The Story of My Telepathic Life
by Gary LM Martin
Age 25
I was good at writing and so Aunt Tammy suggested I become a freelance journalist. I decided to give it a try. I worked on and off for a Charlotte area holomagazine who liked my work and gave me several assignments. The pay wasn't very much, but at least I didn't feel like I was wasting my time, as I had with Children Who Matter.
One day I was asked to do a "local celebrity" kind of profile, to interview a high powered lawyer named Julian Darden who had just pulled off the acquisition of Assatron, one of the largest sewage processing firms in the nation. I contacted him and set up a late afternoon appointment through his assistant.
Julian worked at one of the top law firms in Charlotte, Skads & Skads, located in the top ten floors of the gleaming 200 story Crommington Building which defined the downtown area. The firm was so exclusive that it even had human secretaries, a rarity in this day and age.
When I entered Julian's office he was giving instructions to two junior lawyers. "Bret, get that research done. Sally, let me know when the docs come in." And then he suddenly looked at me, and it felt like two spotlights were shining on me.
Well well well, what do we have here?
Smile.
I could have said the same thing. Julian was a few years older than me, in his early 30's, but he was simply
gorgeous
. He had short dark curly hair, high cheekbones, a strong jaw, and stunning blue eyes... just like Tom. He had wide shoulders (which I liked) and a slim, athletic figure. But more than that he had the air of authority about him, and he looked so handsome dressed in his five piece suit and dark tie.
"Are you my five o'clock?" he asked, with a mischievous smile.
"I... uh...."
A gorgeous red headed secretary with big titties entered the room. "Mr. Darden, sorry about that. This is Shelly Diggler. She's here-"
"To interview me. Yes, I remember now," he said, in a calm tone as if he knew everything. He extended his hand. "A pleasure."
I shook his hand. He had a firm grasp. As we touched, he stared into my eyes and I felt a chill between my legs. He smiled again as he let go, as if he knew.
"I am sorry, Ms. Diggler, but I have so much to do and I haven't even had dinner yet-"
"Well, we could reschedule for another time, Mr. Darden-"
"You came all the way down here, I'd hate to have you waste your time for nothing." He paused, appearing to consider. "Why don't we talk over dinner, so I can do two things at once?"
And at that moment I got just an inkling of how smooth and sophisticated Mr. Julian Darden was.
********
He had just a hint of an accent from his native France. He looked even more handsome in the expensive restaurant we were dining in than he did in his office. I felt tremendously underdressed and as I looked around I realized that I wasn't quite sure I could afford to eat here.
"Relax, it's on me," he smiled, as if he could read my mind.
He was going to pay. This was starting to feel more like a date! What could I do but thank him? "Oh, thank you, Mr. Darden!"
"Julian," he smiled. "Please, call me Julian."
"All right... Julian," I tittered. (I never titter!) "But only if you call me Shelly."
"Deal." The way he said it reverberated in my mind, as if we had just formed the first of many connections.
We talked about his career. He had come over from France at the age of 18, gone to top schools, and quickly rose to the top of the mergers and acquisitions field at Skags & Skags. At the age of 31 he was a junior partner, which was practically an unheard of thing.
"Julian, I did some research on you, and I read that in the past two years alone you have managed seven mergers totaling 22 billion credits. How were you able to do so many big deals?"
"Easy. I don't sleep." He gave me a seductive grin which made me shiver. Why was he affecting me in this way?
"Come on, Julian. Three other firms tried to do the Assatronics merger, and no one could get the job done. You had to convince three different sets of regulators to make it go through, including the Supreme Council of Commissars. How did you do it?"
He leaned forward and flashed another smile. "I can be very, very persuasive when I want to be."
Everything he said seemed to have a double meaning, aimed at me. Or was it my imagination?
"But enough about me," said Julian. "Tell me about you."
"Me?"
"You," Julian said.
"There's... there's not much to tell. I'm just a freelance journalist," I said.
"That's not what I mean," said Julian. Those blue eyes searched me. "Your ring finger. Empty. How is it that such a sexy woman like you isn't married ten times over?"
I recoiled in surprise. His bluntness had startled me. Usually men are blunt in imagining having sex with me, but Julian was blunt not in thoughts but in words, in a way I found appealing. I anxiously probed his thoughts. Julian's mind was very disciplined. He was thinking,
What a beautiful, sophisticated woman.
But he wasn't thinking about having sex with me. He wasn't thinking about using me as a piece of meat. Could it be that I had finally found a sophisticated man?
I realized he was waiting for an answer to a question. "I... uh...."
He took my hand. "You're very beautiful. You know that, don't you?"
A line of radiant energy travelled up my arm and through my body. His touch was truly electric.
"I... I suppose."
"You
suppose
," he said mockingly, giving me such a look that I actually felt a tingling in my clitoris. "Let me see if I can fill in the blanks." He gave me a long, hard stare. "You're gorgeous. The most gorgeous woman I have ever met."
Really?
"Therefore men hit on you constantly. Am I right?"
I thought about every man who I had ever encountered, all of whom had imagined fucking me blind. "Yes."
He stared at me intently. "You're a sensitive woman. You... you like the intellectual type."
Yes!
I immediately thought of Tom.
"Perhaps you had a childhood sweetheart, a science minded type... or no, maybe an artist...."
Tom!
"You loved him... and he loved you, I think, as no one could resist your charm... but you had some kind... some kind of falling out... and then, you've never loved so deeply again."
I gasped. We had just met, and it felt like Julian knew everything about me!
"Am I right?"
I nodded. Julian looked triumphant.
"How... how did you know?"
"I'm a very empathic individual, Shelly," he said.
"What... what about you? Have you ever loved someone?"
"Yes... but not, I sense, as deeply as you loved your Tom."
Tom
.
I sat upright in my chair. "How did you know that name?"
I stared at him intensely with more than eyes.
He couldn't be... no....
Can you read my thoughts, Julian?
No. I have no idea what you are thinking right now.