Returning of goods Courtney's never heard of

After tapping a few keys he looked at his monitor and nodded.

"Yes, we can no doubt make some of the debt go away in short order."

Relief settled on Courtney, making her feel lighter.

"A few of these items can be reposessed fairly easily."

"Repossessed? I didn't buy..."

"The computer," he said as if she hadn't spoken. "Quite an expensive one, that. The game system and that enormous wide-screen TV. My, you do seem a techie. Oh"

For a moment he looked surprised and non-plussed, then looked up at her. Or rather, he looked up at her breasts. Courtney's arms crossed defensively over them, and she glared.

"What are you looking at?"

Ignoring her anger he reached for his phone and spoke almost right away. "Rudy. Yes, I have a large debt with repossessable items. I'm sending you the file."

With a few clicks of his keyboard Mr. Isaacson sent the file to Rudy.

You'll need to see if you can find the items listed. And I'll need an escort." He listened, and Courtney listened too. Escort? Was he arranging a date?

"Yes. Item 19. Ridiculous as it seems he wants his merchandise back."

Even Courtney could hear Rudy's bark of laughter, and leaned forward to see if she could hear more.

"I know. Still, it's his right to request it. Alright, I think just one of your group will suffice."

Another pause ensued, and Courtney opened her mouth to ask what was going on when Isaacson resumed speaking. "Excellent! If she's already in the building.... Even better! I'll let my secretary know."

"What...?" Courtney started to ask as he hung up, only to be waved to silence by Mr. Isaacson.

"Rhonda, one of Rudy's people should be arriving shortly. Oh, she's already there? I guess she was next door then. Yes, please sent her in."

"What...?" Courtney tried again as he hung up, only to be waved to silence again.

"You'll be escorted by an worker of ours to have one of the items. Two, I should say, returned. This will knock $5000 off your debt."

"$5000!" she exclaimed. "Wait, what...?"

"Isaacson!" a voice rasped, sounding like a chain smoking witch.

When Courtney turned she saw a giant woman, at least six feet tall, and maybe half that in diameter. For all her girth, she looked tough as nails, and instantly cowed Courtney into silence.

"Regina!" Isaacson greeted, winced and amended himself. "My apologies, Reggie."

Reggie waved it off, glaring instead at Courtney, who shrunk back into her seat.

"Yeah, I see what you mean," she said cryptically, and Courtney felt even more lost.

"Rudy is handling the possessions end of things. For this matter we thought we should employ a more discreet approach."

Discreet? Courtney thought incredulously. If she met this woman in a dark alley she'd throw all her possessions at her, fall down on her knees and beg her to not kill her!

"Yeah, I see what you mean," Reggie said again, and only Courtney seemed to think anything odd of it. Isaacson just nodded, dug some paperwork out of a file Courtney hadn't noticed, and handed it over to Reggie.

"Well Ms, um, Batt... a... gla?" he stared at the name, flummoxed for the first time.

"Battaglia," Courtney corrected automatically, a reflex born of a lifetime of mispronounciations.

"Right, well. Reggie here is going to escort you to an appointment which should make a good dent on your debt."

"What...?" she started to ask, only to be hauled to her feet by Regina, who quickly ushered her out the room and down the hall. She didn't even realize that she'd left her purse in Mr. Isaacson's office until she'd been shoved into a giant 4x4 pickup and they were screeching out of the underground parking lot.