But Sam was mixed up in this mess somehow, which meant I was mixed up in it too.
Chapter 19
An hour later, Rudy stepped inside my office with his shirtsleeves rolled up to the elbow and gave a long wolf whistle. “Now this is an office.”
“Very funny. This place worries me sometimes.”
“Why?”
I caught myself. There was no need to drag Rudy into my string of doubts. “Oh, nothing. What’s up?”
“Well, I came upstairs to find out what horrible thing I did to deserve a meeting out at the Operations Center and to promise you, whatever I did, I won’t do it again.” Rudy shook his head like he was trying to shake off a cobweb he might have walked into. He planted himself in the chair in front of my desk.
Rudy’s joke took the edge off and I smiled. “That’s why Houghton pays you the big bucks. Besides, those trucking guys don’t want to spend time with a skirt.”
Rudy laughed. “They are pretty old-school.”
“I think this whole company is old-school. No women or people of color on the board of directors. Only me and Willow on the Executive Committee, and I’m the token splash of color in the upper ranks of this place. There’s nobody who looks like me anywhere above the fifteenth floor.”
“I feel you. There’s nobody who attends temple with me above the fifteenth floor, either.”
“Anyway, what came out of the meeting?” I asked.
“Not much. One of the managers in Operations left the company a couple weeks ago. The interim manager came across some shipping orders that looked weird. I told him I’d take a look at the contract and get back to him. Nothing earth-shattering. And certainly nothing worthy of a ninety-minute drive in Atlanta traffic.”
“Hey, let me ask you something,” I said.
“Sure. What’s on your mind?”
“You seem to have your finger on the pulse of the company gossip—”
“I told you, I don’t gossip.” He laughed. “People tell me things and I share them with you.”
“Oh yeah, right!” I rolled my eyes and snickered. “What have people told you about Max Lumpkin?”
“He’s either a true southern gentleman or a misogynistic, xenophobic racist. Depends on who you talk to.”
“I tend to believe the latter. Yesterday, he told me my promotion was Nate’s ‘little experiment in diversity.’”
“What?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation, people tell me he’s also not partial to anyone’s religion outside of conservative Baptists. As one of only seven Jewish people at Houghton, that’s a strike against me, too. I heard he’s on his third marriage. His wife is thirty-eight and teaches yoga.” Rudy raised an eyebrow. “I can only imagine the imbalance in that little marital setup.”
I shook my head and smiled. “I would have pegged him for a long-term marriage with Mother since they met at teen Bible camp back in the sixties.” We both laughed.
“Most people steer clear of him,” Rudy said. “Too unpleasant. Always seems to have a chip on his shoulder.”
“What about Willow?”
“From what I hear, she’s a nice person, but most people think she’s in over her head running HR for the whole company. Makes you think there might be something to those rumors about her and Jonathan, huh?”
“And speaking of Jonathan, what’s his deal?”
“You mean Mr. Fantastic? Half the women around here think he’s Houghton’s version of George Clooney.” Rudy smirked. “He puts on a good show. Smiling. Friendly. From what I hear he has a lot of influence with Nate.”
“Yeah, that’s the same thing I heard from Hardy.”
“I also heard he grew up dirt poor in Kentucky. Made it out on a basketball scholarship. I guess that explains the Rolex and the fancy car he parks downstairs in the garage.”
“Oh God, he spends half the day looking down at that damn Rolex! New money has no class.” We both laughed again. “Speaking of watches.” I looked down at mine and stood from my chair. “Sorry, I don’t mean to give you the bum’s rush, but I’ve got a conference call in thirty minutes. I need to look over a few things beforehand. Thanks for the gossip—I mean the information you shared with me.”
Rudy chuckled and nearly bumped into Hardy as he walked into my office.
“Hey, Rudy!” Hardy grabbed Rudy’s hand and pumped it a couple times before leaning in for a man hug. I smiled at Rudy’s awkward expression. “How are the twins?”