“You should totally go for him!” Mia gushed.
“Oh no!” I said vehemently, shaking my head back and forth. “Catherine said I need to make sure I build a good relationship with him, and I don’t think she meant that in the carnal knowledge sense.”
Mia pouted. Apparently it was her life’s goal to fix everyone up.
I laughed. I adored my new colleagues. “I’ve known you guys for less than a day and you’re already trying to set me up with someone! I’m in trouble here, aren’t I?”
They all nodded and smiled with mischievous delight.
Vivek winked. “You’re Mia’s new pet project,” he confirmed.
His comment triggered applause from Mia and a look of empathy from Amy. I smiled all the way back to my office. This was going to be a fun team, but I could tell already it was going to be hard trying to keep any secrets from the likes of these people.
I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday morning planning out my action list for the next couple of weeks. I spent some time with Amy and she gave me an overview of the org chart and their corresponding subsidiary organizations. I had scheduled several regional calls for the following week. Catherine had asked me to rework the scorecard template as well, so I needed to figure out what it was going to look like before my calls early next week. By mid-day Friday, I came to the realization that I would need to work a little over the weekend.
As I wrapped up my morning activities, my cell phone rang.
“Hi, beautiful!” Ever since I could remember, that’s always been Dexter’s standard greeting for me.
“Dexter! How are you?” I asked cheerfully. “Are you in the country?”
Dexter was one of my favorite people in the world. We met in Mr. Shireman’s seventh grade Spanish class. I remembered the day clearly because Dexter never lets me forget it. On the first day of class, Dexter sat in front of me, turned around and introduced himself. His recollection of the memory was that I just stared at him like he was a freak. When you’re a moody pre-teen, starting cheerful conversations with another preteen you didn’t already know, well … it just wasn’t very common. Dexter was overly cheerful, skinny, and looked about two years younger than everyone else in the class. However, despite my initial reaction and surprise from his overt friendliness, he continued to pursue a conversation with me. That morning had been the start of our lifelong friendship.
“Good, good. Hey, listen, I’m heading to Seattle today. I’ve been in Miami all week, but sitting here in Denver for my layover.” On cue, the airport loudspeaker announced his flight in the background. “I was hoping we could get together tomorrow night or Sunday morning. What do you think?”
Dexter lived in London and really only called me when he was “in the neighborhood.” But being in the neighborhood could mean Florida. As long as he was on the same continent, he felt it worth stopping by Seattle for a short visit to see his parents. He always made the effort to see me, too, and thank goodness, because I wasn’t getting to London any time soon.
“Yay! I was actually planning on going out to dinner with Anna and Ethan tomorrow night. We’ll be discussing wedding plans, but why don’t you join us? They’d love to see you.”
“Oh, that’s right! The big day is coming up. I still feel so bad that I can’t make it. Work is crazy and we’re right in the middle of a big remodel. I’m only here due to a business trip.”
“Oh, Anna completely understands. Don’t sweat it,” I reassured him.
“Well, I guess I can give her and Ethan my congratulations this weekend then,” he said cheerfully.
“She’ll be totally excited to see you,” I added. “Let me give her a call later today and see on where she wants to meet up for dinner. I think she made reservations somewhere. I’ll leave a message and let you know what’s going on.”
“Perfect. My flight won’t get in until almost midnight tonight, so just send me an email or call me at my folks’ house in the morning.”
“Okay, sounds good. I’m so excited to see you, Dexter!”
“Me too!”
I looked at the clock and saw that it was time to leave and head over to the All Hands meeting. The meeting was being held in the Lincoln Square Building, which was about five miles west of the main campus. Lincoln Square was a modern high rise in the heart of downtown Bellevue. The meeting held there because, in addition to being an office building, the bottom three floors were made up of restaurants, retail shops, and a neon-lit, ultra-modern bowling alley. A morale event was planned at the bowling alley immediately following the meeting.