by Jamie Knight
By the time I got to the game room for morning ping-pong, I had all but forgotten about Ivanov.
Chapter Two - Sarah
Another sunny day, so I walked past the cemetery gates. Catechism Cataclysm, the middle entry in the immortal “Sacrament Trilogy” streamed on my MP3 player. The last part was supposed to be coming out within a week, and I was like a kid at Christmas, irrepressibly excited and checking the calendar every few days to make sure all was progressing according to plan.
The legal firm I worked for didn’t really have a dress code, only the barest modicum of professionalism being preferred. Basically, every day was casual Friday, which could be a real Godsend in the Nevada heat. How would it look for the partners of Lewis and Brown to have employees passing out at their desks? Not good. Not good at all. My serious side insisted on a black skirt-suit. Still, my practical side allowed for a much shorter shirt than I would usually wear and convinced me to leave my jacket at the office as I went out for lunch.
The Sure Thing Graphics building was a lot fancier than my legal office. There apparently was a lot of money in graphic design. I had over an hour for lunch, which I figured would be ample, even with the mountain of work piled on my desk—a problem it seemed my friend, Camilla, could empathize with. The reception area at the design firm was chocked full of clients when I arrived on the building’s fourth floor.
The next client went up, and the line moved along, freeing up a seat at the back. I pounced before anyone else could beat me to it—it was likely to be a while before Camilla was able to get away. To be fair, I was ten minutes early. Punctuality was less of a social courtesy in my family and more of a religion.
I busied my mind by taking in the office. This was the first time I had visited Camilla at work. We had just recently reconnected, having originally known each other from college. Sure Thing Graphics was really was quite lovely. Originally open concept, it had an elaborate cubical farm that I guessed, resembled proper offices going by the size of them. There were also two rooms off to either side. One looked like it was a boardroom, even without the sign outside labeling it as such. The other had more of a window than a wall and was some kind of game room with a tournament-sized ping-pong table at the center of the room. I could hardly imagine working in an office so fun.
My phone started buzzing, and I dove to get it out of my bag, knowing all too well how annoying a ringing phone could be. I figured it had the same logic as a baby’s cries, you can’t stand it because you’re not supposed to be able to. The noise all but guaranteed immediate action to end the torture if nothing else.
Even on my lunch break, I was not entirely safe from my supervisor. The call was to remind me of the caseload and to be sure to get back to work on time because they really needed all hands on deck. I assured her that I did not, in fact, have the comparative intellect of a second grader and knew full well the situation we were in. My bosses didn’t know, but going into legal aid after graduation was, if anything, an act of rebellion. As well as an attempt to try and redress the balance. The type of people who tended to go to law school was just the kind of silver-spoon, trust-fund babies I had hung with when I was younger. Seeing the other side was a real wake up call.
The call lasted so long I was almost the only one left in the waiting area seats. Trying to get my supervisor to actually shut up was a challenge on par with traversing the Klondike by dog-sled. Camilla was stuck on the phone herself, so I figured I was pretty safe. I glanced at my watch as my supervisor wound down, like a toy running out of batteries. Focused on waiting for an opening to hang up, I didn’t even see him come out of his office.
“What can I help you with?”
I looked up at the hottest man I had ever seen. He had the muscles of a bodybuilder, and the taste in fashion of a movie star—all with a face that was more perfect than the man of my dreams. But what really caught me were his eyes: deep brown and sad. When I gazed into them, it was like I could tell this man had a depth of passion, and life had let him down. There was something about that look that made me want to put my arms around him and soothe the stranger.
“Gotta go, bye,” I said, hanging up while my manager was still in mid-sentence.
I know I should have explained to the designer that I wasn’t a client and was just there to meet Camilla. Though that was not what happened. Moved by spirits unknown, I pointed to one of the posters showing the different kinds of brochures they did.
“Come with me,” the sexy stranger said, retreating back toward his cubicle.
Dropping my phone in my bag, I quickly followed. A strange but exhilarating tingle ran through my entire body.
“I really should wait my turn,” I started.
“It was your turn,” was all he said.
I was right about the cubicles, though this man’s looked pretty plain like he didn’t want anything to distract him from the task a hand—a man after my own heart. I still had no idea what I was doing or why I was going through with the lie, but when he sat down in the chair near his computer, I knew I had to come up with something.
“I’m a lawyer,” I said, deciding to start with the truth, “and I need some new advertising.”
“What kind of lawyer?” he asked, grabbing a pen and scrap of paper.
“Legal aid, actually.”
“Legal aid needs advertising?” he asked, raising a dark eyebrow.
“Can’t hurt,” I mumbled with a shrug.
Without a word, my crush started sketching, his long, nimble fingers moving quickly and efficiently. The fact that the knuckles of his right hand were bandaged only added to his allure, making me want to kiss this sad man’s boo-boos all better. I wondered what it would be like to be touched by those fingers. I imagined them running down my body. Starting at my neck and then caressing me all the way down before resting gently between my… I blushed furiously but tried not to show it. My thoughts were wildly inappropriate, particularly for a man I had just met. Though I also noticed that I wasn’t getting up and leaving.
As though glued to my seat, I sat and watched him work, the designs forming themselves out of his pen. He really was talented. I wondered if he had any formal art training or did any paintings. I guessed graphic design really was the best of both worlds. Mixing the skill of art with the stability of office work. It also looked like they had a really good time not only because of the fact that he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt at work.
Our eyes met a couple of times as he sketched, the sparks nearly crackling between us. It could have been my imagination, but I had the feeling he could sense it as much as I could. Something was going on that neither of us could really define but felt terrific just the same.
“So, this is where you went!”
Recovering from nearly jumping out of my skin, I turned to see Camilla at the door of the cubical, a most amused expression on her pretty face.
“Excuse us a moment,” she said, pulling me outside.
“Sure,” he said, still sketching.
“I am shocked,” Camilla explained, when we were in the hallway.
“What? Why?”
“That’s what I want to know. Why exactly are you hitting my brother, Cooper? Sarah, as long as I’ve known you, you’ve always been to busy to date. Now here you are fluttering your eye-lashes and flashing your legs at my flesh and blood!”
I looked down at my unusually short skirt. I didn’t know the hot stranger was Camilla’s brother. I liked to think that if I did, I would have behaved differently though I honestly didn’t know for sure. He was so sexy. I was already doing things I never usually did like hanging up on my supervisor and going into a stranger’s cubicle under false pretenses
“I just thought I would try something different,” I mumbled, as casually as I could muster.
Camilla widened her eyes at me. “With the skirt or my brother?”
“Both.” I shrugged.
She giggled and shook her head. “I’ll see you
when you’re done,” Camilla said, heading back to the reception desk with a wave.
When I walked back into the cubical, I actually could see the similarities. They weren’t twins or anything. However, there were particular tells such as their shared high cheekbones and dark hair that should have been an indication, if not a warning.
“You really want to try something different?” Cooper asked, not looking up from the sketch, which was nearly done.
I flinched. He had heard us talking. “Yes,” I whispered, trying to keep my voice from trembling.
“Meet me here at five tonight.”
“O-okay.”
“Good?” he asked, holing up the rough sketch of a logo.
“Great,” I admitted, honestly meaning it.
He gave me a sharp nod, his face so blank I had no idea what he was feeling. “Good, take a seat, and I’ll forward an invoice so you can pay on your way out.”
I sat down and crossed my legs, reveling in the warm wetness between them. I had been horny before but never like this. I wouldn’t have minded at all if my friend’s brother fucked me immediately over the desk. It would certainly solve my little virginity problem.
When Cooper was done, I practically ran out. I felt kind of bad blowing Camilla off, but she asked so many questions when I went to her desk to pay my head started to spin. It was almost time for me to go back to work anyway.
I headed towards the legal aid office, expecting a rather large box of brochures I really couldn’t afford. It was crazy what had just happened, the sort of out of the blue occurrence that you heard about but don’t really believe. Or, at least, don’t think it could happen to you.
I stopped off for a couple of caramel eclairs at a cute local bakery on the way back to the office. Fully intending to go straight home after work, I would take a bath and watch a movie. Not show up at the design firm at all. That would just be nuts.
Chapter Three - Cooper
It shouldn’t have been an issue or required another thought. This lawyer was just another girl. Pretty yes, sexy even with possibly the most beautiful body I had ever seen, but she was also clearly a bit young for me and far too serious to be a potential girlfriend. I could tell that much by her clothes, coupled with her hairstyle, a severe ponytail. That might have been what was required by her job, but I knew enough to know that dress codes were something to be endured not embraced. However, young Sarah seemed quite comfortable dressed the way she was like she would still do it even if she wasn’t required to. It was odd, but I got a powerful straight-laced, stick-up-the-ass vibe off of her. But I had to admit, her ass was rather nice, stick or no. And her stern expression kept coming up in my imagination.
I wasn’t quite sure how we hadn’t met before, with Sarah being one of Camilla’s friends. Maybe my sister was hiding her from me, for fear I might ravage her. Though I was no beast, the girl did bring that out in me. Sarah was very, very sexy, particularly in business wear. I bet she looked even better out of it.
The lull at the office came as it usually did between lunch and two. Work was still done, but at a much more leisurely pace, the majority of the clients already taken care of. The mornings were the worst. Most other people seemed to have the same push to get things in before noon that I did, even though my workday didn’t actually end until five. I had a “worst first” philosophy that had served me all my life.
I leaned back in my chair, which had been specially designed for such maneuvers, and let out a deep sigh. Relaxation came over me in an awesome wave. If only it could have lasted just a bit longer.
The knocks were light and mostly perfunctory, considering the utter lack of a door on my cubicle.
“Hey, little one.”
“I’m almost thirty,” Camilla groaned, sitting down in the other chair.
“And I’m on the saner side of thirty. You will always be ‘little-one’ to me.”
“Even when I’m nearly sixty?”
“Even then,” I confirmed.
“Good to know,” my sister giggled.
“That girl who was here today, your friend, great legs, bit snobbish.”
“Sarah?”
“Yeah, what’s her story anyway?”
“We met in college. Sarah was a junior when I was a freshman, showed me what’s what and who was who. Bailed me out when trouble would come up.”
“Trouble? There was trouble?” I asked, my big brother instincts kicking in.
“Easy tiger, it was nothing we couldn’t handle, and I got to the other side childless and virginity intact. She advanced to law school, but we still kept in touch. Her family was pretty rich, which is probably where you sensed the snobbiness.”
I nodded. “Why haven’t I met her before?”
“Coincidence, I guess, I certainly wasn’t trying to hide her or anything.”
“Oh, good, because I asked her out.”
Never in my life had I seen Camilla so surprised. She got close when first trying to walk and realizing it didn’t really hurt when she fell down, but it was nothing compared to what happened then. I might as well have told her our puppy was carried off by a pterodactyl.
“It’s not that strange,” I objected.
“Yes, yes, it is that strange. Every dog on earth speaking Assyrian at once levels of strange.”
I puffed out my chest. “What, you think your crazy brother isn’t good enough for your rich, fancy friend?”
“No, no, not at all,” Camilla laughed, though not in a mean way.
“What is it then?”
“Sarah has always just been such a goody-goody. She works for legal aid, you know.”
“Yeah, that did come up.”
“Right, and she definitely isn’t rich. Not now. It was always her family who had the money. Not her. That doesn’t matter, does it?”
“No, not at all. I must have just gotten the wrong vibe is all. She just spoke so crisply and had an air of confidence about her. The kind that usually only comes with knowing you can buy anyone or anything that annoys you and destroy it three times over.”
“Wow.”
“What?”
“You got some rage, bro.”
“Sarah just reminded me of some of the rich bi—rich ladies I have known.”
“How many have you known?” Cammy asked, sounding concerned.
“I-I have to get back to work,” I snapped, sitting bolt upright.
“Right, okay,” she said gently, backing out of the room.
She wasn’t scared. Not really. My sister knew I would never hurt her. It was just that she knew better than to press me when I shut down. We would see each other again at quitting time, and everything would be sweetness and light like it always was.
Work really was the great cure-all. Even when I didn’t have anything I needed to do for a client, I worked on my own art, just for fun. I was getting into sigils at the time. It was tough going at first. Even someone with my skill ran into trouble when it came to turning letters into elegant, flowing shapes. I kept at it, and I had started coming up with some pretty good stuff. Camilla suggested I do costume ones online. People would send me their desires, and I would do a sigil for them in the form of a painting. It was a good idea, but I didn’t have quite the motivation to try it. I had spent so much of my life driven by ambition, only to crash and burn. I hadn’t fallen into full-on nihilism but was mostly just trying to get by one day at a time. As a wise man once said, “any day above ground is a good day.”
I was almost feeling good, at least better than I had for a while. All my client work was done, and I had crafted three eminently serviceable sigils. It was mostly in the art of the thing that I was interested, though I had to admit that they really did seem to have a power all their own. One that went well beyond their considerable aesthetic appeal.
Setting down my pen, my hand getting a bit sore again but not enough to dampen my mood, I rolled out from behind my desk and went out into the main office. M
ost of the other guys had left. Only Chris’s light was still on. He was almost as much of a workaholic as I was. His wife was a nurse and really seemed to understand his work ethic. It really didn’t seem to be about the money for Chris. It really was the love of the craft. Probably why he was one of the few people I really got along with, except for Aden, of course. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Chris and I were friends, but there was a certain respect that I had for him afforded to few others. Even Ryan, the owner of the firm who we hardly ever saw because he lived in Texas. Which I supposed was better in a way. Undoubtedly, the pinnacle of hands-off management.
I kind of envied the guys, really. Of the core group, I was pretty much the only one not paired off yet. Though it really was easier said than done when it came to the old feet sweeping romance. The only people I’d ever really loved were Camilla and our mom. Family love seemed to be the only sort of genuine affection I was able to muster for anyone. The bro love I had for Aden was mostly because we had been through hell and back. The main reason I was still alive being Camilla’s love and Aden’s loyalty, not to mention his considerable fighting skills.
“Let’s roll, little one.”
“Where are we going?”
I looked up so fast I actually heard a pop. The voice did not belong to my sweet, little Camilla. It was crisper, airier, much more upper class.
“What happened to Camilla?”
“I sent her home after apologizing profusely for lunch.”
“She’s taking the bus?”
Sarah raised her eyebrows at me. “Oh, goodness, no! I would never do that to an old friend. I gave her cab fare.”
“Where do you get that?” I asked, suspicious.
“The same fantasy world where I could afford the brochures I ordered.”
Camilla was telling the truth. Sara really wasn’t rich. At least not at this point. What more, she seemed to have a sense of humor about it. Maybe things would work out alright after all.