Danny Cinco tapped on the closed door of the 6th floor conference room. Through the glass walls he could see Mr. Muckity, president and CEO of the company, sitting with Ricardo Del Toro and Gertrude Starflower.
Gertrude Starflower was a former Playboy Bunny who now served as Quality Director here at Manufacturing Inc. She had a framed picture of herself on the wall of her office. The photo looked like it had been taken in the 60’s, the folds and staple holes were still visible. The girl in the photo was a voluptuous hippie chick wearing nothing but a smile and some flowers in her hair. A magnolia blossom was strategically held in her right hand, covering a sensitive area of her anatomy. In the photo, she looked like she was in her early twenties so Danny guessed Ms. Starflower was probably in her late sixties or early seventies today.
She kept herself well. She maintained the ample bosom that was so evident in her photograph and yet she was slim and fit, elegantly coiffed blue hair, and stylishly outfitted; she was still a looker but Danny was most impressed by her understanding of statistics and the way she wielded the tools of a Quality Director. She could rattle off details of the latest CAPA’s and she could analyze an FMEA chart in seconds. She had worked here at Manufacturing Inc. for more than thirty years; she loved her job, and understood this business. Danny was glad that the meeting was not in her office. He always found that naked picture on the wall distracting.
Del Toro looked at Danny when he knocked. Frowning he got out of his chair and moved confidently and determinedly across the carpet to let Danny in. Danny thought about the enigma who called himself Ricardo Del Toro. It occurred to him that he wasn’t sure what Del Toro did at Manufacturing Inc. or even where his office was. Everyone deferred to him and he sat in a lot of meetings but Danny didn’t know what he actually did.
“Morning Danny,” he said, “thanks for coming on such short notice.”
“No problem Mr. Del Toro. I’m glad I could make it; and that I wasn’t on the road.” He looked at the others, Mr. Muckity was busy on his smart phone and Ms. Starflower was watching Del Toro.
“Have a seat Danny” Del Toro said and he moved to the white board that hung on the only wall in the room that was not transparent and waited patiently there for Mr. Muckity to complete what he was doing. Danny looked around the room while they waited.
Muckity finally realized that they were waiting for him, “Go ahead and start, Rick,” he intoned, “Why don’t you give a brief introduction about why we’re here?”
“Great idea, sir.” Del Toro removed his suit coat and hung it on the back of the nearest chair. He was broad shouldered and slim waisted. Danny wondered what gym he went to. Ms. Starflower was checking him out too. Danny heard her quick intake of breath when he bent at the waist to recover the marker that had fallen on the floor.
“Mr. Muckity and I have been discussing the possibilities of tracking the customer driven indicators of market presence from an enterprise wide perspective.” he began. “We feel that if we base our research on the shifting, and dynamic, ROI expectations that are prevalent in today’s business climate, it might yield more accurate and statistically relevant data than if we employed a purely focal length approach.” He was busily drawing flow charts on the white board. Occasionally he would stop and point at a decision making juncture to ensure that everyone understood it’s importance.
“Danny, we wanted you involved because you are the face of Manufacturing Inc. at the customer site and as such you can spearhead the data collection effort, using one on one information mining tactics that will contribute to the bell curve generation that we anticipate will result, should we choose to move forward.
“Ms. Starflower, your considerable expertise with DBM and statistical analysis will make your participation critical to the success of this exercise both in the design phase and the post-cogitative process.” He stopped and looked at his audience. Danny Cinco sat blank faced, one of the few times he had ever been at a loss for words. Gertrude Starflower was sitting up straight pointing her tits, unabashedly at Mr. Del Toro. He cleared his throat.
“I don’t expect an immediate commitment from either of you I am sure you have questions. I will need an answer before Thursday though.
“Danny, if you feel additional explanation is warranted we can meet here again at 9:30 tomorrow to discuss it further. And, if you’re interested in supplemental explanations, Ms. Starflower, perhaps we could have dinner tonight at Chez ma Cousine. They have a new chef who is rumored to be a magician with lobster bisque.
“I have a conference call in ten, but I’ll pop by and see you both before the end of the day.” He shrugged on his jacket thanked us all again, even Mr. Muckity this time, and then he left.
Muckity continued to putz with his phone and he waved them both off so Cinco and Starflower left the meeting together.
“Jeez,” Danny said to Gertrude, “this could be a very important project for Manufacturing Inc. I’m excited to be involved and I’m looking forward to working with you and Mr. Del Toro on this. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot from working with you. All I’m really good at is talking to people.”
“Your ability to talk to people is why you are successful at what you do, Mr. Cinco. Don’t underestimate your abilities.”
“Please call me Danny, Ms. Starflower,” he said as they moved quickly down the hallway. “Can I ask you a question please ma’am?”
“Of course you can Danny, and call me Gertie. That’s what my friends call me.”
“Thanks, Gertie. Uhm, maybe you can tell me what Mr. Del Toro’s position is here and where his office is located? I’ve only been here three years and I haven’t quite figured that out yet.”
She threw her head back and laughed. Not just a chuckle either but a full blown belly laugh. It made Danny smile along. “Ricardo Del Toro doesn’t really work here, Danny. He just comes in every day and integrates himself with the day to day business of doing business. Muckity believes that he’s a business savvy Vice President, but he works for free and all he really wants to do is get into my pants.” Danny blushed and she went on, “and, I gotta admit that some days I’m tempted. I mean, I’m old enough to be his mother but he has such a nice butt. I mean, did you see his butt in there today? I might just take him up on his dinner invitation tonight so that I can see him naked.”
Danny didn’t know what to say so they walked in silence for a while longer as his face continued to redden. They came to an intersecting hall and paused.
“Well, Gertie, I gotta go this way,” he said, pointing and clearly still flustered.
“Of course you do. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot of one another now Danny. I mean since we’ve both been handpicked for this new program.”
Danny nodded and walked away feeling her eyes on his backside as he tried not to hurry. Rounding the next corner he glanced over his shoulder, but she had gone.
This one was really quite challenging. I had a blast!
tnkerr-Writing Prompts and Practice 
Just wait for tomorrow. I may have supplied the means for the next chapter 😉 I’m glad it was fun! Your characters were very well defined along the personality traits.
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I never knew what happens in these,”Manufacturing, Inc meetings. Thank you for enlightening me, happened to pass by this way, my curiosity got the better of me, so I became the fly on the wall.Your post is very interesting. I am from the blogger 101 group, we were encouraged to say “Hello” to the neighbors, here I am doing just that. 🙂
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Good to see you Ranu.
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