didn't recognize you.”
I kind of wished you hadn't.
“Thanks, you too.” She wished she could have lied, could have said, Wow, did you gain weight, or are you just pregnant? But, no. Penny looked trim, light, and aggravatingly perfect. “John said something about a tour?”
Penny nodded. “Of course. Let me show you around the plant.” She gestured
with her arm towards a side hallway that led to some white metal double doors.
* * *
Two hours, a stuffy filtration mask, and a hard hat later, Kate had seen about as
many vats of nameless brown liquid and endless white pipes as she could handle.
She hadn't visited her parents at the plant a lot when they'd worked here as chemists, but she hadn't forgotten the acrid stink. Her dad had shown her around
like this on some “take your kid to work day”, and she'd thought she was going
to permanently damage her sense of smell.
Penny had led her back to the main office area, the thrum and bang of the plant floor disappearing as the door closed.
“You can keep the hat.” Penny was pointing to the white hard hat with the
Nitrovex logo on it perched on Kate's head.
“Thanks.” She might need it at her next meeting in Chicago if she blew this
deal.
“I'll let John know we're done. Hope to see you around again, Kate.” She stuck her hand out.
Kate shook it. Penny paused, then turned and left down a carpeted hallway.
Kate wiped her hand on her skirt. She realized she'd had her stomach
muscles clenched for the last thirty minutes and exhaled. That was it, then? No
apologies? No, 'sorry I was such a petty skank and ruined your life?' Just act like nothing ever happened, everything was just all hunky-dory, huh? Okay, she could play it that way.
But the tour actually hadn't been that bad. She'd half expected Penny to be
one of those overly-extroverted sales reps she'd had run-ins with before, but she'd been…normal. Even professional. Maybe we do all grow up sometime.
John Wells was approaching briskly. “Well, then, what do you think of our
little operation?” he asked, face beaming.
All she could remember were pipes and banging and guys in white hazmat
coveralls, all with the urgent look of someone waiting for a vat of deadly chemicals to explode and flood the town.
“It was amazing. Just like I remembered it.”
He laughed. “You mean you liked all those tanks and smelly mixing
stations?”
“I've always been interested in science.” She tried to sound convincing. It wasn't a flat-out lie. There was her friendship with Peter after all. Yeah, right.
He began walking back down the hallway. “Let's be real, Miss Brady. Most
people don't get much out of seeing our little operation here. But I think what we do here is important. Not just chemicals for sewage plants or farms. You know
we also make resins in paints used by artists?”
“I saw something about that, yes.”
He nodded. “Among other things. You may not see it right up front, but you'd sure notice it if we weren't there. What I'm trying to say is that you may
feel like you have your work cut out for you, but Nitrovex isn't just chemicals.”
“We'll certainly do our best for you, Mr. Wells. And I hope you find we're the right company for this project.” That was no lie. The significance of this project to her career continued to hover around her like a nervous cloud.
He smiled. “You can call me John if I can call you Kate.”
She smiled. She liked him. “It's a deal.”
