by Writing Shark
Businestalks with beautiful Lena
Curious, you sit down on the chair Lena offers you. Her office is a glass box in the corner of her company, two sides wall, two sides glass. On the walls also hang plants and pictures of models, this time in Lena’s creations. Cassie’s friend radiates her calm aura again, she has everything under control. You have to make an effort not to be intimidated, you feel like you’re in a job interview. But you’re not one of those guys out there, no matter how bad it gets here, you have two reasons to persevere. One, you know you can come home to Cassie tonight and have a Netflix night with her, and two, you’re here because you want to be.
Yes, Cassie doesn’t talk much about her work, but she talks a lot about Lena. Not only do best friends tell each other everything, you and Cassie also share all your wishes, fears and hopes. Cassie is good to you and you are good to her. That’s something people can’t imagine and you can’t blame them. But you can blame Lena for wanting to break you and Cassie up, and you do. You’ve thought a lot about the girl, the young, successful, eager, beautiful woman with whom Cassie spends much of her free time and all of her work time. Lena is strong, shrewd, brave, beautiful as hell, and above all, ruthless. She’s a danger. Not to you, you have nothing besides Cassie that makes Lena dangerous to you. But for Cassie the young woman represents a danger that no one but you sees. Cassie wants to study fashion design. But she needs the money from the internship here. But neither she nor Jackson see the duality of the situation, Cassie is actually doing exactly what she wants. You, on the other hand, saw through the plan that Lena set up. Cassie has been working for Femware for two years now and should already have enough money to afford an apartment and if not, then a life in college. Jackson could support her, you could too of course. And Lena too. But she doesn’t. The woman has found a way to tie Cassie to herself and her company and give her money in the process. It’s clever and incredibly devious. Lena may look down on you, but you don’t hold it against her, having looked down on yourself most of your life. But she’s holding Cassie back, blocking her vision until she gets used to her current life and sees no reason to pursue her dream anymore. You won’t let that happen, and much of last night was spent trying to figure out how to help Cassie without breaking your rules about not controlling her. You haven’t found an answer yet but still you have to face the challenge now.
“How can I be of service to you Lena?” you want to know and put curiosity but also uncertainty in your voice. If this were about you, you wouldn’t have to play the nervous man, but this is about something bigger. Lena sits down across from you, all businesswoman, and looks at you with a certain amount of interest, just enough to gauge whether or not you should put your dog down.
“Does anything have to be given?” she asks lightly. “Maybe I just want to talk to you? Get to know you better? After all, you mean something to Cassie.” She smiles and rests her chin on her fingers.
“Come on,” you grin, “We already know each other. And you don’t think that much of me. What are you really about? All business.” You feel good and want to see how far you can get without your powers, but know you’ll use them sooner or later.
“Okay, no bulshit. I can work with that” Lena says and her voice gets colder. “I didn’t expect that from you.”
“What?” you want to know, leaning back in your chair. The table between you separates you, but also presents you with the opportunity to delve a tiny bit further into Lena’s life. Pictures of her and Cassie. She likes her. Maybe a bit too much? No. She sees Cassie as just an investment. And she wants to control her. “That I’m quick-witted? Not like those guys out there.” That was a little too much.
“The men who work for me here honor and respect me.”
“Of course they do” you mean, “What else can they do?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re really pretty Lena.” The young woman across from you snorts.
“Men…” She rolls her eyes.
“What, it’s not normal that we guys find you girls attractive and want to be around you?” You don’t really want to talk to Lena about feminism and the role of men, just waiting for you to, as you said, be around her long enough.
“As long as they don’t cross the line. Do I have to explain this to you Finn? I thought you only had Cassie’s best interests at heart.” That hurt but you had already expected such an attack.
“I did. Cassie is incredibly important to me.”
“That’s something Jackson should be saying, not you.” You just shrug and put on a knowing smile that Lena immediately jumps at. “I don’t like you Finn. You’re dangerous to Cassie.”
“Am I? Why?”
“Because you think she’d like you the way you like her.” Now you know what Lena has been getting at about you and your feelings for Cassie. It seems she opens up to you because of your powers. How can I be at your service says you can trust me.
“I’ve always left it up to Cassie to decide how she feels about me and what kind of life she wants to have around me and with me. You haven’t.”
“I only want what’s best for Cassie,” Lena counters icily.
“For someone who sees an enemy in every man, I don’t know if you should be in charge of a man’s life. We men are not all monsters, just as you women are not all saints. We are all human beings and we don’t belong to just one group. We are individuals.”
“Spare me that,” Lena waves off boredly. “I’m Cassie’s best friend and I know what’s good for her. She doesn’t need a man in her life. Someone as talented as her shouldn’t hold herself back with that kind of baggage. You saw her work today. Or are you saying she has no talent?” You shake your head. “Cassie doesn’t know what’s good for her Finn. And that’s where I come in. She’s always talking about moving on, changing. But what she needs is no one else. She has the talent to become something really big.”
“And she can only do that with you by her side,” you say, biting your tongue. Cassie wants to change. Lena has no idea how happy she’s made you with that. Cassie wants to change her life. Now you just have to figure out how. But one thing you already know, she wants to learn, grow, and then arrive. Lena wants the same for Cassie as you do, but she wants to take the last step before the first two. That’s not how the world works, though.
“That’s right,” Lena confirms her plan to you. Could it be your skills? After all, you told her to communicate to you. Either way, now you’re smarter…and sadder.
“Cassie likes you, Lena. Do you really want to control her life like that?”
“For Cassie, yes.” Ice cold. Lena is what you could become and you now know who the enemy is. “Cassie’s better off with me looking out for her.”
“We can both take care of Cassie,” you say. Maybe that will help Lena understand. A shake of her head tells you otherwise.
“I know she wants to study, but that wouldn’t do her any good. With me she has it better. Together with me Cassandra (rare that someone uses Cassie’s full name) achieve what she has always dreamed of. Is she not achieving her goals in the way she had imagined? Maybe not. But it doesn’t matter. The goal is the most important thing.”
“The journey is more important,” you just say. “Cassie is strong as hell and I don’t think she needs me. She can accomplish anything she sets her mind to. But it’s important that she doesn’t lose herself along the way. Or worse, get stuck in a job where she can’t get ahead.”
“Because I’m stopping her?” Now you bite your tongue to keep from giving yourself away. You can’t say too much.
“Forget what I said.” You know that won’t work, but maybe your power will help you shut Lena up anyway.
“Tell you what Lynchwood,” the young businesswoman finally says. “We both know we like Cassie. You because you think she’s in your league, and me because I want to bring her into mine.” Lena just accused you of dragging Cassie down while admitting she’s above her. You, for your part, know that you’ve given enough thought to whether you’re doing Cassie any good, you have a lifetime to prove it. Your mind is made up: Lena must be eliminated. Outwardly you show no emotion and wait for her proposal. “You seem like a nice little boy. You remind me of some of my co-workers. You work hard and have a good, soft, loving heart.” She’s trying to sound nice but you saw right through her. The fact that she’s leaning over now and you can see into her cleavage doesn’t help either. Damn, she looks fantastic. But that’s not very feminist. I’m sorry, Lena.
“Thanks” you just say and look into the gap between her firm breasts, salivating at the easily manipulated boy.
“I appreciate you caring so much about Cassie. And I admit that I may have…overreacted a bit.” You raise your eyebrows, genuinely surprised. Did your power work after all? Or did it work differently than you had planned? “You don’t really care about Cassie, do you?” Never mind.
“What do you mean?” You have to pull yourself together to keep from turning white with rage. Your whole life revolves around this girl.
“Cassie is your longtime friend right? You guys have known each other forever?” You just nod your head. “And the fact that she wants to marry Jackson worries you I suppose.”
“I brought them together,” you say, and you don’t have to pretend that hurts you.
“See. You want what’s best for Cassie, just like I do. I respect that. And I think we can build on that.” You look at the pretty young woman who could be a model for her company herself. “I know a lot of my models.” Shit! That bitch! “They’re nice girls. We both know Cassie would do better by my side than if you kept up her skirt.” Lena takes the final swing. “How about I hook you up with some of my models? They like young, open-minded and nice men like you.” By young, open-minded and nice, she means naive, controllable and toothless. She really thinks you are like the men she has met so far. She knows nothing about you and therefore nothing about the friendships Cassie has. And you want to run her life?! Your head is working feverishly. You want to get up and run out of the room fast. Everything here is pure poison for you… and also for Cassie. But you can’t do that to your dream girl.
“That… You could…” Something worms you as you glance unplanned to the pictures on the wall, and so you don’t see the triumphant grin on Lena’s face, but know it’s there.
“I could do that. I can also help you set up a date for one of the ladies if you like. I know what they like.” She smiles kindly, already disemboweling you in her mind. Now comes the hardest task of your life. You’ve had plenty of practice hiding your feelings for and from Cassie but now you have to pretend to betray her. Luckily, Lena misinterprets your hesitation. “You could leave right now. I’ll give you the address of the model agency where we get our ladies for our catalogs. There are some really hot ones there.” She winks at you, feeling superior and even showing nice tempers. You feel sick but decide to take advantage of it.
“I… I can take a… look at the ladies…” you mumble. Lena thinks because you are horny, you know, because you hope not to betray Cassie with this. You’re doing this for her, even if you don’t have a plan yet what you’re going to do.
“Excellent!” exclaims Lena, getting up from her seat elatedly. You do as she does, hesitantly. “I’ll have a cab come for you and tell Cassandra you’re meeting tonight.” You just nod. I’m doing this for you, Cassie. Lena Smith leads you out of her office and even out to the elevator. On the way there, she has the overweight young man hail a cab for you. You look at the footman, with what eagerness he moves what must be two hundred and forty pounds, and how his eyes sparkle when Lena looks at him. Such a waste. Then you get the idea and you have your plan. “And don’t forget” says the boss and even pushes the button in the elevator for you. As she does so, she leans into the cabin and her costume slides up so far you can see the outline of her back and hips. “Just talk to the ladies, say I’m sending you to take new pictures or something. Pick a girl and I’ll help you get her ready.” You nod.
“Okay.” And now you’re just playing the nervous boy.
“This is best for all of us” Lena says.
“Best for Cassie,” you correct, looking her straight in the eye.
“Exactly.” Then the elevator doors close.
Writing Shark 