Authors: Jackie Coupe
Just as Sky went to the door she turned to look at Karen again, “I’m glad you’re here. I enjoyed it too” she came back to Karen and planted a rather chaste kiss on the corner of her mouth. Then she was gone.
Do you think your eyebrow could get any higher?
It wasn’t on the cards when she woke up today that she was going to spend a sinful hour in the back room with a pretty little girl.
“I love LA!” she raised both arms in a victory gesture.
For the duration of the hour she hadn’t thought about Sarah Steiger. Skylar had been that good.
Be careful. Regular sex might make you happy now, but remember the long term plan.
Long term was out the window for the moment. She was thinking about shopping whilst she got washed up in the toilets. She was thinking about looking her damn sharpest when she took Miss Steiger out.
She invited you, dickhead.
That was even better!
Where was Rochelle? Easiest thing in the world, she’d send her an internal email.
Carolyn was sat behind Karen’s desk when she turned the corner.
“Hiya sweetie”
Be still my beating heart. No. Really.
“Hello, how are you?”
“Oh fine” she stood up to let Karen sit down.
“Just wondering when we get our time together”
Don’t think about dead kittens or week old tuna sandwiches left on radiators.
This had to be done. Simple as that.
“When do you fancy?”
“I’m free this weekend”
Ouch.
“I’d love to…”,
gargle broken glass,
“…but I have plans for Saturday. Some other time maybe”
Like never you frosty snatched day glow Queen?
“How about Friday then?”
How ‘bout your flaps dropping off you syphilitic old wheeze.
“Sounds great. What time do you want to be picked up?”
And dropped off the fucking bridge you freakish cooze.
“I’ll be ready at 8”
I’ll bring the garlic.
“I can’t wait”
Bet you can’t you dry fucking cunt.
“Me too!”
And she was gone. The afterglow warmth of her office interlude with Sky was now ruined. She would get to see Sarah sure. If Carolyn left anything of her behind after digestion, she’d heard black widows ate their mates after sex.
It wasn’t constructive and it wasn’t going to make the evening go any better or quicker. She had found the one person she had met she couldn’t for the life of her stand. And she was going to have to do the nasty to her.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
She emailed Rosh. The clothes shopping would still have to happen. Hopefully she wouldn’t be picking Carolyn pubes out of teeth all day while she was doing it.
Hold the fucking phone! No one, NO ONE, has said that’s a necessary performance piece. In fact. If you do go so far as to put your mouth near there I will personally insist we rinse with ‘tidy bowl’ when we get back. And that shits fatal.
Point taken. There wasn’t going to be anything south of the border that wasn’t of a perfunctory nature. That was it. She had made massive strides in personal expansion of late, what she didn’t want is to ruin the whole thing, ruin her mentality, by having a run in with a ‘she bitch’ in heat.
It would be name, rank and serial number.
Ask Rochelle what she’s like. Maybe she knows the quickest way to press the buttons.
What a quality idea! If she knew how to give Carolyn that special lovin’ it would be over lickity split. Then the receptionist with the eerie teeth would just be a glare in the rear view mirror. Once she was in the down line she had no way of getting her hands on her again.
She just had to make it good. Once.
And pretend its someone really hot. Or maybe make sure its dark. And definitely make sure you’ve been blessed by a Priest.
Her worst worry two months ago was that she would ever find anyone to sleep with, such was her fear of being found out for what she truly was. How different things had become.
Would you sooner go back to the way it was? How boring and lonely was that?
Her email jingle told her she had new mail.
Rochelle had got her message and they could make arrangements over a drink in the bar later. She mailed back her thanks. Her desk buzzer went.
“Come through please Karen” Sarah Steiger? How much more excitement could she put up with today.
She slapped her forehead, the flimsy for the documentation she’d taken earlier was on her desk, she picked it up.
Tap, tap.
“Come in”
Karen came in and closed the door.
“That for me?”
“Yeah, sorry.” she passed her the signed note.
“I’ll forgive you. This time. It doesn’t pay to keep me waiting for things, that’s something you’ll come to learn, I needed this when you got back.”
“I’m sorry” her face was going red. She willed it to stop. No soap.
“Don’t be sorry. Just don’t do it again” she didn’t sound angry. But Karen didn’t want Sarah to be mad at her. It would spoil her Saturday evening aspirations.
She turned to let herself out.
“Hang on”
This is where you get chewed out. Hope you liked your bum where it is because its all about to be re-arranged.
Sarah saw her look and smiled.
“I was just going to ask you, we still on for Saturday? I hear you’ve got an engagement?” and with a huge sigh of relief Karen said she would be able to meet her as planned.
“Ah. A gracious host? Well. To be brutally honest I have a Chain Rendezvous later on that evening that I’m not looking forward too.”
“Mines on Friday.” Karen said glumly.
“Carolyn huh?”
Karen came over and sat down. Her blush forgotten. This wasn’t shop talk any more.
“I’m making a move on the top ten. Its taken me two years to get this far. Work. Court. Studying. I can’t tell you who she is but she’s a real hard ass.”
It was passing strange that they were both feeling a little performance anxiety about the coming weekend, (pun not intended).
“I don’t like Carolyn” and there it was. All blurted out and ugly.
“She’s a peculiar creature that’s for sure. But stalwart and loyal. A member of the Chain for almost as long as its existence.”
“I know what I have to do”
Get bathed in the blood of the Christ child first.
Sarah disregarded what she’d said and went on, “I’ll be glad to see you first really. Can we meet say, 6 downstairs in the bar. It’ll give us time to talk. Is that better than 8?”
Every time it’s the ever lovin’ bar.
But what came out of her mouth was, “Of course Miss Steiger”
“You’re very formal when you’re serious, d’you realise that?”
You’re very pretty when you smile like that, you remind me of someone, a long lost someone.
Her mind raced at the thought.
“It’s a serious business” she said gravely, getting out of the chair to leave for the second time.
“Ok then.” she laughed. Karen had heard you should always leave ‘em laughing and she left the office.
So boss lady was making a bid on the top ten? The top ten that were so secret they weren’t on any lists.
Who writes the lists? Who knows who these people are?
It was for cleverer people than her. Or at least, people higher up on the Chain.
Packing up time eventually rolled round and Rosh came round to her section and picked her up. She saw the look that passed between Karen and Carolyn, it wasn’t a match made in heaven, but heck, bitter medicine was best taken quickly. You had to get through the dogwood to get to the lavender.
“What you smilin’ at” Karen asked her.
“Stuff”
After a drink Rosh extracted the up and coming problem from Karen with a bit more clarity.
“Oh dear”
“Oh dear is right. I can’t stand her, I want to make the sign of the cross behind her back”
Rosh started laughing, the more miserable Karen looked, the funnier it was.
“Heartless bag. Did you?”
“Care, yeah. Course I did”
“How? How did you manage. Did she not turn you to stone”
“You talk funny!” she was giggling madly.
“That’s your bloody answer to everything eh, ‘I talk funny’. S’alright, when I’m not in work next week because my pink bits have been bitten off by the ‘Day Glow Viper Queen’, you’ll be sorry” They were both laughing then.
“It’ll be fine. Get drunk”
Like we hadn’t already considered that?
“Get her drunk you mean and put her to bed with a cucumber”
The bar was mostly deserted. The girls were laughing so loud that a man waiting for a cab in the lobby went and stood outside in the cold. If there was one thing he couldn’t stand, it was giggly girls.
“Your face looks a lot better now”
“Yeah”
“What do you think happened to Demi?”
What the hell are you doing???
She hadn’t really meant to ask but now was the time and they were in good spirits. What was the worst that could happen?
“You want to know the truth. I don’t know. I really, really don’t know” and she went quiet.
You fucking idiot.
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just…”
go make it worse a bit eh,
“Things have felt a bit weird to me since that night”
Rosh looked like she knew what she meant though.
“I tell myself not to think about it. She’s not here any more so she can’t jump on me and beat me up. That’s all I think about. I don’t think anything bad has happened to her though. She’s just not here” Rosh looked round the room.
Ah. That’s not all you think about if you’re worried who might be listening.
“Come on. Its Friday tomorrow and you’ve got a heavy night planned” and she smiled at her.
“Bag!”
“Just lie back and think of England”
“Lie back and think about having my tit stuck in a swinging door more like”
The tension snapped and they walked out arm in arm. When she had first met Rosh she had thought unkind things about her. About her intellectual capabilities and what office gophers were like personified. She regretted it now. Rosh had been open and companionable. Without her she would have been lost. She made a mental note to pick her a little present up. A thank you gift.
She hardly slept a wink that night. Every hour she woke and looked at the clock. If there was a way to avoid what was going to happen and still get on in the Chain she couldn’t think of it.
Bitter medicine.
Nothing else for it. Best foot forward. Have a few drinks. Bed the lady quickly. Think of Sarah.
The next day when the lift door opened with its usual
bong,
Carolyn was smiling her fullest, most glowing smile ever. Like she’d known Karen was on her way up. A worm of fear, and if truth be told, a worm of nausea filled her belly.
Smile fuckface. Yeah. So you want somma this. Yeah?
She smiled back.
“Morning”
“Good morning Karen. Take it you slept well?”
“Yes thanks”,
when do I eat the apple that makes me sleep for a hundred years you fucking witch?
“See you later” and she tinkled her fingers at her in a toodle-oo gesture.
Karen passed the corner then shot her a ’v’. What she wouldn’t give to find a cannabis seller in the office at this point. It had been years, but it might have helped make the evening go off a little smoother.
Wish in one hand and spit in the other.
She had to smile to herself, Rochelle kept coming by, bringing her tea, chocolate biscuits and dirty jokes. She had found some better tasting tea it seemed and this made Karen feel simple gratitude again for the girl.
She’d seen Sarah go past once and tried to focus on tomorrow night instead. Tried to think about how her poor boss was up against it tomorrow to get into the hallowed circles of the top ten. Carolyn also kept finding reasons to come by. It was like having broken glass shoved into her gums. Highly painful and irritating.
Home time rolled round with frightening speed. It was only a few hours away now. Carolyn had sent her the details of where to pick her up. It was the done thing for the lowest on the Chain to do everything for the senior. Laughable as it was but in this case it was exactly the situation.
“Hey” Rosh ran her home, as she was leaving the car Rochelle leaned over and put something in her hand. A pill.
“What’s this?” her country mouse instincts told her it was a drug of some kind.
“Take it. Or give it her. Its ecstasy, either way it should help”