“Mm.” Kerry sighed. “Yeah.”
“Let’s wait to see what he says to us.” Dar said. “I can hold my own in any verbal ass kicking contest.”
That brought a smile to Kerry’s face. “And most other kinds.” She got up and collected the cider cups. “I’m going to get in the hot tub. Interested?”
Dar got up and flipped off the monitor, leaving it behind without a second glance. “Go baby go.”
**
The Coconut Grove convention center was small but stylish, and Kerry found herself liking it a lot more than the Miami Beach facility which was huge and echoing and gritty. She picked up a cup of hot tea at the café and wandered over to the presentation area, where Dar was getting ready to speak.
It was all small companies. No one probably knew who they were. Kerry found that she liked the idea of that, and she exchanged smiles with another woman about her age in a business suit standing nearby.
There were a lot of booths set up, representing a lot of small companies. Kerry had already earmarked three or four she wanted to talk to, and she was planning a route through the hall after she listened to Dar’s presentation.
Quite a few people were gathering, and Kerry imagined she could feel her partner’s nervousness building up, seeing the restless motion of her tall frame up behind the podium.
Dar wasn’t fond of public speaking. Kerry actually didn’t mind it, and of the two of them, she was the admitted more skilled. They both knew that. But Dar had volunteered for the event and if there was one thing that overwhelmed any nerves it was her standing tall in defense of her own ego.
Kind of adorable, actually. Kerry gave her partner a thumbs up, and saw the rakish, wry grin that told her Dar knew perfectly well what she was thinking about. Adorable, because Dar was, that glance through the dark bangs right at her making Kerry smile in pure unconscious reflex.
They were both dressed relatively casually. Slacks and collared shirts, in Dar’s case an embroidered vest and in Kerry’s a long sleeved sweater she had draped around her shoulders at the moment.
The morning was half over, and they’d just come out of the keynote speech. Kerry was of the opinion that Dar would have done a far better job at it, but she’d clapped with the rest as the owner of the local television station went on about innovation and the American dream.
Now the crowd was settling down, and Kerry carried her cup of juice into the auditorium, taking a seat in the back row which was a little elevated, and gave her a view of her partner. Dar had stepped up to the podium and was now standing there quietly, waiting for everyone to focus on her.
Just as they did Kerry felt her Handspring start to buzz, and she quickly removed it and got up, ducking out of the room to answer it. “Hey, Maria.”
“Ah, Kerrisita.” Maria’s voice came over the wire. “I am so sorry to disturb you at your meeting, but there is a person here who is insisting on speaking with you. It is a customer? Mayte has told me she thinks they are interested in doing a program.”
“Sure, put them on.” Kerry positioned herself in the doorway so she could keep an eye on Dar, finding another smile appearing as her partner’s rich and just slightly melodic voice emerged from the microphone. “I didn’t think information technology was that sort of spur of the moment on demand thing, but you never know.”
“Si, you never do know.” Maria agreed. “Please wait one moment.”
Kerry watched Dar put her hands on the podium, knowing how much self control it was taking for her to leave them there, and not fidget with them. Dar did that, when she was nervous. She would flex her hands and crack her knuckles, stick her mitts in her pockets and tap her thumbs on any flat surface.
She gave Dar a thumbs up for her discipline, and got a smile back in return, along with the slightest cock of the head that made her realize Dar was wondering what she was doing on the phone.
Ah well. “Yes this is Kerry.” She said into the phone as a voice came on. “Sorry, it’s a little loud here I’m at the small business conf… what?”
“Yes, hello? Kerry? Did you hear me?” The voice said. “This is Evelyn Chambers, from Dade County public schools? “
Kerry paused and frowned, then shook her head a little. “Yes.. um.. oh, right.” She said. “We met at the gym a while back.”
“Right. My sister’s son works for you here, and he was talking about your company? We want to hire you. I mean, the school system does. We were given a lot of money to upgrade all the computers and we can’t think of a better person to do it than you.”
Kerry pulled the Handspring away from her face and stared at it. Then she put it back to her hear. “Okay, Evelyn – sure. I’d be glad to talk to you about that… but you know we’re not really hardware vendors.”
“But your new company is about computers, right?”
“Well, sure. All the things we do generally involve computers but we don’t … I mean, let’s talk about it.” Kerry said. “I’ll be in the office tomorrow morning, and we can sit down and look at what you need, okay?”
“Oh but… could it be really early?” Evelyn said. “We’ve got a meeting about the budget at nine. Can I see you before then? I really want to have you ladies do this because I am so freaking tired of the men in the office telling me only guys can buy computers they are driving me out of my cotton picking mind!!!!”
Ah. The light bulb went off over Kerry’s head with an almost audible bing. “Gotcha. No problem, Evelyn, I’d be glad to meet you at 7 or 8, or if you want, we’ll be back in the office this afternoon after Dar’s speech so..”
“Oh perfect! I’ll go get some lunch and come back.” Evelyn sounded utterly relieved. “See you in a little while, Kerry! Thanks!!”
“Uh.. no problem. Bye.” Kerry removed the handspring from her ear and peered at it, then she put it back in her pocket and started back into the auditorium, only to halt when she spotted Peter and Mark entering the building from the other direction and looking around.
“Oh, bet that’s not good.” Kerry backpedaled and waved, and sure enough the two men looked relieved on seeing her and headed quickly in her direction. “Poor Dar. “
**
“Okay, so.” Mark had steered them all over to the snack area, where there were high top tables he put his laptop down on. “Pete, you want to start?”
“Not really.” Peter looked glum. “Mark said I should come over if they booted me, and they did.” He said. “There was some big huge blow up again today and that big jerk came in and told me to clear out.”
“No problem, Peter. We said we’d take care of you and we will.” Kerry reassured him.
“Thank you, ma’am.” He looked a little more confident. “My wife about gave birth prematurely when I told her. She gave up her job when she got pregnant and this whole things been near killing her.” He stuck his hands in his pockets. “I don’t even know what I did to tip the scales.. I didn’t make any changes, you know? I just gave them the configs and said what I though we should do.”
“The man you worked for is an absolute moron.” Kerry said. “They had one chance to turn it around. Dar even told the board of director’s new head what to do. I guess they didn’t do it.”
Peter’s ears visibly perked. “Whoa you know, maybe there was something going on with that because that guy, David, was totally torked off. He said something like if they think they can just throw us out they’re mistaken or something like that.”
“Hm.” Kerry glanced up as she sensed Dar’s presence, to find her partner emerging from the room and heading their way. “Save the story for Dar.” She said. “Let me get her some milk looks like she’s going to need it. “