Maximum Exposure Read Online Free PDF Page A

would.” Carmen sat forward, her hands in her lap, her chin and eyes lowered. “I like Roland. You know that. But he expects too much from Tomás. And not just Tomás,” she added, looking up and pleading. “He pulled Alma aside on Friday and told her it didn’t look good for the store for her to wear things she bought somewhere else.”
    Livia picked up the mechanical pencil she used to jot notes during phone calls, tapped it against the surface of her desk. Alma had been working the floor only since summer. Carmen had interviewed her and recommended her to Livia to hire.
    Livia required her managers to dress in the boutique’s fashions, as she herself did, but knew the floor clerks weren’t able to afford a full Splash & Flambé wardrobe. As long as they dressed with what bit of flair their income allowed, that was all she asked.
    “Alma knows my policy, as does Roland.” Tap, tap, tap with the pencil’s end. “I realize he’s a bit more particular about things than you or I, but I’ll remind him that dress-code violations fall under my purview.” Talking about one of her managers with the other did not sit well, so Livia left it at that. “I’m going to need Tomás to pick up some things from a designer in Little Havana. Can you get Penny to add the run to his schedule for Friday?”
    “Sure. You have the address?”
    Livia passed her the designer’s business card. “He said any time before noon would be good.”
    Carmen nodded, got to her feet. “I’ll let Penny know. I need to pick up a check she’s holding for Tomás. The price of gas is killing him.”
    Penny Garza ran the back office of Splash & Flambé and was as vital to the boutique’s operation as either of Livia’s managers. She took care of payroll and accounting, as well as scheduling deliveries, employee hours, and any store maintenance required. If she didn’t mind the personal handling of vendor payables, Livia wasn’t going to interfere.
    “Don’t let Roland get to you, okay? He’s just overly fussy at times.” She didn’t want to stereotype, but, well, he was who he was.
    “I usually don’t,” Carmen said, worrying the business card between two fingers. “But with Tomás being so stressed over work, having Ro jump him about the corner of a box being dinged…”
    Was just too much. Livia finished the thought Carmen let trail. She understood the younger woman taking sides with her man, but she wasn’t going to interfere beyond making sure all of her employees stayed busy. “Send him up here, would you please? I had a brainstorm about the space in the front corner.”
    One of Carmen’s brows arched. “Where he hung the silk boxers on tree trunks?”
    “That would be the one.” Livia didn’t mind the display or the metaphor. She just wanted to split the space for her new designer’s scarves and vests. “And tell Penny to let me know if there’s any problem with the delivery for Friday. We’ll have to work out something with another service if Tomás can’t fit us in this late.”
    “It shouldn’t be a problem,” Carmen said from the doorway. “But I’ll tell her.”
    With one manager gone, Livia swiveled her chair around while she waited for the other. Usually, a view of the street below greeted her from the window, but she hadn’t yet opened her blinds after pulling them shut after losing her photographer’s attention. Neither had she processed the sweeping storm of emotion accompanying the realization that she had, that he’d just vanished as if she wasn’t there following his commands.
    She got up from her chair, yanked on the cord, raising the barrier she’d dropped between them. She doubted he was still there, across the street, looking at her, wondering about her the way she was wondering about him—even though his being male undoubtedly meant he was wondering only how he’d managed to get so lucky. She, on the other hand, was drowning, unable to surface from the depths of her thoughts.
    She