Acquiring Mr. Right

“I’ll think about it,” Marlyn said halfheartedly, “but I’ve been so miserable lately. I’m married and I’m lonely as hell. I have a husband I see only when he can work me into his schedule.”

Linc was a civil engineer. He worked for a big company that had a contract with the government for a new dam across a stream up in the mountains east of town. It was a two-hour drive over a winding road to get to town. He stayed in an RV trailer during the week and came home on weekends.

Sometimes, Krista added truthfully. Lately, he’d been tied up at work more and more on weekends. She could understand Marlyn’s grief with that.

“How can he know how you feel if you don’t tell him?” she asked with great practicality. “If you talk honestly with each other, that could help get your marriage back on track.”

She recalled those were the words Lance Carrington had used with her. Together they were going to get the appliance company “back on track.” Studying her friend, she thought things were changing in both their lives.

Change. One of the big C-words.

From her experience, change had often meant confusion—and chaos.

Chapter Four

Lance threw down the pen and looked at the clock. “Time to quit,” he said. “I think a fourteen-hour day is long enough, don’t you?”

Krista glanced at him, then back at the diagram she was working on. “Merging these two production lines will be much more efficient,” she said, as if she hadn’t heard him. “I want everyone cross-trained so that each person can do every job. I want them to learn to work as a team, to cover for each other if one person is out sick…or needs to take personal time—”

“Earth to Krista,” he said loudly. “It’s time to quit.”