The Last Thorn

4. The Meeting

“It seems like you weren’t expecting me, people,” a strong, but a rather high voice chirps as a woman comes through the door. This woman comes to the desk and sits right at the center of the large wooden desk. She is wearing a white pantsuit and high heels which look both expensive and impossible to walk into. However, it seems like it makes no problem for her. She walks fast, but it looks as elegantly as a ballerina on the stage.

Florence feels both hot and cold right at the moment she first lays her eyes on her. She’s mesmerized by the woman. Her facial features are delicate, but her face radiates power. Florence imagines how it would feel if she could trace that small nose and could touch those sensual, full lips while smelling bleach blond hair of hers. “I bet she smells as nice as she looks like, ” Florence thinks while saliva fills her mouth, not paying much attention to things people are saying. All those things she’d like to do with her now.

Suddenly she wakes up from her daydreaming when she hears Amanda asking, “Florence, could you PLEASE enlighten us about that idea of yours?” Her face is stiff, but she’s put a well trained smile on her face. However, if you’d pay a closer look, you’d see she’s everything, but happy right now.

How can that little brat dare to come here at the monthly meeting? She’s just wasting our time. She’s been working here for barely 3 months for crying out loud!

Florence straightens herself up and exhales. She tries to recollect herself. As she raises her hand to push the start button of her presentation, she notices that her hand is shaking slightly. She puts her hand with a remote right back on the desk while she’s standing and makes sure nobody sees that. She knows she can’t mess this up. In order to keep herself relatively calm, she just looks at Marcus and couple others who are looking at her rather welcoming. Florence soon gains back her confidence, so the presentation ends pretty well.

Marcus chimes in to help her fill some minor missing details, so everyone could see the potential of the new strategy. It seems like you could boil water with the steam that comes from inside Amanda. However, she’s the one who gets multiple tasks regarding Florence’s idea. She types everything in her laptop really fast.

However, when the next issue is brought up, she’s got time off from typing and she repeats how satisfied and complacent Florence looked when everyone was praising her views. Amanda’s hand becomes pale as little crystals of her perfectly manicured fingernails dig into her palms. However, she can’t let anyone see her weakness. Her job is everything to her.

It’s only after Florence sits down when she dares to look back at the woman sitting right at the center of the desk. However, she regrets it right away. She meets her eyes right away. It seems like the woman is observing Florence like a hunter watching its’ prey. Her perfect smokey eye makeup only accentuate the depth of her light brown eyes, making Florence’s heart skip a beat. Florence feels like she’s sinking in those eyes.

The meeting goes on and soon the woman focuses at the rest of the crowd and lets Florence go. The girl catches her breath. Has she forgotten to breath?

However, Florence can’t figure out where is her boss Alex. Is the woman his wife? Or maybe a board member who’s replacing him while he’s absent? She can’t bear her curiosity until the end of the meeting to find this out. She waits for the moment when it seems like the lady and everybody around her is too busy with something else, so she slightly bends nearer to Marcus who seems rather pleased with a situation. Florence shivers in disgust, but she’s got a mission to accomplish. However, she doesn’t notice that someone is looking at them right at that moment.

“Marcus, please don’t make fun of me,” she whispers quietly, “but who is that woman?”

Marcus’ eyebrows narrow. He’s obviously confused, “What? Are you talking about..?” he turns to the woman unconsciously and  stops whispering right when he meets Alex’s gaze. She’s slightly raised her eyebrows and tilted her head while looking at them intently. It’s more than enough to stop Marcus in his tracks and to low his head, seemingly embarrassed.

Florence isn’t happy, but it’ll have to do for now. He can tell her after the meeting.

Amanda stands up taking a short but theatrical pause. “So that’s it for today, Alex,” she says while looking at the mystery woman. “I’ll email the synopsis of the main points discussed to everyone as always. Is there anything you’d like to add, boss?”

So Alex is the Boss. Of course Florence’s heard the name, but she feels so dumb and slightly ashamed for thinking that Alex Benson is a man. Everything makes sense now.

“Well, everybody knows their plans for the month.” Alex states, not even asks. However, you don’t expect to give an negative answer to a person who’s got an attitude like this. You just make everything done. It’s obvious to everyone, that they should’ve everything clear, no questions asked. There is some incoherent mumbling and they shake their heads that everything’s clear. It’s obvious that nobody wants to piss the boss off.

The meeting is over. People are are eager to get away from intimidating presence of their boss, so they thank everybody politely and get to the stairs. They’re not going to use an elevator, because Alex gets annoyed if she has to wait for an elevator in her own building.

As Florence and Marcus are at the door, Alex shouts after them, “Marcus, dear, please don’t tell me that you’re not going to introduce me to your colleague?”

“Well of course not,” Marcus coughs uncomfortably, “This is Florence. She’s been a real help around the office.”

“So, Florence,” Alex says slowly while observing her from head to toe. She becomes quiet. Florence follows Alex’s gaze and realizes she forgot to wear her decent shoes before. Alex looks at her worn out Oxford’s and she feels a wave of shame rinsing all her being.

“Amanda, please tell Kayla about Miss..” Alex questioningly says as she turns to Florence and Marcus. He quickly replies, “Miss Williams. She’s Florence Williams.”

“Right. Please tell Kayla review Miss Williams’ salary. You know, so she could represent our company more… decently.” Amanda unwillingly types everything in her phone and goes away. She knows better than asking Alex for more details- she’ll figure it out later on. She knows they’re done here, so she rushes back to her office to catch up.

Meantime Florence and Marcus just stand in front of her. They don’t dare to do move without her orders. There’s just three of them in the room left. Alex doesn’t seem bothered. Couple of seconds pass by. There’s a complete silence in the room.

Alex slightly shakes her hear and closes her eyes. Her luscious eyebrows stroke her cheekbones sensually. When she opens her eyes, she seems irritated. “That’s all,” she says as she takes her blazer from the chair and goes to an elevator. Her bleach blond hair strands are so light that they bounce by every staccato step she makes.

As they hear the door close, it seems like they're students going out of the principal's office. Marcus coughs and chuckles, “Well, I guess you at least got yourself a promotion, right?”

“Right..” Florence says, not sure how to feel about this morning.