Read Online What Stays in Vegas by Beth Labonte - Free Book Online Page A

my throat.  Rob shot me my second dirty look of the day.  But I couldn’t help it.  I was very  impressed by Chris’s nerve to stand up to him.  To be honest, I was very impressed with all three of their abilities to make as much of an argument as they did.  It was all in vain, of course, but truly a valiant effort.
    “Excuse me?” hissed Rob. 
    “What?” Chris shrugged.  “I shouldn’t have said it?  You made it pretty obvious that that’s what we’re talking about.”
    “Chris!” said Kendra.  “Stop it.  Rob, I’m sorry, he’s a little out of sorts today.” 
    “Out of sorts?” said Chris.  “What am I, six?”
    “This meeting’s over,” snapped Rob.  He stood up, grabbed his briefcase, and looked down at the four of us.  His rosy cheeks were giving off quite a glow.  I could definitely picture him playing video games in his pajamas. 
    “You just do what I say and keep your noses out of the rest of my business.  And learn a little respect while you’re at it.”  He pointed at Chris.  “Or you’ll find yourself at the back of the unemployment line.”  He focused his daggers back on Kendra.  “Don’t forget that there is nothing stopping me from taking my business to Richardson-Fleiss.”
    Richardson-Fleiss was one of our competitors.  They worked for less money than us.
    “Understood,” said Kendra.  She flashed a crazed smile at us as she stood up to walk Rob out of the conference room. 
    “Wait,” said Rob, holding his hand up in her face for the second time.  I shrank down a little bit in my chair because he had started shuffling through the stack of documents I had given back to him.  “What the hell is this?”  He pulled the crumpled blue signature sheet from the stack.
    “There was, um, a little trouble with the copier,” I squeaked. 
    “The simplest task,” he said to me.  “Son of a -”
    “Alright then!” interrupted Kendra.  She put her hand on Rob’s shoulder and gently directed him out of the conference room.  I expected him to fling her hand away, but for some creepy reason he allowed it.  I didn’t breathe again until they had left the room.  Chris, Dan, and I sat looking at each other in silence for a few seconds.
    “I thought that went well,” said Dan.
    “I can’t believe you talked to him like that!” I looked at Chris in awe and chewed on the cap of my pen. 
    “I’m almost at my breaking point with that guy.”  He leaned his head back in the leather chair and pushed his glasses up, rubbing his eyes.  “And by ‘almost’ I mean I reached it about three years ago.”
    “Maybe this will help.”  I slid my yellow legal pad across the table.  On it was a hasty sketch of Rob Dorfman spinning around a stripper pole in a three piece suit.
    Dan snorted.  “Well aren’t you a good little note taker!”
    “Nice work,” said Chris.  “You can’t handle the simplest tasks, but you sure can draw.”
    “It’s amazing what the feeble secretarial mind is capable of,” I said.  
    As we left the conference room I was struck by that feeling of relief that you get after leaving the dentist's office.  You know, the one where you realize that you don’t have to go back for another six months.  I had one whole week before Rob’s next visit, and I would savor every second.

- 9 -
     
    On the following Tuesday Kendra didn’t show up for work.   Nobody in the office had heard from her all morning, and by ten o’clock Chris and Dan had entered into panic mode.  Nothing short of death was excusable for missing the weekly Dorfman meeting, even if you were the boss’s daughter.  And without Kendra, Chris and Dan would have to face the meeting, and a furious Rob Dorfman, all by themselves.  He would take her not being there as a personal insult and proof of our incompetence. Richardson-Fleiss would soon have a new client on their hands.  
    I stood in the window of Chris and Dan’s office, looking out over the