Mick Sinatra_Heat Wave Page 4

  But just as she stepped away from her door, and was heading back toward her desk, Teegan came into the office looking too excited.

  “What is it?” Roz asked her.

  “Boss, you aren’t going to believe this.” Teegan hurried up to Roz’s desk. “You won’t believe who I have on line 9.”

  If it wasn’t Mick, Roz was not going to be nearly as excited as Tee seemed to be. “Who?”

  “Marc Mason,” Teegan said.

  Roz wasn’t excited, but was stunned. “Marc Mason? THE Marc Mason?”

  “Yes! He’s on line 9. Pick up line 9! And please put it on Speaker. He’s one of my favorite actors ever!”

  Roz, now standing behind her desk, pressed button 9 on her desk phone, and then pressed the Speaker button. “This is Rosalind,” she said.

  “Roz Graham?” the voice on the other end asked.

  It certainly sounded like him. “Yes, this is she.”

  “Okay, great. This is Marc Mason. You may have heard of me?” He chuckled.

  It was like Denzel Washington asking if she’d heard of him. “Yes, I believe I have heard of you. How are you, Mr. Mason?”

  “I’m great. Listen! We have a part for you in my upcoming project.”

  Teegan’s mouth gaped open. Roz was surprised too. “A part for me?”

  “You heard me correctly! I want you, special lady, to be my leading lady.”

  Teegan began jumping in place.

  Roz was still stunned. “Your leading lady in a film?” she asked.

  “No, in my bedroom. Of course in a film, Roz!” He chuckled again. “In a major motion picture, yes. I want you as the heroine. And I know what you’re thinking. You’re Miss Broadway and Hollywood is beneath you Broadway types. This will be your first feature film. But I say if it’s going to be your first, make it count! Star opposite the big boys. Like me. What do you say, Roz?”

  Rosalind was still trying to hear what he’d just said to say anything. He sounded so canned. So corny. Like those Hollywood types on television sounded. Was this for real?

  “Roz? I need an answer. Ninety-nine percent of the actresses I were to offer this role to, would have answered yes immediately.”

  “Yes!” Roz was so shocked she thought she had said it already. “I would like to see the script first, of course, before I sign my name to the project. But I’m certainly interested.”

  “Good enough! So I’ll tell you what: we’ll fly you out here, to Beverly Hills, to discuss the fine print asap. Okay?”

  “Okay. Sounds good.” That would give Roz a chance to check with a Hollywood producer she knew, to make sure this wasn’t some joke.

  “But wait a minute,” Marc said. “I forgot. Your hubby owns a plane, doesn’t he?”

  How would he know about Mick? But then again, Roz realized, it was as easy to find out as an internet search. “Yes, he does,” she said.

  “Then fly yourself out, why don’t you?” Marc said. “Why should we foot the bill?”

  Marc laughed. Roz and Teegan joined in.

  “Okay. Gotta run,” Marc said. “My people will call your people and set it up. Alright? That way you’re know this is the real deal. I’m the real Marc Mason and I’m going to make you a movie star! Tar-tar.” And that was it. He ended the call.

  Roz set her phone down, feeling as if she had just been caught up in a whirlwind, and looked at Teegan.

  But all Teegan knew was the big picture. “Oh, Boss!” she said, and hurried behind the desk to hug her. Roz was actually happy too.

  But Teegan was ecstatic! “This could be the start of a great career for you! You in a movie? A real movie? And with that dashing Marc Mason? Oh, Boss! You’ll need a personal assistant then. In Hollywood, I mean. And I’ll be right there by your side. I mean, somebody’s got to do it, right?”

  Roz smiled.

  “Isn’t this simply amazing?” Teegan asked her.

  “It is rather startling,” Roz said. “Yes.”

  “Everybody’s going to be so happy for you! And Mr. Sinatra? Oh my. After all that money he put into this agency, and into jumpstarting your Broadway career? After all he’s done for you? He’s probably going to be over-the-moon excited!”

  But Roz wasn’t so sure. Broadway was a skip and a hop from Philly. Not far at all. L.A. was all the way across the country. Might as well be across the moon, or even over it, Roz thought, as far as Mick would see it. Especially given his sex drive. He didn’t mind his woman a skip and a hop away. He might not want his woman a moon away.

  That was why excited wasn’t the word she would use to describe how he was going to feel. Knowing him, as she did, and given that package she had to confront him about, he just might hate the whole damn thing.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The elevator doors slid open on the top floor of Sinatra Industries, her father’s company, and Gloria, with briefcase, purse, and water cannister in hand, hurried off. She was nearly two hours late by now, and so upset with her own foolish negligence that she was nearly running toward her father’s suite of offices.

  He hated tardiness! He hated any kind of sloppiness at work from any of his employees, and she knew that was especially true when it came to his own daughter. Because her shortcomings reflected badly on him, and created a work environment that would believe she was hired more because of her blood relationship to the boss, rather than her own skill.

  Truth was, it started out as nepotism. Mick did hire her, and gave her a chance, because she was his daughter. He put her there because of their blood relationship. But she had to earn the right to stay there. And she earned it well, at first. But then she blew the big time by fooling around with one of her father’s managers, and she still was recovering from that fiasco.

  Her father demoted her from her position in middle-management, in what many of his employees considered a shocker of a move, to where she was now nothing more than one of his numerous assistants. And lately, she couldn’t even get that right. Lately, she felt as if she couldn’t get any part of her life right, business or private, and she couldn’t figure out why!

  When she pulled the glass door that led into the outer sanctum, where all of his army of assistants were, she at least got one reprieve: Blair Conyers, her father’s longtime chief assistant, a woman she and her brothers called Blair Witch, was not at her desk.

  “Hurry, Glo,” one of the other assistants said with a grin, all the while waving her on, as Gloria hurried to her desk behind Blair’s big, front desk. All of the assistants liked Gloria. She was the boss’s daughter, but she never showed any sense of entitlement, and she treated every one of them with respect. Blair Witch, on the other hand, was the one who acted entitled. She was the one none of them liked.

  “Where is she?” Gloria asked. “Is she here yet?”

  “Come on now, Glo. Is that witch ever late? She’s in your father’s office right now, and she should be out any moment.”

  Gloria was disappointed as she plopped down behind her desk and put her purse away. She knew now she hadn’t gotten away with anything!

  And when the door to her father’s office opened, it was obvious right away.

  Blair Conyers walked out of Mick’s office like a woman who had just spent time with the man of her dreams. Everybody knew she had a crush on him, although Gloria was convinced nothing was going on. Blair was a decent-looking lady, with long blonde hair, long legs, and big eyes that always seemed surprised by the view. She was fairly attractive.

  But she was no Roz.

  But Gloria’s coworkers couldn’t understand that distinction. They didn’t know Mick’s wife like that. To them, all kinds of shenanigans were going on between her father and Blair. Two good-looking people in the privacy of that office of his? What else could be going on? Gloria used to try to explain that her father wouldn’t do that to her stepmother, but she gave up trying. People were going to believe what they were going to believe. But Gloria did wish Blair would work a little harder at concealing her crush, an
d stop confirming, with her faraway, dreamy-eyed looks, those ridiculous beliefs.

  “When did you get here?” Blair asked Gloria as soon as she closed the office door.

  Gloria was turning on her computer, and didn’t bother to even look Blair’s way.

  Blair walked over to her own desk, but continued to look at Gloria. “You heard me, Gloria. When did you get here?”

  Gloria wanted to roll her eyes, but she knew her father would roll them right back into her head if he found out she was disrespectful to her supervisor. She looked at Blair, instead.

  “You’re late,” Blair said.

  “Yes, I know,” Gloria responded. “I apologize for that.”

  “What happened?”

  The other assistants looked at each other. Why was that her business, they wondered? Late was late. Why should she need an explanation as to why?

  “I lost track of the time,” Gloria responded.

  “You’d better come up with a better excuse than that,” Blair warned. “Your father told me to tell you he wants to see you as soon as you got here.”

  Gloria swallowed hard. How would he know that she was late except the witch told him? Whenever her father arrived at work, he rarely even looked Gloria’s way, or any of his other assistants’ way for that matter. He rarely even acknowledged Blair’s presence. He just walked in and headed straight for his office. If he needed something, he called after he settled in. Although many times, all the other assistants also realized, Blair made it a point to go on in behind him.

  Gloria stood up, prepared herself to take his tongue-lashing like a woman, and made her way into his office. As she walked past Blair’s desk, she could see that look of satisfaction in her big-ass eyes, as if she just knew Glo had done it this time and would never go back to her middle-management job. It was people like that who made Gloria even more angry at herself for messing up.

  Gloria still felt a need to knock first on her father’s door, even when she was summoned by him, and then she walked on in.

  Mick was leaned back on the telephone, listening more than talking, but instead of motioning for her to come on in, he just looked at her. That was his way too; a way Gloria knew very well. She closed the door behind her, and walked on in.

  “Call me when you find him,” he said to the person on the other end of the call, “and I’ll meet you there.” By the time he ended the call, Gloria was standing in front of his desk.

  “Blair said you wanted to see me, sir,” she said.

  Mick gave her a disapproving look.

  Gloria realized her mistake as soon as he did. “Miss Conyers said you wanted to see me, sir.”

  Mick leaned back in his chair. “Sit down,” he said.

  “I know why you asked to see me,” Gloria said as she began sitting down. She was about to launch into an apology for being late, which she was certain this was about, but Mick was in charge of this meeting. And he took charge.

  “I was at home and didn’t—,” Gloria started.

  But Mick cut her off. “What do you think about the Hilderman proposal?” he asked her.

  Gloria was thrown. “The Hilderman proposal?”

  It was what Mick had just said, so he didn’t respond.

  Gloria realized she had assumed what the meeting was going to be about, which her father constantly told her to never assume, especially when it came to his actions.

  “Have you reviewed it?” he asked her.

  “Yes, sir, I have, actually.”

  “What do you think?”

  “They’re a major player in the industry,” Gloria said. “And they have very creative ideas. Maybe some of the best creativity out there in terms of architectural schemes.”

  “Would you approve their proposal to handle contracts out of my Boston office?” Mick asked.

  Gloria didn’t want to say the wrong thing. She was already in his doghouse professionally, and was late today, which couldn’t possibly help. But she had to tell it like she saw it. “No, sir,” she said.

  Mick was inwardly relieved to hear it. He knew Gloria had it in her. That was why he hired her. But now he needed to hear her reasoning for reaching what he considered was the right conclusion. Sometimes people came to the right answer, but for the wrong reason. “Why not?” he asked her.

  “Hilderman is a good company,” she answered, “but their cost overruns are disturbing. In their proposal to SI, they enjoy highlighting one project that they noted was one of their bigger projects. And, yes, on that particular project they remained within budget and on time. But I looked beyond that one project. I looked back, and to be fair to them I looked all the way back, into their past.”

  Good girl, Mick thought. “And what did you find in their past?”

  “Every single project, other than the one they highlighted in their proposal to us, was mired by cost overruns that bust many budgets. They were never on time for any of those projects. Not one. And I’m not talking about a week late, or even two weeks. I’m talking months and even years late, Daddy.”

  “You read that on paper,” Mick said, hoping she went that extra step. “Sometimes papers on background are not accurate. You know that.”

  “Yes, sir, I do. That’s why I contacted some of those companies myself. Those, at least, that I had a prior relationship with, and I knew would give me the most accurate information.”

  Mick was intrigued. “Go on.”

  “I found out that some of the background was accurate, and some wasn’t. But the ones that weren’t accurate, were wrong in the wrong direction. There were more cost overruns, not less. And even longer timeframe issues.”

  Mick was pleased. “So what’s your verdict? SI should turn them down, although they won the bid?”

  “It depends on what you want in Boston,” Gloria said. “Do you want a company with great ideas and designs that may give you headaches getting there? Or do you want to hire a company that may not be superior to Hilderman in terms of creativity, but will be on time and on budget? It depends on what you want.”

  “I haven’t decided which,” Mick said, “but those were the two options I ended up with, too,” he said.

  Gloria beamed when he confirmed her analysis. She still had it!

  “Okay,” Mick said, sitting back erect. “That will be all.”

  “Yes, sir.” Gloria rose to her feet. Now was probably an awful time, but she felt compelled to say something now. She had been trying to figure out a way to say it for some time now.

  Mick looked at her when she didn’t just leave.

  “May I ask you something, sir?” she asked.

  Mick continued to stare at her. She knew she could. He didn’t see a need to tell her so.

  “It’s about the Boston branch of SI, sir.”

  Mick had only recently acquired the building for an additional office location to handle his vast New England clientele. “What about it?” he asked.

  “I was wondering if you’ve decided who was going to run that office? If you selected somebody yet, I mean.”

  “Why would that concern you?”

  Gloria swallowed hard. He wasn’t exactly making her inquiry easy at all! “It concerns me, sir,” she said, “because I would like to be considered.”

  Mick frowned. “Considered for what?” he asked her.

  Again, Gloria swallowed hard. “Considered to run your Boston office,” she said.

  “To run it?” he asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Mick leaned back, studying her. “You have balls, Gloria,” he said metaphorically, “I’ll give you that. To have the nerve to even ask me such a thing takes balls. But the answer is no. You will not be considered.”

  It felt like a gut punch to Gloria. “Have you found somebody then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Somebody already working for SI in this office? Somebody I know?”

  “I have asked Carly to run it,” Mick said. Carly Sinatra was Big Daddy Sinatra’s adopted daughter. Big Daddy was Mick
’s big brother.

  But Gloria was still digesting the news. “Carly?” She couldn’t believe it. “Big Daddy’s daughter? You’ve asked Carly to run that entire office?”

  “That’s right.”

  “But she works for Trevor Reese,” Gloria said. Trevor Reese was Carly’s boyfriend who owned a major consulting firm in Boston. “He’s very protective of her. He’s not going to let her leave him to go work for anybody else.”

  “She won’t be working for anybody else,” Mick said. “She’ll be working for me.”

  Gloria didn’t mean it that way. She was just grappling at straws, and trying, albeit lamely, to put roadblocks in the way. She had been trying to find the courage to put herself in contention for that job. And he’d already offered it to Carly? “And she accepted your offer?” she asked him.

  “She’s weighing it,” he said.

  Gloria didn’t know what to say. It hurt her to her heart that her father would chose her cousin over one of his own children: mainly over her! “But I don’t understand, sir,” she said. “Why wouldn’t you consider me at all? Just because of what happened before?”

  “You’re not mature enough to handle that office,” Mick said bluntly.

  “Oh, but Carly is?”

  “Yes.”

  “What makes her more mature than I am? She’s even younger than I am!”

  “Age has nothing to do with it. Carly is very mature for her age.” Mick looked at Gloria hard. “You’re intellectually mature. You have a very flexible mind. But emotionally, no. You aren’t there yet.”

  Mick was Mick. To Gloria, he had no idea how to be Dad. “Get back to work,” he said to her.

  Gloria could feel the tears beginning to shed. She quickly turned to leave. She would hate for him to see her cry!

  “And Gloria,” Mick said.

  Although she stopped in her tracks, she did not turn back around. “Yes, sir?” she asked.

  “Why were you late?”

  It felt like a twist of the knife. “I lost track of the time,” she said. The tears were falling from her eyes now.