Much love,
Selena
Val surveyed the room. Fifteen interns squeezed around the long table. Every chair was occupied. Not a single one of these kids exuded the boredom she felt. They watched her as if they were in the bear exhibit at the zoo.Will she come out of the cave? Will she attack?They thought they were as safe as if they were on the other side of the barricades. And they normally would be. The innocent ones no longer interested her. Except one.
Selena wore a smart new suit. Crisp. Probably purchased a month ago in anticipation of this day. She had a fresh-scrubbed glow about her. With her pen poised above a perfectly blank notepad, she clearly expected to leave this room with her mind expanded. As if it were so easy. It would take all summer to mold her brain the way Val planned.
She scanned the other interns, chess pieces on her board, sizing up their value to her. So far, the only one with the chutzpah to approach her sat at the far corner of the table.Anthony. He stood out in the way he sat. Leaning back in his chair, one foot crossed on his knee. Val raised an eyebrow at him, and he straightened up and put his forearms on the table. Now they were all a neat row of matching pawns.
The screen behind her came to life with the first of many PowerPoint slides. She could give this speech in her sleep, but she’d learned that the interns would try to write down her every word. The slides would at least help them get it right. The pens flew across the notebooks already, and she saw the wordsWelcome to Fleetwood Capitalin fifteen different sets of handwriting.
She sighed. “Good morning and welcome to Fleetwood. We’re so glad to have all of you here today. I trust you’ve settled into your new desks. If you have any remaining issues, please contact Rosamund Shirley. She’ll make sure you have everything you need. Now, for the next hour, I’ll be taking you through some basics about our company, who we are, what we stand for, how we stand in the market today, and of course what we are aiming to achieve.”
The door swung open, and Dane waltzed in. Fifteen intern heads swiveled away from Val and gawked at him. Anthony vacated his chair with alacrity, as though he feared someone else might beat him to it. He gestured for Dane to sit, but Dane’s lip curled up on one side in disdain, and he simply leaned against the back wall, languidly pushing a stir stick around his Styrofoam coffee cup. Dane never sat at meetings.These kids will learn.
Anthony sheepishly pulled his chair back and returned to his place at the table.
As Val waited for order to return, she let her gaze linger on Dane, draped against the wall in all his languorous beauty. She knew he’d spent a fortune to look like he did, but knowing it didn’t make her appreciate it less. Of course, she’d seen him before he’d learned to groom himself so handsomely. She’d taught him after all. But he’d been born with those dark sultry eyes and that decadent luscious mouth. Fully aware she was drinking in her fill, he puckered his lips like he might blow her a kiss.
She inhaled, searching for a hint of his scent. If it wouldn’t be considered unseemly, she might be tempted to cross the room and take him up on his implied offer.
Instead she turned her attention to the interns, now waiting for her lead.
“This company,” she continued, “was founded by Martin Fleetwood in 1957 with a specialization in mortgage trading.” Val clicked through the slides, expanding on the historical events that nobody wanted or needed to know. Martin Fleetwood had died years ago. Besides Rosamund Shirley, nobody currently here had ever worked under that scrupulous man. He’d roll over in his grave if he knew the stewardship had passed on to the likes of Dane Russ. And Val, though her reputation was spotless. The only stain on her record was her connection with Dane. But as the worshipful faces in the room could attest, she couldn’t be blamed for following him into exile.
The subject of the slides moved on to the current state of the company. “Have any of you researched the company’s stock position?”
Anthony raised his hand. “Yes, ma’am. Stocks are trading at thirty-eight as of this morning.”
Val glanced at Dane. “Are we up or down?”
Anthony opened his mouth, but Dane’s voice commanded the room’s attention. “The market’s hot, and our stock is rising.”
Val controlled her expression, but the corner of her mouth rose slightly. “What do you make of our throughput?”
Dane lifted his shoulders from the wall, engaged now. “I like our position with regard to market penetration.”
The interns had stopped taking notes, and their heads followed the volley as though they were spectators at a tennis match.
Val set up the shot. “And the projected yield?”
“Coming together.” Dane crumpled the Styrofoam and tossed it into the trash bin.
Val exhaled. “Our stockholders will be very satisfied.”
Dane reached in his pocket and produced a single cigarette. He toyed with it for a heartbeat before walking out the door.
Val bit the end of her pen.My most valuable chess piece moves in every direction.
Except into her bed.
No, she wouldn’t cede that game until she knew how they could both win.
With all the eyes back on Val, she proceeded to lecture them on expectations of ethics and compliance, chuckling to herself as they diligently took notes.
Dane tucked the cigarette back into the pack in his pocket and entered the stairwell. For the past week, he’d been keeping tabs on Noelle’s daily routine and was reasonably sure she’d take a coffee break within the next thirty minutes. There was no good reason for him to be using the kitchen on her floor of the building, but he’d spent three years cultivating an eccentric behavior pattern, and nobody was likely to question his decision to get his coffee from the third floor. Of course, he realized that this would likely permanently alter Noelle’s own morning routine if she thought she might run into him on her coffee break.
The kitchen was empty except for the elderly Rosamund Shirley. Rosamund was a short woman, as wide as she was tall. He’d overheard co-workers refer to her as Violet Bowling Ball. What they couldn’t know was that she was once a striking beauty who nearly brought the company to an end when she caught Martin Fleetwood’s eye. Their affair was brief but notorious at the time. Dane marveled that even someone as upstanding as Martin Fleetwood could be brought down by love. Or lust more accurately. He did right by Rosamund by allowing her to remain on as the head of human resources, but he repaired his marriage. And Rosamund repaired to the Old Country Buffet.
