Where’s Lucy…
Dante
Charity is very important to me. But the luncheon today to raise money for the pediatric oncology ward at West End University Hospital took most of my afternoon. It was a worthy cause, but I was itching to get back to work.
I blew into my building and went straight up to my office using my private elevator.
I clicked on the intercom the moment I reached my desk.
“Lucy, I’m back. What’s on my schedule?”
There was no reply.
I was about to hit the intercom button again, but that was when my office door opened and Jenifer (with one N) appeared.
She was one of Lucy’s assistants, and she would be going with me on my upcoming trip.
“Where’s Lucy?”
Jenifer gulped.
Lucy?
“What happened?” I asked, coming around my desk and heading straight for her. “Is Lucy alright?”
The woman looked ready to faint, mutely shaking her head, holding out a magazine to me.
I took the magazine from her hands—a copy of the latest Commons Magazine. I was on the cover.
“Why are you handing me this?”
Jenifer was shaking as she said, “Lucy… she read the article… before she left.”
I looked back down at the magazine. “Why would she…”
Charlotte Rampling’s exposé.
“But why would she care?” I looked up at Jenifer. “She knew I was going to…”
This didn’t make any sense.
But it didn’t matter if it made sense or not. Lucy had left after reading it.
I had to find her.
I stopped right there.
I was way more upset than I needed to be.
But why?
“Read the last page.”
I looked up at Jenifer. “What?”
She was backing away, fumbling to open the door, her wide eyes looking at me like I was a rabid dog ready to maul her. “What upset Lucy is on… it’s on the last page of the article.” And with that she turned and ran out the door, leaving it open in her escape.
I rolled my eyes as I turned and walked toward the bank of windows in my office.
I’m not that bad, am I?
I’d have to ask Lucy when…
Lucy…
I opened the magazine and flipped to the end of that Rampling woman’s article.
While I read I walked absently toward my desk.
“And though I’ve only met Lucy Hopewell one time, I know the look of complete and total love when I see it.”
I found myself sitting at my desk, my mind utterly blown.
After a moment I read on.
“Saint Sex himself is in love with his assistant, whether he knows it or not; and she loves him right back. Now if someone would be kind enough to tell them both about it.”
I wadded the magazine up in my fists and gritted my teeth.
How could anyone do this to Lucy?
She certainly wasn’t in love with me.
That was absurd.
Is it?
Yes, it is!
I had to find Lucy. She would be absolutely devastated that something so cruel and inaccurate was printed about her.
I’m fine with gossip mongering concerning myself, but not one of my employees.
Especially Lucy.
She’s my…
Saint Sex himself is in love with his assistant…
No.
It’s just a sensational exposé written by a desperate reporter.
I’d find Lucy and make this up to her.
I’d do anything to make this right with her.
I gripped the rolled up magazine in my hand and headed for the door.
But first I had something to do.
###
I pounded on Charlotte Rampling’s apartment door.
“Who is it?” I heard her call out from behind the door.
“Dante Saint James!” I snarled.
If anything I was angrier now than I had been at the office.
I heard a muffled thump and wondered… well, I hoped the woman had fallen off her chair on her ass.
I know, it was petty of me, but she’d done Lucy wrong. I had no pity in me now.
After a few moments I beat on her door again. “I’m not leaving until we have a word.”
The door swung open and Charlotte stood there, hair a mess, makeup smudged and wearing a flimsy nightshirt and pink panties.
I marched right past her and into her apartment. “You’re a real piece of work, Ms. Rampling.”
“Why don’t you come in?” she said blandly.
“Don’t get cute,” I said, my voice cracking with rage. “I’m used to writers going after me, but to go after one of my employees, and publishing false claims about her. Have you no shame at all?”
She rolled her eyes at me and then closed the door of her apartment.
“You know what I find funny about this whole thing?” she asked as she walked to me, and then past me, and then took a seat at a cluttered glass-topped kitchen table. She picked up a mug of coffee and took a long drink, and then opened the laptop in front of her.
“I don’t care what you find funny or not. I want to know why the hell you did this!”
She dismissed me with a wave of her hand. “The funny part is, you and your love-sick little assistant read my article and you both ended up darkening my doorway.”
I rounded on her. “Lucy was here?”
She made a little snorting sound. “Instead of talking to each other, the two of you both decide to come all the way across town from your big old honking glass tower and give me an earful.”
“What did you tell her? Where was she going?”
Charlotte clucked her tongue. “I don’t know where she’s going…” She tapped a few keys on her laptop. “But we talked about this.”
Suddenly I heard…
“You taped us having sex?”
She shrugged. “I was taping an interview.” She raised her hand when I took a breath to lay into her. “This is the best part.”
I heard Charlotte gasp, I heard myself cry out as I came… and then I heard myself say, “Lucy…”
Jesus…
Charlotte turned off the recording. “That’s why it was in the article, and that’s what I played for your assistant.”
This was…
I closed my eyes, trying to piece together what was happening.
Lucy was the best employee I’d ever had.
Lucy was the glue that held my company together.
She was flawless in the execution of her duties.
She was smart and funny and…
And she was the best person I knew.
She was more than my employee, she was my friend.
She cared about me and I cared about her.
The thought of her being hurt by this was so painful…
It made me angry. I wanted to hurt someone for hurting her.
And yet I’d been the one to hurt her.
She was…
She is…
I opened my eyes, looked around Charlotte Rampling’s apartment.
“I’ve got to go.”
I turned and walked out the front door.