“I am the king!” Brad declared as he burst into Clark’s office.
“Yes, you are. What did you do this time?”
“Oh, nothing much. You might remember a certain prospect who swore up and down they would never work with us.”
“You didn’t.”
Brad slammed the paperwork onto Clark’s desk.
Clark didn’t even look at it before reaching for the bottle of scotch behind him. He knew he should have been more surprised, but honestly, Brad had spent the past three months bragging to everyone in the office that he was going to get this client, and if Brad said he was going to do something, he was going to do it. Clark didn’t need to see the proof of it before he started celebrating. “So how’d you do it?”
Brad spent the rest of the afternoon giving the play-by-play to Clark and then again and again to just about everyone in the sales department as news of his accomplishment spread and everyone came by to hear the story and offer their congratulations.
As Brad drove home that night, he was already starting to calculate his commission from the sale and tally up everything he could buy with it. There were things around the house that needed to be replaced, but there was also that set of golf clubs he had been eyeing…
As soon as Brad walked in the door, he smelled one of his favorite things: the smell of pork chops and apples. He smiled to himself as he walked into the kitchen and wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed her on the cheek. She couldn’t kiss him back, since he was behind her, but she kissed one of her palms and reached back to pat his cheek with it while her other hand flipped the pork chops.
“Hi, honey. How was your day?”
“I got ‘em.”
Her eyes lit up and she turned to him, spatula still in one hand. “You did?”
“I told you I would, didn’t I?”
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” She jumped up, throwing her arms around her neck as she finally managed to give him a real kiss, still never dropping the spatula. “I thought you might, which is why I’m making the pork chops and apples to celebrate.”
“And that is why I married you. All this needs now is a martini.” He started for the cabinet to get himself a martini glass, but Kiera stopped him. “It’s already in the fridge. I figured you’d come home right when I was in the middle of frying the pork chops and I wouldn’t have time to stop and make it without burning them, so I made it ahead of time and put it in the fridge.”
Kiera had returned to flipping the pork chops, starting to check them for doneness, as she said this, but Brad couldn’t resist grabbing her and giving her another passionate kiss. “Honey, the children are just in the other room.”
“Are they watching TV?”
“Yes.”
“Then they’ll never hear a thing. Ow! OK. OK. I’ll get my martini and leave.”
Kiera had beat him off with the spatula, but he was still grateful as he sat down with his martini and the evening newspaper.
As he continued to mull over the list of things he could buy with the commission he had coming to him he happened to remember a diamond pendant he had noticed Kiera admiring.
To be continued…