Vanessa Perry sipped coffee from her mug as she looked out at the summer sun rising over Philadelphia. The forty-year-old executive sighed deeply as she reflected back on her life. She had grown up the youngest daughter of an extremely wealthy family. She had dreams of growing up, falling in love and getting married, like her four siblings before her. However, as she watched their families evolve before her eyes, it became clear that that was not the life she wanted to lead. So she left her small suburban home, made her way through college (relying on minimal financial assistance along the way) and spent the next fifteen years working her way to the top of one of the most prestigious medical research companies in the country.
All her corporate success had come at a significant cost to her personal life, however. She had been in a couple relationships, to be sure, but they never amounted to anything of substance, more due to her absorbing herself in her work. Now that she actually had some free time to focus on them, she was beginning to feel those sexual urges that she should have been feeling a long time ago. But the singles scene was absolutely dead; most of the men she met were either way out of shape (working out had been the only leisure activity she allowed herself, and only because the building she worked in had a company gym); wrapped up in their own careers, as she had been; or had any other of a number of issues that were common in men her age.
To hopefully bring an end to her problem, she put an employment ad in the newspaper for a "personal assistant." She envisioned that whoever she found qualified to fill the position would be young, extremely good looking, intelligent, and an all-around gentleman. All the applications she received, however, proved her wrong. There were some that were attractive enough, but had no education; then came the smart but ugly ones. Day after day of sifting through packet after packet convinced Vanessa that she would never find the solution to her problem.
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Astacio Vega pulled the classified section out of his morning paper. Having just finished college, he was looking for a job that could make use of his newfound skills, or at least pay the bills until he found one. He had been searching for a couple days now when he stumbled across a position for a "personal assistant." The ad read: "'WANTED: PERSONAL ASSISTANT' Position available for personal assistant to V. Perry, CEO, LifeTech Industries. Applications must be requested in person at: LTI Center City Field Office, 16th and Chestnut, 17th floor. Pay starts at $2500/wk."
Astacio couldn't believe it. He'd wanted to work at LifeTech ever since he was in high school. Although it wasn't quite a position that he'd ever envisioned taking, it would get him inside the company at least. He continued reading, and that's when things got weird: "Applicants must be physically fit, attractive men between the ages of 21 and 27, and must submit at least two (2) 5x7 photographs with their application. Other requirements to be explained during interview." What kind of position was this where the core requirements were one's looks? And just what did they mean by "other requirements?" Then again, if that were the case, Astacio wouldn't have any problems at all: he had served four years in the Army, where his physique had gone from wimp to ripped, and he took perilous care to maintain it. He figured, what the hell, one more job application wouldn't hurt.
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After only two weeks of running her ad in the paper, Vanessa was at her wit's end. None of the applicants so far resembled anything close to what she was looking for. Then her secretary Emily knocked at the door.
"Come in."
"Miss Perry, you got another applicant. This one decided to drop his packet off personally."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah. I can't say much, but I will say this: if you don't at least give him an interview, you may as well just shelve this whole thing."
Vanessa chuckled. "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind." She took the manila envelope from Emily and closed the door behind her as she left. Vanessa then sat down with the packet, and noticed that it was considerably heavier than any she'd previously received. She opened the envelope and read the application first. It said that the applicant was 25 years old, 6'3", 195 pounds, a former U.S. Army Biomedical Equipment Technician who had just received his Associate's degree in the same field. The vocabulary used in some of the personal question imparted his intelligence as well. She wasn't quite sold on this guy at that point, but what his words didn't say, his photos did. He had enclosed seven 8x10s with his application, some in his military uniform, some in street clothes, even one with no shirt on! She made two phone calls: one to the applicant to set up an interview, and the other to the newspaper to pull her ad!
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Astacio got home about half an hour after dropping his application off at LifeTech, and there was a message on his answering machine. He couldn't believe his ears when he played it back; it was Miss Perry from LifeTech asking him to call her secretary to arrange an interview! He immediately called back and set up a meeting at 7:30 dinner meeting. When asked where he should meet Vanessa, Emily told him that someone would be by his house to pick him up, citing security reasons. Astacio accepted that, figuring the job was his giving the quickness of the response.
That evening, 7:30 saw Astacio sitting out on his front porch waiting for his ride. At exactly 7:30, a black Mercedes pulled up in front of his apartment. This was a sight seldom seen in this part of the city, so Astacio knew it was for him. The back door opened, so he took that as a cue to sit there. Emily was waiting for him.
"Good evening, Mr. Vega."
"Good evening. So, where are we headed?"
"You'll see when we get there. In the meantime, I've been assigned to brief you as to the responsibilities of the position you're seeking." She had an unwavering professionalism to her, which is why Vanessa trusted her more than anyone else outside her family.
"Yeah, I've kind of been wondering exactly what it is that a personal assistant does anyway."
"Well, first off, tell me a little something: What do you know about Vanessa Perry?"
"She's the most successful woman in this city. She's the CEO of LifeTech, a biomed firm I've wanted to work at for the past ten years. She's originally from Upper Darby, but other than that, I don't know a lot about her personally."
"OK, no problem. That's where I fill you in. You see, you were right in that Miss Perry is an extremely successful woman. She's richer than 90 percent of the corporation heads in Philadelphia, and she also holds a great deal of political pull. She's also never been married, which is understandable; she didn't want to have to balance a family and her own ambitions. Now she's forty years old and quite lonely."
"I think I'm coming around here..."
"Miss Perry is a normal woman with normal physical needs, but since she doesn't have the time for a regular relationship, she decided to hire a young man to be her companion."
"OK, I get it now. She's going to pay me to sleep with her, and that's it?"