The Principal's Office Read Online Free

with long black hair and a tall, slender figure. Bree was DKG’s accountant, and she’d just finished checking Rachel’s work on the payables and receivables input. It was one of the new skills Rachel was picking up to make herself more marketable.
    “Um.” For a moment, it was all that came out. Rachel was rarely at a loss for words. Some might even say—like Yvonne Colbert, their inside sales manager—that Rachel talked too much. But not now. It was shock. Because Bree had
never
wanted to go out after hours. She was quiet, kept to herself, and after work, she vanished like a puff of smoke. She didn’t socialize. In fact, she didn’t talk much at all, and the several times Rachel had asked if she wanted to go to lunch, Bree had always said no. That didn’t hurt Rachel’s feelings; it was Bree’s nature. Rachel accepted that.
    At five to five on Tuesday, the factory was quiet; the techs started early and left early. Yvonne was talking softly on the phone in her office. Erin was in Dominic’s lab with the doorclosed. A husband-and-wife team, they’d owned and operated DKG for ten years.
    Bree didn’t look eager, her expression flat, as if her invitation was completely normal. A couple of times in the past few months, Bree had opened up about her father’s illness. He’d passed away a short time ago. Maybe she needed to forget her sorrows for a little while. It certainly wasn’t a usual request for her, but it wasn’t a usual time either. She needed a friend, and Rachel figured she was the closest thing to a friend Bree had. Yeah, that was it, Bree finally needed her.
    Rachel wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass by. It might never happen again. “I’m free. My ex has the boys this week.”
    “Good.” Bree started shutting down her computer. Then, her hand hovering over the mouse, she turned.
    Rachel suddenly felt nervous under her dark stare. “What?”
    “You should go to night school and get your AA degree. You’re good with accounting.”
    It was Rachel’s turn to stare. Go to college? She didn’t have a moment to spare.
    “More money,” Bree answered as if Rachel had actually said something.
    “I don’t have time. The boys. Plus it costs money for books and classes and all that stuff.”
    “Erin pays educational fees in the line of duty.”
    “But I’m a receptionist.”
    “You’re my accounting clerk, too.”
    Bree was helping her acquire some accounting skills, but that didn’t make her an
accounting
anything. “I just don’t think—” What? That she wasn’t capable of it? Rachel admitted to herself that she wasn’t the college type. She’d married Gary early, and that was that.
    Bree shrugged. “Just a thought.” She started closing all her open windows on the computer.
    Could she do it? Maybe. Yes, probably. If Gary was good enough for accounting, so was she. But now wasn’t the right time, the boys, getting settled, yadda, yadda. It wouldn’t solve her immediate problems anyway; Nathan would have a fit if she spent money on school before she paid for his driving lessons. Maybe later she’d think about it, and she pushed the idea aside. “I’ll get my purse,” Rachel said.
    Bree merely smiled and nodded.
    Twenty minutes later they were seated in a booth at a nearby restaurant that served happy-hour drinks and provided a free appetizer buffet in their bar area, which was amazing in today’s economy where nothing was free anymore. The bartenders were pouring drinks, the music was playing, and the bar was absolutely packed. Thank God they’d gotten the last available booth, even if it was in a corner by the restrooms, because the place was now standing room only. Maybe the restaurant made up for the free food with the amount of alcohol that was flowing. Rachel had elbowed her way through the buffet line, figuring the appetizers could pass for tonight’s dinner, and she’d ordered the half-priced white wine.
    Their drinks arrived, and Rachel raised her glass.