Big on Education

by Laurie Ames

  ***

  Juanita helped Allison out of the passenger side of her SUV and the two women crept up to one of the windows of the warehouse. It was dark and the area looked completely deserted. They walked around and peeked in all the windows from the outside, trying to find a way inside. Finally, Allison spotted a faint light coming from what looked like a basement or underground room inside of the warehouse. She waved her good arm at Juanita, signaling for her to join her where she stood.

  “What is it?” Juanita asked in a whisper.

  “There’s a light over there, look!” Allison pointed to it. “We have to find a way inside. I know something’s going on here. I’m pretty sure the vehicle I was kidnapped in was parked somewhere around here,” Allison remarked. She had her cell phone out, using it for a bit of light.

  Allison peeked through one of the windows of an old attached garage and her jaw dropped open in awe. She motioned for Juanita to come over to the window. She shined her cell phone inside of the old dilapidated garage and Juanita’s eyes widened in shock. The two women were staring directly at the dark-colored car that had hit Juanita several weeks ago.

  “I knew it!” Alli whispered harshly, narrowing her eyes. She pulled out her camera and took a few photos of the car and the garage.

  Just then, Juanita noticed a broken window on the back of the warehouse with a loose board hanging over it.

  “Alli, help me pull this board open! I know one of us could fit thru here!”

  The two women pulled on the board until the bottom part finally came loose. Juanita hoisted Allison carefully up through the cracked window and Allison landed on the warehouse floor with a thud.

  “Alli! Are you okay?” she asked in a loud whisper.

  “I’m fine,” Alli replied. “Now go around to that door we saw. I’ll open it.”

  Alli opened the locked door near the cracked window and let Juanita inside. Then, the two of them made their way to where the dim light seemed to be coming from, maneuvering cautiously and quietly through the dark warehouse. Soon, they came to a door that had a small window on it. Alli peeked through the window and saw that the dim light was coming from beyond it. Looking down at the door handle, she noticed that it had a padlock on it.

  “Shit!” she hissed in a frustrated tone. “It’s locked! Dammit!”

  “Maybe we should just go, Alli,” Juanita suggested. “The photos of the car should be enough evidence to get Officer Holt out here. And since they don’t know we were here, they’ll be taken by surprise.”

  Alli knew that her lover had a point, but she felt too close to redemption to quit now. She stood up on her tiptoes and peeked into the small window. What she saw caused a shiver to creep up her spine. She gasped and quickly put her phone up to the window.

  There was a flight of old stairs behind the door, and at the bottom of the door she saw a chain connected to the wall. It looked like someone was chained to the wall by their feet. The rest of the body was out of her sight range. She quickly snapped several photos with her cell phone camera.

  “What is it, Alli?” Juanita asked. “What do you see?”

  “We have to go straight to Officer Holt!” Alli said, finally. “Come on, let’s get out of here!”

  The two women hurried quietly through the dilapidated old warehouse, back the way they had come. Alli didn’t say another word until they had made it safely back to Juanita’s SUV and were on their way to the police station.

  “There was someone chained to a wall in the basement of that warehouse,” Alli finally admitted as Juanita drove downtown toward the police station. Alli dialed the number on the business card that Officer Holt had given her as they drove.

  “Officer Holt here,” she answered, in that same deep, raspy voice of hers.

  “Officer, this Allison Manning. I apologize for calling you so late, but I need to see you and it’s urgent. Can you meet us down at the station? We’re going to be there in about 15 minutes.”

  “This better be worth it,” she warned.

  ***

  Allison and Juanita waited in the SUV outside of the locked police station until Officer Holt pulled up in an unmarked squad car. She led them inside the station and back to her office.

  “Now, what is it, ladies? And this better be worth my time. My partner and I were on date night,” she stated, clearly aggravated.

  “Yes, I understand. We took these photos about 30 minutes ago out at the old Winderton Warehouse on the Southern end of town.”

  Allison pulled up the photos from the old warehouse and handed the phone to her. As she scanned through the photos, her facial expression became more and more intense.

  “How long ago did you say you took these?” she asked, staring intently at the last photo in the bunch.

  “About half an hour ago,” Alli reiterated.

  “Wait here, please,” she said firmly and took Allison’s phone out of the room.

  A few moments later, she returned and thanked both Allison and Juanita for their help.

  “I want you ladies to stay in a hotel tonight, just in case you were spotted at the warehouse. I just called for backup and we’re going to go investigate that place immediately. I’ll need to borrow your cellphone overnight so I can make copies of these photos for evidence.”

  Allison and Juanita agreed to stay in a hotel for the night and thanked her for the prompt attention.

  ***

  The next morning, Allison and Juanita were both awakened by a knock on their hotel room door. Looking through the peephole, Juanita saw that it was Officer Holt. She quickly opened the door and invited her into the room.

  “Good morning, ladies. Sorry to wake you so early, but I needed to return this cell phone to you. That said, I want to be the first to give you the good news.”

  “What good news?” Allison asked curiously.

  “The person who was chained in the basement of the warehouse was a man named Andrew Gusslin. We uncovered a big conspiracy last night, thanks to you courageous young ladies. It was one of the biggest cases of my entire career.”

  Officer Holt explained that Elaine and Walt Fanning were involved in a conspiracy to commit murder, and they had kidnapped and held Andrew Gusslin hostage with illegal drugs, because they were planning to frame him for the crimes.

  The plan the police uncovered included Elaine and Walt’s intention to kill Juanita and to make it look like Gusslin had done it. They wanted to obtain Juanita’s store and merge the business with Walt’s. Walt was going to sell the two stores to a black-market mob boss for $950,000 and split the profit with Elaine. They uncovered the van that had hit Allison, as well as the car that struck Juanita, in one of the old garages at the warehouse. Both vehicles were being swept for DNA and other evidence. Andrew Gusslin is currently being treated in a hospital and is under 24-hour police witness protection. Elaine and Walt were both back in jail, and this time, they were being held without bail until their trials.

  Juanita and Allison were overjoyed! They hugged and cried and kissed one another repeatedly. They hugged Officer Holt and thanked her for her great work. Finally, the two women could be together and put the past safely behind them.

  ~ One Month Later ~

  Late one evening, and despite Allison still healing from her injuries, they were able to make deep passionate love. Afterwards, they laid in bed, making idle conversation when suddenly there was an awkward quietness. They seemed to be having a silent conversation as they stared into each other’s eyes. When Allison finally looked away, a slow desolate tear ran from her eye and dripped onto her breast. Juanita sensed desperation as her hand encircled hers. Her soft hand was warm and reassuring.

  “Hey, Ali… Are you okay?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing,” Replied Alison, not really meaning it.

  "Allison, I feel you are holding back," Juanita whispered, her expression utterly serious. "I know we’ve been through hell and back, but you clearly want to talk about something. So, whatever it is, just come out and
say it."

  "It's nothing, it's just that our relationship is getting very serious," She paused, silently staring into her forest green eyes.

  “Is that a problem for us?” Replied Juanita.

  "No, its just that I want so much more..."

  "You really mean that?" Her lips turned up into a tiny smile.

  "Yes, I do." Allison whispered, as she grabbed her by the waist. She pulled her close against her chest and captured her lips in a kiss, then abruptly pulled away. “Just think about something for a moment. Were we ever strangers? That first day I saw you, there was something even then, although I didn't know exactly what. Falling in love with you was not planned, but our stars aligned, and a great force pulled us together. The night of your accident, I will never forget the way your head rested on my hands. Holding your face gave me a sense of belonging to you. I’m still falling in love and the feeling keeps getting deeper, more complete, more bewitching. There isn't a thing I wouldn't do to keep you safe. The more love I give you, the more I have bursting inside of me... crazy, huh? It seems like the more love we share, the more it multiplies. What I’m trying to say is, I want to marry you! What do you say to that?

  “Yes,” Juanita replied, cupping Allison’s cheek so she could stare into her beautiful eyes. “I would love to marry you!”

  ***

  Allison eventually recovered from her injuries and went back to work, doing the work she loved as a professional nurse at the hospital. Juanita was able to keep her store and with her strong sales and business skills, started doing financially better than ever before.

  Eventually Allison and Juanita married in a small intimate ceremony and continued enjoying a harmonious life together. Whenever they hit a rough spot in their marriage, Juanita would quote these same brilliant words of wisdom to Allison:

  ‘Every rock in the sunshine is warm, and with a partner like you, life is always summer.’

  ~The End~

  Return to Table of Contents

  Return to Table of Contents

  The CEO’s Assistant

  A Taboo Lesbian Romance

  By: Laurie Ames

  Prelude

  Sylvia was about to graduate with a degree in fashion. She had gotten good grades and had impeccable skills when it came to sewing, textiles and fashion design. But graduation means finding a job and moving into the adult world - a world without any clear instruction of the kind you are given in the school system. She began applying for jobs and trying to seek out the best fit for her skills and predilections. She had been working part time as a personal assistant, and eagerly put this experience on her resume. She was worried about having so little content on her resume, but she was very confident in her abilities.

  As she searched through job listing after job listing, she finally found one that looked perfect, but it was for an assistant position to the owner of a company that would include a lot of managerial tasks and responsibilities. She was worried that her lack of experience and youth might put her out of the running for a position like this, but she submitted her application and sure enough, two weeks later she got a call back.

  Chapter 1

  “So, I see you don’t have any real work experience in this field other than your college degree, is that correct?” Natasha asked as she watched Sylvia vaguely fidgeting from side to side in her chair. She looked slightly edgy as people often are during job interviews, but Natasha was impressed because her facial expression was hiding it well. If Natasha hadn’t already done this with about thirty other applicants, she would not have noticed Sylvia’s nervousness.

  The applicant was thin, sat up straight, and had a surprisingly tall frame. With mousy brown hair and little freckles across her nose, she looked slightly sweet, and that drew Natasha to her. She wanted someone who would be sympathetic and caring since the position would involve managing employees.

  “Yes, that is correct, but while I was in college, we did a lot of hands-on work and were required to do a small unpaid internship, so I did some work with the professors. Also, while I was in school, I had a job for a while working as a personal assistant for a woman that owned a small-town boutique. It was a very cute little boutique, but I feel I learned a lot about time management, multi-tasking, and working well as a team player. I think that job combined with my experience in school would make me a great fit for this job since I have both the personal assistant skills and the fashion training.”

  She felt like she was rambling, and of course she was, but isn’t that what you’re supposed to do in job interviews? Interviews always made her uncomfortable and this was her third this week. The other two had been alright, but she was not excited about those jobs or the people she was interviewed by, they just didn’t feel right. But when she found the ad for this job, she dropped everything so that she could immediately concentrate on her application. It felt like this job would be perfect, and with so much at stake, she was a good deal more nervous about this interview than the others. She now thought of the other interviews as practice for this job, which felt more like the Holy Grail of all jobs to her.

  It didn’t help her nerves that Natasha was extremely cool and somewhat bewitching, which happened to make her heart skip a little. She felt both captivated and intimidated by her potential new boss. Natasha was dressed impeccably, sleek and stylish, and was extremely attractive. She held herself with an air of self-respect and confidence.

  She was the owner and CEO of the successful fashion design company that was hiring for the assistant manager’s position. The business had been growing rapidly and she felt it was necessary to hire someone to manage employees and help with the promotion and launch of an upcoming summer clothing line. She wanted someone who would work well with others and who had a style that went well with that of her company. It felt like there was something good about this one.

  Natasha picked up Sylvia’s portfolio and began fingering through it as they sat across the desk from each other. The girl had talent. There was something that she liked about Sylvia’s individual style. She had yet to put her finger on it, but she knew it would work well with what she had in mind for the new summer clothing line, that being one of the main reasons why she was hiring an assistant. It was important to have someone whose style went with the overall feel of the line that she had created.

  “You know,” Natasha said, after a moment of silence that was long enough to make Sylvia begin to sweat, cross and uncross her legs.

  “I like your work. I like your style… a lot! I think that it would work well with what I have in mind.”

  She went on to talk in more detail about the job description and what Sylvia would be doing on a day to day basis, if hired. Natasha ended - after much nodding and agreement from Sylvia - by asking what Sylvia thought of all this, if she thought it would be a good fit.

  “Yes, that’s pretty much what I expected, but it was good to hear you go through that list,” Sylvia said, “I definitely feel that this position would be a good fit for me and I am prepared for everything that you talked about. I am willing to devote a lot of time and energy to this job. It feels really important to me.”

  Sylvia took a deep breath, waiting to hear Natasha’s answer. She liked that this was a senior position since she was planning on making a name for herself in the industry.

  “That’s good!” Natasha exclaimed, smiling as she glanced back down at Sylvia’s portfolio and resume, “I have your email and phone number here. How about I give you a call later this week? Honestly, out of all the people I’ve interviewed, I have to say you are my favorite so far. I think for now that you are my top candidate. However, I still have a few more interviews lined up for this week, so I’m going to meet those people and get back to you. But I can tell you; I can see us working very well together.”

  “Thank you. That sounds great! Feel free to call me any time! I would really love to work with you, as well. It just seems like such a great fit,” Sylvia said excitedly. She wanted to hit herself in the h
ead for rambling like she was but was so excited that she couldn’t help it.

  “Alright, thank you for your time,” Natasha said, calmly smiling at Sylvia’s clear enthusiasm. She admired the quirky yet composed manner in which Sylvia held herself and the way that she smiled. After all, she had really seen some disastrous candidates. She seemed so fresh, so young, and her energy inspired Natasha. It wasn’t that Natasha was vastly older. She had been in the business over five years now, but it had felt much longer because the work was so exhausting. It would be refreshing to have a young face involved with her business, especially in such a vital position. She felt that it would help with the attitude and style of the company.

  “Thank you so much!” Sylvia said as she clumsily left the office. As she closed the door behind her, she proceeded to shadowbox the air in victory. She felt like she had a decent chance of getting this job, and it felt perfect in every way.

  Natasha smiled to herself as the door closed. She liked Sylvia, and she felt that Sylvia represented a genuinely good fit. She had a quality about her that felt unique and inspiring. She was fresh to the industry with lots of good training from a school that was well known for giving their students valuable work experience.