Friendly Skies Read online

  She stepped into Stephanie’s office, a corner office with a gorgeous view of the northern downtown skyline, the water and the Space Needle. The agency was on the 30th floor, giving Stephanie a panorama skyline, the West Seattle peninsula, and on a clear day, the Olympic Mountains. Today, however, it was foggy and raining.

  She sat down, and Stephanie immediately started in. “First, how was your trip? Catalina, right? It’s lovely down there. I haven’t been in ages.”

  She wasn’t sure what to say. She hadn’t mentioned to anyone at work the reason for the trip, and now that she and Greg had begun divorce proceedings, she didn’t think she could keep it a secret. Nor should she keep it secret from her boss. But she also didn’t want Stephanie to think her work would suffer because she was splitting from Greg.

  If anything, her work would suffer because she missed Jason with every breath.

  “Oh, well, it was all right. It is beautiful there. Perhaps I should mention, Greg and I are beginning divorce proceedings. This trip was a last-ditch effort to repair the marriage, but it’s pretty clear that we need to split. None of this will get in the way of work, though. It should be relatively simple since we don’t have children and the only asset is the house,” she said quickly.

  And yeah, everything should go swimmingly since Greg was already shacked up with his dancer and her kid.

  Stephanie leaned on her desk with her arms crossed, studying Judy. Stephanie was trying to figure out if she was really okay or if she was just putting up a good front.

  “I’m really sorry,” Stephanie said. “I know a little of what you’re going through, and I know how draining it can be. Let me know if I can be of any help, personally and professionally,” she said, perfunctorily.

  Stephanie had been there. She divorced her husband of 8 years a few years ago after finding out he had been sleeping with her administrative assistant. The divorce had been difficult for Stephanie, coupled with the betrayal of her assistant of five years. She divorced her husband and fired her assistant. It had been quite the scandal at the time, but Stephanie managed to come out on top.

  What was with these men and their affairs? Are any of them not complete jerks? Not to mention women who have no problem being homewreckers. So much for sisterhood.

  “I need your help,” Stephanie said as she sat down at her desk. “I’d like you to take over a few of Matt’s accounts for a little while. He’s going on a leave of absence for six months. He has some health issues to deal with. I can’t tell you more than that because I promised him discretion.”

  Matt primarily handled the three aviation accounts the agency had. He was a good fit for those accounts because he was a former Air Force pilot. Also, aviation was a very male-dominated business and Matt was a “man’s man.” Matt’s clients and campaigns were less media-heavy than Judy’s retail accounts, and the busiest season was the beginning part of the year when people were planning vacations for spring and summer. There would still be some work to do for the fall, but not as much compared to her retail clients.

  “I’m happy to help, but are you sure I’m the right fit?”

  She was curious, and it was ironic, given her recent bout of airsickness. She hated to admit it, but she thought that their aviation clients might be more responsive to having a man on the accounts. She hated the blatant sexism that existed in this industry. At the same time, though, it would be stupid to ignore what their clients wanted.

  “Yes,” Stephanie said. “I know what you are thinking, but taking on these clients calls for someone who is an expert with organization and can multi-task. Also, someone who can switch gears quickly between clients. One of Matt’s clients, Bradford Aviation, has just absorbed a smaller company that also focuses on charter flights. Bradford wants to do a press release on the acquisition and have a marketing push that highlights the expansion and added choices for travelers. Rich Mulcahey from Bradford is coming in next week to meet and discuss strategy.”

  Well, this should be interesting. If she thought she would have much time to sit around and miss Jason, she was wrong. She’d be working extra hours with Bradford. The aviation accounts generally ran themselves unless there was something to talk about, like adding aircraft or destinations. Mostly it was advertising about getting somewhere in style. With Bradford’s acquisition, though, there would be some work to do.

  “What day next week?” Judy asked, thinking she had a lot of research to do on Bradford before this meeting.

  “Thursday, a week from today. The meeting begins at the Bradford offices because Rich wants to give you a tour of the hangar with the planes from the new company they’ve acquired. Mark Bottoms will be with you—he’s Matt’s junior on the account. After that, you and Mark will take Bradford’s people to lunch in the Market, and then back here to meet with the creative folks. It’s going to be an all-day meeting.”

  “Okay, I’ll get started on the research,” she said as she stood to head back to her office. “Oh, and what’s the name of the business that Bradford acquired? I should get a leg up on that company also,” she said, already strategizing the avenues of investigation and research.

  “I’ve had the complete Bradford file sent to your office. It’s all in there. I think it’s called Callahan something. Maybe Callahan Enterprises? I better go. I have a few things to do before my 3 o’clock. Thanks for helping out, and again, I’m so sorry about Greg.” Stephanie ushered Judy out of her office and shut the door.

  For a moment, she just stood in the hallway in front of Stephanie’s door. Had she said Callahan Enterprises? Why did that name sound so familiar?

  Wait a sec. Wasn’t Callahan Jason’s last name? Had he said he owned his own business? She couldn’t remember what he said about his business! Shit! This is a bad time for memory gaps. Stupid Mai-Tais! This couldn’t be the same Callahan, right? She started to feel nervous energy take over her body.

  She needed to calm the hell down. There had to be loads of Callahans and at least a few of them were pilots, right? They’d have to be. Seattle was huge—more than 3 million people. If this were the same Callahan that she met in Catalina, it would be the equivalent to the proverbial needle-haystack situation.

  “Hey Judy, what’s up? You okay?” Marsha, Stephanie’s assistant asked. “Can I get you anything?”

  She looked up and realized where she was when she was supposed to be heading to her office. She must have looked guilty because she felt guilty and she wasn’t sure why.

  “Oh, sorry, no, I’m fine—I just was a little lost in thought for a moment.” She needed to get back to her office and look up Callahan Enterprises rightfuckingnow.

  “Oh yeah, you are covering Matt’s accounts, right? Ugh. Good luck with all the macho pilots. Don’t let them tell you to make the coffee.” Marsha rolled her eyes.

  “Thanks,” she said, distractedly.

  Judy’s office had a window view, too. Though not as spectacular as Stephanie’s corner office, it still afforded a slight water view between buildings. She liked it. It allowed her to fantasize a little during the summer about just taking off and spending the day on that gorgeous Puget Sound.

  Several file boxes and a smaller box of CDs were stacked up in her office—undoubtedly the Bradford file. Most of this was past campaign information—creative mock-ups and budget reports. It would be good to review it but it was not the most important part of the research. The most important part was researching Callahan Enterprises and figuring out how to spin the press release, and framing the new campaign.

  Well, no. The most important thing was figuring out if the Callahan in Callahan Enterprises is the strapping, blonde, gorgeous pilot she had the opportunity to see without any clothes on. Oh shit. What if it was? Was she going to have to work with someone who has seen her naked?? She needed to figure this out now.

  Judy’s admin, Tracey, followed her into her office right on her heels. “I just heard—Matt’s aviation accounts? Holy cow. Can we manage this? More importantly, will thos
e misogynistic pig pilots be able to deal with us frail delicate flowers running the campaign? Ugh. What’s the deal? What’s going on with Matt?”

  Tracey was another person in her life who was a force of nature. She was 24, just a couple of years out of college with a double-major in Women’s Studies and Marketing. She was bright, enthusiastic, and perfect for advertising with her no-nonsense attitude. She was a little sensitive about gender discrimination, though, which was both puzzling because she worked in the still male-dominated field of advertising, but it was also refreshing. Advertising needed women like Tracey.

  “Yes, we can manage this, and, yes, I suspect, the aviation boys will be okay with us delicate flowers running the campaign. I won’t know until after the meeting on Thursday, but I think it’s going to be okay. Mark is the junior on this, so I’m sure he’ll be helpful. I’m going to have to start in on the research this afternoon, though. Can you see if Mark has time to chat this afternoon? I should have him catch me up so far.”

  “Ugh. Mark Bottoms. The universe hates me,” Tracey muttered as she walked out of Judy’s office.

  Mark had a massive long-term crush on Tracey. Tracey had a run-in with him at last year’s holiday party. They both got caught under the mistletoe and Mark took the opportunity to plant one on her. Judy thought Tracey secretly enjoyed it but was embarrassed, so she told everyone who would listen what a mistake it had been. It was true that Mark could come on a little strong. His family was extremely wealthy and he had that arrogance that trust-fund kids have. But his heart was always in the right place and he so obviously cared about Tracey. Hmmm. Maybe taking over Matt’s work would open the door for those two.

  As if on cue, Mark sauntered into her office. “Hey Judy, how’s it going?” He asked nonchalantly. Mark never seemed to let anything ruffle him, except for Tracey, that is.

  “Tell me about Bradford Aviation. What are we working with here?”

  “Well,” Mark began, “it’s basically a mid-level aviation company. They do private charters, corporate travel, some shipment deliveries, pretty much everything.”

  “What is their focus right now with the acquisition of Callahan?”

  “Travel and business for sure. That’s what Callahan Enterprises does,” Mark answered. “But there’s something else you should be aware of,” he said delicately.

  “Spill it,” Judy demanded.

  “Rich Mulcaheyhas a reputation for being a womanizer,” Mark explained. “He has not made a lot of friends at Bradford. He is originally from Texas and he ended up at Bradford when Stephen Bradford retired from the CEO position but maintained his controlling stock interest. Bradford needed a new CEO and Rich has a proven track record. He ran a series of other smaller businesses quite well, one of which was an aviation company out of Dallas. But he’s it sounds like he’s pretty much an asshole to women. In his professional wake he has left a trail of broken hearts and harassment suits, and is as likely to be mentioned for that as he is for his business prowess.”

  “Great. Thanks for the heads’ up on that. Rich Mulcahey will get nowhere with me on the womanizing thing. This is not my first rodeo. What else do you know?”

  “Rich is tight-fisted with the budget and does not listen to the ‘money men’ because he thinks he knows best. Think Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys. It’ll be an uphill battle to get him to spend the money we’ll need to make him think the campaign is his idea.”

  “Okay, womanizer and tight with money. Got it,” she said. “What do you know about Callahan Enterprises?” She asked, trying to conceal her intense anticipation.

  She was practically sweating because she’s so nervous that this could be Jason’s company. She didn’t have a chance to do any research on it before meeting with Mark, and she was practically foaming at the mouth to get to it.

  “Nothing. We only found out today about the acquisition, and I was just getting ready to see what I could find out when Tracey called.” He glanced outside the door to Tracey’s desk and smiled when he mentioned her name.

  “Yeah, okay, I’ll look into it, too. Let’s take tomorrow and the weekend to frame a basic strategy and plan to meet Monday morning, and then rope in Creative on Monday afternoon.”

  As soon as Mark left, she turned to the internet. Please Google, don’t fail me now, she thought.

  The first hit was an article from two years ago on Callahan Enterprises:

  Callahan Enterprises mourns the loss of its founder, David Callahan. Mr. Callahan founded the business in 1980 in Spokane, Washington, after having worked several years as a corporate pilot. Mr. Callahan developed a charter business between Spokane, Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, catering to the business set who would prefer to fly privately instead of commercially. During his 35 years at the helm of Callahan Enterprises, he expanded the company to include 20 aircraft and mapping routes all over the Pacific Northwest, to the Bay Area and Montana.

  Mr. Callahan is survived by his wife, Jeannette, his children, Jason, Miranda and Linda. It is rumored that Jason Callahan will take over at the helm of Callahan Enterprises.

  There was a photo of David Callahan taken when he was probably in his 40s. He had been a striking figure, with chiseled good looks and a tidy haircut that suggested a military background. He had perfect, honey-colored hair and Paul Newman blue eyes. Holy shit.

  Judy stared at the screen. She knew this was her Jason’s father as sure as she breathed. The resemblance was too strong. Wow. Jason had worked with his dad. It must have been heartbreaking for Jason when his dad passed away. The pressure to carry on the business must have been intense. Her mind was full of questions, like why was he selling the company to Bradford? Was it in trouble financially? Did he not want to run a business? Would he stay on as a pilot?

  Most importantly, would he be at the meeting on Thursday? And if so, what should she wear?

  She tried not to think about Jason while researching Bradford Aviation. It was almost impossible, but she needed to focus.

  There was a knock at the door and Judy almost jumped out of her chair. Ed, the chief software engineer for the agency walked in. “Hey Judy, I need to check out the system on your PC. Is now okay?”

  Ed wrote the proprietary file management program that the company used. Management got tired of the programs that were on the market and trying to make them versatile enough for their clients, and so they hired Ed and his team to create their own program. It’s in beta now, being tested for issues. Ed liked to test it on Judy’s PC. It was probably because she wasn’t a total bitch to the tech people like everyone else was.

  “Oh, hey Ed, yeah, come on in.”

  Without Ed and his team, Judy got nothing done, so she liked feeling helpful to them. She’d rather have a few minutes of inconvenience than a few days of getting nothing done because the system crashed. Plus, Ed was entertaining. He used to play in a heavy metal band before becoming a software engineer. He had a little more edge to him than the regular tech guys. He still played now and again, and she could tell when he had played a gig the night before because he’d come in looking like he hadn’t slept, which he probably hadn’t. He had since been domesticated, though. He got married a couple of years ago to a woman he met at a New Year’s Eve party. Apparently she took one look at him, crawled into his lap and never left.

  He sat down at Judy’s desk. “Hey, I know this company,” he said, referring to the Callahan article up on the screen.

  “Oh yeah? What do you know about Callahan Enterprises?”

  “My wife is a travel agent,” Ed began. “She uses their site for bookings when her clients want something private and more luxurious, or if they just want a tour from the air of the region. She booked a ton with them one year and they ended up comping us a trip up to the San Juans. It was pretty nice.”

  “That’s good to know, that Callahan would comp the agents who brought business their way. That’s a good way to run a business,” Judy said, thinking out loud.

  “Yeah, and accord
ing to my wife, our pilot was smokin’ hot.” Ed said drily.

  Judy smiled. Yeah, he sure was.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  SATURDAY MORNING JUDY HIT the yoga studio. She and Dani usually did Saturday morning yoga together and had coffee after if neither of them had to work. It’s their once-a-week catch-up. With Judy’s family in Illinois and Dani’s in Brooklyn, they were all each other had.

  “Have you heard from Jason?” Dani asked over her coffee getting straight to the point. This was as subtle as she got.

  “No, I have not.” She sighed.

  She was going to tell her about Bradford Aviation and the big meeting, but she needed to work up to it. The minute she let the cat out of the bag, Dani would become a whirlwind of advice, from wardrobe, to love relationships, to how to talk to men about business. Unlike most of the time that Dani provided her unsolicited advice, Judy needed it this time around. She was in over her head, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready for the onslaught.

  “You know, Judy, you could call him. Or email him. Or text him for god’s sake. It’s the 21st century. Women don’t have to wait for men to make the first move. He’s probably giving you space because you need to sort out your marriage. For all you know, he’s as besotted as you are and having just as much trouble sleeping.” Dani sipped her coffee.

  “Is it so obvious?” She didn’t want to pine for Jason. She hated that. But the truth of it was that she hadn’t slept well since she got home. She tried to tell herself it was the divorce, but in her heart, she knew it was Jason.

  “No, but I have a trained eye. Seriously, you should call him.”

  “I think I probably won’t have to.” Judy said quietly, not quite meeting Dani’s eyes.

  “Um, what??” Dani’s eyebrows climbed upwards.

  “I’ve been given the aviation accounts to babysit for a while, and Bradford Aviation is one of them. Bradford Aviation just acquired Callahan Enterprises, as in Jason Callahan, and I’m supposed to coordinate the press release and campaign to announce the acquisition. I have a meeting on Thursday.” Judy contemplated her coffee. It was going to be a crazy week.