Karma 6

Just my fucking luck!

When I need her she is nowhere.

“You know there is a name for someone who follows you around and it isn’t cute,” I tell Cassandra when I find her outside the bar I usually stop by each morning. She is dressed in the most ridiculous and obnoxious dress I have ever seen. It balloons on her upper body but more of a pencil on her hips which makes her walk funnily.

She rolls her eyes as she steps in front of me, “You aren’t taking this seriously.” She states. I watch her as she runs her hand on her hair.

“I don’t remember having a choice,” I answer.

“You have a choice of how this ends.” Her words are laced with threat. Her eyes dart around our vicinity.

Her desperation to do anything just to punish and be with her husband is appalling and not my line of work.

I let out a desperate laugh, “Yeah.” I concur with her. I have had my share of dealing with her kind, manipulative and controlling. You only beat them by making them think they are winning.

“My husband needs your credentials and referees for reference.” She folds her arms.

“I don’t have any of that. Now get out of my way.” I try to circle her and I  succeed.

“Not even high school?” Her tone is discerning as she asks.

“Nope!” I give her a close-ended reply, I have no plans of discussing my life with her. She coerced me into this let her deal with it.

She lets out an exasperated and defeated sigh.

Serves her right!

I hear her lips smack together before she speaks, “You have a lot to learn before you start your day.” She starts to walk toward her car and I do the same towards the bar.

“And I need my drink,” I say.

“We will be late.” She says.

I huff without care and continue to walk. I hear her footstep behind me and a smile creeps on my lips. 

I always win.

She blackmailed the wrong person.

*********

“I am only going to do this once,” Cassandra informs me as she settles on her husband’s office chair. It is the first time I notice that his office is bear of any pictures or decorations. The walls are grey. One would expect to find a family photo of his child but that is not the case. I find it odd based on how they portray their relationship to the public.

I sit opposite her as I watch her assess me.  Her eyes move away from me when her assistant walks in.  She dressed in a black lacy corset top with a white dress pantsuit. Damn, I envy her taste in clothes.  On her right hand, she has a coffee cup and on the other, she has a folder. She strides her long as she paces inside the office. She hands over the coffee to Cassandra. She exhales and turns to me. Her heavy-lidded eyes intimidate me as she stares at me, she shakes her head and walks towards me and she opens her file. There is something about her that I can’t put a finger at. 

Maybe it is because I don’t know her name, Maybe.

“Listen and listen good, I will go over what it entails to be a personal assistant just this one time.” She licks her lips. She has the most natural plump lips I have ever come across. I get lost in them and all I want is to experiment with them with my homemade lipsticks. 

I shake my head in disbelief, “I don’t need all that, I am not planning to make a career out of this.” I answer as I narrow my eyes at Cassandra who is now sipping her coffee like a queen.

She ignores me and nods at her assistant.

“You are your boss’s shadow, you accompany him to all official meetings, Don’t wait for your boss to ask you to do something take initiative don’t wing it…

“What is your name?” I find myself asking and cutting into her dialogue, it just bothers me. I always believe a name should precede anything else.

Her eyes flutter severally and her bob-cut hair moves around her shoulders as she shakes her head in utter confusion.

She firms her lips contemplatively before she answers me, “It is Janine and if that isn’t enough it is Janine Pascal.”  She rolls her eye. ” Where was I?” She mumbles to herself then resumes, “…..don’t offer your time freely other than your boss….”

I jump in again, “And who is my boss, Cassandra?” I ask Cassandra.

Janine shuts her eyes momentarily and breaths out frustrated.

“Janine please continue.” Cassandra doesn’t afford me any glance.

Janine continues, “Always be busy, separate personal and professional life, and the key as an assistant is discretion.” She puts her file on top of the desk it has all of Mr. Thornes’s schedules and activities. “That’s all,” she adds.

I pick the file and skim through it, definitely not what I would sign up for.

“Cassie you have a doctor’s appointment at ten, we should be on our way,”  Janine says and I find her and Cassie a bit too familiar for a boss and assistant. She starts to walk out just as Mr. Thorne walks in, she says hello to him and leaves.

Mr. Thone stops as his eyes widen when he sees us but he is quick to wipe it off.

Suddenly, Cassandra jumps up like she has been stung on her ass. She stands fidgeting with her fingers, she tosses her long red hair aside severally. Mr. Thorne also stays rooted by the door. The air hangs around us tense. I stay seated and perplexed about what I am supposed to do. I would have expected Cassandra to run into her husband’s arms and Mr. Thorne to hold her based on the warm relationship they portray in the magazines.

“umm… ah.” She stutters like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Like everything I just witnessed was my imagination, her expression changes quickly as she rushes to her husband and he is caught off guard when she kisses him. He looks surprised and he never warms up to her. His hands hold her by her shoulders and gently pull her away. He mumbles something inaudible to her.

“Have you been drinking?” He asks her.  After she followed me inside the bar, I did tell her I would come with her if she drank with me.

She shakes her head. “No,” She is barely audible.

Liar!

I shouldn’t be here but I can’t bring myself to leave, somehow his cold nature towards his wife angers me.

Mr. Thorne steps away from her to his desk. His eyes never once looked at me.

“Did you bring your Credentials?” He is upfront, this time his gaze lands on me and it never leaves. I am never shy but his onyx greyish black eyes make it hard to maintain any eye contact with him.

I am about to speak before Cassandra cuts in, “She gave them to me.” She retrieves a brown A4 envelope from her Prada bag and walks to her husband’s side to hand it over. 

The only thing I have close to any credential is an acting certificate I got from a play at Elementary. So definitely those aren’t mine…Unless… oh no, THEY ARE FAKE.

Why would she do that?

Mr. Thorne keenly now goes over each of them. His eyebrows furrow and then release, he turns a page and frowns. My heart is beating too fast, this is where everything unravels and will know they are fake. It is illegal to fake school certificates and I will be arrested. Cassandra must have a death wish on me. I turn to her and give her a hard stare which she shrugs with a forced smile. 

“Okay.” He hands them back to me with a stony expression.

I bend my head as I pretend to be arranging them in the correct order while I feel his stare burning a hole through my skull.

His body sags back on his chair, ” I will go over the documents for verification together with your referee so don’t forget to photocopy some copies for me.” I get that as my cue to leave and do so.

Cassandra draws the blinds in Mr. Thornes’s office just as I settle on my desk. I go over the fake documents Cassandra made for me. They are the total opposite of who I am.  I would never graduate with such a high GPA even with Einstein as my tutor and I was neither a multi- lingua. The resume was too impressive, I wonder why Mr. Thorne looked disappointed, maybe he realized they were fake and he will just string me along until I break.

I feel like someone is watching me when I lift my head. I find Clara already at my desk. Like her petite isn’t invisible enough, her footsteps are soundproof.

“Did I see right? Cassandra kissed Mr. Thorne.” She furrows her crooked eyebrows.

Who does her make-up?

“They are married. It is not like they are fornicating.” I say and pretend to be busy on my phone. What is with this girl? First, she misinforms me, harasses me, and threatens my work. Now she wants me to breach the key principle of my work, discretion. She must be out to test and ruin me.

“You don’t understand, it is huge. Those two never act like they are married, ever. ” She tips her head at the closed office. “What did you do?” She asks just as the door to Mr. Thorne’s office opens and Cassandra steps outside.

Clara grabs one of my pens from the desk and dashes back to her cubicle.

Cassandra stops at my desk. I beat her before she speaks, “Why ask me about my education this morning if you had already had everything figured out?” 

“Before I act, I do my homework.” She answers.

“Uuh?” I breathe.

“Have you ever been at Achilles NightClub?” She asks.

I shake my head. It is a member-only club. I have always wondered how it looks inside but not that bad to want to get in.

She licks her lower lip and speaks, “Meet me there at eight in the evening.”

I don’t get to object as Mr. Thorne walks out with his briefcase. 

They exchange a weird glance. Cassandra casts me a final glance as she leaves.

Mr. Thorne stops briefly at my desk and speaks, “What are you waiting for?” He asks as he proceeds to walk away.

I grab the file Janine gave me and rush behind him.

“And don’t anger me again with your incompetence today.” He warns and I have a feeling I forgot something.

I pick a random diary and rush after Mr. Thorne.

Just when I think I have a hang of this job