Ch6 News Travels Fast

"Good morning sunshine!" Kaysea chirped.  "A little birdie told me something about you and our mutual friend Grey Langley.  So how come you are holding out on me?  I thought we were besties."

"Wow!  How did you know that I had lunch with him?"  Willa couldn't believe that the local gossip had started chattering already about her.  She had just gotten back into town.  It hadn't even been a full week yet.

“It’s a small town Willa.  You know that everybody knows everyone around these parts.  My friend Tiffany happened to see the two of you going into Baron’s at around noon.  She said that she recognized you from the pictures of us that I have at home.  She described him as tall and quite striking with his dark eyes, dimples and gleaming teeth.  I knew from the description that she could only be talking about Grey.”  Kaysea sounded giddy.

Willa was flustered and she didn’t want to sound like she was holding back so she blurted out, “He asked me out to lunch after the meeting in our office.  Frankly I was stunned because he did it in front of my dad and the rest of the folks that attended the Miller Dairy acquisition.  You know that I just happened to have met him by happenstance at your place over the weekend.  He’s pretty brazen if you ask me.”

“That’s Grey for you.  He’s a no holds barred kind of guy.  I guess that’s what makes him so successful in real estate.  He’s not much older than you Willa.  Maybe just three years your senior and he’s about to be worth a billion dollars.”

“I was shocked to see him at the meeting yesterday.  As a matter of fact, I was going to call you today and ask you some questions about him.  Dad and I were wondering how he was connected to the Miller Dairy, but he already answered my question over lunch.  We can still get together today and have lunch though.  I would love to catch up with you.  Besides I don’t want to stay in the office all day.’’

“I’d love to meet you.  Why don’t you text me later today about a place you want to go to and I’ll be there,” Kaysea replied with gusto.

“Ok then.  See you for lunch.”  Willa hung up and headed back to breakfast with her parents.  Rainey had arrived as well.

“Who was that?” Rainey asked.

“It was Kaysea trying to dig out the latest gossip from me.”  Willa smirked at her parents.  “Boy it doesn’t take long for news to travel around fast here!  Seems like everyone knows that I went out to have lunch with Grey yesterday.  I wonder what the talk will be about in town today?”

Trevor said, “Let’s just focus on having a great day at work.  You have school later on tonight too.  If you don’t mind Willa I’m going to head home again about midday to help mom out around the house and take care of her.  She has a round of chemo this morning so I’m sure she is going to need some rest.”

“Sure dad, whatever you two need.  I can handle the office.  Don’t worry about anything.  If something comes up, I will call you.  And if you don’t mind, send over a list of all of the foremans at the dairies and I will start acquainting myself with each of them.”

Trevor replied, “As soon as we get to the office I will get Tricia to forward the contacts to you of the foremans.  I should have already thought about giving you that information.  You are always one step ahead of me Willa.”

After breakfast Trevor and Willa headed out to Lawrenceburg, but this time Willa drove Martha’s Range Rover.  Trevor and Martha had several cars and Martha planned on the nurse taking her to chemo in the Mercedes that day.

Willa and Trevor arrived at the office just a few minutes after eight o’clock that morning.  They got behind a tractor trailer hauling chickens that way going really slow.  Tricia met them at the elevator doors again and poured them each a cup of coffee at their request.  

“Willa, all of the files that you were reviewing are still in the conference room just like you left them yesterday.  Trevor has made accommodations for you to take over the office next to his.  It’s through that adjoining door over there.  If you would like to pick out the decor, give me the options and I will handle it.  I wasn’t sure of your tastes so I didn’t want to purchase things without your say in the matter.”

“That’s fantastic!  I will send you some samples today.  Thanks for helping out Tricia,”  Willa beamed.

“Dad, you didn’t have to go through all of the trouble of making space for me.  I could have kept working in the conference room.”

“No way!  You deserve to have your very own office space.  Let me help you move those files over there and you will see what a difference having your own office makes,” Trevor explained.

They both went over to pick up the files and moved them into Willa’s new office.  She had a desk just like her dad’s with a brand new leather swivel chair.  “I’m leaving the rest of the decor up to you.  Mom left these magazines for you to go through.  She knows your taste better than I do so these should work.  Just give the list to Tricia and she’ll get the rest done.”

“By the way head over to the tech department in a bit and pick up your new laptop.  It should be ready to go for you to use.  They were working on it yesterday.”

“Ok dad and thanks for the new office.  I’m already starting to feel at home here.”  Willa sat down in her new chair and smiled brightly.

Trevor went back into his office just as the phone started to ring.  Willa heard him talking shop with one of the foremen and then hung up the phone.  Tricia came into his office and laid a few files on his desk and took away the coffee cups.  Then she walked into Willa’s office.  “I’m going out to grab some more fresh croissants.  Do you want anything special today?”

“No, I think I’m good.  I’m going to have lunch with Kaysea today so I better hunker down and get to work.  I’ll just grab a glass of water and get to it.”  As soon as Tricia walked off Willa remembered that she needed to head to the tech department to get her laptop.

As soon as she entered the room Henry reached onto the shelf behind him and grabbed the laptop that he had been working on.  “How’s it going Willa?  I have your laptop here newly updated and ready to go.  I have written down your login information on this sticky note for you.  You can change the password later.”  Henry was a young guy that Trevor had hired a few years ago.  He wore glasses and was very talkative for a techy person.

“It’s going well Henry.  Thanks for getting this laptop together for me.  I really do appreciate it.  Also, I’m not familiar with the new phones here.  Can you send me some information on how to use them?  I’m sure I could ask Tricia, but she has her hands full today between dad and I.”

“You bet Willa.  I’ll email the phone instructions over to you right away.  If you think of anything else that I can do to help just let me know.  I can also send you the phone tree so you can reach anyone in the building or within the dairies.”  Henry was very thorough.

“Yes, that would be great as well.  Have an awesome day Henry!”  Willa smiled at him as she walked away.

By the time Willa got back to her office Tricia was also back from her outing with the fresh croissants.  A large bouquet of flowers were sitting on her desk too.  “Willa these are for you.  I didn’t look at the card so I don’t know who they are from.”  Tricia handed Willa the card and picked up the flowers to take them into her office.  Willa followed Tricia with the card still in her hand and a puzzled look on her face.

“Well, who sent you these gorgeous flowers?  They smell really good.  I’m jealous.”

Willa took the card out of the envelope and read the note.  'Thanks for letting me take you out to lunch, Grey Langley'

“These are from Mr. Langley.  I had lunch with him yesterday after the Miller acquisition meeting.”  Willa’s face flushed.  She turned away hoping that Tricia didn’t notice.

“Such a nice gesture.”  Tricia paused a moment longer then took her leave.