"Making dinner," he explained.
"But it's your promotion - I should be making dinner for YOU!"
"Well, so far, I've only worked on the salad," Walter admitted. "There's plenty more to do."
"Okay," Louise thought for a moment. "Would you like me to make pasta?"
"That would be great!"
"With vegetables? Shrimp? Meat sauce?"
"Let's go with vegetables," Walter suggested.
"Sure!" Louise replied. "Just let me put my things down."
Louise set her purse and keys on the table near the front door and placed her briefcase next to her desk. She hanged her suit and blouse in the walk-in closet, slipped out of her bra, and pulled on a baggy T-shirt. She checked the messages on her phone, but Terri hadn't replied.
"So, how did it go?" Louise asked as she returned to the kitchen.
"Well, pretty quickly," Walter explained. "When I got in, Bruce asked me to come to his office. He said that they really liked my presentation. They want me to start in the new role immediately."
"Wow! That's fast!"
"They foresee a lot of new business this year. They want me to get up and running as quickly as possible."
"Do you still have to take care of things from your old job?"
"Yeah, a few things. But they want me to transition all of my old responsibilities by the end of next week."
"Why then?" Louise asked. She turned the heat on under the water for the pasta.
"Because the following week, I have to go to a two-day conference in Houston," Walter explained.
"So, you'll be traveling a lot more?"
"Not a lot," he explained. "Probably once or twice a month."
"Where else do you think you'll be going?"
"I'll probably have to visit some clients," he said, "but that'll be on a project by project basis."
"Okay..."
"And I'll probably have to go out to our division in Colorado once in a while."
"What's in Colorado?"
"There's a team of engineers out there. They work on a product line that we acquired a few years ago. That's where the original company was. We never moved them."
"Do you know how often you'll have to go?" Louise asked. She was thinking that it sounded like quite a bit of travel. She didn't want to give Walter a hard time right after he received the promotion, but she had a bad feeling about him being away so much.
"I'm not sure."
"That Susan woman is from Colorado, right?" Louise asked.
It was apparent to Walter that Louise was fishing. "Susan Chen or Susan Foster?"
Louise felt a rush of anger. "He knows which one I'm talking about," she thought to herself. "He's just trying to avoid answering the question."
"The one who likes you," she said crossly.
"Well, that would be neither of them," Walter replied. "And since they don't work on my team, we won't be making any trips together."
"Men can be so stupid sometimes!" Louise thought to herself. She had met this Susan chick only once at a company picnic, but she didn't like her. It was obvious that she had a thing for Walter. Either he didn't notice or didn't want to admit it. Either way, the thought or Walter spending time with her away from the office was upsetting.
"The water's boiling," Louise said. "I'll be back in a minute. I have to make a call."
She picked up her phone from the dining room table and dialed a number while walking into the bedroom.
"Hey, Terr, it's me. I hope you're okay. Please call me when you get this. I haven't been able to reach you, and I'm starting to get worried. Plus I have to tell you some stuff. Okay, well it's not really important. I just hope you're okay. Bye!"
'The Horse Farm'
Copyright © 2015 Daniel R. South
All Rights Reserved
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