by S M Mala
‘I don’t think you do.’
Eighteen
He knew the chink in her armour. She was grieving for her husband so he decided to get information out of Sylvie was to use kindness.
It wasn’t working,
Something made him feel when she was telling him things it wasn’t to confide, it was just using him as a sound board. The woman didn’t care what he thought which was evident.
Finlay was starting to see why his little brother and Stephen might have a fancy towards her because as she started to speak to him, he realised she was quite funny and didn’t see the world in the same way he did. Whereas he was very cut and dry, she was frayed round the edges with her ideological views.
As Sylvie stood up, he noticed her top had risen and he saw her smooth dark skin, wondering what it felt like and if it was soft. For a moment he was just staring and it was Stephen knocking on the door which shook him out of his daze. Finlay realised it had been over two weeks since he had sex and he was on heat.
Juliette had stopped ringing since he walked out that Sunday and he felt relieved. He knew she wasn’t going to get rid of the baby and he was even more confused.
‘Did I interrupt something?’ Stephen asked and he knew the man saw him looking at Sylvie as she pulled down her top.
Finlay was receiving dagger looks from the accountant.
‘No,’ she shrugged and sat back down.
‘Do you want to come out for lunch?’ Stephen asked as Finlay tried not to smile seeing Sylvie look at her watch. ‘I know it’s nine thirty but I thought I’d ask. You could stick around for longer. I know it’s Tuesday.’
‘Then you know I can’t,’ she gently replied.
Stephen then looked at her for a moment and Finlay noticed the man didn’t seem happy as he kept on staring.
‘Is there something I can help you with?’ Finlay interrupted and noticed Stephen was starting to get angry.
‘Stephen!’ shouted Samina, storming into the office. ‘Why no cardamom? I not drink tea without cardamom.’
‘I’m trying to make cut backs,’ the man replied and Finlay could see Samina was on the verge of exploding.
‘Tell me! I get. Sylvie! He cut back!’
‘I’ll go and get some today,’ she sighed. ‘What’s your problem Stephen?’
‘Hello everyone!’ said Toby, walking in as Samina stormed out and Stephen followed. ‘What’s wrong with them?’
‘Stephen’s cutting back on things without telling anyone and wondering why Samina’s getting pissed off,’ Sylvie said, before laughing.
‘That’s because he wants your attention and it’s obvious it’s being deflected,’ sniffed Toby, matter of fact, before turning to Finlay. ‘How long have you been here?’
‘Why?’ he asked seeing his little brother’s twitchy face.
‘Daddio’s going to be better in the New Year and that means you can go home to your wife? How is the old sow?’
‘Toby, that’s not nice,’ said Sylvie standing up. ‘And that’s not like you to be so mean.’
‘You’d be surprised,’ mumbled Finlay and he noticed she smiled at him. ‘He’s not all sweetness and light.’
‘I think he is,’ she replied and walked out of the office as Finlay watched Toby eye her up.
Finlay then noticed his brother cast an eye in his direction and smiled before approaching his desk and sitting down. He let out an impromptu sigh before grinning. The man looked like a teenager.
‘I do love her,’ he said wistfully. ‘I think she’s truly amazing.’
‘I hate to break the news to you but she’s older and isn’t taking you seriously. I think it’s sweet but don’t cross the line. At the end of the day she works for us, the company, so you should just leave well alone.’ Sitting back in his chair he could see Toby wasn’t taking any notice of him as his little brother flicked him an unimpressed glance. ‘And she’s not interested in you like that or haven’t you noticed?’
‘Well as long as that slime ball Stephen doesn’t get his hands on her. He’s like a dwarf on heat, always trying to get stuck against her leg,’ Toby replied jealously. ‘I don’t want her to fall for his crap!’
‘I don’t think she likes him either. She mentioned last week she was a widow.’ Finlay watched Toby’s face turn to stone for a moment. ‘What did I say?’
‘Listen bro, here’s a piece of advice I think you need if you’re sticking around until the end of the year. Don’t go prying too much into Sly. She doesn’t like it. Daddio knows a lot about her and I know her and mumsy don’t get on because of something that happened ages ago.’ Toby shrugged with a blank expression. ‘I know Sly tries not to tell me too much, she thinks I might get upset, and I do. Under that beautiful fluffiness of happy cheery smiles is someone who’s still upset about her bloke kicking the bucket. Sad really.’
He jumped to his feet when he noticed Wanda and grimaced. Finlay smiled at the pretty brassy young woman walking by the office, waving and smiling.
‘If you want to go for someone, why don’t you try her,’ whispered Finlay seeing Toby screw up his face in disgust. ‘She likes you.’
‘She’s got a boyfriend and, well, to be honest, I’m a bit put off that she does what she does.’
‘Which is what?’
Finlay tried not to smile at the man’s perplexed expression.
‘Stuff things inside her for like money then talks about it to people. That’s not on, to be honest,’ Toby grimaced and shrugged before walking out of the office and shutting the door.
Finlay sat there, unable to speak, as he truly thought the people in the place were a bit strange. Oddly enough he liked it. It took his mind off his current dilemma and he looked forward to going into work, even though he was mainly looking at the other businesses as he really didn’t have anything to do there.
He turned his chair to face forward before standing up and walking to the window. People were congregating around the mobile coffee shack that turned up twice a day, selling espressos, lattes and cappuccinos. Sylvie was queuing up and he stared at her for a moment.
He couldn’t really figure her out as she chatted and laughed with Dan before taking a pair of glasses out and reading something he had on his note board. She checked then signed a sheet before pushing her glasses up on top of her head.
Finlay turned and noticed her top drawer was open.
He’d tried to open them a few times so he took the opportunity to see what she hid. Opening the bottom drawer there were personnel files and information which he immediately thought she’d have to give him access to. In the top drawer contained post it notes and compliment slips before noticing a wallet with the name of the hotel he’d seen her coming out of. There were two key cards. Turning them around he was surprised to see they were in the name of ‘Good Vibration’.
He replaced them quickly and closed the drawer.
Something was going on but he couldn’t figure out what. He felt the need to dig deeper but didn’t know where to start. There were footsteps coming up the stairs and he noticed Sylvie had two cups in her hand.
‘Coffee,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I got you a cappuccino.’
‘Okay?’ he said suspiciously.
‘Don’t worry it was made by the guys outside so there was no chance of any chemicals from the products getting mixed in.’ She handed the cup over as he tried not to look too apprehensive. Sylvie laughed for a moment before taking a quick sip from his cup before putting it on his table and saying, ‘It’s up to you.’
Tentatively, he picked it up noticing where her lipstick had touched the hole on the lid. Finlay didn’t know whether to wipe it or not but decided if he did, she’d only think he’d think she was contagious. He took a sip and smiled, as it tasted good noticing she had walked to the window and was looking out.
Finlay turned for a second and looked at her profile, while eyeing her up and down again. Slim with curves, good curves around the breast and backside. She wasn’t that ba
d looking over all.
‘Are you arranging to speak to everyone on a one to one?’ she asked turning to look at him as he diverted his eyes and sipped his coffee. ‘You need to make sure it doesn’t clash with when they’re busy, which is usually early afternoon.’
‘I thought you might arrange it for me?’ he said, knowing what Della had said.
‘I think you’re more than capable to do that yourself.’
‘Isn’t it an HR thing?’
‘Not when you’re trying to find fault with employees who work really hard and are loyal.’ Sylvie half smiled. ‘You already presumed I’m not qualified for the role and-.’
‘I didn’t-.’
‘You did.’
There was silence for a moment as she walked to her desk and shoved the top drawer in then sat down. Finlay didn’t know what to say but he certainly wasn’t going to apologise, not since he’d seen the hotel key cards and he was suspicious regarding what she was really like.
‘We have a product meeting at nine o’clock which you’ve never come to before.’ Sylvie had a half smile as he stared at her. ‘I think, considering you’re here until Christmas, and I believe that will be our most profitable time since the business began, it might be good for you to look at what we predict will sell the most.’
‘Who picks the products?’
‘We all have a say,’ was her diplomatic reply.
The look she was receiving from Stephen was priceless. Sylvie couldn’t understand that she had told him, in probably ten different ways, she wasn’t interested but still he thought he had a chance. The man had literally pushed Samina away while the old woman was sat on a chair so he could place himself next to her.
‘Why you do that?’ Samina snapped before making eye contact with Sylvie and turning up her nose. ‘You see I sit here? You blind?’
‘I need to sit here,’ he said and dismissed the woman as Finlay sat opposite Sylvie and the others walked in as Samina sat on her other side.
Della and Wanda were deep in discussion as they sat either side of Finlay who, Sylvie noticed, had suddenly perked up. Then Marianne joined them.
‘What she do here?’ asked Samina.
‘Sylvie asked me to come,’ she smiled, before sitting next to Samina. ‘Problem?’
‘You pack and post,’ the woman replied as Sylvie felt Samina start to elbow her. ‘Why she here?’
‘We need to discuss the Christmas products and what’s going to be pushed,’ Sylvie said, deciding to ignore the constant elbow now digging into her own.
‘Why you not answer?’
‘We need extra help to research and Marianne volunteered, so that’s why she’s here. There’s a whole lot of new products we’re promoting and it’s only hearsay how well they work. We need another pair of hands… so to speak.’ She let out a little sigh pushing Samina’s arm away and looked up noticing a smirk on Finlay’s lips, which she noticed were quite full and pink. ‘And we need to update the website and I don’t believe half the things they say on the sales information.’
‘Why not try them yourself?’ Finlay asked as Sylvie ignored him. ‘Who else updates the website?’
‘That’s what I do, mainly, as well as look through the orders,’ purred Della and Sylvie looked up to see the woman was on heat.
She was giving Finlay the eye and Sylvie knew he was aware of the come on. Glancing to the side, she saw Marianne roll her eyes as Stephen was staring very hard at her.
‘Then why do you update Sylvie?’ Finlay stared at her for a moment.
‘It’s always good to cross check,’ Sylvie replied.
‘Marianne get pay rise?’ Samina continued. ‘I not get pay rise.’
‘Don’t you get a rise of other sorts?’ Finlay muttered as the women either side of him sniggered, so did Stephen.
‘No one’s going to get a pay rise if we don’t make enough money in the last quarter,’ Sylvie replied, looking down her notes and realised Finlay was staring at her. ‘Based on what we know and the orders quantities coming through, if we really give it a push we might exceed target at the end of the year.’
‘Really?’ she heard him say and glanced up as he started to flick through his tablet. ‘And who gave the predictions?’
‘Piers.’
‘That man not know how to predict his own toilet movement!’ laughed out Samina as Sylvie turned to the woman and shot her a glare. ‘I got something you should see.’
She noticed Finlay was still staring at her then got the shock of her life as something was slammed down in front of her.
‘Oh my god!’ Sylvie screamed seeing a large white dildo in front of her.
‘I thought you like. Come in today. For sensitive skin. You try?’ sighed Samina. ‘I try but small. White penis usually small, aye Stephen?’
‘Well,’ he replied, before puffing up his chest and flicking Sylvie a smile. ‘Mine’s not as-.’
‘Can we just concentrate on the meeting and take that thing away,’ Sylvie said, pushing it back to Samina with her pen.
‘You not like penis, not like sex. You lesbian Sylvie and not know it.’
‘Give me strength,’ she mumbled before quickly glancing at Finlay who was smiling at her. ‘Now where were we? That’s right, the sales predictions.’
‘The new marketing campaign will hopefully help the image for the next fiscal year,’ said Stephen in a commanding tone.
Sylvie held her breath for a moment.
‘What campaign?’ she heard Finlay ask.
‘The company campaign,’ replied Stephen and Sylvie knew the man was trying to land her in deep shit. ‘Didn’t Sylvie tell you?’
‘Sylvie didn’t tell me anything.’
She quickly glanced up and knew they were all looking at her as she pretended to read something.
‘Sylvie?’ Finlay said. ‘Do you want to explain what’s going on?’
‘Nothing to explain,’ she replied cheerfully before grinning at everyone around the table. ‘We need to push the brand and invest money in marketing. It’s a done deal.’
‘We should sing song ‘Good Vibration’ by Bitch Men,’ Samina said enthusiastically.
‘Beach Boys,’ whispered Sylvie.
‘Mmmh,’ Finlay said, not looking happy.
He then got up and walked out of the meeting room.
‘Why did you say that?’ she turned to Stephen who looked innocently at her. ‘We have five weeks before the campaign then he’s out of here at the end of December. If we’d done it, then he’d be none the wiser and you know he’ll try and curb the spend.’
‘You want to cause trouble. I can see,’ added Samina shaking her head. ‘Oh no, man come back.’
They all looked at the door as Finlay returned and there was no evident expression of anything on his face as he sat back down and looked at his tablet.
‘Stephen, I’ve met with you several times and why didn’t you mention it before? From the figures I can’t see anything highlighting marketing and the costs.’ His tone was deep and even. ‘And Sylvie, again did this slip your mind?’
‘I thought I’d mentioned it,’ replied Stephen as Sylvie heard Samina tut beside her.
The room went very quiet and it was as if they were getting told off by a grown up. It wasn’t pleasant and then Sylvie realised he wanted to come across as the person in control, the superior they had to answer to and she wasn’t having any of it.
‘Mr Chambers,’ she began then cleared her throat. ‘You’ve been popping in over the last, I don’t know how many weeks, to look at the operation and you haven’t actually told any of us what you’ve found, given any advice on how you think we could be more productive.’
‘This really isn’t the time to-.’
‘We need to market this company. A year ago we decided to take some of our profits and push the brand. We are going to do so which includes having our own logo on the warehouse now, not ‘Chambers Caplin’.’
She sat back and stared at him for a moment a
nd Sylvie thought he looked angry but was holding back.
Again a heavy silence hit the room until she heard a buzzing next to her and realised Samina was playing with the white dildo. She had put the head in a glass of water, watching the various rippling effects when changing the speed.
‘It fast. Make good frothy coffee,’ Samina said seriously as Sylvie put her hand out to stop her as she looked at Della, who was going to laugh, and Wanda looking anxiously around.
‘You keep saying ‘we’,’ Finlay quietly said, glancing around the room. ‘Do I take it Piers consults you on everything?’
‘We are a team,’ Stephen quickly replied. ‘We bounce ideas off each other.’
‘At the end of the day he owns the company and the finances for it came from ‘Chambers Caplin’ so ‘we’ that is the company, do have a say if things are changing especially when he’s not here. As I am one of the directors, I do have some input. Can we adjourn this meeting until when? When are you available next Ms Mather?’
The glare was unprecedented and held nothing back. He looked at her as if she was nothing and that riled her.
‘Thursday at eight thirty we’ll resume the meeting, if that’s okay with everyone.’ Sylvie got up, smiled at the others and walked out of the office, knowing things were about to kick off.
Going quickly to her desk, she sat down and waited for him to come back. She noticed the group were walking out slowly then saw him laughing with Della and something he said, amused the others, except Samina who grimaced for a moment before proceeding to enter her office.
‘You not like him?’ she said and flicked a glance over her shoulder. ‘Why you not tell him the truth about you? Piers a stupid man if he think he can pretend he run this. I know. We all know.’
‘I promised him faithfully I would let it look like he was in control,’ she said, keeping an eye on Finlay flirting with Della.
‘No go getting fired because of this,’ Samina said, shaking her finger at her. ‘You have child. Be nice to Finlay Chambers or we all lose jobs.’
‘Like fuck we will,’ mumbled Sylvie as the door was slowly opened by the man and Samina turned around, looked back at her then walked out.