actually fit into the arena of ‘wonderful.’” At this he peeked at Tim who at least continued to watch him. “However, I wouldn’t think that sitting down at dinner with her constitutes any pressure for…dating.”

Tim almost gagged as he straightened in his seat.

“Not the D-word. I don’t want to fucking hear the D-word.”

Jakob held up his hands innocently. “I said there is no pressure in that direction. Dinner, a few drinks after, along with some casual conversation.”

The muscles in Tim’s jaw clenched. It was more reflexive than anything else and once he realized he was doing it he relaxed. “Remove golfing at the country club, and just dinner with…Miss Wonderful present and we have a deal.”

Jakob stood before him, staring down in disapproval. “Have you thought about hitting the gym?”

“What are you saying? That I’m fat?” Now he was becoming offended.

“No. But you will be in about another six months at the rate you’re going.”

Tim scowled and muttered something about plans to hit the treadmill, and then he stood and left.

“Seven sharp, Saturday.”

Tim raised his hand dismissively before disappearing into the elevator.

CHAPTER 5

The next day Jane carried her book to work. She planned to go outside and sit in the pavilion and read aloud to herself. Something moved through her that caused her to frown briefly. Why should she have to sneak away just to read a book of poems? Why should she be afraid that one of the sister’s would see her? She couldn’t wait until she had the money to leave that place that was beginning to feel more and more like a prison!

She arrived at work at 7:30. Jen and Tim hadn’t yet arrived and other than the receptionist, no one else was present on the floor. She liked the quiet and quickly started the coffee brewing. The smell was intoxicating and it alone perked her up. The smell of coffee is one of the few things that she did remember from her life befor
e the school and the nuns. Why, she didn’t know. Only that the smell of it had always soothed her.                                                         

She wasn’t sure what she should do to occupy her time until she was given her daily duties so she began with the file cabinets, checking to make sure that everything was filed properly--and of course it wasn’t. It was like Jen has said, the temps before her hadn’t cared or didn’t understand and had just put everything back haphazardly.

Tim was met with the smell of strong coffee and the sight of Jane busily straightening a file cabinet. She was so engrossed in her activity that she didn’t even see him and he took a moment to watch her. Her height still amazed him. She was pretty, but somewhat dowdy. He didn’t think it in a mean way. He realized that she had been raised in a convent and wouldn’t have expected anything much different. She wore her hair pulled back into a bun that he hadn’t seen on anyone since the 70’s, and her skirt and blouse were outdated and ill-fitting. She was much too thin, but he didn’t think that it was by choice. He suspected that she just wasn’t fed enough at that school for nuns. He’d seen her lunch yesterday. Jane was no salad eater.

“Good morning.” She jumped and he thought she had nearly given herself a heart attack. “Sorry.”

“I didn’t see you!”  She chuckled. “Good morning Tim. I’ll bring your coffee. You take it black?”

“Yes. Thank you, Jane.” He went into his office impressed that she wasn’t just sitting there idly. He took off his coat and hung it, then sat in his chair. He did the same thing almost every morning; he turned on the radio then powered on his computer. His eyes fell onto the photographs on his desk and he sighed. Then he checked for messages.

Jane brought his coffee and sat it on his desk then stood there for a moment. “What would you like for me to do for you today, Sir-um Tim?”

He’d given the other girl a list of daily duties but he supposed that it was too much to expect her to share them with this new girl.