Lisa finished typing her email and sent it off. It was another boring day at work. Mr. Brown had given her a thick stack of money for her part in saving the company money but he'd been rather quiet since. She stared at her monitor waiting for a response to her email.
"Lisa!" A voice called out.
Lisa looked up to see Ally smiling down at her. Judging by the amount of cleavage she was showing, Lisa guessed that she was on an assignment.
"Ally! What's up?"
"Nothing much. Visiting the guys downstairs," she replied.
"Downstairs? Like the warehouse?"
"Yeah, they're thinking of some kind of union thing or something," she answered.
"Why are you visiting them? They don't even work here."
"They work for the guy who owns this building. We're apparently going to get a nice deal on a higher floor if we can stop these union discussions going on down there," Ally said.
"Oh wow, really?"
"Yeah... actually... how about you join me? There's like ten or so guys down there," Ally said.
"What? I can't. I'm waiting on Mr. Brown," Lisa replied.
"I'm sure Mr. Brown would be okay with you going down with me. It'd probably make the CFO happy..."
"What um... what do we get?" Lisa asked.
"Well, if I'm not mistaken, we get twelve percent cut off the deal," Ally replied.
"Each?"
"Each is going to be tough. We'd have to split that twelve between the both of us," Ally said.
"I'd have to talk with Mr. Brown first," Lisa said as she stood up.
"Go for it," Ally said with a smile.
Lisa knocked on Mr. Brown's door.
"Come in!"
Lisa winked at Ally and headed into Mr. Brown's office. He was sitting at his desk, one leg crossed over the other while drinking what appeared to be a cup of whiskey. Lisa strode in and sat in the seat across from his desk.
"Any new assignments for me?" She asked.
"Not yet. Might have one coming down the pipeline soon," Mr. Brown replied.
"So... Ally was going downstairs..."
"To the warehouse?"
"Yes. Some kind of union dispute or something..."
"I think I heard about that. I remember the last time those guys met up, man, was that ever a damn good party," he said with a smirk.
"Well, Ally stopped by and asked for some help," Lisa informed.
"Yeah? And you want to help?" Mr. Brown questioned.
"Yes, I think I'd be of great help. There's ten or so guys down there apparently."
"Oh I know. Are you sure about this? You know, the girl you replaced, one of her last assignments was with those guys. She had to take some sick leave for a week. Why do you think Ally's doing it this time around?" Mr. Brown asked.
"What? Seriously?"
"Absolutely."
Lisa looked down at the floor, one foot idly tapping on the ground. She contemplated whether or not she should help Ally.
"Well, since there's two of you, it shouldn't be too bad," Mr. Brown said.
Lisa nodded. She really wanted to get a new car and the additional money would help her get an even better car than the one she planned on buying. She'd even be able to get all the little upgrades on the car like the rear view camera.
"I think I'll help her out," Lisa said as she stood up.
"Don't do it for anything less than double digits of what the company would save," Mr. Brown said.
"Double... digits? Per person?"
"Well, yes, absolutely. You and Ally have the advantage here," Mr. Brown said.
Lisa smiled, nodded and hurried out of Mr. Brown's office. The minute she stepped out, Ally was there, grinning with her arms cross. Lisa grabbed her arm and brought her over to her desk.
"We need to renegotiate the deal," Lisa said.
"Renegotiate? You don't think twelve was enough?"
"Combined? No way, let's do twenty, get ten percent each," Lisa said.
"What? Are you sure about this?"
"Absolutely! We have the advantage. Think about it, if you turn down the offer, who else are they going to give it to? I hear those guys downstairs really tire you out," Lisa explained.
Ally stared at Lisa. Lisa could see the wheels turning in Ally's head. She knew Lisa was right. Ally nodded and grabbed her cellphone.
"I'm going to give my boss a call and then I'll meet you in ten minutes?" Ally asked.
"Sounds good to me," Lisa agreed.
Lisa dug through her filing cabinet and pulled out a pair of sexy open toed heels. She kept a pair just in case, and this was definitely the time to pull them out. She popped them on and headed to the lobby, her heart pounding with each step. She was excited, thinking about the big, strong men in the warehouse.
She looked around in the lobby, occasionally smiling and nodding to familiar faces. Lisa couldn't imagine handling more than three men. In fact, she had thought three would be her limit, until she had her little negotiation with the three big black external auditors. She heard the sounds of tapping to see Ally making her way towards her, her bright red heels clacking against the tiled floor.
"I can't believe it Lisa, twelve percent for the both of us!" Ally exclaimed.
"Wow! So how much money are we talking about here?" Lisa asked.
Ally leaned in and whispered a figure. Lisa's eyes widened and she moved back in surprise.
"You're serious?"
"Yes! If we can get this whole union to cool down and get them to agree to back off, well..."
"Unbelievable..."
"I know, right? I'll tell you more on the way down," Ally said as she pressed the button for the elevator.
As the elevator made its descent towards the basement, Ally leaned in close to Lisa.
"So, I hear this group is a bunch of black guys. They own a lot of votes apparently and they also talk with the guys off duty who are black," Ally informed.
"So... this is like the black vote?"
Ally laughed and lightly tapped Lisa's shoulder.
"I guess you could say that. They are the last folks to put in their votes and if we can convince them today to not strike, well, then we win," Ally said with a wink.
The elevator dinged and the doors opened leading to the basement. Lisa and Ally walked out into a barely lit hallway and made their way towards two large double doors at the end. Lisa's palms got sweaty at the thought of multiple black men surrounding both her and Ally. Once they reached the double doors, Lisa paused and took a deep breath.
"Here we go," Ally said.
The two walked through and paused. It was a large open room with random boxes, crates and machinery lying around. There were no workers in sight, only one pudgy white man sitting against a wall staring at a Playboy magazine.
"Uh... hi," Ally greeted.
The man looked up and then put his magazine down. He stood up and adjusted his hat.
"Sorry ma'am, this is the basement. I think you need to go up a couple of floors," he said.
"Oh... we're here to speak with the foreman and his crew," Ally said.
The white man's eyebrows furrowed and he looked at the two women.
"I'm the foreman. And you two are?"
"I'm Ally and this is Lisa. Mr. Craft mentioned that he wanted someone to... speak with you and your crew?"
There was a small smirk on the pudgy white man's face. Lisa could see small drops of sweat running down his forehead.