Chapter 4
“That sounds like torture”, Lydia teased as she grew tired of listening to Aurora’s whining. “All the way up in the Swiss Alps, and having terrific sex…”
“But I don’t know what it means”, Aurora moaned. She rolled onto her spacious king-sized bed. “We went down for dessert and then we slept in separate rooms, I mean what am I supposed to think?”
“Why do you need to think anything?” Lydia was more of a realist about sex. She firmly believed that sexual gratification was a right, not a privilege, and she hated when people attached unnecessary baggage to sex.
“I don’t know why I called you”, Aurora sighed.
“I don’t know either”, Lydia laughed. “I guess you knew that I wasn’t going to judge you for having sex”.
“Right…”
“But I am judging you for being a baby about it”, Lydia’s voice sounded a bit distracted. Aurora could hear some commotion on the other end of the phone.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, Mr. Randolf…”
“While we’re on the phone?” Aurora’s ear felt dirty. She was mortified as her mind filled with images.
“What? It’s a straight massage, and he has headphones on”, Lydia explained. “He’s listening to a guided meditation. He’s a cave explorer, going spelunking. And quit trying to get off the subject. You’re being a baby. You both clearly needed to have sex, and now you have a job to do. Don’t make more out of this night than there is”.
“Fine”, Aurora grumbled and hung up the phone, “Spelunking”. She mouthed the word as she pretended to vomit and gag.
Downstairs the conference was getting started again. Aurora met up with Lance who was already seated and waiting for the speakers to start. “You need to take notes”, Lance said as he pointed to an area that was crammed with young people. “This weekend is a waste of time if I’m not networking, and so, I’m going to end up missing most of this”.
Aurora nodded, she thought back to her conversation with Lydia. I can be cool about this, Aurora thought to herself. Not that she believed it, but she was going to try her best to not let things get weird.
The auditorium was packed. The air was stuffy, and Aurora could hear giant fans going in all four corners of the room. The stage was small, but it offered a large projector screen, and enough space for the speaker to get a bit of movement in. There was a small podium, but the speaker didn’t seem to be using it.
Folding chairs were set out in straight lines in front of the stage. Aurora got into the second row, and looked for a seat. She wanted to be far enough away that she could keep an eye on Lance without being seen. Stop being crazy, Aurora tried to command herself. There was no helping it.
Aurora found a seat in amongst the young people, mainly women. They were all taking notes. Aurora started to piece together what was happening. She watched as several of the women scanned the audience and found their elderly business man counterparts. Aurora was starting to feel very lucky.
Lance was older than the 28-year-old intern, but he was in amazing shape. He still had a firm jawline and all of his hair. That was way more than could be said about most of these men. Fat, jowly, and bald, was how most of the men at the conference could be summed up.
Aurora tried to focus on what Lydia had said, I am not being used, she thought to herself. Aurora thought the words, over and over in her head. When that didn’t work Aurora tried to focus on the speakers and writing down notes. How did I get here, Aurora kept asking herself?
“We’re in a bear market, but that doesn’t mean it ain’t gonna bull up soon”, the man on stage was saying. “Being Cowboy Venture Capitalist” scrolled across the projection screen. The speaker was wearing a bolo tie and cowboy boots, but he had taken his ten-gallon hat off. However strange he seemed to Aurora, this speaker seemed to have the attention of the whole crowd.
Aurora chanced a quick glance over her shoulder. Lance was talking with a few men. He was clearly not listening to the ‘Cowboy Venture Capitalist’. Aurora was relieved to see that Lance was networking like he said he would be. He started to move his head, and Aurora snapped her neck around so fast that she pulled a muscle out of place.
“You can get a profit out of uh turd pile, if you know how to sell it!” The speaker yelled these words to thunderous applause. Aurora was too busy rubbing and stretching her neck to catch all of these pearls of wisdom. She decided she would wait for something really profound.
After they started wrapping up the speeches, Aurora went to the dining hall for the free lunch. She didn’t want to sit with anyone. The hall was too crowded for Aurora to get a table to herself, but she kept her eyes down and people left her alone.
It felt like high school all over again. Aurora had had trouble with boys then too. She was always having trouble understanding the opposite sex. Back then it had been different of course, or maybe it just felt different because it was new. She had a boyfriend Bobby Thompson, who claimed to love her and was her first. They picked out a day and he brought flowers. That night changed everything between them. I guess it isn’t that different, Aurora thought to herself.
She flipped through her notes from the morning speakers. The two speakers had each talked for over an hour. Aurora had only taken down three lines from their entire presentations. Out of context the lines didn’t make much sense. They were just little proverbs, nothing like the business ideas she was expecting to hear.
Aurora had worked as an accountant for 5 years, and so her approach to business was a little different. She saw business in terms of numbers, facts, and figures. These speakers were talking about inspiration, and salesmanship, and to Aurora’s analytical mind their advice sounded more like bumper stickers slogans than wisdom.
“This isn’t your thing”, Trevor said as he took the seat beside Aurora. She smiled and shook her head. “Yeah, it’s kind of a joke. There are very few people here for the speakers”.
Dropping his plate on the table, Trevor turned to look at Aurora. His surfer/businessman look was working its charms on the intern. She had noticed two very different categories of men walking around this conference: the clean-cut, military precision, business man, with their tightly cropped hair and their plain suits. Lance was in this first group. Trevor was one of the rebel, Rockstar-like business men with long hair and bright colored shirts.
“Did you take any notes this morning?” Aurora asked as she saw the notepad in Trevor’s hand. It was a leather-bound folder with a notepad inside. Trevor quickly closed the leather flap on the pad and set it on the floor.
“It’s not polite to ask questions like that”, Trevor said. “We all carry notebooks and pens, because it’s polite. That’s how you attend these things, but I mean, did I actually take notes? No”.
“I was supposed to be taking notes”, Aurora confessed. “I just didn’t get what they were saying, I guess I just don’t understand the message that they were presenting”.
“What’s to get?” Trevor teased. He was trying to come up with the words to explain what he meant, but he just kept laughing.
“What?” Aurora begged as she gently smacked Trevor’s arm. “What am I missing?”
“You’re over thinking it”, Trevor finally spit the words out. “The cowboy guy’s whole message was being a cowboy; the really excited guy’s message was being positive”.
“So, all that I learned this morning was how to be a positive cowboy?” Aurora suddenly felt like the morning was an even bigger waste of time than she had originally thought. Trevor was nodding along, confirming the theory. “What kind of a conference is this?”
“Business”, Trevor laughed. Aurora gave him a sly look, he was enjoying her distress just a bit too much. “Just give up on the hope of trying to learn something from any of this, and enjoy the food like the rest of us”.
“So, this is all a waste?”
“A waste”, Trevor looked taken a back, “We’re eating surf an’ turf for lunch, and that is never a waste”. Aurora didn’t need Trevor to let on that he was kidding. She raised an eye brow and Trevor dropped the act. “It’s a great place to meet people. Like me. I met you”.
“Slow it down there”, she said as she poked Trevor with her pointer finger. She let it linger a bit too long as she felt his chest muscle through his silk shirt. “I am here on business…”
“So am I”, Trevor laughed. Aurora could feel the heat in her cheeks. She knew that her whole face was likely bright red. She couldn’t help it. Trevor’s blue eyes were cutting through her. He ran his hand through his shaggy, blond hair.
“All right, I have to get ready for the next speaker”. Aurora stood up and walked away. She was getting into dangerous territory with Trevor. Lance had looked so upset the last time he saw the young man talking to Aurora. She was sure that it was a bad idea.
“So, can we grab a drink after dinner?” Trevor got the question out before Aurora.
“Sure”, Aurora sighed. She smiled at Trevor and then continued on her way. It was the wrong thing to do. She was going to get herself in trouble. Lance was going to be mad, and then Max was going to be mad. I hope Sheila’s plan does work, Aurora thought as she headed back upstairs to her room.
The walk from the elevator to her room was a very short trip, but Aurora was moving slowly. She was worried about running into Lance. Not that moving slowly was going to help with that, but she could feel the hesitation in every part of her body. As her hand reached for the door knob she heard a sound coming from inside the room. Lance was definitely there.
“This is all the notes you’ve taken?” Lance sounded disgusted as he looked over the page. This was his greeting as Aurora walked into the room. Lance had just taken the notepad and started criticizing, “This can’t be all that you heard”.
“I didn’t hear anything of value”, Aurora said to the ground. She didn’t want to look up at him. She couldn’t believe the way she was being talked to. Aurora wasn’t the average intern. She was a fully-grown woman. She had already spent time in the real world.
“I hope that you can listen a little more closely this afternoon”, Lance sighed as he threw the notepad onto the bed and walked out of the room. “Anyone invited to speak at this conference has made millions. You might learn something from this”.
“I was listening”, Aurora said as the door closed. She felt like a little child around Lance. He had this strange hold over her. She had wanted to say so many things there, but she couldn’t even look him in the eyes. “I know when something is worth writing down”.
Aurora threw herself down on the bed. She spread herself out wide and tried to just melt into the mattress. She took five deep breaths, just thinking about her stomach as it went up and down with each full breath. It was a technique that she had learned at a yoga class. She only attended the one class, but she used this technique a lot. This was going to be a long weekend for her.