Part 47 (2/2)
She pressed hard on the accelerator, hoping to catch Matthew while he ate lunch in his office, as he customarily did this time of day.
Chapter 18
”Matthew, it's all so positive,” Laurence Maupin said with smiling allegiance as she closed the copy of the ”Wall Street Journal” resting on his desk. ”You've got the press in the palm of your hand these days.”
”I'd say you've had more than a little to do with that.”
”Just doing my job.”
”And more,” he said with a mischievous grin.
His secretary opened his office door and leaned in. ”Matthew, your meeting with the executive staff has been moved to one-thirty.”
He thanked her and she returned to her desk. He closed the issue of ”Business Week” he had been reading, which featured an article Laurence had pitched. He appraised his young a.s.sistant appreciatively as she flipped through a manila file folder. She looked at him.
”How about some lunch?” she asked, closing the folder.
”Sure. What are you up for?”
”You pick.”
”I haven't had sus.h.i.+ in a while.”
Laurence wrinkled her nose. ”Hmm. I've somehow managed to avoid sus.h.i.+ all these years. Well, I guess it's time I tried it.”
”You'll love it,” he said, escorting her out of his office. To his secretary Eileen, he said, ”We're going next door for lunch.”
They boarded the elevator. ”I'm curious as to why the executive staff pulled together for a meeting this afternoon,” Matthew said. ”No one has indicated a problem or situation of any sort to me.”
”Perhaps it's to congratulate you on the fact that the Joey II is s.h.i.+pping two months ahead of schedule, with thousands of orders waiting to be filled.”
”Maybe,” he said, without conviction. ”But we usually don't call together an executive staff meeting without some prior notice.
And I'm usually the one to call them.”
They crossed the Wallaby parking lot and walked along the sidewalk. ”Who did call this one?” she asked.
He stopped in his tracks, and looked at her. ”You know, I don't know,” he said with mild astonishment. ”I hadn't thought about it until you just asked. I suppose it was Hank Towers.”
”Well, I can't imagine it being anything but good. Things have gone up, up, up since you've taken control.”
”Yes, and I can thank you for that too,” he quipped, s.h.i.+fting the topic from business to pleasure.
She touched her fingers to her lips to stifle a laugh as he opened the restaurant door for her. The j.a.panese hostess greeted them with a bow, and indicated for them to follow her. She led them into the dining area.
”I'd prefer a room in back,” Matthew said when the hostess presented a table in the crowded general dining area, occupied mostly by Wallaby employees.
She nodded kindly and led them to the rear of the restaurant, to one of the more private rooms, screened off from the rest of the place with sliding rice paper and teakwood part.i.tions.
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