27 FOR YOU, MY PRINCESS, ANY TIME!

Mary arranged for the meeting with her employer and sent information about the time of her absence as well as the serial number of her bracelet to Jim.

Since she refused to use the running track, Daniel asked her to skip her running exercises at least on Sunday. Mary had no idea why he asked for it but she still agreed because she did not want to offend him once again. And skipping one day would not hurt anyway.

The meeting she arranged was to take place in a small and cozy cafe not very far from Daniel's apartment. As soon as Jim confirmed that she was free to go, Mary left the house and headed straight to the cafe.

To her surprise she felt no remorse about her small trick with the bracelet, because she felt free at last. It was just as Jim said it, as long as Daniel did not know, it would not hurt him.

With her heart easy and her mood improved, she took a long route to their meeting place and enjoyed her walk. The sun was shining as brightly as on the day when she met Daniel for the first time. She remarked to herself that though the sun in the sky was the same as before, but she and her life changed so much that sometimes it was hard for her to recognize her own self.

When she entered the cafe at last, her employer was already waiting for her at the table farthest from the entrance. He had ordered two cups of coffee and some sweets and was anxiously looking around worrying that Mary's coffee would get cold by the time she arrived.

She came up to the table where he was sitting and greeted him cheerfully.

Her employer was a middle-aged man with greyish hair and well-trimmed stubble, his skin was tanned and his body was well build and did not bear any remarkable signs of aging yet. He looked mature and wise and yet there was something boyish in his expression and gestures. His name was Jack Henderson and Mary had already seen him once during her Skype interview.

When he saw Mary approach, he stood up to help her draw her chair to the table so she could sit down comfortably. For an owner of a small and unremarkable company he had very good manners and it did not escape Mary's notice.

He wanted to start with a small talk as the ritual of business negotiations implied but Mary said that there was no need for it, at least with her, because she liked to get straight to the business when it was possible.

He nodded in understanding and started to explain what reason brought him here. To Mary's surprise he had a very interesting offer, in return for several businesses contacts from her previous work and her deeper involvement in product development and production process he was ready to offer her additional bonuses to wages as well as career growth. For Mary who decided that she did not want to pursue career anymore it was a hard choice. She had her dreams of building a successful career once, and she sacrificed a lot for it including her personal life and her health. But in the end all it brought her was disappointment and emptiness. When there was no job and no career to pursue she had nothing else in her life, there was nothing to fill in the void which her previous job left. That's when she understood that a job is meant to bring money, and when your working day is over that's when your life really starts.

So for her more involvement meant more work, and more work meant that she had less time for Daniel, or household, or whatever daily routine which chose as her new priority in life. It also meant that she would have to contact her old suppliers and the news of her return to buying circle may spread and reach her previous boss and as a result Daniel as well. It was a big risk and she was not sure it was worth taking it.

Of course it was always interesting to take on more responsibilities and to realize your potential but she needed to consider it carefully before she could give any answer. It might also happen so that she would need to visit the company office from time to time and that was not something she wanted to agree to.

She took a timeout for a couple of days (though she thought she needed much less time) and they parted having agreed to settle the matter when Mary made up her mind.

When she left the cafe she had still a lot of time before her tracking bracelet would come alive again. So she headed to her favorite park to ponder over her current perspectives. She easily found the place where she and Marcus drank wine together not so long ago. Thinking about it she realized she did not mind Marcus's constant presence that much, she just disliked the feeling that she was not free to do as she wished and to share only what she wanted to be shared. It is when you find yourself incapable of keeping a secret you start seeking a way to create as many secrets as possible. To strive for freedom requires to be bounded.

It happened so that regardless of her decision to abandon her career the boundaries that were supposed to stop her even if she wanted to become a business lady again were pushing her to make a very unwise decision. She was not searching for reasons to refuse but looking for the ways how she could make it work if she agreed. It was a dangerous path because a mind that is looking for roundabouts will find them sooner or later.

And even the devil of a Jim was not scaring her that much anymore; she thought that with his help she could still manage to visit the office if she needed to. Yes, he was strange and unpredictable; yes, sometimes he did things that made her furious; yes, what he did was not helping her in building healthy relationship with Daniel; but she still thought that when it really came to her wellbeing he would do no harm. Maybe she was deceived in him, but you cannot know for sure until you take the risk and place your trust with someone.

She searched her memory for the contacts which she was ready to share with her new boss and that technically meant that she was ready to return to the professional buying circle as well. She knew a lot of suppliers, some of them were more reliable, some less, but she needed only those worthy of her trust. And only three or four fit the description well. She was personally acquainted not only with their linear managers but also with the factory or buying agency owners, moreover they were on friendly terms with her and she helped them in the past many a time.

So settled only on those suppliers and wrote to each of them requesting their support and secrecy in return for a new customer. By the time she left the park all of them agreed for her terms and assigned her a manager to overlook her company orders.

She knew that a small company had little to offer to big suppliers and the only way to keep them interested was to agree for higher buying price than those of their big customers. It happened so, that she had a good memory for figures and remembered very well almost all the prices for the products which she was ordering from them before she left Melrose Corporation. So the key to a successful contract which would help her get quality product on time was choosing the right kind of supplier and the right kind of price.

She also guessed that if she took away some of these suppliers production capacities that would cause her previous boss, the precious Mr. Edwards, a big headache. Melrose Corporation was never too kind to their suppliers and their buying prices sometimes brought almost no profit to the sellers. So as long as the profit from Mary's orders was competitive, the order quantity difference could be overlooked.

And Mr. Edwards' headache was now only his problem and had nothing to do with Mary anymore. So she finally made her choice and informed her new boss Mr. Jack Henderson that she was ready to take on the new position which he offered to her.

She also warned Jim that she might need his help with the bracelet in the future and his answer was rather predictable:

"For you, my princess, any time, day and night!"