by R. R. Banks
Chapter 5
The next day came sooner than preferred with both Hannah and Alexis, as they struggled to find their bearings. Though incredibly tame, the long night out took a toll on the two, causing them to be a bit sluggish and temperamental. Hannah sat in Alexis’s cubicle as she laid her head on her desk, groaning softly from the subtle headache that accompanied a night of heavy drinking and lack of sleep. Her blonde hair was in a tight ponytail, as was customary, though somewhat oily and draped over the side of her head forming bangs at the front. Her mouth hung open with slight, inaudible noises emitting from it while she clutched her knees in agony.
Alexis sat at her desk, attempting to organize her desk as best she could, though much slower and to no avail. In a state of haze she sat in her chair with her eyes opened wide, staring at the desk to try and make sense of where everything should go as she slid the various organizational devices around the desk in a slight panic, unable to gain the organization she required to make her day fruitful.
The girls were unable to perform even the basic functions of their jobs without a hint of dizziness, nausea, and the regret from staying out too late the night before. They were reminded of their nights in college, though attending different universities; the nights of awful decadence and disregard for their bodies were quite similar. Hannah, who was in much better shape than Alexis to begin with, struggled much more than her friend. She picked her head up slightly, drooling from the corner of her mouth as she tried to regain any sense of what she had to accomplish that day.
Alexis, on the other hand, was much more focused, yet still thinking about the previous night and how she turned down several men because of her current preference. Though she just met the man, and only spoke to him for a matter of minutes, her intrigue was driven by lust and curiosity. He seemed very intelligent and ambitious; the kind of man that she wished she could find a bit more often.
“Are you still thinking about him?” groaned Hannah, muffling her voice with her head buried under her arms.
“Perhaps,” replied Alexis, standing up from her chair and moving the rest of her things around. “You know how I get after a night of drinking.”
Hannah groaned in disbelief. “I know how amazingly annoying you get after you drink.”
Alexis chuckled before sitting down in her chair, looking out at her desk with approval as the sides of her head continued to throb. “And sometimes you just have to suffer to keep your sanity,” she replied, smiling softly as she leaned on her desk. She crossed her arms in front of the trays, leaving them on the desk as she placed her head down on her forearms, prompting an awfully sinister snarl from Hannah.
“I guess that pain doesn’t want to go away, does it?” asked Hannah rhetorically, leaning back in her chair as she looked around the office, watching the men and women of the consortium work tirelessly for their respective companies while the two of them tried to recover. “Don’t we have something we have to do this morning?”
“We have a conference call with one of the board members in New York in about twenty minutes,” stated Alexis between her forearms, still muffling her voice unintentionally as she tried to compose herself. “They’re going to ask a lot of questions about what happened yesterday.”
Hannah smirked. “Good,” she said. “I’d love to give them all of the details.”
“What details?”
“Well, not all of them; just the important ones,” continued Hannah, smirking a bit while leaning back in the chair.
Alexis looked at Hannah with a perplexed gaze, staring at her friend as she tried to read between the lines of what she just said. While she knew Hannah was not the most promiscuous of all of her friends and colleagues, she knew how to tell when her innuendos were much more than that. “Do you mind explaining?” she asked, pondering what the true meaning behind Hannah’s words. “What exactly do you mean?”
“I don’t know how much I can tell you without getting into the morbid, provocative details, but what I can tell you is that I secured the biggest deal of my professional life,” she answered. “Alexis, I will tell you everything after this next meeting, but we have to be focused. As hung over and tired as the two of us are, we have to stay focused when that conference call begins.”
“Why though?” asked Alexis. “I don’t understand why we have to be focused.”
“Because if I tell our bosses the wrong thing, it could potentially end poorly for us,” she answered, causing Alexis’s look of confusion to change into fear. Hannah paused, thinking a bit before frantically waving her hands in front of her face. “I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed. “I did not mean for it to sound like that. I just mean that our trip has been fruitful and he doesn’t need to recall us yet. We are not in danger of losing our jobs at all.”
Hannah panicked, causing Alexis to chuckle lightly in relief once she realized that her job and career were not in jeopardy. “It’s not often I get to see you back pedal,” she quipped, jabbing her friend a bit while she watched her calm down. “I saw your reports and your success in the field, and while I wanted to talk to you about it last night, that would have been against the rules. So, before our boss calls us in the next few minutes, please, tell me what happened.”
“It’s going to take a lot longer than a few minutes,” she replied, dropping the corners of her mouth a bit while looking to the side and talking softly. “Alexis, I slept with one of the owners of that company. I don’t know how it got to that point, but it did and I don’t want our bosses to find out about it.”
Alexis’s eyes opened wide as the phone beside her started to ring, alerting her that their conference call was going to be starting a little bit sooner than expected. “This was the last place that I wanted a cliff hanger,” she said, looking at Hannah with her eyes incredibly wide as she hovered her hand over the phone. “There’s no way I’m going to be able to get through this conversation in one piece.”
“I will give you every juicy detail if you just let me do most of the talking,” replied Hannah. “Just hit the button and let me talk his ear off.”
She nodded. “Fine,” said Alexis, pressing the small red button on the side of the receiver. “Good morning, or should I say evening?” announced Hannah, beginning her charm offensive with her supervisors by acknowledging the time difference. It was eight am for the girls, meaning it was eleven pm for their supervisors in New York City. “How has your day been?”
“It’s been very productive,” announced a man on the other end with a very gruff, scratchy voice. “Sorry, I dosed off for a few hours in the recliner and my wife had to wake me up for this conference call. If I seem a little distracted, it’s just because I am.”
Hannah and Alexis laughed as they looked at each other, seeing a great opening. The man on the other line, Richard Dover, had been with the company since the 1980s, knew all of the ins and outs of the oil world, but was unfamiliar with many of the new practices and procedures. He had many contacts, all connected to the old oil industry, all incredibly powerful and wealthy. “It’s fine sir,” stated Hannah, trying to sound coherent for her sleep deprived supervisor. “I know you want to get to bed, so I’ll make sure this is brief.”
“No, that’s fine,” he countered. “Please, I want to hear about this accomplishment. Don’t spare any of the details; I want to be impressed.”
Hannah and Alexis both glared at each other while shaking their heads simultaneously. “Well sir, it really wasn’t that exciting,” started Hannah. “In all honesty, everything can be traced back to our efficiency and ability to handle large quantities of crude oil. They realized that we were an incredibly gifted distributor, and that with our vast network and internal connections, we were the best and most reliable partners they could link up with. It wasn’t anything special, really. We were just at the right place at the right time.”
The two listened to their boss scoff over the phone, not buying into Hannah’s story about her dealings yesterday. “I’ve worked with that family for the
better part of twenty years and I promise you that they do not work like this,” he stated plainly. “Don’t feed me a load of mess. Tell me how you were able to convince him to drop every other contract they were in upon completion just to give us all of their product?”
Hannah looked at Alexis with a sense of panic, pondering her next move without making her boss wait too long. She shook her head and licked her lips while she shrugged her shoulders. “Sir, I used my wit and guile to charm him into this deal,” she said, partially confessing without giving any of the details about the encounter. “I overheard that he hated Americans and thought of us all as ugly, rude, and a few other things that I really can’t remember, so I made sure that when I walked into his office, I was the exact opposite of his beliefs. I was incredibly sweet, sincere, and charming, while also pushing up my boobs and unbuttoning the top two buttons.”
“Ha!” laughed Richard from the other side. “That’s my girl! Use what you have to so that you can get the job done! Those grease bag Italians are nothing but perverts if you ask me. Way to play to that and get the job done. I’m really impressed,” he replied, pausing a bit while clearing his throat. “Alexis, how are we going to handle the logistics of this move?”
“Honestly sir, they’re not producing enough crude to hamper us in anyway right now, but by Hannah being able to negotiate the release of crude to our sister companies in the consortium, the logistics won’t be an issue,” she explained politely, rubbing her temples while she tried not to lose focus. “For now, we can use supply trucks and flat beds to carry most of the oil to the coast and use the same tankers we were using before. We still have warehouse space in Jebel Ali, so any excess that we get from these guys, we can store it there and not have to worry about it until we need to. Our reserves will grow a bit because of this deal, but it will ultimately help us in the long run.”
Richard made an inaudible noise on the other end of the line, prompting both of the girls to lean in a bit. “Alexis, you know how much we don’t like to pick up our products.”
“Right, I know, but Hannah was able to negotiate in a pick-up fee,” she quickly replied. “They’re paying for the shipping; we’re just picking it up.”
“Ha!” he laughed again. “That’s genius! So, we charge them a little bit extra to pick up the product at their fields and take it to the port?”
Alexis rolled her eyes, thinking about how this man got to be as powerful as he was. “Sir, it’s something we offer to all of our smaller clients. Many of them just choose not take us up on it.” she explained.
“From what I gathered, sir, they don’t want to have to hire drivers or any other staff to specifically handle freight,” continued Hannah. “It’s honestly a win-win scenario for both parties. We make a little bit more money and they don’t have to spend any more money.”
Richard continued to chuckle. “Ladies, I’m incredibly impressed by that deal. The fact that you were able to tie up someone who, while not incredible, has a very large inventory of crude is an extremely big deal for us. Combine that with how you were able to tie in the sale of their excess inventory to the rest of the consortium makes us look heroic. Even if we can’t use their product, the fact that we secured oil for the other companies makes us look like an even bigger player. They will flock to our aid if we ever need them to now, and it’s really thanks to the two of you.”
“In all sincerity, the two of you heading to Dubai may have very well been the greatest move of your careers,” he praised. “You two are regarded here in the office as the future of this company. Your passion, aggression, and perseverance are unmatched by your peers and we commend you for it. I want the two of you to enjoy the next week and a half. I know you’re there on business, but try to get some time in for some pleasure. I can’t wait to see you two again soon. I’ll talk to you next week.”
“Thanks Richard,” said Alexis as she grinned at Hannah.
“We can’t wait to see you guys again!” exclaimed Hannah, fist bumping Alexis as Richard hung up the phone. With two enormous sighs of relief, the girls leaned back in their chairs and looked up at the ceiling, taking the next few moments to relax and gather their thoughts. Hannah, still looking up at the ceiling, started to chuckle as she leaned forward, placing both of her hands on Alexis’s desk before shaking her head with a very wide eyed smile. “I cannot believe how well that went.”
Alexis laughed before sitting up and repositioning herself in her chair. “I can,” she replied confidently. “You made the company a lot of money. They don’t care about how it happened, just that you got the deal in writing. Honestly, Hannah, you could’ve told him you blew the owner of the company if it got that signature on a contract.”
“Well, now that you mention it,” implied Hannah.
“Hannah Burchfield!” yelled Alexis in a state of shock. “Is that why he signed off on the deal?”
Hannah bit her lip and looked back at Alexis with a sly grin. “Maybe,” she said, letting the awkward silence set in before shaking her head. “No, we had already finished negotiating before other things happened.”
“Oh, well, alright then,” replied Alexis. “So, what happened? I have to know.”
“Look, you know me Alexis, and you know that there are times when I think a little emotionally instead of rationally,” began Hannah, looking across the desk as her best friend looked back in morbid curiosity. “So, when we got off the phone yesterday, I walked into a small trailer to meet with an Italian man who I thought was the foreman of the oil field…”
I got out of the car without my normal disposition. After the car ride, I felt a bit uneasy, simply because the terrain scrambled my brains and made my muscles ache like they never had before. So while I was incredibly sore, I still had a job to do and didn’t drive to the Oman border to come home empty handed. The sandy dirt was everywhere, and when I opened the door of my car and put my expensive shoe into it, I immediately became upset with myself. These shoes - Prada, were white leather, cost me the better part of six hundred dollars, and without even thinking, I stepped into the dirty sand and sunk in. Normally, I wouldn’t let something like this deter me, but, I also don’t normally travel out to oil fields in the Middle East.
The pathway to the management trailer was paved with a thin layer of asphalt but still covered in the sandy dirt. I walked along the pathway softly, trying not to stir the dirt with my footsteps. I stepped up the three, wooden steps and placed my hand on the silver knob, though not turning it because I was listening in to the incredibly loud conversation coming from the inside of the small structure. Though it was in Italian, which I can speak pretty well, the dialect was a bit different and the sounds were muffled from the well-insulated trailer. The man inside was on the phone, having a conversation with someone from Italy and it was about me, and how he was going to have to entertain some idiot from America and let them know about how their company ran.
I giggled, loving that he was already upset with me and I had yet to walk through the door. I kept listening at how he referred to most Americans as ugly, rude, and above all, classless. While some of what he said could be true, I felt like I could immediately gain the upper hand. I was wearing khakis; the same ones I wore yesterday while I was at the office, along with that white button up blouse and the khaki vest. I unbuttoned the top two buttons of my blouse and tightened my bra straps, raising up my breasts just enough to where my cleavage was showing through the opening of the shirt. I fixed my hair, making sure it looked perfect, though still pulled back in a ponytail. I had checked my makeup before I got out of the car, so I knew my face looked fabulous. I put my hand back on the door knob and turned it, pulling the door open and stepping into the room with authority. I walked straight to the Italian man in front of me, who totally caught me off guard.
He was very well built; tall, muscular shoulders with thick biceps and a very broad torso. His legs were thick and muscular, almost as if he had worked on the rigs his entire life and had to lift the hundred pou
nd pipes daily. His skin tone was olive, just like most Italians, but was incredibly tanned from what I perceived to be too many days in the sun. His accent was different from what I was used to, though the only real interaction I ever had with Italians speaking in their native tongue was either in Rome, Milan, Naples, or Turin. Though the northern states tend to sing their words a little bit more, this man’s accent was very direct and loud. Anyways, he turned and looked at me, placing his phone down and maintaining a very firm scowl.
“And might I ask who you are?” he asked in English, which surprised me. I honestly expected him to greet me in Italian, which tipped me off that he knew who I was.
“Good afternoon!” I said with a very perky smile, over doing it a bit with my aggressive personality. I knew he didn’t want to see me, but hearing that he thought most American’s were rude, I decided to go quite aggressive with the happiness.
I set my bag beside the door and walked toward him, stretching my hand out to shake his. His eyes immediately relaxed and his scowl turned into more of a curious frown as he stretched his hand out and shook mine. “My name is Hannah Burchfield and I’m with the American Oil Trade and Refiners,” I introduced, still being incredibly positive and perky. My eyes were relaxed as I looked at his with our hands interlocked, trying to read his emotions to get a better feel for the negotiations.
“Gregorio Bonnucci,” he said calmly, releasing my hand and staring into my eyes as I gazed into his. “So, you are who they sent to talk about our relationship?”
“I am,” I replied, catching him off guard with my answer. “Am I not what you were expecting?” I asked coyly, trying to provoke an answer to see where his head was at. If he said no, then I knew he was a liar and I was already in his head. If he said yes, then I knew I had to charm him a bit more, but by his facial expressions and body language, I did not think it would take much longer.
However, my mind was also wandering during the very brief moment. His name sounded incredibly familiar, and the more I thought about it, I remembered hearing it before. I didn’t dwell on it though, because that didn’t help me at all. Knowing who he was did not offer me an immediate advantage, though once I realized who he was, I knew that I was in the best position of my career. “You are much different than what I had imagined coming to visit me today,” he answered. “Normally, the people who are sent out to the fields are grizzled men who are way too vulgar, thinking that they are talking to some foreman on a rig.”