The Reunion Read Online Free

But he was laughing at her too.  Em sat back down.
    “Sorry Ham.”  She immediately was concerned. Ham had been terrific to her and was always open to new ideas.  “I know you’re stuck in the middle.  I didn’t mean I won’t cooperate it’s that I’ve got Mike to think about.  I can’t do seven sites in seven weeks.  I'd have to pull him out of school.”
    “They were very specific, they won't need you at all the sites.  They want you at headquarters for consultation and possibly for the beginning of the implementations.  Travel would be as needed while the reconfiguration and upgrades are taking place.”
    “I know how that goes Ham.  I’ve been down that road before.  I’ve probably done more upgrades, implementations and overhauls than those two cum lattes [she mispronounced intentionally, with a twang] put together.  I can’t do it.  I’ll go back to the pool before I’ll pull my kid out of school in the middle of term.”
    “Can’t someone help you out?  Bea?  Josh?  He could stay with his cousins and go to their school for a few weeks.”
    “He started this new program this year and he’s doing much better.  I don’t want to mess things up.  Ham you know I’d do it if I could.  I want the project to succeed.  It needs to be implemented.  I just can’t do it if it entails travel.”
    “I’ll send it up the chain.”  He sighed.  This could be the career crusher.  He hated putting the screws to her.  It stuck in his gut that they might be screwing her over.  The buzzer went off on his phone.  “Janice, I said hold… No, no that’s ok.  I’ll take it.”  He signed for her to stay seated and suddenly turned and saw the PC behind him and the conference web camera were on.  She followed his gaze, saw the webcam light and went white.  “Yes sir.”  He pinched his nose on either side closing his eyes while trying to head off a headache before it got started.  “Yes, I’m sure there is...  No there wasn’t anything…  I could… Yes, I understand.”  He swung his chair around and kicked the master power switch to the surge protector shutting down the webcam, PC, printer, hub and monitor, in a single act of temper.
    “Ham you lost that last e-mail.”  Em’s fingers were locked so tightly together that they were turning white.  “That’s it.  I’m done.”  She started to stand up.  He shook his head and pointed back to the chair.
    “I was on with management before you came in and I forgot to kill the connection.”  Hamilton apologized.  “It’s not as bad as it sounded.”  His eyes suddenly locked on hers.  The tiredness and the stress were there, as was concern and pride.  Pride?  “They’re going to implement your proposal.  Offering you lead.”
    “JESUS, MARY AND JOSEPH!”  If she hadn’t been seated she would have fallen over.  “What the hell was that about?”
    “The proposals.  They were submitted without your name.”  Hamilton shook his head.  “They had no idea.  I had no idea, I swear.”  She waived off his concern.  “The consultants, Marshall and Cummins, they did some research and brought some interesting information to the chairman’s attention a couple of days ago apparently.”  He was shaking his head and looked back at the PC.  He kicked the switch back on and listened to the machine powering up.  “Not the best thing to do.”  He said more to himself than to her.  “The proposal was submitted so close to what your original wording had been they started checking and found that one of the east coast hot shots had submitted it as his proposal and recommended the outside firm.”
    “Like that hasn’t happened before.”  She said cynically.  “I…”  She froze and put her hand up.  “Hold it.  You’re saying the idiot still had copies of my original proposal?”  Ham nodded his head.  “You had copies too?”
    “And I had provided Marshall and Cummins copies when they were here