Beauty: A Novel Read Free Page B

Come on inside. It’s the end of the day, but you can take a peek and meet some of us. We’re eager as can be about the new association with Baxter Blume.”
    She let him take her elbow and guide her at the grand entrance to ESP, but after a few steps, she pointed over at the landscapers.
    He stopped. “Getting ready to decorate with some sod. A frill, maybe, but at not much expense, and I’ve found it makes a difference in morale and in relationships. May I call you Carol?”
    She said, “Why don’t we send them home?” He flinched, and covered it.
    “They’re almost on their way right now. They usually break at four thirty. Come on inside so the team doesn’t have to squint through the blinds to check you out.” Mathews chuckled.
    “Let’s send them home for good, Mathews.”
    “Yep. Fair enough. You’ve found a soft spot in your first five minutes, Carol, but I think it’s the only one you’re going to find. We’ve always run a tight ship here, no pun intended, and we’ve been able to tighten up considerably since the Japanese ownership began pulling back. We can talk to you about that for the rest of the afternoon and all day tomorrow. I’ll get my assistant to send out the facilities guy and we’ll go to gravel and be the better for it. I think we’re all going to be on the same page in this thing, Carol, and we’re going to benefit from your good eye. Costs. Yep, there will be things we’ve overlooked in the forest because we’re too close to the trees. But not many, I think you’ll find.”
    Carol stood her ground and watched him talk. He knew. She said, “Let’s you and I go right now and get it over with.” She pried his hand off her elbow and took hold of his elbow. “Come on,” she said and pulled him toward the landscapers’ trucks. “Hold on a minute, men,” she called.
    The foreman waited for them by the door of the flatbed.
    “Marco,” Mathews said. “We’re going to go with the gravel. I know we talked about sod and you’ve been getting ready for the sod, but we’re cutting back all over and we’ve decided to pull back out here as well. I’ll have somebody call your office and work it out first thing in the morning. The gravel is going to look fine with everything else you’ve already done. Okay? Thank you, Marco, and excuse us. We’ve got a lot on our plate.”
    Mathews started away, but Carol held him where he was. She said to Marco, who was not yet able to read things clearly, “No gravel. Nothing. You’re done here. Any charges will need to be thoroughly detailed. I have to tell you we’ll be looking closely and arguing wherever we can.”
    “Mr. Mathews?” Marco said. He was figuring it out now, at one level or another.
    Mathews had turned most of the way back around toward the building, but she still had his elbow. She gave him a squeeze, and he looked back at Marco and nodded and said, “Let’s leave it at that, Marco. That makes the best sense. Let’s just shut it down for now.”
    Marco might have been sorry to lose his contract, but he looked glad to see Mathews take it in the shorts. Once in a while when the Beast was on duty, people could be glad. Carol said, “Let’s go meet the team, shall we?”

    They went into the executive offices, and Mathews gave Carol a quick look down into the plant from the second floor. Carol didn’t know fish from flamingos, but she saw what had to be six lines and everything necessary to support a three-shift operation. She wondered if she was going to be able to find a buyer to take all of it. Wouldn’t that be nice? Mathews wanted to talk, and she paid no attention and he shut up. He’d done all his kidding outside. Five of his lines were quiet, and obviously there wouldn’t be other shifts. Even with the limited information she had, she could connect plenty of dots.
    As she and Mathews walked to his suite at the end of the hall, the other guys appeared out of their office doors and fell in behind. There were