Chapter Four
Initiation Day One
Valerie woke to the sound of Francine screaming from the front room. Groaning at the pain that shot through her cramped muscles, she staggered through the dark into the living room of her apartment where her friend was thrashing on the hide-a-bed, deep in the throes of another nightmare. Fearful that she might hurt herself, Val grabbed Francine's body and held on until she woke up, receiving several impacts against her already sore back from the sleeping woman's fists.
Francine jerked awake after a minute in her friend's arms, sobbing uncontrollably. "Keep him away…Don't let him hurt me…Please."
Val whispered, "Was it Harv again?" When her friend nodded, Val tried to reassure her, "He's not here. He's not going to hurt you again. It's all right now."
Slowly, the sobs eased and Francine relaxed. Tears still flowed, but the intense crying that hurt as much as the original beating had faded. Fear was replaced by grief, grief at the loss of something she could not put into words. She had not told anyone, not even Valerie, but Francine was terrified that she would never be able to trust a man again. She had bared her soul to the man she thought loved her and had been brutally attacked because of it. She was getting through each day by raw willpower.
Valerie knew something was wrong deep in her friend's heart, but until Francine would open up about it, all she could do was to be there every time she cracked. She prayed that her friend would be able to face her demons in the light of day soon. In her dreams, the demons would always win. Val knew she had to allow her friend to open the shutters of her soul at her own pace though.
When Francine let go and lay back down, Val noticed blood seeping through the bandages on her feet. "I've got to change your dressings. I think your thrashing opened the scabs."
Val retrieved the dressings the ER nurse had sent with them and carefully pulled the old one off. Thankfully, they did not stick, leaving the scabs in place, doing the important work nature intended for them. She cleaned the feet with warm water, carefully drying them afterwards. Covering the cracks in the scabs with one of the non-stick pads, she wrapped new gauze and taped them into place.
It was only then that she realized that she was still naked. "I guess once you've submitted to someone, being naked in front of them is no big deal," she joked.
Francine looked up as Val was getting up to head to the kitchen and gasped. "Oh my God. What did I do to you?"
Turning back, Val, looking puzzled, said, "Well, if I remember correctly, you whipped my front and back quite thoroughly, dripped wax over every inch of my legs, belly, and tits, and forced me to lick your cunt."
"No, your back, there're bruises on it, deep round bruises."
"Oh. That must be from when you pounded on me in your nightmare. It was a really bad one this time."
"Oh, Valerie, I'm so sorry. I don't want to hurt you. You have to take me home tomorrow. I won't hurt my best friend."
Valerie stalked back to the bed and sat down. "Now you listen here, dear friend. You did
not
hurt me. I didn't even know they were there. I know that you would never hurt me, ever. Cause some pain in a scene, yes. Actually hurt me, never. I don't want to hear any more talk of you leaving. You're staying and that's final. Now I'm going to make some chamomile tea so we can both get back to sleep."
They sipped the tea, relaxing in each other's presence. The last of Francine's tension eased away and she fell asleep, hopefully to a more restful one. Valerie, seeing that she still had four hours of potential sleep, returned to bed, double checked her alarm and joined her friend in slumber.
In the morning, Valerie was grateful that she had two long sleeve business suits. Without those, she would have to stay home or explain numerous red marks on her arms. Leaving her friend asleep, she drove to work, ready to start another day.
She had a new assignment on her desk when she got there. June had already pulled the necessary paperwork to begin. A client from earlier, Brad's client, had sent notice of refusal to pay, citing the failure of the ad to generate the expected revenues. Since Brad was no longer with the company, Val had been assigned the job of reviewing the ad and the client's stated wishes and to determine if any action needed to be taken.
Her worst fear was that Brad had actually shafted the client in some way. That would result in a write off or redoing the whole assignment. Given that Brad had been fired for using company funds and resources for personal gain that was a very real possibility. Working through lunch, Valerie had finally sorted what had and hadn't happened.
The client, a regional snack food company, had developed a new line of chips, developed to be healthier. They wanted an ad that would tout the healthful benefits and good taste. The ad was a humorous parody of a national beer ad. The ad was scripted, actors hired, filming completed and a series of focus groups scheduled. The response was positive and the ad was released into the regional TV and radio market.
As it happened, sales of the new line had bombed, not merely done poorly in sales. Numerous stores had repeatedly complained that customers had returned the product. It seemed the chips tasted horrible. The line was discontinued at significant loss to the company and its shareholders. Val was hard pressed to understand how the taste of the chip was cause to not pay the ad agency. She had to be missing information, because something didn't add up.
"June," she buzzed, "is there anything else from this file that is taking longer to get?"
"No, Ms. Burbon, that's everything Mr. Swenson had in the file."
"Would you come in here? I need to run something by you, see if I'm seeing this straight."
June was in the office in a matter of seconds. Val related her summary of the problem and the information they had available. "Now, June, is there anything in the contract Brad set up that makes us responsible for the taste of the chips?"
"No, Ms. Burbon. We were only responsible for producing the ad itself. I saw the ad on TV myself. Quite funny actually. Made you want to go out and try it. I also remember the chips. They were horrible. Never did figure out what the strange flavor was. It certainly wasn't the advertised flavor."
"Do we have the actual notice of intent sent by the client?"
"I think so. I should be able to get it in a few minutes."
Three minutes later, Val was reading the notice and caught something that made her throat catch. "As per clause 3 in section VI, paragraph 2, with the failure to notify us that the actors in the ad found the taste of the product unpleasant, we believe that Branford and Gashune are in violation of the contract and henceforth we are withholding payment until a contracts court can dispose of the matter."
"What section VI?" Valerie said out loud. Looking through the original contract, she saw that there were only five sections. Section VI was a complete mystery. A feeling of impending doom descended upon Val. She buzzed June again.
"June. Get me an appointment with legal, ASAP. Then let the vice president know I'm on my way up and that it's a potential emergency. Then get down to the courthouse and get the registered copy of the contract. I think our copy is missing a section, one we would never have agreed to."
"Yes, Ms. Burbon."
Valerie gathered the needed papers and walked briskly to the elevator, heading up five floors to the VP's office. The secretary there waved her in. Presenting her initial findings to him, he agreed that a potential disaster loomed ahead. June texted her during the meeting with a message that legal could see her in an hour. After getting the copies he needed for the board meeting he was calling, he told her to keep him informed of all developments.
Her meeting with legal was unpleasant. The copy of the contract they had on file had no section VI either. They advised threatening a lawsuit to recover fees and penalties. Val ordered them to prepare the paperwork but hold off on filing until they had a look at the official document filed with the courts.
It only got worse from there. At 4:00, June returned with a photocopy of the original filing. Sure enough, the original had only five sections, but an addendum had been filed two days later, containing the dreaded wording. Having June send another copy to legal for analysis, she called the VP and passed on the bad news. The addendum had been filed, apparently legally, and they may well be in breach of contract. No one knew why the addendum had not been added to the company records, or how such a section came to be agreed to. The whole section had the agency assuming responsibility for numerous things clearly beyond its control.
Several more offices were assigned to investigate the matter, with Val in charge of coordinating. Speed was of the essence. The problem had to be solved before it became public that they were being held for breach of contract. The ad business was cutthroat enough without the agency hanging itself.
With there being nothing else to do until information came in, Val headed home, tense, agitated and a little mad. She stopped to pick up some KFC on the way home, not feeling like cooking tonight. Once home, she saw that Francine was working at her computer.
"I hope your day has gone better than mine, Francine."
