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  building. He was soon greeted by a round of

  applause that he could have done without. He

  knew it had been a while for James. He had

  avoided the place during his fight with Jean, so as

  not to give her more ammunition, but since she was

  gone there was no harm in him being

  there. James smiled as he made his way to the bar

  and ordered a beer from Vickey, the bartender.

  "Hey handsome, how are ya," she asked as she

  brought the beer to him.

  "Fine, you're looking great," he responded with a

  crooked smile. Morgan sat beside James smiling at the ongoing

  banter. It was no secret to the inner circle that

  Vickey and James had had a few dalliances.

  "Glad you came, James," said Grayson leaning close

  to him and ordered another beer for himself.

  "Yeah, well, Jean finally moved out and the house

  seemed too quiet."

  "Even with those damn horses you call dogs there?"

  "Even with them. How long ya'll staying?"

  "For a while; Melisa is in Pawling visiting her

  mother, so Morgan will be here for a while. Beth

  has let Dave out of his cage for a bit too. So we're

  here."

  "Great, just like old times," smiled James." ”So what do you think of our red-head, James?"

  "I try not to. Her and I have been doing nothing

  but butting heads for two days now. I don't

  understand it.”

  Morgan laughed at James and shook his head.

  "You're trying too hard, buddy. Relax and be

  yourself. She's cozied up to us just fine."

  James turned and gave Morgan a hard look, "Well,

  we all can't be perfect, can we?"

  James stepped off his stool and walked over to the

  dart game in progress in the comer. It appeared as

  if Joey was winning and Bert Foster, the shop

  supervisor, was not happy. Bert who stood six feet one inch and weighed about

  290 could have broken Joey in half. James had to

  smile at the battle between the two. Poor Joey

  was only five feet nine and weighed 125 on a good

  day. Bert could break him in half if he wanted

  to. James leaned against the wall and watched

  Joey beat the pants off Bert three times. The side

  betting had been hot and heavy and several of the

  guys came out losers as they continued to bet on

  Bert. Luckily, James had held onto his money and spent it wisely on beer instead.

  Chapter 6

  James was with the last group of employees as they

  trickled out of the bar around 11:30. By then, Alex

  had crawled into her bed and drifted off to

  sleep. She had ordered herself not to dream

  about James, but that proved impossible. The

  dreams came anyway and this time they were

  interspersed with visions of Tad and their last night

  together.

  James thought the alarm clock was a cruel practical

  joke as it went off beside his head. He had left the

  bar at 11:30 but then went to Grayson's for a little

  more partying. He had finally stumbled in about

  1:30 a.m. to two angry dogs. His drinking last

  night had done little to ease the empty feeling of the house or relieve his growing desire for

  Alex. She had floated in and out of his dreams

  torturing him with imaginary kisses and touches.

  James roused his tired body off the couch and

  stumbled upstairs to kick start his mind and body

  with a hot shower. He scrubbed down quickly,

  trying to not be late for work. He wanted to see

  Jeff first thing and tell him about the flowers that

  somebody had left Alex last night. By no means,

  did he want Alex working late anymore. James

  stepped out of the shower and tracked a wet path

  to his bedroom. James was drying himself off,

  when the phone rang.

  "Hello," he answered.

  "Morning, bud," said Grayson on the other end. "You're awfully cheerful. "

  "Yeah, I know. Listen I can't seem to get my car

  started. Can you pick me up?"

  "Yeah, sure, I'm on my way out the door. You're

  buying coffee though. " Grayson agreed and James

  left the house to pick him up and go to work.

  "Alex, could you come in here, please," she yelled

  from the center office. Francine was waiting for

  her at Alex's desk, when she stepped in. She had

  just walked in the door and not divested herself of

  her coat, when Francine pounced upon her.

  "Who are these from," she asked stepping aside to

  reveal a vase of yellow and red roses.

  "I just came in the door, Francine. How would I

  know?" "Well you seem to be so damn popular, I thought

  you would know," she remarked acidly.

  "Francine, I don't know what your problem with me

  is specifically, but I don't appreciate the

  attitude. I'm here to work and if that offends you,

  I'm sorry. I didn't come here to be popular or play

  games. So if you have something you want to get

  off your chest, please go right ahead," said Alex

  finally. She was tired of the petty demeanor she

  got from Francine. Every day was the same thing,

  including the afternoon meetings with James that

  Jeff seemed to be ignoring.

  "You took MY job. I petitioned long and hard to

  get the accounting assistant position and here YOU

  stand at what should be MY desk doing MY

  job. And as for my playing games, it looks like you've found out what the rules are too, because,

  I've never received a bouquet like this since I got

  here," she declared, stomping out of the room like a

  spoiled child.

  Alex followed her into the reception area and

  waited for her to sit down before opening her

  mouth. "Francine, I'm sorry if you didn't get this

  job. I didn't realize that you were even in

  contention for it. All I know, is that the job was

  offered to me and I took it. And for your

  information, I haven't done anything to get flowers

  like that from anybody here. Just keep that in

  mind, I don't play games, I play for keeps. Now,

  you and I can work together or against each other,

  just remember that we don't have to like each other

  to do a good job," Alex retorted. Francine looked up at Alex finally and understood

  the immediate attraction that the men in the

  factory felt. She appeared on the outside like

  everyone's kid sister, but when she wanted to turn

  on the charm, she blossomed into a beautiful

  woman. Francine felt a twinge of jealousy tweak

  her insides. She had always had to fight against

  naturally beautiful women to gain a man's

  attention. But it was obvious that it came easily to

  Alex, to be able to have whomever she set her

  sights on.

  "So where did the flowers come from, if you didn't

  'earn' them," she bit out.

  "I don't know," said Alex turning and walking back

  to her desk to look over the blooms. The flowers

  were held by a simple cut glass vase of no planned design or maker wrapped with a red ribbon and a

  card attached to it. Each rose had been sprinkled

/>   with glitter to make them as eye catching as

  possible. Alex soon discovered that there were six

  yellow and six red roses perfectly matched in shape

  and size. Alex was reaching for the card when

  Francine came back in the office.

  "Who delivered them," she asked Francine over her

  shoulder.

  "I don't know. They were sitting there when I

  came in.”

  "Did you ask Larry if he saw anyone?" Alex knew

  that Larry was the first one in every morning to

  open the shops for the employees.”

  "He hasn't come in here yet. " Alex took the familiar path from her desk, through

  James' office to Larry's door. As she raised her

  hand to knock, she caught sight of Dan Reynolds

  standing next to the soda machine staring at her.

  "Morning, Dan," she said. Dan nodded hello and

  walked back to the weld shop without his

  soda. Alex shook her head, knocked on the door

  and went into Larry's office. "Morning, Larry.”

  "Alex, good morning, toast," he asked as it popped

  up from the toaster.”

  "No thanks," she responded, smiling, "Did you sign

  for flowers this morning?"

  "Alex, I got here at 6:30. What delivery person in

  his right mind is delivering flowers at 6:30 in the

  morning?" "Good point. Then did you see who left roses on

  my desk?"

  "There's roses on your desk?"

  "Yeah, I want to know who to thank. "

  "Don't look at me. I just opened the doors, came

  in here and made some breakfast.” Alex looked

  down at his desk and saw the remains of eggs and

  bacon on a plate there.

  "Thanks, Larry. Have a good breakfast. "

  Alex left his office, went to the soda machine and

  grabbed a Pepsi. She then went back to her desk

  to read the card. Alex had just made her way to

  her desk through Francine's office, who for once

  wasn't staring at her, when James burst in the door

  from his office. "Where did they come from," he asked.

  "Don't know. They were here when I came in,

  when Francine came in too. And Larry said

  nobody delivered them. "

  "Great. Did you read the card?"

  "Just getting ready to do that now."

  Alex removed the stick pin that held card to the

  ribbon. She opened the envelope and read the

  card aloud, "To my red-haired lady. I hope you've

  forgiven me.”

  "Have you?"

  Alex looked up at James and waited for the

  screaming match from last night to resume. "Well, have you," he repeated, "I'm sure that

  anyone who sends you roses would be forgiven for

  just about anything.”

  "James, you’re such an ass," she cursed, "You don't

  know anything about me so don't stand there and

  assume the worst. Just keep your nose out of it. "

  Jeff walked into the center office and found Alex

  and James nose to nose with the flowers as a

  backdrop.

  "What a lovely assortment, Alex. Are they from

  your fiancée?"

  "They're from the man who attacked me. I also

  got a bouquet last night while I was working here.” "Damn, that settles it. For your own protection

  Alex, I don't want you working late anymore," he

  declared. Jeff saw her ready to argue and

  continued on, "If you're too stubborn to be afraid,

  let me do it for you. I can't let you do it

  anymore. Neither you nor Francine are to be in

  the office, after everyone else has left. Do you

  understand?"

  Alex was prepared to argue but thought better of

  it. He had a point and she admitted to herself that

  she was slightly scared. "Okay, Jeff. I won't work

  late anymore," she conceded reluctantly.

  James was stunned at how demure she had become

  in that moment. He expected her to rail at him

  and Jeff for trying to dictate rules for her to follow. She had certainly fought enough with him

  last night when he asked the same thing.

  Alex thanked Jeff for his concern, removed the

  roses from her desk and walked them to the oil

  drum that sat outside of Francine's office door and

  served as a garbage can. Alex dumped the roses

  into the drum, removed the ribbon from the vase

  and took the vase to the glass recycling dumpster

  outside. As the vase hit the bottom of the nearly

  empty dumpster, it shattered into thousands of

  diamond like crystals. Alex watched the pieces

  scatter about the dumpster until they had settled

  into a final destination, wiped a tear from her cheek

  and -walked back to door. Alex took a deep breath

  before opening the door to the factory. She

  couldn't remember a time when she felt so alone

  and so much despair. The next several months crawled slowly for

  Alex. She was desperately lonely and missed the

  calls from Tad. His calls used to come daily, but

  slowly dwindled into weekly, until they had stopped

  coming at all. Occasionally, she would read about

  him in the national section of the newspaper and

  send him congratulatory cards when he won major

  battles on the hill. Tad also occasionally sent Alex

  cards to remind her of him and sent her a bottle of

  champagne on her birthday.

  Alex had worked all day on her birthday, not

  mentioning the occasion to anyone. Although, she

  had made an effort to forget about the incident in

  the office, roses appeared often on her desk, on her

  chair and even on the hood of her car. Alex picked

  out birthday cards for all of the employees as a

  special way for her to communicate with them and let them know she was thinking about all of what

  had come to be termed "her boys. "

  She remembered her first day, when James

  mentioned that someday she would adopt them all

  and she had. She cared for each of them as if they

  were her brothers and the ones who were too old

  to be brothers were often called "uncles. " She

  refused to call anybody a father figure including

  kindly old Bill Jefferson, who was turning 60 in

  March.

  Christmas had come along with a blizzard that

  stacked the snow up to the loading dock door,

  making going to work treacherous and

  impossible. Hasani had lost three days of

  production time that week, not including the

  holiday. When the snow melted slightly, it froze with an arctic blast that took hold of the

  region. The ice had remained for several days and

  the mood in the factory was as somber as the

  howling winds. Alex and the rest of the factory

  had been able to go to work, but had not been able

  to send any products out because of the wind chill

  and icy conditions of the trucks. But at least she

  had been able to get to work and see all of her

  boys. Alex had never seen a winter so bad, and

  fortunately had the foresight to buy a car with four

  wheel drive and snow tires. Even so, she had put

  provisions in her car to prevent her from freezing or

  starving if she got stuck someplace.r />
  Alex tried desperately to remove James from her

  thoughts, but that proved impossible. Her dreams

  of him were becoming all too realistic when she

  awoke in the mornings and expected him there beside her. Her body ached to be brought back to

  life by the touch of a man and for a while she even

  missed Tad. At night when she was alone, she

  imagined James there holding and kissing her

  lovingly and in the days she fought the urge to rip

  Francine's hair out when she went into James'

  office.

  James had spent Christmas alone. Both Grayson

  and Morgan had invited him to their homes, but he

  had declined not wanting to be a wet blanket. He

  still missed Jean and when the divorce had become

  final on Christmas Eve, he drank himself into a

  stupor, not wanting to think about it. James had

  been moderately successful in shutting Jean out of

  his mind, but his thoughts kept drifting to Alex. At

  night when the wind moaned, he would sit on his

  couch and imagine her there with him, keeping him warm with her touch and her kisses. He

  made-believe that he could feel her lips on his and

  her body so soft and yielding eagerly to his touch.

  He had, against his better judgment, carried on his

  affair with Francine. Somehow, it seemed easier

  to have sex with her in his office, than reach out to

  Alex to heal his bruised heart. He watched as she

  became more closely associated with each member

  of the factory, no matter how low their

  position. She continued to rebuff the advances of

  Morgan, Grayson, Dave and several other

  employees and dodge innuendos. To him she

  looked like a ballet dancer, dancing around props

  laid there for her trip over. But James could see

  that she was wavering. He could sense her

  loneliness growing and her need to feel accepted. Alex for the most part, was able to keep her

  distance while still befriending her

  co-workers. She accepted dinner invitations from

  Jeff and his wife, Nancy, and from Harry Fletcher,

  Hasani's lead government relations contact, and his

  wife Suzanne. Still, she felt lonely and curious

  about what happened when the boys went out to

  play.

  "Maybe, I will join them," she said to herself while driving home after dinner with the Fletcher's.

  Chapter 7

  Springtime had come with a blast of warm air and a

  thunderstorm, melting all of the remaining snow

  from a last minute snowstorm in March. It had