A Love Defined Ch. 02

Kyla finished getting dressed and packed her messenger bag with a few snack bars, cell phone, small purse, a notebook and a few pens and pencils. Iris was in the kitchen having a cup of coffee when she stopped to get a bottled water from the fridge.

"All set," she asked her niece giving her a big smile.

"Yep, I think I'm good," Kyla filled her travel mug with coffee.

"Do you and Landon have plans," Iris asked.

"We didn't discuss anything for tonight, but I will probably give him a call after class," she told her.

"Ok, well let me know if you want me to keep a plate warm for you," Iris gave her a kiss on the cheek and headed back upstairs to lie down. "Have a good first day." Kyla was hoping to see Landon tonight, but she understood his work schedule could be hectic.

She arrived at the facility about fifteen minutes early and entered through security as she had been instructed to do on her training materials. The security guard handed her a temporary ID and gave her directions to the training classroom she'd been assigned.

When she walked in, she noticed there were nametags on the desks. She found her workstation easily and discovered she was the first one at her cluster of workstations.

She pulled out her pen and notebook and got situated at her desk. Two men came into the room and took their seats at the cluster next to hers. They both politely said hello and continued their conversation. A few minutes later, other students began to trickle in as well.

"Hi," Kyla looked up to see a tall black guy had taken the seat across from her. "I'm Tim Woods."

"Kyla Redford," she smiled and shook his hand.

"Well it's nice to meet you, Kyla," he told her.

"I see you're from Catastrophe Services. I'm from the Southern division. There are about six of us here completing our training right now, but there are only two of us assigned to this classroom."

Kyla had heard from her uncle that claims adjusters from all over the U.S. were sent to the training facility for formal training within their first six months of service. Catastrophe Services was the only division that required all of their adjusters have their first day start with the formal training.

"Oh I see. How long have you been with the company," Kyla asked.

"I've been with the company six years, but just started as an adjuster about two months ago," Tim explained. They chatted for a bit and then his other colleague came in and sat next to Kyla. His name was Martin and he seemed pleasant enough but stayed very quiet. The room was a buzz of conversation and it was just a little before 9 when the instructor came in.

"Good morning everyone and welcome to Claims Training," he greeted them. "My name is Randall Girard, and for the next 10 weeks I will be your training facilitator. You will have a series of sessions that will be taught by different instructors, but I will be proctoring all of your exams."

Kyla listened to him continue and jotted down notes where appropriate. She glanced around the room and noticed only two other women in the class. Kyla was used to being in predominately male environments, but the atmosphere seemed so much more competitive.

"As you will see, some of your classmates are missing," Randall continued. "Storms in the Northeast and Central divisions required those adjusters to delay their travel plans, but they will be arriving by Wednesday. This is important to you because part of your success in this course rests on how well you all do as a team. It will be your responsibility to make sure that your teammates understand what will be taught today and tomorrow as well as what is taught over the next ten weeks. So I suggest you take good notes and be prepared to make friends. You will need each other to pass."

Tim, Martin and Kyla all exchanged glances. Each cluster had a total of eight workstations and they were the only cluster missing more than three people.

"Nothing like starting off with a challenge," Martin whispered to the two of them.

The first hour of their training started with some basic historical references about the company and an overview of what the schedule was going to be like for the next ten weeks. It was quite a bit to digest in an hour and it seemed as if everyone was ready for the first break. Kyla didn't really need anything more but to stretch, so she took a short walk down the hall and came back.

Martin and Tim were back at their desks when she came back in. "Hey guys, I think I may have an idea." They turned to face her.

"Idea for what," Tim asked.

"Well, I was thinking that perhaps we could email our other group members," she began. "We should have access to them on the company email system and their names are right here on the desks. Maybe we can explain the situation and keep them in the loop until they get here."

"That's not bad," Martin agreed. "Storm duty could go much longer than a couple of days. Hell, they may not make it until this weekend." Kyla and Tim both nodded.

"It's got my vote, but who wants to send the email?" Tim asked.

"I don't mind writing it out, but I'm not on the system yet," Kyla offered.

"It can come from my email," Martin replied. "Just write out what you what you want me to send and use your private account for right now."

They finished their discussion of what the first email should include while Tim found their addresses on the system and sent the names to Martin.

They had it all arranged by the time the break was over, and all of them felt a bit better about the situation. The rest of the morning passed in a blur. Calvin came by the facility and had lunch with Kyla in the cafeteria before she went to her HR session for the afternoon. Claims Training was only scheduled a half day on Monday and Tuesday because of the new employees needing to take care of any pending issues with HR.

It was here that she met the rest of her Catastrophe team and she was surprised to find the other two women from training were there as well.

Kyla was about to take her a seat at the end of the row when they waved for her to come closer.

"Hi, I'm Crystal and this is Sarah," the blonde sitting closest to Kyla introduced them.

"I'm Kyla," she said taking her seat next to them. "So how did you guys like the first day?"

"Brutal," Sarah spoke out. "But we should be asking you that question. You guys are down five members in your cluster."

"Yeah, but I think it will all work out," Kyla smiled. "I'm trying to stay positive for right now. And if we only have to worry for just one more day then it may not be too bad."

Kyla kept the fact that her team was email corresponding with her team to herself. She had learned from past experience that it was wise more often than not to keep things close to the vest.

The three of them talked quietly until their session began and they made plans to meet for lunch the next day. She learned that Crystal had served in the Army before getting hired with Catastrophe Services and that rough outer shell was really just a front.

Sarah, on the other hand, was much more timid in nature but extremely smart from what Kyla could tell. She didn't have any prior experience with insurance or construction background, but had already picked up quite a bit just from going over some of the training materials provided that morning.

Kyla was quite impressed with both of them and Crystal had a great sense of humor. The session with HR was pretty basic and ended with all of them taking their photo IDs for their permanent badges that would be ready for them to pick up when they came in the next morning.

Kyla had purposely left her cell phone in the car and was eager to check and see if Landon had sent her a message. She had been the last person in her group to get her photo taken and the parking lot was dead except for a familiar truck sitting next to hers.

When she got closer, she noticed Landon was leaning against her car patiently waiting for her. He had on a light blue button up and a pair of tan slacks with loafers. As far as she was concerned, he could have been wearing a burlap bag and he still would have made it look heavenly.

Kyla turned her casual walk into a combination walk skip towards him. He got up and moved towards her sweeping her up in his arms into a big hug.

"Hey Baby," he greeted her. "How was your first day?" His cologne was by far her favorite scent.

"It was fine," she smiled back at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I got finished early," he explained as they walked back to her car hand in hand, "and I couldn't wait to see you so I decided to surprise you."

"I'm so glad you did," she hugged him again.

"So does this mean you will have dinner with me tonight," he asked. "I figured since you made me breakfast, I could return the favor and make you dinner. What do you say?"

"I say yes," she smiled biting her lower lip. "Let me just go home and freshen up and I will come over to your place."

"Sounds like a plan," he said helping her into her car. "I'll see you in a bit." He gave her a brief kiss before closing her car door.

Landon watched her drive out of the parking lot and then headed towards his truck when a voice behind him stopped him, "Well hello, Landon. How have you been?"

He turned around and saw Tara standing with her arms folded in front of her. Her black skirt was short and tight showing off her long legs and her blouse was cut low enough to leave very little to the imagination. Landon hadn't really noticed before now, but her style of dress did seem to border on trashy.

"Hi Tara," he did his best to sound pleasant. "I'm doing fine and you?"

"Well I'm doing just fine, but you would know that if you returned my calls or texts," she replied.

"I've been rather busy, Tara," he got inside his truck, "and I am running a bit late. So if you will excuse me."

"Wait a minute, Landon," she lightly touched his arm. "I have been thinking a lot about what happened, and I think it would be nice for us to try and go out again. Don't you?"

Landon breathed a heavy sigh, "Look Tara, I thought we agreed to keep things just as friends."

"Oh I see," she said changing her tone. "You got what you wanted so now you're ready to move on. And the best piece of ass you could find looks like she's barely out of high school. Surely you're not trying to bang the boss's niece just to get ahead. Kyla, right? Oh yeah, I know who she is." Landon's eyes narrowed at her.

"She has nothing to do with what happened and isn't going to happen between you and me," Landon's tone was dark. "I'm going to end this conversation, Tara. I won't stoop to your level and say what's really on my mind, but it would serve you best to keep away from her and lose my number." He didn't wait for her to respond and drove off leaving her standing there looking after him in the parking lot.

This was far from over as far as Tara was concerned. Granted, she had let her temper get the best of her, but she couldn't help it. Seeing him entangled with that Miss Goody Two Shoes had sent her over the edge. Landon and Tara had talked about their career aspirations many times and she was sure they would make a great power couple.

So what if there wasn't a love connection. They could get by on great sex. He just needed to refocus. With the right approach, Tara knew she could make Landon see things her way. But the first thing she had to do was get Kyla out of the picture. If there was one thing she knew how to do, it was manipulate things to work in her favor.