Sat alone in her top floor office, Nadine glared at her smartphone. Overdue a call from one of her struggling area managers, she massaged her forehead with her thumb and index finger, her blood on the verge of turning into crimson steam. Her phone lay idle on her desk showing the time on the screen, 17:17. At 17:19 she jumped out of her chair and threw her hands down towards her phone.
"Hurry up you stupid prick. Why do you think you're doing so badly when you can't even make a fucking phone call on time? You're lazy, stupid and fucking SHIT at your job, I don't know why I ever took you on in the first place. Maybe I'm shit at my job for hiring fucking useless cunts like you. You're unbelievable Karl, unbelievable, I've put so much of my time into you for you to treat me like a fucking dickhead."
Nadine's face had reddened, the veins in her neck and sides of her head bulged out. She put both of her elbows on the desk and leaned forwards, her face inches away from her phone, her big, round bottom protruded behind her.
"You better call me very soon, Karl, very fucking soon. Don't make me call you, you do NOT want me to call you, if I do there'll be hell to pay, hell to pay, you fucking idiot. I'll tell you something, if you were here right now I would rip your..."
A knock on the door interrupted her. She snapped her head up in the direction of the knock, her face thoroughly flushed.
"What?" She yelled.
"Ms Parker, it's James, I have those files for you, the ones you asked for."
"Well don't talk to me through the fucking door you drip, come in for fuck's sake."
The thick silver handle went down, one of the double doors slowly opened. A large stack of coloured folders appeared around the door followed by a tall, slender young man. He walked into the room just enough to let the door close behind him and stood in the corner.
"Are you going to put them on my desk for me, James?" Asked Nadine, staring at him over her thinly rimmed glasses, her face began to go back to its regular, tanned tone.
"Certainly." He walked over to her desk and put the folders on the edge nearest him. Nadine fixed her eyes on the stack he'd placed upon her desk. She clasped her hands together.
"Do you think I can read what's in those folders from here, James?" She asked, smiling wryly in his direction. "They are so far away from me you may as well have left them in the fucking lift. Here's an idea for you: why don't you bring them to me and then maybe I might be able to do something with them? That's a good idea, isn't it?"
"I'm sorry Ms Parker, I didn't think, I..."
"You didn't think? I know you didn't think! Nobody here does except for me, do they?" She threw her hands in the air, her fingertips angled down towards him. "Why do you think I'm screaming all the time? I'm surrounded by dickheads James, that's why, incompetent fucking idiots that are ruining my company."
She stood behind her chair and leaned on the back of it with her forearms, her hands out in front of her. "There are going to be some big changes, James, big changes. I need to restructure, get rid of these parasites, I would be better off doing this on my own than with the liabilities my so-called employees have turned into. They are embarrassing me James and WORST of all they're losing me money. I can't take any more of this, I..."
Nadine's phone began to vibrate on her desk, the name Karl Lloyd appeared on the screen. She let out an angry sigh as she snatched the phone into her right hand and pointed down towards the screen with the index finger of her left.
"I mean, look at this joker, five o' clock he was due to call me, five o' clock, look at the time now." She pointed at a large Rolex clock on the wall indicating the time: 17:25. "I'm in two minds whether to answer this or not. I feel like if I do I'll tear him a new one so wide I could fit his fat head in it." Her phone stopped ringing a second before her finger connected with the screen and instead informed her she had one missed call.
"Oh my FUCKING GOD." She screamed as she threw her phone across the room, it smashed against the wall opposite. James froze, hands by his side, his face expressionless. Nadine spun on her heels and walked over to the window, she placed her hands palms down on it and leaned forwards, looking out over the city. As she did, James' eyes involuntarily flitted over her body, forcibly drawn in by her commanding voluptuousness.
"Do you see what they're doing to me, James? They made me break my damn phone."
He broke his gaze before she turned back to face him. She cracked a slight smile and laughed a little, exhaling deeply as she returned to her high backed, black leather chair. She grabbed the arm and turned it towards her. She fell backwards into it, sending it into a spin as she stuck out her well defined muscular legs.
"Ohhh James. James, James, James. I am sorry for being such a fucking bitch to you, I really am. I'm sorry I shouted at you before I was out of order I'm just really, really stressed at the moment - like you hadn't guessed. Please try to not take it personally. I know it must be really hard for you, I do appreciate you and all that you do for me." Nadine put her hands on her head and began massaging her scalp but was unable to do it properly due to her impossibly tight bun. She picked around for the bobble that constricted her hair and pulled it out which released her luscious, wavy black hair.
"It's alright, I understand, it has been a tough couple of weeks for you, for us all."
James lifted the stack of folders from the far end of the long, shiny black desk and brought them round to the side at which Nadine sat. He carefully ensured they were neatly stacked on top of each other. She smiled at his attention to detail and looked the pile up and down.
"I think I have my work cut out here, don't I? Thank you, James. Are you going home now?" She turned her chair to face him and lifted the lever on the underside of it, releasing the lock on the backrest allowing her to recline.
"Erm, well, I have a few things to get sorted for Monday before I do but then yes, I am. Emma and I are due to be going out for dinner tonight, it's been a while. It'll be nice to spend some time together, a bit of time to relax and unwind, y'know."
"Oh lovely, where are you thinking of going?" Nadine put her hands on her stomach, her fingers linked together. "It's been a while since I've been out for dinner, in a non-business sense, that is. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I went out for dinner that wasn't with a client of some kind."
"We'll most likely go to Bellacini's, we like it there, it's a nice place to go to whilst it's good weather. You can sit outside and watch the river, listen to the birds, it's peaceful. You can almost forget that you're in the city and..."
"Bellacini's! Oh I love Bellacini's, I didn't know you liked it there too, perhaps you and I could go some time?" She asked, looking up at him with wide eyes, unclasping her hands and raising her arms slightly, her palms facing upwards.
"Erm, well, yes? Yes, we could do?"
Nadine gently nodded her head. "We will go some time when you are free. In fact, we could go tonight, couldn't we? See Emma another time, she sounds boring anyway, you'd have much more fun with me. I'll pay." She smiled.
"Ahh right... ohh, well, erm, you see, the thing is, I, I probably shouldn't do... tonight? Sorry. I really should be spending time with Emma, I think I've told you about her, we're properly together now and I can't really let her down. I mean we've spoken about this for the past week or so, she'll be angry if I back out. She's been away in Cambodia teaching English, we haven't seen each other in a long time. But I am free all next week. Any day. Whenever's best for you. I'm sure you have a lot more going on than me, aheh-heh-heh. I'm sorry, I can't join you. I..."
James shifted his eyes back to the stack of folders. He edged himself closer to them and ran his hands down the edges as if trying to make them even straighter. Nadine put her right elbow on the arm of her chair and rested her head on her middle and index fingers, looking at James' face from the side.
"Well, I err, I need to go downstairs again now. Got a few things to do before I leave for the weekend." He turned to face Nadine. "Is there anything you need me to do before I go back down? I will probably go home once I'm done, if that's alright?"
"You don't need my permission to leave, James, you are free to go whenever you like, silly boy." She smiled up at James, the whiteness of her teeth exacerbated by her dark plum lipstick. "But before you rush off will you stay and have a drink with me?"
"Oh Ms Parker, I don't know, I, I shouldn't really drink at work. I also need to kind of, go home, quite... soon? Any other night I would be able to, I just can't really do tonight. Sorry."
