Perfect Partners

printouts that littered her desk. She had not requested this particular printout. It had apparently been mistakenly attached to the last stack of data she’d managed to get from one of the computer operators in Accounting. She studied the figures for a long time before she got to her feet.
    Carrying the printout under her arm, she left her office and went down the hall to Joel’s lair.
    “Is Mr. Blackstone around, Mrs. Sedgewick?”
    Mrs. Sedgewick, the imposing dragon who guarded Joel’s outer office, looked up. She was a strong-boned woman of indeterminate years whose gray hair was permanently frozen into a bouffant curve. “He’s in his office, Ms. Thornquist. I’ll let him know you’re here.”
    “Do that,” Letty murmured.
    Mrs. Sedgewick spoke into the intercom. “Ms. Thornquist is here to see you, Mr. Blackstone.”
    “Send her in.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. Sedgewick.” Letty paused, her hand on the doorknob, “Oh, by the way…”
    “Yes, Ms. Thornquist?”
    “Arthur Bigley is now fully trained, and he and I are starting to function together as a team. He will no longer require assistance from you, and you need not concern yourself with directing his activities. Do I make myself clear, Mrs. Sedgewick?”
    Mrs. Sedgewick pursed her lips disapprovingly. “I don’t understand, Ms. Thornquist. Arthur is very new at his duties, and I was told to give him detailed instructions and guidance.”
    “Forget the detailed instructions and guidance. Arthur will get them directly from me from now on.”
    Without waiting for a response, Letty pushed open the inner door and walked into Joel’s office.
    Joel looked up from a file that sat amid the chaos of his desk. He was dressed for work in his usual manner. Letty had not really minded his habit of wearing running shoes, jeans, and long-sleeved, open-throated shirts to the office until now. This morning his overly casual attire annoyed her.
    “Good morning, Mr. Blackstone.”
    He grinned at her slowly, his gaze deliberate and blatantly sensual. “You’re looking good this morning, Madam President. I like that suit.”
    “Thank you.” Letty immediately tried to straighten her blouse, which had bunched up beneath the jacket. She caught herself and stopped. She must not allow herself to become flustered by that look in his eyes. This was a serious matter. She had to face the possibility that his apparent interest in her was all a sham. Last night he had been testing the waters, trying to discover whether or not he could use sex to manipulate her. What had made her believe, even for a moment, that he was genuinely attracted to her?
    She sat down across from him and fixed him with the sort of smile she usually reserved for the more obnoxious members of the Vellacott faculty. “How about intelligent? Do I look reasonably intelligent this morning, Mr. Blackstone?”
    Joel narrowed his eyes. “I doubt if you could look any other way.”
    “How gallant. And would you also say I appear competent to handle the pesky little details of life? Do I appear able to deal with minor stuff like phone calls and appointments, for example? Do you think I might just manage to get myself to a meeting on time if I tried real hard?
If
someone bothered to inform me about that meeting in the first place?”
    Joel tossed aside the pen he had been using to mark up the file. He sat back in his chair. “Okay, I give up. What game are we playing?”
    “Good question.” She smiled with chilly approval. “I was under the impression it was a game you had invented. I know for certain we’ve been playing it by your rules thus far.”
    “You’re in a weird mood this morning, Letty. Why don’t you stop fooling around and tell me what the problem is? Are you upset about last night? Because, if so, you’ve got no cause. I thought we had an understanding.”
    “I thought we did, too.” She slapped the printout down on his desk. “I talked to my ex-fiancé last night.”
    “Dixon called you?”
    “That’s right. At home. You can imagine my surprise when I found out he had been trying to get through to me for several days here at Thornquist Gear. Apparently my secretary had been instructed not to put the calls through to me.”
    Joel shrugged, looking unrepentent. “I told Bigley not to bother you with them.”
    “You also gave him a few other instructions,” Letty said evenly. “Instructions that effectively keep me out of the loop here at Thornquist.”
    “You
are
out of