Date Published: 2015
“Fate hunts us down in our sleep.” Clay Conover, retired Marine officer turned corporate trainer has successfully re-careered and has a long-term plan. A plan grounded in a sense of duty, loyalty, and tempered by clear-eyed realism. Unfortunately, Clay’s plan doesn’t account for the hiring of Sheera Prasad. Young, hungry and ambitious, Sheera has an agenda of her own.
In the collision of wills that follows, Clay is confronted with a choice that will define him, not simply professionally but personally. Will he take the ethical high road, or opt for self-serving rathionalization? West of Tomorrow is an intelligent romance, laced with corporate intrigue, betrayal and the undiscovered phoenix living in all of us.
Chapter 11—Tempting Fate
Monday, November 30, 2009
The door to the suite closed
decisively. “Good morning, Alistair,” Nina chirped.
“Good morning yourself.” Clay heard the hinges to Alistair’s
office door creak as he opened it.
Shit, he thought.
He’d forgotten the WD-40 he’d promised. Clay pulled out his planner and was
scribbling a note in it when Sheera walked in.
“Good morning, Clay.” She walked between their desks and set
purse and laptop bag on the return of her desk. “Do anything special for
Thanksgiving?”
“Had my daughter and her boyfriend over for dinner. Instead
of turkey we had ham and twice-baked potatoes. After dinner we watched the
Packers pound the Lions.”
Sheera inspected him like she’d discovered a new specie.
“You don’t strike me as the football type.”
“Hard to grow up in the Midwest without developing at least
a passing interest,” Clay replied. “What about you? What’d you do for
Thanksgiving?”
“Slept in for starters. Then Nan had Neill over for turkey.
He brought three bottles of wine and a couple movies to watch. I fell asleep
half-way through the first one. When I woke up, the TV was off, and I could
hear them at it in Nan’s bedroom. So I retreated to the guest room, put on a
pair of headphones and played dumb in the morning.”
“Considerate of you.”
Sheera flashed him a self-satisfied smile. “I’m an
incredibly considerate girl. Besides, Nan is so overdue.”
“You knew her from college, I think you told me?”
She nodded. “Sorority sisters and roommates most of the
time.” Sheera turned back to her desk, pulled her laptop from its bag and
docked it, knocking a pen off the desk. She leaned over to retrieve it, giving
Clay an opportunity to enjoy her skirt climbing high up her thigh.
Does she do that
intentionally? he wondered. Not that
I mind... “How are you coming on the scenario adaptation?” he asked.
Sheera looked up at him, still straining to reach the pen on
the floor, her hem climbing even higher. “To be honest, I haven’t worked on it
since we talked about it with Alistair, the other day. It’s been on my mind,
but...” She captured the pen and straightened up. “I need to get cracking,
don’t I? Especially in light of Alistair’s warning.” She frowned. “My bad. I’ll
get on it today.”
♦♦♦♦
Napali’s oozed atmosphere more appropriate to a date than a
business lunch with a partner. Sheera decided to tease. “You and Alistair come
here often?” she asked after a tall blond seated them. She glanced at the menu
then eyed him mischievously over the top of the menu.
“No.”
She smiled. “Well! Don’t you
know how to make a girl feel special?”
“You’ve earned it,” Clay told her. “I’ve been riding you
pretty hard—”
“Have you really? Oh, right...the project.”
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“Do I?” Sheera’s eyes glowed with amusement. Clay looked
down and she relented. “You’re right I do.” Clay’s eyes came up to meet hers.
“Okay. What can I get you?” A waitress in an immaculate
maroon dress and spotless white apron stood next to her, pen poised over her
order pad.
“I’ll have the Coast Salad, without macadamia nuts,” Sheera
told her. “And iced tea.”
“Make that two,” Clay seconded, “but I’ll take the
macadamias.”
“Perfect.” She scribbled and left.
“You said something this morning about growing up in the
Midwest,” Sheera noted. “Nan, my best friend grew up in Chicago. What about
you?”
“Iowa.”
“It’s mostly farm country, right?”
“Mostly.”
“Pretty slow-moving.”
“Very,” Clay affirmed. “At least back then. Not many
distractions, either, which was good for my academics.”
“I can imagine,” Sheera retorted. “What else could you do?
Watch the corn grow?”
“It wasn’t that
bad. I grew up in a college town, swam competitively and was a lifeguard three
evenings a week and every weekend. Add in homework and chores at home, it kept
me out of trouble.”
“Which college town?”
“Ames. Iowa State University is there.”
“And your family...are they still there?”
“Moved on,” Clay told her. “What about you?”
“Hartford. My father taught Business Administration at UConn
Hartford.” She frowned. “Growing up, it felt like they brought India along with
them.”
“Isn’t that natural? Clay asked. “Even as we evolve, don’t
we still crave the familiar?”
“I suppose...and don’t misunderstand me. I’m proud of my
heritage, but I wanted to grow up American.” She shook her head. “Baba wanted
me to grow up a proper Indian girl who just happened to live in America.”
“So you pushed back.”
“Oh, did someone rat me out?”
“No, but I sense...what...an interest in
self-determination?”
Sheera felt herself go a little buttery. “Perceptive...and
kindly put.” She shrugged. “Neighbors would probably have used rebellious to
describe me. By the time I got to high school, we fought pretty much every day
about something.” She chortled. “More like everything. Hemlines, dating,
curfews, etc, were common themes, and to be honest, I enjoyed getting him riled
up, after a while. Which is why I went away to college.”
Clay nodded. “Understandable.”
“Yeah well, Baba didn’t. When I came back for Spring Break
my freshman year, my father had arranged for a transfer to UConn.” Sheera shook
her head. “My mother handed me the application almost before I set my suitcase
down in the hall.”
“Subtle,” Clay remarked.
“Here we go...” The waitress plunked down their salads and
refilled the iced tea. “Anything else?” she asked.
Clay shook his head and she vanished.
Sheera picked up her fork and stabbed aggressively at her
salad. “Even though he used Mother as a messenger, I knew Baba was behind it and
it pissed me off.”
“So what did you do?”
“We fought about it every day for a week, but he wasn’t
budging.” Sheera’s lips twitched mischievously. “So I pretended to cave. I
filled out the application and gave it back to Mother to mail. After Baba left
that morning for the school, I snatched the application from the mail box.”
Sheera harpooned another clump of salad. “When I got back to
Northwestern the next semester, I checked into work-study and scholarship
grants.
“I managed to cobble together a couple grants and a job to
supplement them. When I went home after my freshman year, I played dumb until
Baba wondered when we were going to hear from UConn. I kept saying, ‘any day
now, any day now.’”
“Didn’t he eventually check?”
“Oh yeah.” Sheera took another swallow of iced tea.
“And?”
“The shit hit the proverbial fan. He said things to me I
knew he didn’t mean, but it still pissed me off. I went to my room and stayed
there. When Baba left the next day, I packed, emptied my bank account and
headed for Nan’s. Her folks let me flop there until school started.”
Clay shook his head. “And how long did it take before he
tracked you down.”
Sheera laughed, soundlessly. “Good guess. Took less than a
week. I should have known, in retrospect.”
“And?”
“Nan’s father came home to our shouting match in the
entryway to Nan’s place. Baba turned to him and demanded he ‘uninvite’ me.” She
shook her head. “You’d have to know Harmon Telchik to know how that landed.”
“He said no, I guess?”
“Politely but firmly. And then unbeknownst to me, made a few
calls to Northwestern and got me a really killer internship. And by the end of
the year, I had a full scholarship to boot.
“Nan’s Mom, whom I just adore, helped Baba patch things up
with me and the Telchiks became like a second family.”
“Quite a story. Thanks for sharing.” Clay looked at his
watch. “We should probably head back.”
“Yeah. I’m a long way from finished with that damned
scenario.”
Clay drove back to the office in a silence Sheera didn’t
break. But Clay’s eyes were eloquent. She could feel them, every time she
uncrossed or recrossed her legs, to the whisper of her nylons. His interest
kindled a thrill of power mixed with arousal.
Did he know? Did he
know she knew? Sheera couldn’t be certain, but something felt different
between them. A palpable tension—physical and more. The drive back to the
office was too long. And too short.
About the Author
Dirk came within a cat’s whisker of never publishing. Through two frenetic professional careers first as a Marine officer and then as a corporate trainer, he started way more stories than he finished, until full retirement left him with the focused attention he needed. West of Tomorrow, his first novel draws on his experience with the military, corporate America and the unpredictable nature of life.
Since then, he has published Best-Case Scenario, Act I of Nyra’s Journey a New Adult romance, Through the Windshield, Drive-by Lives an anthology of short stories and Tier Zero, Vol. I of The Knolan Cycle. He currently lives in Laguna Niguel where he surfs, snow skis in the winter and facilitates an author’s critique group.
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An intriguing excerpt, this is a must read for me. Thank you for sharing the book and author details
ReplyDeleteThis sounds really interesting.
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