Authors: Victoria Bolton
At the meeting, Bernie and the other three discussed their initial course of action for the first hour and felt satisfied with their plans. They went on to the next subject.
“Gentlemen, I’ve hired a new person. Due to the nature of her job, she will be considered top tier, one of us. Our square is becoming a pentagon. That sounds great, doesn’t it?” Bernie said. John and Jerome nodded and did not say anything. Ben looked over at them and back at Bernie.
“So what is this person doing with us? Is she recruiting the homemaker demographic?” Ben asked in a joking yet sarcastic tone.
“She is our new bookkeeper. She will help us with the numbers,” Bernie answered. Ben’s face changed from amused to concerned.
“But I do the numbers. You and I, we do the numbers. Things are fine the way they are. I don’t see any reason we need another body here,” Ben said.
Bernie explained that since Benjamin and the others were spending more time out on the field these days, they were no longer watching the books or keeping an eye out as closely as they had been before. Bernie referred to Ben by his full first name, Benjamin, when he became annoyed with him. Bernie added that he needed someone there to pick up phones, take messages, and make sure that everything was in order back at the office. Bernie made a point to note that their paperwork and bookkeeping were a mess. Their office had been bare bones since day one, and he felt that it was time to grow a little. When everyone left, the rooms were
locked. That left the place vulnerable to burglary and vandalism. Rivalries were becoming tenser between Chimera and other crime families, Bernie told his crew.
“So we are hiring Batgirl or some shit like that? How is she protecting the office?” Ben asked.
“Benjamin…we will move three of our workers to office security, and they will get training. She will be protected. I would not put a lady in danger,” Bernie answered.
“Is she hot? Like, is she a hot blonde?” Ben asked. He looked over at John and Jerome. “You two are too quiet. Usually we can’t shut you two up when it comes to chicks.”
Bernie interrupted him. “I’m approving the revised budget for this. I think all of our increased productivity supports it.”
The door buzzer rang, and they saw that Celia had arrived at Chimera, thirty minutes early. She wanted to make a good impression on her new employers. Jerome got up and checked out the new arrival from the window. He went to bring her in. As he greeted her at the door, he asked her, “Are you ready, family?”
Celia answered, “As ready as I’ll ever be.” When they both walked in, John said hi to her. Celia looked at him and nodded. Ben turned around and looked at her. He also said hi to her.
“I’ve seen you before,” Ben added. Jerome informed Ben that he had indeed met her before at the Playboy Club. “Oh,” Ben said, drawing out the word. He looked over at John. “John’s lady friend. Bringing your girlfriend here to visit?”
“Well, no…” Celia attempted to say before Bernie stepped in.
“A formal introduction is due. I know that some of you already know her, but this is Celia Jones, Chimera’s newest member. She will be here in the offices every day handling our books and some of the accounting. She is helping take some of the load off of me, which I appreciate very much. She will be a good fit for us. I am confident,” he said. Ben looked at her and then back at Bernie before turning to John in an annoyed way.
“Can we go somewhere and speak?” Ben asked Bernie.
“Sure, Benjamin,” Bernie answered. “Men, while I am speaking with Benjamin, you two can show her around the place. Security won’t start until next week, so I will be generous and pay her in advance for the week until they arrive. She can come in and get things in order before she starts.”
When Ben and Bernie went into the other office and closed the door, Ben began to pace and rub his hair back. “Bernie, is this some fucking joke?” he asked. “You hired a waitress to assist me at my job?”
“Benjamin, this has nothing to do with you or your job. You put in great work. I need the help. This is not for you. It’s for me,” Bernie told him. “I am taking a sabbatical from the paperwork and want to go out there in the field more. I have plans. If both of us are out there, who will watch the fort? We got a girl, some of us know her well, and she worked in an office environment before. She’s pleasant.”
“So you think John’s girlfriend, Jerome’s sister, cousin, or whatever, is the person for this job? No disrespect, and I am not questioning your judgment, for the most part, but I just don’t think she is a good fit for here. Where would a woman fit in here?” Ben asked. “No one discussed this with me. Don’t you think I should have some input on the matter? I’m the one who knows this like the back of my hand. That’s not fucking cool…Did they bring her here? You know they are taking over,” Ben said in an exasperated tone.
“Who is ‘they,’ and what exactly are they taking over?” Bernie asked as he leaned forward.
“Nothing. Forget it,” Ben answered.
“She will fit just fine, and you will train her,” Bernie said sternly. “She is here now, and you will show her what to do. It won’t take that much time.” Bernie stood up and left the room. Pissed off, Ben kicked one of the cabinets and knocked over the pile of papers that had been sitting on top of it. He left the office for the rest of the day without sitting with Celia.
Bunny walked into the office where Ben usually did the paperwork and bookkeeping. She anticipated him still being there but realized that he had left. She looked around at the unorganized mess. Papers were stacked a foot high in multiple areas of the room, even on top of the cabinet. She noticed some of the papers had fallen from it. She found three-ring binders full of papers with no tabs and no markings to identify what they were. Coffee cups lay everywhere. There was a chalkboard on the back wall behind the desk
with various writing on it, and books and more papers were stacked on the built-in bookshelves. Since Ben was nowhere to be seen, Jerome encouraged her to make herself at home and clean up if she must.
She sat down in the chair at the desk after Jerome left the room. The black leather chair had a permanent dent in the seat where Ben usually sat. She made a mental note to order herself a new chair. She opened the drawers and found more junk. She rummaged through the top drawers and found a bag of cannabis and rolling papers. Bunny was not into drugs of any kind, and she only drank alcohol socially. She looked further and found rubbers and cigarettes. She quickly closed the drawer and continued surveying the area. As she was attempting to tidy up the office, John came to the door.
“Welcome. This is where we work. Sorry about the mess. He’s a fucking pig,” John said.
“Thanks,” Bunny replied.
John closed the door so he could talk to her. “Look, I don’t want this to be uncomfortable for you, and I want to clear the air. I’m sorry. I never got the chance to say it,” he said. “I don’t want you to think that what went on between us was a farce. It wasn’t. I do care for you, and I don’t care about a lot of people.”
“It’s OK; I’m over it. Things happen for a reason,” she responded. “I just want to get started.”
“Are we still friends at least?” John asked as he extended his hand to her.
“OK, we are friends. Here’s to a brand-new start,” she responded. She stood up to shake his hand. Instead of shaking it, he kissed the back of it.
“See, I couldn’t do that at your old job,” he said and smiled. He walked out of the room. Although she was disappointed in John and the way their relationship had ended, she still found his swagger irresistible.
Control yourself
, she thought.
The next day, Bunny decided to go into the office to finish her initial cleanup. When she arrived, Ben was already there looking around at some of the progress she had made while straightening up the day before. He looked a bit disheveled smelled slightly of alcohol. “This place looks nice,” he said to her.
“Thank you. I wanted to wait until you were here, but the guys told me to go ahead and start. You had a lot of things here that seemed out of order,” she told him.
“Well, for your information, they were organized. My filing system is different from everyone else’s. To you this looks like chaos, but I can find and identify every single piece of paper in here,” he said.
“OK, well, we have to make this work since we are sharing this office,” she said. “I wanted to clean the drawers, but I saw you had some personal things in there,” she added.
“Well, thank you for your consideration,” he said with a bit of snark. He walked over by her and sat on top of the desk. “So what is the deal between you and John? Are you two still ‘dating’?” he asked while making the quotes sign to her. “Is that how you got this job?”
A bit offended by what he’d just asked, Celia snapped back. “I shouldn’t even answer those questions; they’re personal. But for your information, we are not a couple. We are just friends.”
“Well, yeah, because he has a wife at home, or were you aware of that? Oh, I’m sorry,” he said to her.
“I know about that, and once again, we are just friends. Can we discuss work matters now?” she responded.
“OK, fine. Just one more question. Why does he call you Bunny? Your name is Celia, right?” Ben asked.
“Yes, my real name is Celia. He calls me that because he thinks it’s nice, as an alias. I’m not offended,” she answered.
“Well, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, and excuse my language, but Bunny is the most stupid fucking thing I’ve heard for a name. I won’t call you that. I’ll call you by your real name, Celia is it? John must have made that up. He’s a prick. He thinks he can run everyone. Celia is a more decent name. I can’t have people know that I share an office with a colored girl named Bunny,” he said.
Ben’s mini rant took Celia aback. It seemed that he had a problem with John, and it dawned on her that he might also have a problem with sharing a position with her. “OK, well, you can call me whatever you like, but please keep it respectful,” she said, trying to lighten up the moment. She continued to clean up for the day. She had Ben tell her the basics of what she needed to do with the books and numbers. Despite his uneasiness, he knew that business was the most important thing, and he could not be held responsible for
some woman messing it up. She got the gist of what he told her. From then the transition into Chimera became smooth for her.
Over the course of the next few months, the office that had once housed Ben and his hurricane of mess became a neat and organized area, equipped with a brand-new desk and chair for Celia. It even smelled better. The mountains of paperwork now were organized, and each binder labeled according to Ben’s and Bernie’s specifications. She would need those papers neat and organized because she would be crunching numbers soon. She would view all the mail at the office, but not before her hired security inspected it. They knew of no immediate threats to them, but Bernie, John, and Jerome insisted that she stay safe, just in case someone wanted to send tainted mail to the office.
Many of the envelopes were junk and some contained bills, which she also took charge of overseeing. She became the office management behind the scenes, much to the delight of Bernie, whose focus shifted to making deals with some people in the area. Bernie’s initial questions about her turned to adoration as he came to see her as one of his kids, the same way he looked at the guys.
She would get flyers from the Jamaican tourism board, which advertised heavily in the New York area as an alternative to the snowy weather. The headline of the flyers read, “Jamaica’s more than a beach, it’s a country.” Celia had always wanted to travel, and she thought that since she was making decent money at Chimera, someday she would get
to go. Celia and Jerome had cousins in Jamaica, and she thought it would be nice to visit them one day. She took the advertisement and pinned it to the wall next to her desk as inspiration. Celia had received her week’s advance check when she first started, and it had been more than her weekly check from the Playboy Club plus tips. However, she did not receive another check until a month later. Bernie informed her that he distributed money on a monthly basis, and the amount depended on sales and fluctuation of markets and trends, so she had to budget wisely. This was why they all needed to hustle hard. They had not yet told her about the company’s other activities. They felt that for now those were outside of her jurisdiction.
Celia worked so many hours at the office, she had to put her plans for school on hold for the time being. She was not worried; the paycheck after the first month more than made up for it. For the first time in her life, she had received a four-digit paycheck. It would be enough that she would not have to move or even get a roommate once Rose left for good, which would be in a matter of days.
Celia would go out with the guys on the lunch outings. The lunches were different, as the four men decided to maintain the rule of discussing only the nonsensitive items in the public and around her, keeping the big issues to themselves. Although no one on the team was massively overweight, all of the men ate as if they skipped meals for days. Celia was a light and delicate eater. Her diet consisted of lots of fruits and vegetables, with baked chicken for protein. She mostly
loved to snack on berries and grapes, a habit that did not go unnoticed by John. She had eaten the same things whenever they dined out while they were dating. He asked her about this out of curiosity. She told him that those berries had vitamins, kept you young, and made sure your body functioned properly. She said they were delicious and suggested he eat some. It was something that the women in her family had taught her. John was not sure what she meant by that. He declined and told her that he only put that stuff on hotcakes.
Celia often found time in the office mundane. She spent most days alone as the guys went out and conducted their daily business. On occasion, she would be stuck with one of them on a slow day. Jerome and Bernie were always out. John and Ben were the two people of whom she spent the most time. Ben had slowly begun to warm up to Celia, occasionally saying something nice. At those times she figured either Ben was having a good day or his other activities had turned his attention elsewhere. She made sure not to make him feel like she was completely taking over, as she had sensed the tension from day one. Working at the Playboy Club had given her an understanding of the male ego, and she knew when it was appropriate to bruise it.