Hmm, that was something I needed to work on. I needed my staff to be able to make decisions and run things if something happened to me.
“Okay, well can you come in when you’re ready?” I asked her and continued to my desk. I knew that would pique her interest and she would come in immediately.
“Do you need something?”
“Yes, I do.” I opened the bag I sat down on my desk.
“I need you to open this.” I handed her a stuffed panda holding a box.
She looked at me curiously and smiled at the panda.
“He is adorable!” She beamed. She eyed the box suspiciously. “What is it?”
“Open it.”
She removed the box from the panda’s lap and sat him on the corner of my desk. Then removed the gold ribbon from the box and opened it and gasped.
“Oh Kay, this is beautiful.” She lifted the necklace with the panda charm. “Oh, and it’s heavy. Is the real gold?”
“Of course.”
“Oh no,” she started shaking her head. “I can’t take this, it’s too much.”
“You can and you will.” I walked over taking the necklace and stepping behind her to put it around her neck. “Turn around, let’s see.”
When she did, she had tears in her eyes.
“Now that looks perfect.” I said smiling. “Oh no, there is no crying. Why are you crying?”
She hugged me. Then stepped away. “You shouldn’t have done this.”
“Why not? You are my right hand. I get nothing done without you and you had to stay behind and handle the office. The least I could do was bring you something.”
“People bring back t-shirts. Not gold necklaces.”
“Do I look like ‘people’ to you?” I laughed.
“No, you don’t.” She laughed too. “Thank you so much.”
“No, thank you. I might not always say it or show it but, I just couldn’t do any of this without you.”
Sherry wiped away a tear.
“Well, now that I have ruined my make-up, I suppose you want coffee.”
“Absolutely.” I smiled.
She made the coffee then gathered her panda and left.
I noticed later in the day the stuffed panda was sitting on the corner of her desk watching her work. I smiled.
The day was spent catching up on emails and I had a phone call with Dr. Klaus to discuss his opinion on how things went at the hospital.
By the end of the day I was ready to go home. I had no reason to be there. In truth I missed Mac. I was staring into space thinking about him and about Ethan when Sherry poked her head in. I didn’t hear her until she was standing right in front of my desk.
“Kay, are you okay?”
“What? I’m sorry.” I jumped startled at the sound of her voice.
“Are you okay, you haven’t seemed like yourself all day.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“How can you tell?”
“The lines on your forehead and around your eyes.”
“Gee thanks, are you selling Botox injections on the side?” I asked maybe a little harsher than I intended.
“You really aren’t okay, are you?”
“Sure I am.”
“I’m sure you not. Something is really bothering you.”
I sighed and set back in my chair. “Yeah there is, but its personal.”
“That’s even worse.” She got up and headed for the door. I thought she was going to leave now that she knew it had nothing to do with work. Instead she closed the door and returned to the chair in from of my desk with her folded her hands in her lap.
“Tell me everything.”
“Why do you think there is an everything.”
“Kay, I have worked for you for six years. Four of those years you’ve been in this office. I see you every day. I know how you sit, smile, talk. I know when you are angry, although that is rare, I know when you happy, which isn’t that often and I know when something is bothering you. This is different. So, it has to be a man.”
I was shocked. I made it a point to know about my employees, I knew that Sherry loved pandas, that her favorite color was pink, when her birthday was but it never occurred to me that anyone was giving me the same level of attention.
“What makes you think it is a man?”
“Because in all the time I have known you, you’ve never once mentioned a man and you’ve never asked me to make dinner reservations at a romantic restaurant or book a weekend getaway. You don’t have any pictures in here of anyone I don’t know, and I have never ever seen you like this so, it has to be a man.”
She folded her arms across her chest and glared at me. “Tell me I’m wrong.” She challenged.
I blinked at her in surprise and slowly looked around my office to see that she was right. I had pictures of my mother and father and company related photos and that was it, nothing personal.
“Okay, it’s a man. Sorta.”
“I knew it!”
She clapped her hands and bounced in the chair.
I smiled; her giddiness was contagious. I felt excited and relieved to have someone to talk to about this.
“Now what do you mean sort of?”
“Well, it’s about two men, actually.” I sighed admitting to myself I was still hung up on Ethan and being with Mac had only brought those feelings to the forefront.
“Wow! I wish I had problems like that.”
“No, you don’t.” I shook my head.
“Yeah, just for one weekend.”
“Okay, well let’s see if we can pass you off as me and the problem is all yours.” I laughed.
“So, what’s the problem?”
“Okay, without getting too bogged down in details, I met a man the weekend of my mother’s funeral. We spent two lovely evenings together drinking bourbon and listening to music. It wasn’t the right time to start a relationship, you know?”
She bit her lower lip and nodded waiting for me to go on.
“Well, as you know I went back to my marine unit. Before I left, I told him that if it was meant to be, we would meet again.”
“And did
