Out Of Love Part 6

"Love you too."

41.

Chapter 5.

Judith checked her watch for the tenth time as the morning's first panel of speakers wrapped up its comments. She had barely remembered a word from the session, she was so focused on Carmen's presentation, which began in twenty minutes. When the moderator stood and opened the floor to questions, she quietly slipped out from her seat in the back row, hoping for a chance to see Carmen before the plenary session began.

Carmen's freshly laundered raincoat was folded neatly inside a Saks Fifth Avenue shopping bag, one Judith had saved from two years ago when they had a ma.s.sive after-Christmas sale. It was a silly gesture, she knew, but the bag seemed more fitting for the expensive coat than anything else she had. It didn't take a fashion mogul to see she bought her clothes off the rack at discount stores. But then Judith did very little that required her to dress in expensive suits or skirts. Besides, it wasn't as if she had 42 unlimited s.p.a.ce for an elaborate wardrobe. She had barely pulled together three nice outfits for the weekend.

From the deserted hallway, she peered through the crack in the door into the main ballroom, where hundreds of chairs were set up for the plenary session. The room seemed cavernous with only a handful of people inside making last-minute preparations.

Carmen was at a table on a platform with the young man Judith recognized from the company's Web site as Richard Henderson.

Cathy Rosen and Lenore Yates were there too, along with a woman Judith thought she recognized as the vice president of the a.s.sociation of Travel Professionals.

She felt a little guilty for intruding at this critical time, but she had promised to return Carmen's coat before the session.

The smart thing would be to give it to Cathy, but that meant she wouldn't get to talk to Carmen, which was all she had thought about for the last twenty-one hours. Once the presentation was finished, Carmen would probably be inundated with people congratulating her or asking questions. No, now was definitely a better time.

As she drew closer to the end of the platform, she saw them deep in concentration and changed her mind, deciding instead just to give the coat to Cathy. Carmen's time was too important for something-or someone-so trivial. But then Carmen looked up from her notes and saw her. Her face broke into a sudden smile followed by a look of confusion, which made Judith worry for a moment that Carmen didn't recognize her. After a moment's hesitation, Carmen jumped up from her chair and stepped down off the platform. "Good morning."

"Hi. I'm so sorry to bother you. I was afraid I wouldn't have another chance to see you." She handed Carmen the shopping bag. "I brought your coat."

"Thank you. There wasn't any hurry."

Judith noted with embarra.s.sment that everyone on the platform had stopped talking and was looking in their direction. "I 43 had it cleaned."

"You didn't have to do that."

"Yes, I did. It reeked of tomatoes by the time I got home. I couldn't bring it back like that."

"Still-"

Judith fumbled for the business card in her pocket. "Look, I don't want to keep you. Here's my card if there's a problem with anything. I really appreciate you coming to my rescue like that."

"You're welcome." Carmen looked over her shoulder at her staff. "I'm sorry. I have to get back to this."

"I know. I just wanted to say thanks."

"I'm glad I was there to help." Carmen smiled warmly before hurrying back to check her presentation.

Judith could feel her face burning with embarra.s.sment as she walked toward the doors at the back of the room. The way they had all gaped at her from the platform, they must have thought she was an idiot for interrupting at a time like that. After all the hours she had spent imagining how nice it would be to talk to Carmen again, she had ended up blowing it by coming at a bad time.

A few early birds were coming in to claim the good seats.

Judith figured she had just enough time to grab a cup of coffee from the beverage bar out in the hall. As she was going out, she was practically bowled over by Bob Durbin, who mumbled a token apology without even making eye contact. Carmen was right about him. He was rude.

When she returned with her coffee, Celia waved her over to a seat in the fifth row.

"Judith, I wanted you to meet my friend Denise. She's the one who got me the interview at the network. I go next Tuesday."

"That's great." Judith set her coffee cup on the chair and held out her hand to Denise, who seemed oddly anxious about her arrival. "I'm really glad to meet you. You're going to love working with Celia."

"Aw, you're sweet," Celia said.

44.

"Is it okay if I sit here?"

"Sure." Celia indicated the open seat on her other side. "So how did your interview go yesterday?"

"It got canceled."

"That sucks."

Judith waved it off. "I'll deal with it later. I saw they have a job board out by the registration desk. Maybe something good will be on it."

Celia settled back in her seat and whispered something to Denise that made her smile. Then she looked toward the podium and leaned into Judith. "Do you remember back when Myrna used to call The Delallo Group?"

"Uh-huh."

"I always thought she sounded like she was flirting. I think I just figured out why."

Judith followed her friend's eyes to the platform, where Carmen sat smiling and relaxed. She looked absolutely fantastic in her dark blue suit. Judith had also noticed her understated, but obviously expensive, jewelry-a gold chain necklace and bracelet, with hoop earrings. On her right hand was a wide plat-inum band decorated with small diamonds, an heirloom perhaps.

Her left hand was unadorned.

"Have you had a good look at that woman?"

Still embarra.s.sed about interrupting Carmen earlier, Judith decided to let that be a rhetorical question. She didn't want to share anything about her unfortunate encounters with Carmen.

"Very nice."

"Very nice?" Celia pulled off her gla.s.ses and handed them to Judith. "Here. Look again."

Judith chuckled. "Okay, she's very, very nice."

"I'll say. Ol' Myrna was up to something, all right."

The crowd grew quiet as one of the women rose and took the podium. She too was smartly dressed, and wearing a ribbon on her nametag that announced her official position. This was the 45 one Judith thought was the vice president of the a.s.sociation, Sofia somebody. She was a slender, striking woman, her hair more silver than black.

"Good morning."

A few hundred attendees murmured a response.

"Oh, that didn't sound good at all. Let's try it again."

Comically, the woman went back to her chair and sat, where she smoothed her skirt and primped her hair as the audience giggled.

Then she stood and returned to the podium. "Good morning."

The crowd roared its enthusiastic response.

"For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting me yet, I'm Sofia Santini, and you elected me vice president last year." She took a sip of water as the audience applauded. "Over the summer, those of us on the program committee met to talk about you behind your backs. While we were together, we read some of the evaluations of last year's conference and found that a number of you wanted to be tied to your chairs and have needles shot into your eyeb.a.l.l.s with an air gun."

The audience chuckled nervously.

"We didn't have enough air guns to do that, so we asked Carmen Delallo to speak instead."

That brought a raucous round of laughter. Judith studied Carmen, who was pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head.

"If you don't happen to know Carmen, you can read her official bio in the program. But see me later if you want to know the real dirt." Sofia glanced back at Carmen and smiled. "Seriously, Carmen is one of my oldest friends. All the others are much, much younger."

By this time, Carmen was sneering.

"Folks, let me tell you a little about the presentation you're about to see. I had the chance to look through the slides this morning, and you're in for a real treat. The numbers are very encouraging for next year. I'm going to get out of the way and let 46 her get started so we'll have time for questions. So without further ado"-she looked back at Carmen again-"and further shenanigans on my part, please welcome one of the smartest people I know, my friend, Carmen Delallo."

Judith joined in the applause, mentally adding kind and generous to Sofia's list of plat.i.tudes. Then she sat mesmerized for forty-five minutes as Carmen went on to present the highlights of TDG's annual study of travelers. She was funny and engaging, and as Sofia had promised, obviously smart. When the last slide faded and the lights went up, Judith was ready to rush back to her office and plan her next marketing campaign using all the information Carmen had just shared.

As the final applause rang out, Celia burst her bubble. "Can you imagine Todd letting us do a campaign like that?"

"Not really."

"I can't believe he thinks that Conover report is all we need to know."

"I don't even bother to look at it."

"Me neither." Celia stood and slung her purse over her shoulder. "You want to go with us for lunch?"

Judith had entertained a fantasy of having lunch today with Carmen, an invitation that would have come when she returned the coat. They would talk about work, their favorite travel destinations, what they did for fun, and maybe even a little about their personal lives. It would have been the beginning of a great friendship.

Except important people like Carmen Delallo didn't strike up friendships with people like Judith.

"Sure, thanks."

Carmen folded her arms and listened intently as Lenore described their plan for servicing Bill Hinkle's account. It was a good strategy for TDG Syndicated since it created an enormous 47 revenue stream. But Hinkle wasn't going to like the fact that his compet.i.tors would be able to buy the information too.

"Bill, I think Lenore's on to something. She's been studying this for quite a while. Adding time-share data to the syndicated study would help your whole industry. It's a fact of life you guys are gobbling up a good-sized chunk of the travel business, especially in the south."

"But I don't see how going syndicated is going to help us at Franklin," Hinkle interjected.

"You said yourself you wanted to branch out and develop resorts in New England and out West. You don't want to put all that money into regional research by yourself. This way, you get to share the cost."

"But my compet.i.tors are going to know everything I know."

"These numbers are just going to give everybody the big picture. You can spend the money you save from this on testing your ad campaigns or finding ways to make your package better than the others. You'll not only have the edge, you'll have it in a national market."

"What's to stop them from spending more money too?"

"Nothing, but they aren't going to spend it with me,"

Carmen answered. "As long as Franklin Resorts is our client, The Delallo Group won't do any strategic work for your direct compet.i.tors."

That brought a smile to Hinkle's face. "You think you'll have it up and running by this time next year?"

Carmen glanced over at Lenore and gave her a quick wink out of Hinkle's line of sight. "Lenore says we'll have it off the ground by this summer."

"That's right," Lenore said, clearly trying not to show her panic. "We've already agreed on the major components. The rest is just a matter of writing the software and getting the vendors into place."

"So we're done?" Carmen stood and stretched. She was cer-48 tainly done. Five straight hours of client meetings had rendered her numb. She followed Hinkle into the hall and let the door close. "I appreciate you being on board for this, Bill. Lenore really knows what she's doing."

"I enjoyed having dinner with her last night. You better watch that one, Carmen. She's almost as pretty as you."

"If you'd open your stubborn eyes, you might realize that women can be a lot more than pretty. Lenore's probably smarter than both of us put together. That's why I made her vice president."

"She is smart. I'll give her that."

"I hope you'll give her more than that because I think she can help Franklin a lot. But if you make her feel like she's just a pretty face, she's going to want to give her attention to someone who appreciates what she can do."

Hinkle made a face, realizing he was getting called on the carpet. "I don't mean anything by it, Carmen. You know that, don't you?"

"What I know, Bill, is that I can't send my people out to work in places where they feel like they're not being respected. They'll hold me accountable for that." She could see that her message was getting through, and decided to end things on an up note. "I know she's looking forward to working with Franklin on the syndicated study, but I'm afraid it's because of the business potential for both of us, not your handsome mug."

Both of them began to chuckle, breaking the mild tension.

"I guess I ought to behave myself before word gets back to Sheila that I'm checking out one of my vendors. I sure don't need another ex-wife."

"Your wife is a saint."