A Trade For Good (3 page)

Her hand dangled in the air for a few
seconds without his acknowledgement, and unperturbed she turned
away and sat on his chair behind the big metal desk.

“You must be Mr. Mason. Nice to meet
you. I’m Sera.” She noticed she was yet to get a reaction from him,
so she turned around and started going through another new neat
pile that was stacked on his desk.

Jeff was still wondering who Sera was,
and then it dawned on him. The lady with the kid who sounded like a
fax machine.

“This is
my
office,” he announced
ominously only to hear the chuckles from behind him grow
louder.

“Don’t any of you have any
work to do?!
” The quick shuffle of feet and
the roar of laughter that exploded as a door slammed behind him
meant the men had retreated outside the building.

Good, three problems down, and one to
go.

He turned to find the woman still
waiting for some recognition from him.

“I came to discuss my bill?” Sera said
as she put some paper clips into a little container in the
drawer.

She was still sitting behind his desk
on his chair and Jeff decided he would lose even more ground if he
brought in another chair to sit across from her. Had she been the
one standing, he wouldn’t have hesitated to get another chair,
after all his mother and his two older sisters had raised him well,
but he was at a loss right now on how to proceed at many levels
that had nothing to do with being a gentleman.

Jeff stood at the doorway suddenly
feeling very out of place in his own office and decided to walk
over to the desk and search for the contract.

“Sinclair,
right
?” He looked up. Her
eyes were really green. “Sinclair, yes, let me see..."

“It’s filed under ‘S’ over there." She
said pointing to the file cabinet next to the trash bin where his
silk plant was resting.

Jeff moved toward the file cabinet,
pretending he had some control, and opened the drawer to find
folders filed alphabetically and labeled with bold printed letters
in Sharpie black. “Yes, of course. Here it is, Sinclair. Hmm, let
me see…”

Sera was leaning over him and had her
finger on the bottom of the sheet, pointing to something she had
obviously already looked at.

Jeff’s vision was blurred and he was
consumed by another sense, and how good she smelled. She moved away
and tucked a wisp of hair threatening to come loose from the pink
scrunchy she was wearing.

That about made him melt,
and then she surprised him by asking if he wanted
her
chair.

"No, I'm fine standing. Go ahead, sit
down."

“Thank you,” she said taking her seat
behind the desk again. “I came to discuss the cost of the materials
for the job I cancelled last night. As I mentioned before," she had
picked up one of the paper clips and was tying it in knots and
staring down at it. When she looked up her face had turned a slight
pink, and embarrassed she added quickly, "I don’t know where my
husband is and I don’t have any money to spare until I can find out
what we're going to do. Now," she looked up to him proudly, "if you
would just look at the notes I made over here on the bottom of the
contract..."

“You made notes on the contract?” he
blurted out. There had to be something illegal about that. “How
long have you been going through my desk? Do you always waltz into
an office, go through a desk, mess with the filing system, and
tamper with contracts?” he paused to catch his breath, “Or is this
a new thing?"

Jeff went around the desk
and pointed to his chair. "I think I will sit down. On
my
chair. Lady, you've got
more problems than you know."

“I – I, I’m sorry. I’m
really,
really, really
sorry. You’re absolutely right. I, I always do this and I
don't know why. Not,” she stopped and furrowed her brow. “What did
you say? Waltzing? No, not waltzing into offices, but…
I…”

Head hanging low, Sera bent down to
get her purse, and all Jeff could think of this time was not her
toosh, but that these were the biggest tear-filled, and most
beautiful green eyes he had ever seen.

He felt like an ass.

She was still mumbling something he
couldn't hear because she kept her head down, and was talking into
her white t-shirt, when she looked up and with quivering lips said,
“I’m sorry, I just meant to help.

"I’m constantly trying to
fix things, help out, and make things better. Not that there was a
problem here” she added quickly pointing to the desk and the
cabinet, "but I thought I could do it a little better,” she
blushed. “
Snap.
I
did it again, didn't I?"

Jeff stood staring at
her.
Snap?
Who said
‘snap’ these days?

Before he knew it she was running out
of the office and into the street outside of the building, where
her car was parked. And, before Jeff realized what he was doing, he
was chasing after her to tell her she could snoop in his office any
time she wanted.

“Wait Sera, wait a minute. Mrs.
Sinclair, come back here!” He yelled out and saw that his voice had
attracted the attention of his three co-workers and they were all
fixing a dirty look on him. He shook his head in frustration and
gave them the bird.

Here he was trying to make
amends with someone who ransacked his office, stuck him with over
$6,000.00 worth of materials, and tampered with the document that
was his only hope to use if he took the case to a small claims
court, and he was the bad guy. Just because he made a woman run off
in tears? Didn’t it at least matter that it was
his
silk plant that was now being
given an improper burial in a trashcan? Life was definitely not
fair.

Chapter 3

Sera pushed her way past Jeff and ran
off to the street where her car was parked. The tears she had held
back for so long suddenly started pouring out like a floodgate had
just opened.

She had messed up. She came to right a
wrong, and she had screwed up. Jeff seemed like a genuinely nice
guy. Last night after she hung up with him she had felt really,
really bad. Peter had messed everything up for her and the kids. In
fact, he left not only family and friends hanging, but business
partners and others he owed a lot of money to as well. But Jeff
Mason hadn't married Peter, she had.

I'm a nuisance.
She wondered what ever possessed her to go and
organize Jeff Mason’s desk and start filing his papers? She came to
his office to explain how things were and thank him for his
patience, and made him lose his patience instead. Eventually she'd
pay him back,
that
was what she had come here to tell him. Instead…

The guy was absolutely right. Jeff had
basically called her a lunatic, and he was absolutely right. Peter
had told her she was crazy, her family constantly told her she was
insane for trying to fix everything all the time, and now Jeff
Mason, a total stranger, had her pegged for a loony almost at first
sight.

Sera got to her car and opened the
door she had apparently left unlocked. She sat in the driver's
seat, with shoulders shaking. She was due for a good cry and this
was as good a time as any.

The tears wouldn't stop pouring down
her cheeks, but it didn't matter, it was raining outside
anyway.

Sera hugged the steering wheel and put
her head down. She knew she had to get a job because she had no
idea how long she could last with the little money she had in the
bank or, if Peter would ever deposit money in their account again.
If not for her, he should at least for the kids. He had deposited
two checks in the past four months and not even the bank had been
able to trace where the deposit had come from. In fact, Sera had
wondered if it was Peter who had sent that money to her in the
first place. She wondered if it had been someone from his work or
family, but she really doubted it. He had a lot of people fooled,
but…

Peter was a
jewel.
Like a diamond that
looks beautiful and can slice you open.

She met him in High School. The first
day she saw him, she was a goner. He had a way about him; he was
charming. He was an actor and a manipulator, but she didn’t pick up
on that until much later. Too late.

After High School, they went off to
college together. Sera would have followed him to the end of the
earth. College was only a few hundred miles away.

Of course, he was a jock at school,
and Sera wasn't one of the more popular girls. She was pretty, but
she was nerdy. And it took a while for her to grow in places that
made the popular girls, more popular. And speaking of popularity,
that’s exactly what she gained when Greg, her ex, had started
spreading rumors about her and ruining her reputation. Greg had
done it out of spite when he got tired of hearing her say
no.

Interestingly, Greg broke up with her,
and the previously not so popular girl started getting asked out a
lot more. Just as quickly, she was dumped and decided she’d had it
with guys, but that was when Peter showed up, and also about the
same time her boobs made their appearance.

Peter was different. She never thought
she was in his league and never tried to edge her way into the more
popular groups, but Peter had noticed her, and that was
something.

At the end of their junior year in
High School, they started dating. Peter immediately took it upon
himself to explain the ways of the world to her; somehow, he was
seventeen, but already knew.

He pointed out that she had apparently
lived in a very protected and artificial world, and he was set on
educating her as much as he could.

There was a lot of 'education' taking
place in their senior year in High School and in their Freshman
year in college. And before her end of year finals she was educated
enough to recognize the fact that she was three months
pregnant.

Peter had done the right thing and had
married the poor girl, as word would have it. Of course having a
dad in the military didn't hurt matters and kind of kept things
moving at least in the beginning. Her dad could be
intimidating.

‘Pops’, damn she missed her dad, died
a few months after P.D. was born. Then came Michelle – Melle –
because Peter had a thing for Michelle Pfeifer at the time,
Charlie, named after Pops, and now Emma, who was seven months
strong.

She didn't regret marrying Peter, if
only because of the great kids he had given her. Had she been
smarter, she would have figured out that Peter didn't care if they
had one or ten kids, because he had never planned to be a part of
their lives. No, she had no regrets. Peter made cute babies, and
she wouldn’t change them for the world. Well, she would install a
temporary mute button on Em if she could, but that was about
it.

Ironically, rumor had it
Peter had at least one more kid with someone else. You'd think the
guy would learn. And despite taking pride in already fathering four
kids -
what century was he from?
– he never fessed up.

Sera was still sitting in the driver's
seat with her head down on the steering wheel. She heaved when she
took in air and mixed it with the heavy flow of her
tears.

Enough,
she said to no one.

She took one big breath and lifted her
head off the wheel to see if the storm outside had
subsided.

That’s when she saw Jeff Mason looking
into her car window.

He was soaked on the outside, and she
was soaked on the inside. She looked down in search of her keys to
get far away as quickly as possible and heard him tapping on the
glass. He was pointing to the window, and making a hand motion for
her to roll it down – something only people over the age of thirty
do. He looked exasperated when she mouthed no, but she couldn’t and
she didn’t want him to know why.

Sera saw him try to open the door she
had locked. He looked like he could have easily busted it open.
Instead, he paced a few steps in the cold rain, before he came back
to the window and tapped again. He was a nice guy.

She sat there for a good two very
frustrating minutes, shaking her head, wanting to cry some more and
wanting to make herself completely invisible. However, more than
anything she wanted to drive off as fast as she could and go
home!

If only she had the car keys she left
on Jeff's desk.

Jeff Mason didn't enjoy making women
cry or putting up with their stupid tantrums. He felt bad about
upsetting her the way he apparently had, and he was trying to do
his part to make amends.

He tapped on the window
again and motioned for her to roll down the window. His nephew
would have laughed at that, you don't
roll
windows down anymore.

What the hell was she
doing?
This is ridiculous. Either roll down
your window, or drive off but don’t just sit there. He
looked again and could tell she was still
breathing, that was good, but she just sat there without even
acknowledging him. She was actually pouting.