Deceived - Part 1 New York (3 page)

“
Mr.
Collins, Baroness Von Lamberg is on her way for the 4:00 meeting,”
I heard Clare’s shrill voice shriek out over the
intercom.

“
Damn
intercom. Always intruding when you least want it,” Patrick growled
annoyed.

Opening my eyes I came
back to reality and an eternal ache was sparked by that one
indelible kiss.

My heart was beating with
excitement as I prepared the conference room for the meeting.
Finally, I get a chance to show everybody that I am more than just
a secretary. At last, a chance to use my degree for something more
than simply knowing how many pieces of sugar everyone takes in
their coffee. As I laid out copies of the proposal that Patrick had
prepared, he swiftly entered the room.

“
Chloe, let me give you a
quick briefing before the Baroness comes in,” he explained. “This
is just the proposal for promoting her charity; however, the real
goal today is to find an opportunity for a discussion about
representing her billion dollar retail empire. Remember, as I told
you earlier, she can be a little strange and quite demanding, so
this will not be a walk in the park, but we really need this
account- no matter what it takes.“ Leaning in, he whispered into my
ear, “Even if we have to seduce her.”

A quiver dissipated
throughout my body as he entered my space. I could feel the warmth
of his breath on my face. For a brief moment, I closed my eyes to
breath in the essence that was his and the memory of our passionate
kiss came flooding back into my mind at warp speed. I fought the
urge to keep my eyes closed and drink in the musky scent of his
cologne, longing to feel his skin against my face. With a little
flutter of my eyelashes, I forced myself to open my eyes and snap
out of it.

“
S-seduce her?” I stammered
dizzily.

He pulled back from me with
a little chuckle in his voice, “Yeah.“

Obviously he was teasing
me, but he had found the weak chink in my armor. One step into my
personal space and I was putty in his hands. He moved around to the
back of his desk, dropped down in his chair and leaned back
leisurely.

“
I know
she is impressed with our work here at Meyer and Meyer, and all she
needs is a little push to come over to our side for the retail
account,” he said with his boyish smile.
“But I really need your help Chloe. We have to present a
young fresh image and today we have one shot to get her attention
for the big account, however, I think we need to get her alone.
That won’t happen here, because she will be bringing her lawyer and
assistant with her. She never takes meetings without them. There’s
no way we can dazzle her with those moron goons around.”

“
I-I’d love to help
but how?” I said a little baffled.

“
Don’t look so startled,
honey”, he laughed gently.

“
It’s all just a good
innocent game of seductive business. I know exactly what to do, so
let me take care of the details. Just follow my lead,
okay?”

I blinked in bewilderment.
“Anything you say, Boss,” I spouted with mock servitude.

At exactly four o’clock
the Baroness entered the conference room like a queen with her two
escorts. She swooped in, flanked on her right by the personal
assistant and on her left by the lawyer. The assistant was a tall,
good looking young man with a slender build. He had a porcelain
complexion on chiseled features, set against dark auburn hair,
which was swept up with a handful of hair gel, into a modern
cosmopolitan hairstyle. I thought it was interesting that the
Baroness would not have a female assistant.
Humph
. Probably doesn’t like
competing for looks with a younger woman. The lawyer was a
very short round Italian-looking, little man, dressed impeccably
well. He looked like a younger Danny DeVito in an Armani
suit.

After the entourage was
seated, I looked over the Baroness in greater detail. She appeared
to be about thirty something, but was probably more like in her
early forties. She was captivating. Her long dark hair flowed
loosely to her shoulders in soft curls. The fashionable way in
which her hair swept back from her face, gave the impression that
she was standing in a constant breeze. Her eyes were smoky, and her
upper lip made the perfect heart shape of Cupid’s bow. A real
beauty for her age and likely intelligent too, considering all her
wealth from her retail business.

Damn!
Looks like there could be some competition for Patrick’s
attention here, but I couldn’t be concerned with that at the
moment. My mission was to dazzle everybody with my business acuity,
save the day, and make Patrick eternally indebted to me.

The meeting started as any
meeting would, with introductions all around the table. The minute
the Baroness’ assistant, Kurt, opened his mouth to speak, I knew we
didn’t sing from the same choir book, and the minute the Baroness
opened hers, I knew she was a......
BITCH!
She glared at me with
distaste and as the meeting unfurled, her mode of communication
showed that she was completely lacking an internal censor of her
perceptions.
I imagined that she
frequently thought of herself as sensitive, but in reality she only
had frankness, lacking any perceptiveness.
She came
across abrasive and
unreasonable, except to Patrick’s authority, or to whoever would
benefit her in the moment.

She looked at me like I
was a crumb she needed to flick off her shoe. A leftover morsel of
the last poor soul she had chewed up and spit out at lunch. I knew
in a New York minute that I wasn’t going to like this women one
bit.
Argh! This woman was getting under my
skin.

Patrick began to lay out
the details of the upcoming charity campaign. “After reviewing all
the details of your campaign Anna, Chloe and I have some fresh
ideas of how we can aggressively promote your charity to a wider
and younger audience. “

She rotated her body in
the chair to face him and spoke very distinctively. “Patrick, I
have every confidence that
you
have come up with some magnificent ideas which I
would love to discuss with you in further detail.” The word “love”
lingered on her tongue like a red hot cinnamon candy; her eyes
burning holes into Patrick.

Not once had she addressed
me so far during the meeting. She talked over me like I was
invisible and every time Patrick asked for my opinion on a matter;
a shadow of annoyance crossed her face. The Baroness directed her
comments exclusively to Patrick, or her two flunkies, but never to
me. I was getting steamed and looked towards Patrick for help. In a
brief moment I thought I saw a couple beads of sweat forming on the
edge of his hairline, but it was just my imagination and as usual
he was his calm collected self, measuring her with a cool
appraising look.

“
So Anna, I suggest we
sequester ourselves behind closed doors to go over the new ideas in
details,” he said.

“
That’s a brilliant idea.
Let’s talk further at dinner tonight, just you and me” she
insisted.

Was she flirting with him?
Worse yet, was he flirting with her? I figured Patrick was just
blowing smoke. He was a pretty good actor, persuading her with his
handsome face, and his steel-blue eyes. Even her assistant, Kurt,
and “Danny DeVito” felt the tension rising between the two of them.
Kurt pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows. The lawyer nervously
shuffled his papers. I shifted restlessly in my chair,
repositioning for the attack. I needed to intervene before I
was completely sidetracked. This she-devil had better check her
attitude at the door, because I was about to come out full
barrel.

Pushing back my chair and
raising to my feet I confidently began to deliver my
pitch.

“
Baroness Von Lamberg,
please allow me to show you the marketing strategy that I have
designed for your campaign that will increase your audience by at
least thirty-five percent. For example last month’s reach was
onl.....”

Before I had a chance to
finish my pitch, I was abruptly interrupted by the Baroness.
“Patrick, I need some real coffee, not this
liquid mud you call coffee. Send your girl out to Starbucks to get
me a decent cup.”

“
Sure, of course, whatever
you want Anna...,” he complied. “Chloe, please go and get some new
coffee for the Baroness.”

I hesitated for a split
second and blinked my eyes. I couldn’t believe my ears. She had
Patrick wrapped around her little finger and the direction of
things was heading south. Embarrassment siphoned the blood from my
face. I pursed my lips and couldn’t bear to look directly at
him.

“
Yes, of course Mr.
Collins.” I said talking to the tabletop. Without saying another
word I collected my papers, stood up and headed for the
door.

“
Darling, please make sure
they use soy milk and not real milk,” the Baroness said her last
words spoken to the back of the glass conference room
door.

Feeling demeaned and
betrayed, I charged off in the direction of the elevators not even
stopping at my desk. Staring straight ahead, eyes focused on the
elevator door, with one hand I flung my executive binder in the
near vicinity of my desk as I charged past it. Heads turned and
eyebrows rose as I plowed my way down the aisles of cubicles. I had
to get out of there. I needed to escape. I felt like the air was
being sucked out of my lungs. A knot formed in my throat and I
could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. I didn’t want to give
in to the emotions, the hurt and the humiliation, which would steep
like a noxious tea brewing in the pit of my stomach; a brew that
would later be condensed into a thick reduction sauce of anxiety
that I would taste for years to come. Most of all, I just didn’t
want anyone to see me cry. I wanted to be a thick-skinned
businesswoman but instead I felt like a scolded school child. Not
only was I humiliated by the way the Baroness demeaned me; I was
deeply hurt by how Patrick gave in to her demands and wouldn’t
stand up for me.

As an assistant, I learned
quickly to accept that I have to serve other people with a smile. I
have done so for six months now and I’ve come to expect a little
bit of everything. However, nobody prepared me for what it feels
like when someone whom I trusted, admired and adored, suddenly and
without warning or hesitation, pulled the rug out from under my
feet. I was crushed. My heart sunk into my chest until I thought it
would fall right out and hit the ground.

I had been walking in such
a daze that I didn’t even realize the direction in which I was
heading and before I knew it, I had spun around a corner, passed
the office elevators, ending right in front of the ladies restroom.
I fell in the door breathing hard from trying to hold back the
flood of emotions. I needed a place to hide and pull myself
together. I needed Elyse to solace me. I closed my eyes feeling
utterly miserable. I leaned on the countertop below the mirror with
both hands, waiting for my breathing to slow down, the taste of
saline seeping into the corners of my mouth. I wiped away my tears
with the back of my hand and hung my head down. Taking a shaky deep
breath I tipped my head back and exhaled slowly. If anyone was in
the restroom with me, I didn’t even care.

I caught my image in the
mirror; red faced and eyes starting to puff
. Oh fuck
,
I can’t go back to the meeting looking like this.

I blotted my face with a
cool moist paper towel. The cry baby I saw in the mirror was
not how I had envisioned myself in New York. As I stared at my
reflection, I felt something turn inside my mind, something began
to arise from the depths of my psyche. Slowly it arose, starting as
a simmer, and then rumbling to a boil until determination was
bursting from every pore of my being. There was no way in hell I
was going to buckle under the pressure of Patrick’s self-sufficing
need for a high priced client and let them see how they had gotten
the better of me.

If I ever wanted a
promotion or Patrick for that matter, I had better get my act
together and get back there before the Baroness coerced Patrick
into some fishy deal. My heart softened a little as I thought about
how naive Patrick was to her witchery. I doubted that he was even
aware of the slick pathos of persuasion that she was using on him.
He did imply that he would do anything to get her big account, even
“seduce” her. Suddenly, I felt like an idiot for getting so upset.
Cleary Patrick was just playing the Baroness. “
Follow my lead
” he had even
instructed me. If I was going to be a true competitive New Yorker,
I had better learn not to take things so damn personally.
I was such a Dorothy.

I gathered myself and
exited the building. Ten minutes later I grabbed a coffee at the
nearest Starbucks, made to perfection for even the most persnickety
coffee aficionado, and headed back to the meeting with a renewed
resolve. My luck notwithstanding, I arrived back at the meeting
just as they were wrapping thing up. No sooner had I placed the
coffee on the table when the Baroness took one sip and turned up
her nose.