A SONG IN one’s heart and a spring in one’s step, that’s how the saying goes, and Tammy Doyle is feeling it as she strides across the main office area—filled with rows of cubicles—now heading down a hallway and right up to the closed door of Amanda Price’s corner office, quickly passing by her two administrative assistants, grabbing the doorknob, and walking right in.
A week ago she would have never considered doing something so rude and forward.
But a week is a lifetime ago.
Amanda Price, smoking a cigarette and on the phone with someone, looks up and says, “What the hell is going on, Tammy? Is the place on fire? Or has the President finally proposed marriage?”
The corner office has a great view of K Street and the surrounding buildings, the best in the company. “I need to talk to you, Amanda.”
Phone in hand, Amanda puts her cigarette down in the crowded ashtray. “I can see you in an hour.”
“Now.”
Amanda’s inked eyebrows lift up some. “Don’t push me, Tammy.”
“If I don’t see you now,” Tammy says, “you’re going to be the one pushed. Out the front door.”
Amanda speaks into the phone. “Jeb, sorry, something’s come up. I’ll call you back in sixty seconds. Promise.”
Amanda slams the receiver down and starts in on Tammy, and Tammy yells back, “Enough! Amanda, I’ve been here some years and that’s the last time you’re ever going to raise your voice to me. Ever.”
That gets her attention. She folds her hands before her, forming a slim and strong triangle. “I told Jeb I’d be calling him back in sixty seconds. You’ve got about thirty seconds left before I fire your ass and make that phone call.”
Tammy says, “Lucian Crockett.”
That puzzles her. “Go on.”
“I just got off the phone with him. He’s ready to do business with the company…but only through me.”
Amanda clenches her fingers together into a fist. “You shouldn’t have talked to him. When he called, you should have transferred the call to me. He and his company belong to me. I’ve been working to sign him up for months. Months!”
Tammy says, “Not my choice. He wanted to talk to me, and he made it quite clear: he and his company will do business with Pearson, Pearson, and Price, but only with me. Not you.”
She reaches for her phone. “Get the hell out of here. Now.”
“If you’re thinking about calling Lucian, I wouldn’t do it, Amanda. He doesn’t like you. His wife and mother don’t like you. The only reason they’re coming here is because of me.” Tammy steps forward for emphasis. “If you go around me and try to mess this up, within the hour, the board of directors will hear from me on how you sabotaged a deal worth millions of dollars.”
Amanda’s finely manicured hand is still on her phone. “Are you testing me?”
“Not a test, Amanda. A statement of fact. Lucian Crockett is coming aboard, and I’m supplying the ticket.”
She slowly draws her hand back. She looks at Tammy, looks out the window, then back at Tammy.
Something resembling a smile creases her face. “Well…I suppose some arrangement can be made…for the good of the company.”
“I agree, Amanda. For the good of the company. I’m glad you see it that way.”
Silence, and Tammy decides to push it. “That’s very understanding of you, Amanda. And I need to understand something else. Back when you…broke into my condo, and after I told you I had been in a car accident, you said traffic can be awful on Interstate Sixty-six. How did you know I was on Sixty-six? I didn’t tell you. Did you arrange that accident?”
She shakes her head. “No…Tammy, there are corners I will cut, lines I will cross, but not something like…that. No.”
Amanda glances with longing at her slowly burning cigarette. “Information. That’s all. I always look to get information about our clients and our employees. Your name is on a list, that’s all. And I got a phone call from a source of mine at the Virginia State Police, telling me about your accident. That’s all.”
Tammy says, “Fair enough.” She turns and starts to the office door. “By the way, before you call Jeb back, make another call, will you? By the end of the week, I want a bigger office, with a better view.”
The smile on that painted face disappears, but her voice is agreeable. “I don’t see why not.”
She leaves Amanda, and just before she gets to her soon-to-be former office, her cell phone rings and she notices the familiar incoming number.
Tammy feels it’ll be the last time a call from this number will ever be received on her phone.