Free Monahan 01 Options by Rosemarie A D'Amico Page A

straighten his tie when he saw Philip. Philip stood up a little straighter and buttoned his jacket and adjusted his tie. I watched in amusement as Tom lightly passed his hand over the side of his head to make sure his hair was smooth. Philip did the same. Mirror image. I’d have to follow these two into the bathroom some time and see what happens in front of the urinal.
    Philip stuck out his hand as Tom approached and they shook. Tom grimaced ever so slightly and I guessed that Philip was giving him a bone-crushing handshake. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them lifted his leg and pissed on the doorframe of Oakes’ office. Boys will be boys.
    Philip went into Oakes’ office and closed the door behind him.
    “So Tom. How’d it go?” I asked. As if it were any of my business.
    “Not bad. We’ve got everyone sorted out. I’ve got to start on the formal severance packages over the next couple of weeks.”
    “And Philip?” I asked. This was definitely not my business.
    “Oh, he’ll do fine. Oakes wants me to do up a package for the board on some options for him and draw up a formal employment agreement.”
    “Well, we’ve got options on the agenda for the next meeting so get me the information as soon as you can.” I turned to go into Vee’s office and Tom followed me.
    “Hey, Vee,” I said. She had her elbows on the desk and was resting her head in her hands. She looked exhausted. “Hey yourself,” she said back.
    “Yes Tom?” she asked tiredly. She looked at me and rolled her eyes.
    “How’d the stock do?” Tom asked. It was a daily ritual for the executives to check with Vee on how the stock did for the day. They had to keep track of their fortunes.
    “Down a buck. Not a very large volume of shares traded.” She paused. “Anything else?”
    “Um, uh, um. Nope. Have a good weekend ladies.” Tom probably had something on his mind but got sidetracked when he saw a loose thread on his jacket sleeve. He was picking at it as he left Vee’s office.
    “Oakes is going to have a fit,” Vee stated.
    “Why? Just ‘cause the stock’s down? Again? Big deal. His excuse’ll be something lame like the price of rice in China,” I said. “Besides, the rest of us have nothing to worry about. He’ll blame it all on you,” I joked.
    “That’s okay. I’ve got big shoulders,” Vee sighed. “At least the weather held today and his flights were on time.” A couple of weeks ago Oakes’ flight to the west coast was delayed because of fog. He blamed it all on Vee. She now had to check weather patterns at least four hours before any of his flights. The man was a lunatic.
    “Harold asked me to tell you he was still waiting to see Oakes.”
    “I know, I know. Chris isn’t interested in seeing Harold even though I told him it was urgent. He said ‘tough’. What’s the big deal anyway?” she asked. “It’s Friday afternoon.”
    “Who knows? It might be something to do with the stock options. The list that was approved at the last board meeting doesn’t jive with the information on Ev’s system. Didrickson’s probably just covering his ass again.”
    “Well, Harold better tread lightly. Chris and Rick are at it again. And Chris knows that Harold’s siding with Rick. That isn’t making Chris happy,” Vee said.
    The politics among the executives was heating up. What didn’t help matters was Human Synergies, Inc. They had been hired by our board of directors to assist with the most recent re-engineering of our company.
    Re-engineering is a term from the nineties to describe reorganization. You can’t even find the word in a dictionary published before 1995. Re-engineering. How absurd. People are out there making millions on coming up with new words. “Hello, pleased to meet you. What do I do for a living? I’m a synonymer . Pardon? You’re not familiar with that term? Basically, I make-up new words to describe mundane things. Yes, there’s oodles of financial benefits.” Gawd!
    Human