team out to dinner several times a week and they joked with each other, laughing about the problems they were having or the odd characters they ran into. Thomas seemed to know exactly when to treat them to a night out, gauging the stress levels of the team accurately and letting them blow off steam when needed.
By the end of June, Victoria felt as if she were finally getting a grip on her job. She was exhausted but challenged. The team seemed to work non-stop. Sixteen hour days were the norm and each of them only took time to pass out in the hotel before starting over again the next day .
She started t o understand the team’s persona lities a little bit as well. Bob was the joker. When ever there was a lot of stress or something happened on the road that interfered with the work schedule , it was always Bob that stepped up with a joke or a sarcastic comment that broke the tension.
Mike was the diplomat and communicator. He made sure everyone knew what was going on wherever they were, no matter what city. Mike tended to sit back and let the issues wash over him. That allowed him to see the bigger picture and step back to analyze the problems and come up with a solution. Margie had been correct in her assessment of Mike’s skills as a human developer. The man had a knack for generating team spirit and focusing the employee’s efforts.
Thomas was a genius, Victoria thought. He masterminded the whole team, kept them on track and had the intuition of a psychic. Before the team landed in any city, he already had a good idea of what the problems were and how the team should go about fixing them. He directed the team’s research with a skill that Victoria had never experienced before but was constantly surprised and impressed with.
At the end of June , they had an assignment in New York City and Victoria was thrilled when Thomas declared a night off. Victoria immediately headed for Broadway and saw Cats. It was the same in each city they worked; Thomas would give them a day or a night off from their research and Victoria would sample the main attraction each city offered . To get the tickets wherever they were, Victoria utilized Thomas’s headquarter secretary, Martha, who stayed in Washington , D.C. and coordinated their travel arrangements. She also was a whiz at getting tables at the best restaurants or tickets to a play , concert or opera , even if it was sold out.
Unfortunately, along with the good came the frustrations. The more she worked with Thomas, the more fascinated she became with the man. He was always a gentleman, never making any inappropriate comments. But Victoria loved watching him work, listening to him brainstorm with the team or just sift through information on the computer.
One night in July, they were working in the Bankok, Maine office , she found herself alone with Thomas in the conference room. She hadn’t realized that Mike and Bob had already left for the evening, having been absorbed in her own tasks. S he was pouring over some files when she discovered some discrepancies in the numbers . In the process of pointing them out to Thomas, he leaned over her shoulder. She could feel the heat from his body through her yellow silk blouse and became flustered but tried to hide it. It was difficult for Victoria to remember what she was explaining to him.
It took her several minutes to concentrate. Thomas listened patiently as she stammered out her problem and was relieved when he stepped back from the table so she could breathe more easily. She definitely needed space from this man in order to think clearly.
She avoided his eyes when she finished her explanation that night and thankfully, Bob came back into the room and helped ease the tension. The three of them discussed her findings and came up with a plan to dig further into the numbers.
Another time, Victoria was reading a file