The Retreat

The woman that took full attention of the room was astonishing. She looked like a small package of dynamite. Five feet at the most, confidence shimmered off her as she fingered through her short, light brown hair that seemed to be alive with wild curls. Her figure was down played by the simple outfit that she wore. The immediate attraction for her did not please him but he wondered all the same if he could shake that confidence in bed and whether she would explode in his arms. These thoughts will get in you in trouble Carrick, he scolded himself. Get real here. This is business not a singles club. Back to what is important to you and that is this merger. With a huff of indignation, he brought his thoughts back to why he was here. Just look at her, didn’t she realize that this is a very important business meeting? Her outfit didn’t even convey the importance of the usual office environment. Women, they should stay out of our world. She couldn’t possibly be the person that Events Unlimited wanted to have plan our retreat. She could hardly be old enough to enter a bar, let alone plan this kick off for us. Carrick’s thoughts about this new addition to their presence would be heard by him to the other partners. They should have stayed back in New York instead of traveling to this area of the country. He tried to tell them that a New York company could do the retreat but to no avail. “Glad you could make it, Belinda. I would like to introduce you to Brown, Brown and Callahan’s senior members.” Jack was his jovial self, a smile larger than the Grand Canyon on his face and warmth in his hand gesture. Belinda really looked at the other men for the first time. As they rose to their feet she noticed that two were definitely what she was expecting; older gentlemen that had been in business for a very long time. The third did surprise her. On his feet, he must have been 6’6” and built like a brick wall. Hair that had a blue-black quality to it made her think of a very fine mink coat. It made her fingers itch to touch it and see if it was indeed as silky as it looked. His eyes were as green as emeralds and had a cold hardness to them. A shiver ran through her as she gazed at him. Lord, she needed that vacation when the sight of a man stunned her this way. Just remember that you don’t need anyone for anything, especially a man. “This is Mark and Thomas Brown.” Jack pointed to the two older men. Belinda extended her hand and both shook it like it was a cold fish. “And finally, Carrick Callahan. I would like you to meet Belinda McIntyre. Belinda is the best event planner that we have here at Events Unlimited.” Belinda also extended her hand to Callahan. At least his wasn’t a cold fish but a very firm, competent hand that has seen many hours with the handle of a tool in it. Belinda pasted a very pleasant smile on and welcomed the men. “Well, should we get down to nuts and bolts or should that be planes and angles.” Belinda’s attempt at a joke didn’t reveal any sign of working so she shook it off and took a seat on the last chair in Jack’s office. Jack took his place behind his desk and the three gentlemen took their seats again. This was going to be a very long afternoon, Belinda thought. And I gave up my vacation for this. Just grin and bear it, and soon you will be hiking on that mountain a long ways away. Carrick could tell that this woman could sell snow to an Eskimo and that clearly she didn’t want to be here. I wonder what she would rather be doing and why she wasn’t there doing it. Clearly we don’t need her. Mark cleared his throat to gain everyone’s attention. “Well, this is what we were thinking. We would like to take all of the senior and middle management and their families to a very nice place where they can relax with each other. After a day or two we would like to bring in the management members of the company that we will be acquiring so that the management teams can meet and feel comfortable with each other. We have done a rough estimate of our company and came up with about two hundred fifty people with the families. The members of Wright Anderson total ten employees plus their families. We would like total accommodations for all of us at one location. Entertainment should be family oriented as well as something for the adult crowd. What are your thoughts Jack?” The room had gone very quiet. Jack took a sip of coffee then put the whole affair in Belinda’s lap. “Belinda, what are your thoughts? Does this sound like an event that can be planned in three months and pulled off with your flawlessness? I guess that the extra people may throw a new loop in it from what I understood from our first conversation.” Carrick stood and doubts were running around in his head. “You can’t be serious to expect that this woman can pull this event together for us. What does she know about us? She doesn’t look old enough to even know what an adult crowd would like for entertainments. I am sure that she would do quite well for the children though, as she isn’t much bigger or older than that herself.”