Secrets of the Apple Read Free Page A

grabbed the desk to right himself.
    “Chair,” he said with his best Tanaka stare, a legacy from his paternal grandfather, known to shatter the kneecaps of battle-hardened executives.
    “I’ll switch it as soon as they send us a replacement, or would you rather I snatch one out from under someone else?” She smiled sweetly. Ryoki demurred, deciding to ask Brian about it later, though he would never remember to do it.
    She showed him the completed documents, photocopied, collated, stapled and neatly stacked on his desk. “Brian went through this with me,” she said. Ryoki looked over everything, rapidly scanning the numbers and Melo’s take on them, appreciating her clear, meticulous summary. He had everything he needed, but he knew he wouldn’t have time to familiarize himself with the details. She seemed to read his mind.
    “I’m going with you,” she said.
    “That will not be necessary,” he replied automatically, his nose in his papers.
    She put a finger on the corner of his spreadsheet and he looked up, really seeing her for the first time that morning. Tan corduroy skirt, ivory cashmere sweater and a short strand of graduated pearls, like a professor with a little student thrown in. He still couldn’t figure out what position she held in the office. Judging by her work and overconfident manner, she must be a newly minted lawyer or fledgling MBA, or possibly a clever graduate student who did not yet own a dark suit. Pink looked at him, smoothly determined, momentarily exposing a wide vein of granite under all that cream. But an executive meeting required more than determination. He glanced back at the reports in his hand, then checked his watch. No way to absorb all this in time.
    “Look, yesterday I saw the dark circles under your eyes,” she said, biting her lip. “And last night I got to thinking that I may have been a little abrupt, and this morning, well, I think maybe you might need me more than I’d anticipated.”
    “I’ve had a good night’s sleep since then,” he said.
    “We both have a vested interest in making sure there are no delays in this transaction. I need to be free as much as you do,” she said bluntly.
    Her clothes looked so soft, so tactile, so at odds with her frank expression. Somehow her offer to help seemed more palatable yesterday when he didn’t have to parade her into meetings. He checked his watch again, dropping the reports onto his desk with a sigh. Truthfully he could see no alternative. He would have to take the risk.
    At 11:00 a.m. she sat near his elbow, unobtrusively handing out materials and generally facilitating the meeting. She moved quietly, almost too quietly. Fourteen dark-suited, dour-looking men. What if she folded in on herself? What if she tried to disappear? What if—
    But when Kate’s turn came, she stood, cracked a joke, made direct eye contact, and led the group through the last set of findings with a sweet smile and the clear, commanding confidence of a secretary of state. Ryoki studied expressions around the room as they subtly shifted from ogling the pretty girl, to actually listening to what she had to say. When she resumed her place, Ryoki stood to wrap up and noticed that fully half the eyes had followed her to her seat and rested there before reluctantly returning to him. Stern faces had softened, looking receptive, an unexpected advantage. Certainly she had done this before.
    When the meeting broke at two o’clock, they all went to lunch at a nearby sports bar, but Kate begged off, claiming work. Ryoki had given her no assignment, but he said nothing. As she headed down the hall, Brian’s partner, Edward Randall, a white-haired, grandfatherly type, caught hold of her arm. “Now, Kate, don’t work too hard,” he said. “Remember, you’re on vacation.” He let loose with a big guffaw, as though he’d told some great joke. With her back to him, Ryoki could only see her right shoulder lift and fall in a delicate shrug as she