Chapter 29
SPOV
“Uh…Eric! Good to see you man, I wasn’t expecting you here today.” John said seemingly startled.
“And why is that John, this is my company?” I had felt Eric stiffen when John rounded the corner so I shouldn’t have been surprised when Executive Northman showed up.
“Of course it is dude.” He said with a nervous chuckle.
Dude?
“John this is Sookie Stackhouse, she’ll be joining Northman Inc., she’ll be responsible for shoring up our charitable donation process and improving our community presence.” It surprised me a little that he did not refer to me as his girlfriend but I tried not to read too much into it as I offered my hand to John, who was now visibly nervous.
“Nice to meet you Sookie.” John said as he shook my hand.
“Likewise.” I said with a small smile.
“So Eric, how is the rehab coming?” John said in a veiled attempt to get the conversation back to safe topic.
“Fine.” Eric said without elaborating. “So what are you doing up here on my floor?” Eric continued. If you couldn’t hear the suspicion in Eric’s voice, the look on his face was a dead giveaway.
“Umm…well, I hope you don’t mind, I’ve had Debbie working on a few things for me since her work load has been a little lower lately. I hope that’s ok.” He stammered. I had never met John Quinn before but it was obvious that he was not only nervous but a little taken aback by the nature of Eric’s questions.
“No, that’s fine. As a matter of fact I was planning to have her reassigned down to your floor while I’m here today.” I tried not to smile as the tone of Eric’s voice made Debbie’s reassignment sound more like the description of a potted plant that was being moved from one spot to another.
“Are you sure? I mean, I’m sure she could probably provide quite a bit of assistance with some of Pam’s responsibilities.” John asked.
“No, she’s been enough help already. I’m sure I’ll be fine, besides I know where to find her if I need her.” Eric said. “Well, if you’ll excuse us, we have several things we need to take care of while we are here today.” Eric said placing his hand in the small of my back to guide me around John.
“Sure, I’ll see you soon. Good to meet you Sookie.” He said as he quickly made his way to the elevator.
I looked at Eric, searching for any indication of how he was feeling but his face was blank, void of any emotion or expression as we continued on to Pam’s office.
The door was closed but Eric didn’t bother to knock, instead he just opened the door, waited for me to walk through and then followed me in to greet an extremely startled Debbie.
“Eric…I wasn’t expecting to see you here today.” She said quickly regaining her composure.
“I’m getting that a lot today.” He mumbled but she chose to ignore the comment and focus on me.
“Sophie, so good to see you again, how have you been?” No you didn’t.
I felt Eric stiffen and I quickly placed my hand discretely behind me to squeeze the hand he had placed on my back to let him know I recognized the tone of voice and I could handle the situation.
“I’m good Donna, how about you?” I said in the same sickenly sweet tone. Back atcha bitch!
Eric cleared his throat effectively putting an end to our fun and games and I watched as his eyes swept over the room and the desk that Debbie had apparently taken up residence in.
“Debbie was there something you needed from in here?” Eric asked somewhat tersely.
I could see Debbie’s countenance change as all the smug confidence was over taken by the same unsettled look that had plagued John Quinn just a few minutes earlier.
“I…um...well, I was just following up on the status of a few things Pam and I had been working on together, and well it was just easier to do it from in here.” She stammered.
“Well, if you will get me a brief overview of anything you have going on with those projects by the end of the day I would appreciate it. Meanwhile if you want to go ahead and start boxing your personal stuff up, Human Resources will have you reassigned and moved downstairs later today.”
Damn! Executive Northman don’t play.
Debbie looked as if she was going to try to say something but Eric’s words left little room for discussion so she began gathering up the things she had scattered on Pam’s desk.
A couple of minutes later Debbie exited the office and Eric closed the door and sighed heavily.
“So how did I do?” He asked as he walked back over to me.
“Well, if scaring the shit out of them was your goal…mission accomplished.” I answered as we sat down on the couch in the back of the office. “Eric, I’m going to feel bad about all this hostility if all this turns out to be nothing but a big coincidence.”
“Sookie listen to me…I don’t want you to feel bad no matter how this turns out. I didn’t accuse anyone of anything; I just want them to be thrown off guard a little, this way if there is something shady going on, maybe it will force them to do something stupid in an attempt to cover their tracks.” He said giving my hand a reassuring squeeze.
“Now, we need to think about what we need to do to this office to get it ready for you.”
“Eric I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to take this office. Why don’t we just see how things go and we think about office space later?” I felt him stiffen at my suggestion.
“Sookie you’re not having second thoughts are you?”
“What? No…Eric, believe it or not that decision was one of the easiest decisions I have ever made. But I’m really not comfortable with taking Pam’s office.”
“Love, I told you I don’t want anyone else to have this space.”
“I know you did, but Eric I think you should leave Pam’s office just the way it is for awhile.”
“And why is that?”
Did I really want to answer this question? I mean aside from the unnecessary animosity that would be created the day everyone came in and found out that the boss’s high school diploma carrying girlfriend had moved into arguably the best office in the building, I still couldn’t help but think that emotionally it would be better for Eric if her office remained the same for a little while longer.
“I just think it maybe a little too soon to be removing Pam’s presence from the office.” I turned towards him and took his hands in mine. “Look, I’m not trying to tell you how to mourn but you’ve only been out of the hospital for just over a week and this is only the second trip you’ve made to the office, you may want to wait a little while before you make those kinds of permanent changes.”
I held my breath as the words left my mouth, grief causes unnatural reactions in people and although we had been wrapped tightly in our own little cocoon of happiness lately, the man was still mourning.
“You’re right, it can wait.”
We sat there silently for a few minutes as Eric seemed to be lost in thought, I fought the urge to pry and try to find out what was going on in his head choosing rather to be silently supportive.
“What do you say we head back to my office so I can take care of a few things, we’ll talk to Selah and then go get some lunch?”
“Lead the way.”
We made our way back to the other end of the hall and just as we reached Eric’s office door Selah walked out of her office.
“Sookie could I speak with you for just a moment?” She asked.
“Sure.” I said while turning to Eric. He leaned down gave me a kiss on the forehead and told me to meet him in his office when I was done. I followed Selah back in to her office and took a seat in her guest chair.
“Sookie, I just wanted to thank you again for including me Saturday night, it really means a lot to me that you thought to invite me.”
“Selah, don’t mention it. Did you have fun?”
“I had a really great time. Hoyt is such a sweetheart.” She said as a small blush covered her face.
“He is a good guy, I’m glad you had a good time. What about your cousin?”
“She had fun, I don’t think she really made a connection with Malcolm but she found a relatively good looking redheaded guy to kill time with.”
“Well I did apologize in advance for Malcolm.” I said with a laugh.
“Yes you did, but he was all right besides he spent most of the night with some ‘butter face’ girl at the end of the bar.”
“Butter face?”
“Those were his words, let’s see…how’d he put it...oh yeah…“everything looked good about her but her face”. And with that both of us started laughing.
“He’s one to talk.” I offered. As the laughter died down a little Selah’s face got a little more serious.
“Look, I wanted to ask you about something.” She said playing with the lid of her ink pen and I nodded indicating for her to go ahead.
“Hoyt has asked me to go with him to the Fourth of July get together you guys are having at Northman Estates and I told him I thought I should talk to you or Eric before I accepted his invitation and if you don’t want me to go I completely understand. It’s just that…” I cut her off from her rant.
“Selah, it’s fine. I don’t have a problem with you going and I don’t think Eric will either but if it will make you feel better, I’ll speak to him or you can speak with him for that matter. But I don’t see it as a problem. I would however ask that you not mention it to rest of the employees. I mean you’re his assistant and in my opinion you play by a different set of rules, but I would hate to start unnecessary drama.”
“Thank you, that means a lot to me. But if you don’t mind I would really appreciate it if you would ask Eric about it.” She asked.
“Wouldn’t you rather just speak to him yourself?”
“Not really. I’ve never had to speak with him about a matter this personal before and I don’t want to put him or me, for that matter, in an embarrassing situation; if that’s ok…he’ll speak more openly to you.”
It’s funny where life takes you sometimes, just a few weeks ago she was posing as his girlfriend and today she’s asking me to speak with him on her behalf because she’s never spoken to him about something personal. Life is just full of surprises.
She told me that Hoyt was coming back to Shreveport for the weekend to visit her. She offered to make the trip to Bon Temps but Hoyt felt it would be better for him to come here. I suppose he’d rather not ask his mom to set one more plate at the breakfast table. We chatted for a few more minutes and then I left to find Eric.
Eric was just getting off the phone when I walked in.
“Everything ok?” He asked raising one eyebrow in speculation.
“Yeah, just a little girl talk. She did however mention that Hoyt had invited her to the Fourth of July thingy, but she didn’t want to commit unless it was ok with us.”
“Well, I’ll admit I’ve never really socialized with any of my co-workers outside of business function so it’s a little weird, but I think Saturday night went ok. How do you feel about it?”
“I told her I thought it was fine as long as she didn’t discuss it with other employees.”
“Well, I’ll leave it up to you; if you’re ok with her being there then I’m ok with it.”
“Good. Now are you ready to get something to eat?”
With speed undetectable by the human eye, Eric was in front of me with his hand on my hips.
“Oh, I’m always ready to eat.” He said, his voice husky and low.
“Don’t even think about it Northman. You promised me lunch, now you are going to take me out for a proper meal.”
“OK, but you’ve had Executive Northman all morning now Naked Northman is demanding equal time tonight.” Hell Yes!
“Well, I think I can slip him in.”
TBC
