"'Do this, get that, no that's not right, do it again', urgh, will that woman ever cease!"
Jenny was sitting in the apartment she barely made rent for on the sofa she and her roommate had found on the curb the day they moved in. It had a few mysterious stains that wouldn't come out, but was still serviceable as something to sit on that wasn't as hard as the barewood floor. She had short, mousey brown hair and a cute face sporting a pair of cheap but functional glasses that she only barely needed and resented having to wear.
Sitting beside her was Lynette, her flatmate and closest thing to a best friend she had. She looked like she had discovered what a hippy was when she was 12 and then never looked back, which was partially true. Jenny secretly thought that she'd be really pretty if she just tidied herself up a little, but clearly that was her thoughts and her thoughts alone as Lynette never seemed to be wanting for that kind of attention. She never stayed with one guy for more than a few weeks, sometimes even just days, until the next one would come along. Jenny had stopped trying to remember their names as it was pointless, but the main mementos she had of these men were the moans of her flatmate from her bedroom and a growing number of the 'mysterious' stains on the sofa.
Jenny herself was going through a dry patch, although by choice. Her career as a Personal Assistant meant she had little to no time for pleasantries and certainly wasn't in a position to manage someone else's life and needs alongside her own. Besides, she was already doing plenty of that for her boss...
Jenny was the PA of Amanda Chevalier, CEO of Chevalier Incorporated, the leading media outlet in her state. They produced newspapers, gossip magazines, fashion blogs, lifestyle advice, anything that could be sold as information to the public. Amanda was a formidable woman and one who even at a relatively young age had always been ambitious to a fault. Still only in her early 30s, she had aggressively outsold, shut down or even bought all of her competition in the state, and now she had her eyes firmly set on national domination.
Being so closely by Amanda's side was arguably a privilege, especially for a young woman such as Jenny looking to find her feet in the industry, but that so-called 'privilege' came at a cost. Jenny was paid poorly, commanded like a dog at times and regularly embarrassed at what seemed to be the whims and fancies of Amanda. It may be that she would be sent for coffee with a ridiculously specific order only to return with it and be told Amanda had changed her mind and wanted something else instead or that she'd have to hold Amanda's lunch plate for her while she ate to avoid 'staining her desk', whatever it was it was usually annoying, frivolous and demeaning. Today had been the absolute last straw however...
"I'm telling you Jenny," Lynette said in her aggressively laid back almost whimsical way of speaking, "you need to just stick it to that bitch and tell her to shove her job up beside the stick in her butt."
"Oh yeah, of course, why didn't I think of that," Jenny replied sarcastically. "You know I can't do that..."
"Why not?"
"You still want a roof over our heads right?" she replied, frustratedly pointing at the ceiling, "unless one of us suddenly wins the lottery or something, or you get a job, whichever is more likely, I need to keep that job to pay our rent."
"Hey I resent that, I have a job," Lynette replied as huffily as her lackadaisical being would allow.
"Oh what, have your boyfriends started paying?" Jenny bit back.
"My job is keeping you sane honey bun," she replied, apparently ignoring Jenny's retort, "without me here to chill you out, you'd be trying to bust out of a padded cell by now."
Jenny had to begrudgingly admit that some of that was true. Lynette was so laid back she was practically horizontal most of the time and this quickly diffused all of the anger and frustration Jenny normally came home with. Either that or the amount of weed that Lynette smoked every day was making their apartment a conduit for it by default.
"Anyway, you still haven't told me what she did today that's got you so high strung or why you were so late back home," Lynette added.
"Oh it's a doozy," Jenny started. "So, she's got this big presentation tomorrow with a bunch of these corporate bigwigs to talk about her plan for world domination or something. Basically her going national or not hinges on this meeting. So, she tells me this morning that I need to audit EVERY SINGLE FILE associated with the deal to make sure it goes ahead as planned. We are talking months and months worth of paperwork here. She hands me a laptop and a hard drive, sends me to a deserted desk in the corner of her office and makes me sit there all day.
For a little while, I didn't mind, because she wasn't constantly pestering me to do other things, which was a nice change, and it felt like she was really placing a lot of trust in me, like the kind of trust that might be given to a high up, important employee. So, it got to the end of the working day and I'd only been able to manage maybe 60% of what was needed. I told her I tried my best and she insisted I stay until it was done because of how important this was.
So that's what I did. I stayed. I was there for hours after everyone else had gone home, including her, and she made me promise to call her once I was done. And when I did, when I was finally done after hours and hours of my life given over to this task, do you know what she said?"
Lynette shrugged. Jenny was normally a little heated after work but this seemed to be above and beyond that. It was quite entertaining.
"'Good, now delete all of it.'"
That was even enough to force a reaction out of Lynette. She sat up, as wide eyed as she could manage and jaw agape.
"You're kidding..."
"I wish I was!" Jenny fumed, throwing her hands up in the air.
"So she had you do all that only to delete it all anyway?"
"Yep! Apparently she'd already decided before I came in this morning to go in a new direction with her pitch and rather than just tell me to delete all of the previous stuff, she had me pour through the whole lot so I didn't spend my day 'distracting her'."
"But then why make you stay after hours to finish it?"
"Because, and I quote, 'it was so funny watching you diligently slave over that all day, I didn't want to ruin your little moment by telling you it was worthless.'"
The room was quiet for a moment as the bombshell of Jenny's story sunk in.
"Ok," said Lynette eventually, "this is a little out there, but trust me just go with it. Now I know this guy, right, who says he knows a guy who knows a guy who can make people 'disappear'. Now I know what you're thinking, how do we get in contact right? Well we..."
"I'm not killing my boss, Lynette," Jenny sighed frustratedly.
"Are you worried you won't get away with it? Cause from what I've heard this guy is very thorough, very professional, we're talking gone without a trace stuff here..."
"Yeah and with Amanda gone what happens to my job, hmm? Can't be a PA to a woman who has 'disappeared' can I..."
"You know what your problem is?" Lynette interjected. "You always get so bogged down with details and practicalities. Live a little! Listen to the voice inside your head that says 'just do it!' for once and I bet you'll feel so much more relaxed and in control."
"If that little voice is inciting me to murder, I think I'd better keep ignoring it," Jenny said. "Although you are right about one thing, it would be nice to feel a little relaxed. Particularly tomorrow. God knows what Amanda is going to make me do and redo, particularly if it means showing off her power over me in front of the guys she's meeting with. You know what would be nice? If I could have that kind of power over her one day, just so she can see what it feels like."
Jenny both sighed and groaned.
"Fat chance of that. Anyway I'm going to bed. She wants me there early to make sure the meeting room is set up correctly, something I could have been doing yesterday but... urgh, never mind. Night..."
She waved lethargically to Lynette as she shuffled to her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Lynette waited a few seconds after the door was closed and then took out her phone. She chose a name from her contacts and pressed 'call' and waited for the man to pick up.
"Hi Lynny, I didn't think I'd ever hear from you again," said a voice on the end of the phone.
"Hey Greggie!" she replied. "You know how it is, life of a free spirit and everything."
