Sweet Success

Chapter One Hey, Ali. I found you a man."Allison Thomas blinked sleepily and thought about hiding her head under the pillow; however, the phone pressed against her ear might get in the way."Was I looking for one?" she asked."Sure. You've been bugging me for weeks." There was a pause, followed by an impatient sigh. "Ali, it's me, Harry."Ali pushed the pillow away and sat up. "Harry?" Her sluggish brain pulled together random bits of information. Harry, the local handyman. Her business downstairs. How Harry had been teasing her with the promise of doing actual work for weeks on her business downstairs. "Are you finally going to build my shelves?""Nope. I've hired me a new guy. If this one works out, I think he'll stay around and buy me out."Ali resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Harry was always hiring some new guy, and anytime an employee stayed longer than a week, Harry became convinced he'd finally found someone interested in buying his small handyman business."I hope that happens," she said sincerely. "In the meantime, is he going to do some work for me?""Sure thing. I've already sent him over to start your shelves. I'll be by this afternoon to check on his progress.""Okay. Great." She was drowning in office supplies, cooking supplies, and mailing containers. She needed more stock space in her storage room. While Harry wasn't known for hiring the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, how hard could it be to make a few shelves and paint some walls? She could probably do it herself if she had the time, which she didn't. "When can I expect him?""He should be there any minute.""Okay." Ali blinked, then sat up straighter in bed. "What? Like now?""Yeah. He left about fifteen minutes ago, but he's walking."Ali glanced down at the soft cotton T-shirt that barely came to midthigh. Underneath she wore exactly nothing. Her hair was a mess; she was a mess, and not the least prepared for Harry's helper. She swore under her breath."Next time give me a little more warning, Harry," she said."You're welcome." His cheerful reply set her teeth on edge. She hung up the phone, then scrambled out of bed.It was nearly eight, and on a normal morning she would have been awake for hours. Or at least since seven. But work had kept her up well past midnight. Again.Ali pulled off her sleep shirt and tossed it onto the four-poster, brass bed. She grabbed underwear, a bra, jeans and a T-shirt that proclaimed her "Queen of Everything" and dressed. When she dug in her closet for sneakers, she found one and had to waste precious minutes searching for the mate. Damn. One of these days she was going to clean up the floor in here and get a shoe organizer, the kind with the clear front so she could see where everything was. Or, if she really went wild, she could hire one of those anal-retentive people who made their living organizing other people's lives. That's what she really needed. A reorganized life. In the meantime she would settle for a pair of matching shoes."Gotcha," she murmured, spotting a familiar green shoelace sticking out from under the bed.She skipped socks and shoved her feet into the shoes, sidestepping the circling of her black-and-white cat, Domino. Ali then turned around to stare into the mirror. As usual, her long dark hair was a tangled riot of curls. On models in magazines the disarray looked artful. On her it looked like a scary "before" shot in a makeover. No time, she thought and rooted through the piles of clips, makeup, and jewelry on the top of her dresser until she found a scrunchy and fashioned a quick ponytail. She could imagine how awful she looked -- no makeup and a thick bushy cat's tail of hair. Not to mention the T-shirt and jeans faded from too many washings. Ali shrugged. She was busy, which meant she didn't always have time to make a fashion statement. Okay, she never had time, and any statement she made shouldn't be repeated.Mallery, Susan is the author of 'Sweet Success', published 2001 under ISBN 9780743405959 and ISBN 0743405951.