by Cat Mann
****
My drive to the office was brutal. The highway was bumper-to-bumper traffic. The hot July sun beat down on the pavement and bounced off the mirrors of the cars ahead of me, blinding me. A headache started in one temple and very quickly spread throughout my whole head. The smell of asphalt cooking in the sun assaulted my already queasy stomach. I jumped back and forth between feeling bad for treating Ava the way that I had and then being pissed at her for running on that damn beach after I have told her not to countless times.
By the time I arrived to the parking lot of the baio building, I was mad at her again. I stormed through the entry with only a quick nod to the security guard and then jabbed my finger on the elevator call button. The doors responded promptly and opened on cue and the elevator whisked me up to the twenty-second floor. I stepped one foot into the lobby and was immediately reminded of Fauna and the fact that she had given her resignation notice the week earlier. Sputtering some excuse about finally pursuing her life’s obsession.
The lobby was filled with nervous women sitting cross-legged on the chic but uncomfortable chairs and couches as they awaited their interview slot with human resources. I was spotted right away and a quick gasp from one of the applicant’s mouths alerted the others of my presence and each one of them stared and smiled at me while I walked passed. I mustered up a semi-polite nod in the group’s general direction. My line of sight quickly scanned the room. I saw not one man and there was no way any of the applicants could have possibly been over the age of twenty-five. Not that age and gender mattered, but it sure would make life with Ava a heck of lot easier if I could just find a bald, fat man for an assistant.
Cutting through the lobby, I moved quickly through the central office and made it to the back corner of my department.
“Good morning, Boss.” Fauna was way too chipper for first thing in the morning.
“When’s the final meeting?” I snapped taking my anger with Ava out on Fauna, who, by now, was entirely used to my mood swings.
“Oh,” Fauna’s smiled faded, “Margaux cancelled that, she’s out again today. I sent you a message and I updated the calendar and then sent the update to your phone. You didn’t get it?”
“Phone’s dead.” I pulled the cell from my suit pocket and slid it to her across her desk. “Borrow a charger from someone in the office and plug it in for me.”
“Sure.”
“Once there is enough power, check the messages and email them to me. Do you remember my password?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“I'm starting negotiations for contracts today. Get the agency on the line so we can discuss Miss Comis. Set up a meeting here. I'm not going back there again for any conversation. Then pull the final report from marketing from last week – I haven’t approved that yet and I am not giving up without a fight. I don’t care if that is what Margaux wants, this isn’t about her. I need you to get me a list of the hotels to be used for Fashion Week and I need that itinerary for the conference by the end of the day today. Call Zach in the Chicago office and have him email the final list of participants and get with Piper to book the flights. I have dry cleaning ready to be picked up – use my credit card and you can take my car. My keys will be on my desk.”
“Alright.”
“And hold all calls from my family.” I turned to walk towards my office.
“What about Ava?”
“I don’t expect to hear from her today. Plan on working late tonight.” I closed my office door and then frosted the glass walls with the press of a button on my desktop.
My headache intensified, pain radiated through my skull, my pulse throbbed in my eyes and pressure built and pushed at the backs of my eye-sockets. My neck and shoulders were a boiling pot of unreleased tension.
I worked only to keep my mind occupied and away from Ava. Thoughts of that stupid nightmare played at the back of my eyes until I finally squashed the dark unforgivable images and pushed them away with no further consideration. My God-forsaken phone rang off the hook all through the morning and Fauna’s disembodied voice echoed and re-echoed through the speaker announcing asshole after asshole I’d have to pretend to be buddies with in order to cut a deal.
A light knock was followed by Fauna and then she hesitantly walked in to the entryway of my office. “Yvette requested that you sit in on some interviews today.”
“Yvette wants me to sit in on interviews?” I rubbed the pads of my fingers across the bridge of my nose, bumping up my glasses.
“Yes. You know – for your assistant position.”
My phone started to ring again.
“Yvette in HR?” my jaw clenched in annoyance.
Fauna nodded and looked at me, unsure.
“Remind Yvette that as a member of the human resources department it is her job to conduct the interviews, not mine. What good would it be for me to waste my entire day listening to a bunch of idiots explain that their greatest strength is also their greatest weakness? I don’t care who the hell sits at that stupid desk out there as long as they know how to answer the God damn phone!” My phone continued to ring. I grabbed the receiver with a white-knuckle grip, picked it up and then slammed it back down, hard, hanging up on the caller and silencing the noise.
Fauna’s lips pressed together in a firm scowl, her eyes were wide and her back was rigid. She was ready to turn around on me and rip out my throat. Ava would have. If I were anyone else speaking to her that way, Fauna would have yelled back, but I wasn’t just anyone. For one more week, I was still her boss. She blinked an angry blink and turned, placing her hand on the door handle.
“I’ll let Yvette know you aren’t interested in joining her and I’ll pass along your requirements for the position.”
I should have apologized right then, but I didn’t. Instead, I continued to stew and I reviewed a page long list of voicemail messages Fauna had copied from my cell phone and emailed to me early in the afternoon. I had a dozen messages, a few from my Mom wondering if we were coming over for Sunday dinner. I didn’t return the call because she had called Ava’s cell too and Ava had explained that we were staying home. I had a message from Nick that I likely wouldn’t return. Sonja Juog, a sales representative from the Beverly Hills Harry Winston called to thank me for my most recent purchase and reminded me that if I needed anything further she would be more than happy to assist me. Then I reviewed messages from Julia. “I need to talk to you … Call me back a.s.a.p … Why aren’t you answering your phone... Ari, this is important …” Lastly, was a message from Rory telling me he hated me, that I had no respect for him and then reminding me that I was an asshole.
“Mr. Alexander?” Fauna spoke again from the intercom. “Mrs. Harris from L.A. Models is here to see you.”
“Send her in.” My head pulsed.
“Ari, darling, hello!” She kissed the air.
“Have a seat.” I wasn’t in the mood for any pleasantries and immediately got down to business discussing the contract of baio’s long time lead model, Nadiah Comis. The conversation turned ugly in a matter of minutes and super-agent Corina Harris left my office in a mood that closely resembled my own.
Another knock was followed by the opening of my office door. “Hey, you.”
I looked up in surprise.
“Fauna wasn’t at her desk so I just showed myself back. Sorry I'm running a bit late.”
“Late for what, Julia? What are you doing here?”
“You said we could talk over lunch … I called your office this morning but someone hung up on me. I haven’t been able to get through to you all day.”
“I don’t want to speak with you after all. Whatever it is that you think you are doing, leave me out of it. You made me look like an idiot yesterday. Rory is furious with me. You made me look like a liar, Julia. I don’t want to play these games. You can head back home now – I don’t have time for this.”
“What? I drove here on fumes. I
skipped therapy to meet you.” Her voice was delicate and strained with emotion.
Looking up from the pile of contracts sitting on my desk, I stared at Julia. Her hair was in a sloppy ponytail, short unkempt strands slipped from the elastic hair tie and fell around her ears and the back of her neck. She had on no makeup and the soft skin just under her eyes was pink and slightly swollen from tears shed earlier in the day. She fidgeted with her car keys.
“Sit down,” I sighed.
Her shoulders sloped and she turned and sank into a chair across the desk from me.
“First of all, never skip therapy. Dr. Najib does you more good than I do.”
Julia nodded.
“Can you reschedule for later today?”
“I’ll call and see.”
“Good.” I leaned my elbows on my desktop. “Have you been taking your prescription?”
My question made her uncomfortable and she fidgeted some more. “Yeah, for the most part. He changed it on me and I'm still adjusting to the new pills.”
Ah.
“Lay it on me. What’s bothering you? What the hell is going on?”
“It’s nothing.” Her voice cracked. Again, I had no tissues to offer and after a quick rummage through my desk drawer, I uncovered a few unused napkins from a takeout restaurant down the road from the baio building. I extended the napkin to her and she promptly swiped it from my fingers and blotted the corners of her eyes. Julia looked around the room, noted the frosted glass that ensured our privacy and then stared across the desk from me. She sucked in a breath then exhaled. Her lips trembled as she started to talk, “I have to tell you something.”
“Alright, what?”
She shook her head from side to side in thought, causing more wisps of hair to dislodge from the band. “No one can know that you found out.”
“You can trust me.”
“I know.” She blotted her eyes once more. “You, um … God Ari, I don’t know how to say this.” She looked down and once again fiddled with the bracelet. A new, clean Band-Aid stuck tightly to her pale, delicate skin on the underside of her wrist.
“Start from the beginning.”
“I’ve been … talking with some people and I’m not really supposed to be here but I think you should know that you were wrong…”
“What are we talking about here, Julia?”
“I …” she swallowed hard, “Ari, you are …”
Another knock was followed by the opening of my door.
“I’m in a meeting,” I hollered before the person turned the corner.
“Oops, sorry Ari, this won’t take but a second.”
“Now is not a good time, Yvette.”
“I just want to introduce you to one of the applicants for the assistant position, she flew all the way here to meet with us today. She is one of Margaux’s picks…”
I stood from my chair, “I am very busy right now.”
Yvette continued barging into my office. Behind her was a redhead with a big smile framed in glossy lipstick.
“Ari, this is Lirik Nino.”
Julia gasped and locked eyes with the redhead.
Lirik, meet Ari Alexander. He is our CFO here at baio. If everything goes right, he'll be the one you report to.”
“I am so excited and thrilled to finally meet you.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Miss Nino, but right now is a very bad time.” I turned to escort the two women from my office. “Best of luck to you. I am sure we will meet again on a better schedule.” I ushered them out of the door and into the side lobby just off my office where Fauna sat.
“Miss Korie?”
“Yes?” Fauna stood from her chair.
“No more interruptions, please.”
“Of course. I’m sorry. I was on the phone working through the itinerary with Zach and they must have snuck past.” Fauna gave the red head an angry eyed stare down.
Yvette huffed in annoyance and she and the applicant walked back towards the conference room.
“Whoa, hold it. Where are you going?”
“I have to leave.” Julia flew down the hall and her flip-flops smacked the bottoms of her heals with each rushed step she took.
“We aren’t done talking about this, Julia.”
“Sorry, Ari, but I can’t.” She flung her purse over her shoulder and brushed passed me through the doorway that leads to the main lobby.
“Julia, get back here now!”
She ignored me and disappeared into an elevator.
“God, this day cannot get any worse.” I mumbled and took off down the hallway after Julia.
Pounding on the elevator call button more times than necessary, I knew my efforts were pointless. Julia was gone. Reaching the lobby in a second elevator, I wove through an ocean of warm bodies and then exited onto the hot blacktop parking lot. The narrow, yellow-lined slots of the baio visitor parking spaces were all full except for one. Her tires squealed at the far corner stop light.
I turned and looked back to the building just as the door opened and the redhead walked out.
“Oh!” She smiled with a sort of eager delight. “Mr. Alexander. Hi.”
I nodded, hoping that would be enough of a greeting but knowing beforehand that it was not.
“I am sorry about earlier, you know for barging in on your meeting. I want you to know that I normally wouldn’t behave that way. It is just, Margaux was eager for us to meet. I hope it doesn’t reflect too poorly on me. I really…”
I waved a lazy, pardoning palm at the air space around her. My head was due to explode any moment and her incessant rambling was not helping matters. “Please. Forget about it.”
“Mr. Alexander, are you alright?” The redhead cocked her head slightly to the left, the tight, white skin around her eyes barely made a crease. Her freckles danced with the slight scrunch of her small nose.
“I’m fine. And, it’s just Ari.”
“OK, Just Ari. It was a real pleasure meeting you.”
“Uh, you, too…”
“Lirik Nino. Lirik like a song.”
“Ok, Lirik Like A Song. It was nice meeting you, too.”
She smiled too brightly.