A Promised Fate (9 page)

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.

“Hey, I’m home,” I called out to anyone who might be
interested, closed the garage door that led to the kitchen and
dropped my car keys in a little bowl on the counter top.

“Ava? Max?”

A loud crack of a baseball smacking off a bat pulled
my attention into the living room. The broadcasters offered a play
by play and I leaned in and shut off the TV. Quieting the
house.

They were curled up together on the sofa, both of
them sound asleep. A discarded children’s book was draped across
Ava’s chest and Max’s face was nestled into her neck. His body
snaked around her protruding bump and his leg hitched over both of
hers and sloped down off the sofa. My shoulders dropped in
disappointment. Although his bedtime had passed a long time ago, I
had a glimmer of hope that I would at least be able to spend a
little bit of time with Max before bed. Instead, I eased him into
my arms, careful not to wake him, and carried him up the steps,
down the hall and into his room.