All characters in this story are fictional, so is the story. All characters are 18 years or older.
Thanks to Bryson Cooke for editing.
*****
I went into the bathroom, brushed my teeth, had a hot shower, got dressed, and went into the sitting room. Dad was just on his way out when he saw me.
"Morning mike," he said, he had his hand on the door knob.
"Morning dad," I replied, heading towards the couch.
"Got any plans today?" he asked.
"No, gonna maybe go hang out with Ash," I answered as I picked up the remote and switched on the TV.
"Oh, okay good. Tell her hi for me will you," he said as he opened the door and left. Immediately dad left I fished out my phone from my pocket and dialed Ashley's number.
"What?" was her curt answer as she picked up.
"Well hello to you too sis," I replied in a usually charming way, "are you at home? We haven't hung out at all since the break began, I miss my baby sis."
I heard loud laughter, "God Mike you're so funny sometimes. What am I, your girlfriend?"
"Oh come on Ash, just tell me where you are, I'll come meet you," I said, sounding a little more beseeching than I intended to.
"You can't, I'm with Colin," she answered.
"Colin? Uh—who's Colin?"
"Oh right! I haven't told you about him, he's my boyfriend."
"Oh, okay. How about mum, is she at home?" I asked, trying my best to not sound too anxious. I couldn't have my sister finding out I'd only called her to inquire about mum's whereabouts.
"Come on Mike, it is mum, she's at work."
"Yeah, you're right. Anyway, have a good time with Colin. Call me when you're free to hang out," I said, eager to end the call now that I had found out what I wanted.
"Wait! How's dad, is he doing okay?" Ashley asked with genuine concern.
"He's fine Ash—although he wishes you'll come and visit sometime," I answered.
"I know, I've been meaning to, I swear. Maybe I'll visit on Monday. Tell him hi for me okay," she said and hung up.
Surprised by Ashley's concern for dad's well being, I guess at some point I'd started thinking I was the only one who cared about dad. Understandable, considering she was fraternizing with the enemy: mum. I guess I hadn't noticed that somehow I had started seeing Ashley as the enemy too. This sudden realisation hurt. I loved my sister, so I promised myself that starting then I would try my best to the more affectionate towards her. I wasn't going to let mum and her hateful ways rob both of us of our sibling bond.
Right now I had more important things to do though, the blackmail of mother awaits no man, but before then I needed to grab a bite. I wasn't about to face my mother with an empty stomach, so I went to the kitchen and made oatmeal. In twenty minutes I had finished eating and was on my way to mum's office.
I was at mum's office building in thirty minutes. I went into the lobby and spoke with the receptionist, Brenda. She was a stunning, beautiful black woman in her late thirties who was always friendly with me.
"Good morning Brenda," I greeted her with the most charming smile I could muster. I hoped it would keep her from finding out I'd come here to do something despicable. Something about blackmailing ones mother makes one paranoid, you know.
Looking up from her computer she greeted me with a warm smile, "morning Mike, we've missed you."
"Yeah sorry, been busy, school's been kicking my ass," she laughed at that, "Is mum in her office?"
"Yeah, but let me call her first to make sure she's not with a client. You know how your mother is. You wouldn't want to get on her bad side," she said. About three minutes later she told me I could go on up.
Mum's office building was a thirty-story building and her office was on the top floor with the rest of the senior partners. The firm even had her name in it, as much as I hated the woman I couldn't deny that it didn't give me immense pleasure telling people what my mum did. She was like wonder woman. Yes, I also found pleasure telling people what my father did. But people kind of expect the man of the house to be a big earner, the woman, was another whole story.
Once the elevator dinged and the doors opened, I headed straight to mum's office. The offices were set up in such a way that before one got to the main office one had to go through the personal assistant's office. And all the senior partners in the firm all had P.A.'s.
Mum's personal assistant was a man named Earl. I would worry that mum was sleeping with him too if he wasn't so gay, and I avoided him for that reason. I had little interaction with him. I'm not homophobic or anything, it's just the way he looked at me was creepy. If you don't believe I'm not homophobic it might help you to know my college roommate was gay too, and I had a healthy relationship with him.
"Hey Earl, is she in her office?" I asked the moment I entered the office. I was hoping he'll give me a yes so I could be on my merry way, I didn't want to spend more time than necessary with him alone in his office.
"Yes, you can go in, Brenda already called so I told her you were here, she's been expecting you."
"Thank you Earl," I said as I walked to the door that led to Mum's office.
Mum dressed in her usual office attire. But there was an exception this time. About two of her top buttons were undone, exposing quite a lot of cleavage. Her skirt, at least what I could see of it from under her desk, was shorter than usual. While I had seen her expose her cleavage before, it was never while at work. She always kept all her female blessings hidden under usually expensive attire.
She didn't even acknowledge my presence as I stepped into her office. The smell of her Chanel perfume assaulting my olfactory senses. I walked straight to her desk and sat on the comfortable chair opposite her.
"Hey mum, been a while," I said, trying my best to calm my nerves.
"I don't have a lot of time Michael so just tell me what you want," she replied, still not raising her head.
From the moment I had entered the building I knew I wasn't going to go through with the blackmail. I was just too scared. So I had created excuses to back out. The best excuse I could come up with was 'blackmailing her now might make things harder for the P.I. I hired'. And so all the way up here I had been searching for an excuse for showing up unannounced, best I could come up with was to come plead for a job.
"I was wondering if..."
"Jesus, Michael just spit it out," she said. She sounded irritated. My presence had a way of irritating her.
"Could I work for your firm?" I asked before I could lose my nerve.
She burst into laughter, then raising her head to look at me she stopped, "oh, you're serious."
"Tell me Michael what exactly do you think you can do here? You're a freshman in university who majors in computer science, what do you have to offer a law firm hmm?" she asked with a condescending tone.
I felt like the smartest person on the planet for thinking of something she overlooked. I answered, "A firm as big as this, with all your computers, you guys must need an in house I.T. department to keep things running. I could work there."