I suspected the daily interactions between Lucy and I would get slightly weird. The byproducts of an otherwise near flawless night. I only wish it could have lasted longer, yet physical exhaustion prevailed.

I sat alone in my office, nursing a glass of scotch and evading its judgmental stare. Lucy hadn’t arrived yet. I loved those brief periods of time I got to spend in complete solitude, staring out the window and watching the streets fill with life. There was something strangely therapeutic about it. I needed all the rest I could get, especially on days like that one. 

Board meeting. It would be as interesting and exciting as a funeral, and I couldn’t weasel my way out of it. The matter at hand couldn’t wait, or so I had been told. It never could, and in most of the cases it was something so insignificant that hardly required my presence — or a meeting.

I shook my head and took a sip. The faint sound of the elevator doors opening reached my ears. I wanted to deny it, hide it, but Lucy’s arrival made me somewhat happy. Not overjoyed, simply due to the talk we would eventually have.

He unmistakable footsteps approached. Tentative, as if something held her back. It was understandable, given the story we shared. By all accounts, we should hate one another. Hate and love, or lust if you will, are separated by a very thin line. 

Thin like the fabric of her blouse. It hugged her curves in a most delightful way. She timidly walked towards my desk. Her eyes avoided mine, and yet I had to employ a great deal of self restraint to dispel the filthy thoughts pooling into my mind.

“Hey,” She greeted me, dropping every semblance of professionalism. 

“What happened to good morning, boss?” I chuckled, setting the glass down onto my glass after taking one last sip.

Surprise flashed on her face for a split second. She seemed to relax right after, albeit only slightly so. “Don’t you think that flew out of the window the other night?” She retorted, cocking her head to the side. The corners of her mouth curled into a devious smile, one you’d find on the lips of a sly seductress. Lucy was none of that, and perhaps she was just trying to appear confident.

She was right, however. If anything, she’d have to call me master. I nodded in agreement. “Fair enough, fair enough. Let’s try to behave while we’re here, though. Deal?”

“Absolutely, master,” She winked, biting her lower lip. Her beautiful eyes burned into mine. She’d finally found the courage she sought, and it made her all the more attractive in my eyes.

I rolled my eyes at her, taking a deep breath just to find the strength to listen to my actual brain. “You’re playing with fire, dear. Be careful.”

“Maybe I want to be burnt,” Lucy replied without missing a beat. 

I was a breath away from bending her over my desk and teaching her a lesson. My body went stiff as I tried to summon all the restraint I had. Under other circumstances I would not have hesitated, though that day required me to be presentable.

“You’re lucky today’s packed,” I declared. “But tonight, you’re mine. Understood?”

Lucy nodded excitedly. “Can’t wait!” She exclaimed, and turned on her heels to walk away. In her continued effort to make my day harder, she couldn’t help but sway her hips left and right as she sauntered away and out of my office. 

All things considered, it wasn’t as painful as I’d expected.

The partners I’d had up to that point always took their leave in the morning, but Lucy was obviously different. I couldn’t just get rid of her, and part of me didn’t want to.

Shaking those thoughts out of my head, I gradually calmed down and prepared for the meeting. I wasn’t looking forward to it in the slightest, though in the years I spent at the helm of the company, I ended up learning a trick or two to make them easier to bear. It was all a game of appearance rather than substance. Fake interest went a long way, longer than I’d first realized.

The clock was about to strike ten when I made my way down to the fifty-fourth floor. The architect envisioned it as the one and only place in the building in which conferences and large meetings would be held, and it showed: four large rooms, each featuring large crystal tables and enough chairs to seat a football team and its reserves.

The rest of the floor acted out as an even bigger copy of said rooms, only without any furniture. A projector hung onto the ceiling, aimed at a pure white wall. Its age showed, and in the five years I spent in that company, I had never seen it in action once. The idea was to have it relay important information to a large crowd that would occupy all the empty space, but the advent of instant messaging and overall better technology dethroned the old style my father was so accustomed to.

I arrived there before the rest of the attendees. Roughly twelve people, that apparently couldn’t read a clock to save their asses. I waited until half past ten, anger slowly bubbling and rising to the surface.

When they finally arrived I was about to leave, and dead set on doing so. 

“You have until eleven, make it count,” I snarled. Twenty minutes would be more than enough to listen to their senseless drivel.

Those men and their so-called power could seem intimidating, but I doubted they wanted to be there either. The combined wealth in that room could feed a small country for a decent chunk of time, and that somehow filled them with a sense of righteousness. They bankrolled the company and as such, thought they had free reign over me. 

Alas, they didn’t dare utter a word I might take the wrong way. Fear held them back. I could press a few buttons of my keyboard and watch Harris Electronic implode on itself. My father had the exact same power, but lacked the spine to use it as a weapon. 

After the men found their seats, one of them began talking. I listened to his shrill voice go over the usual corporate bullshit I didn’t care about for roughly two minutes before tapping my watch with my index finger. “Get to the point,” I commanded.

The man sat down as another one stood up and leaned over the table. “We’re making a move on Reynolds Industries,” He proudly announced, looking around for approval. The other men nodded and one of them even began to clap, though a well placed glare shut him down in his tracks.

“A merger?” I asked, puzzled. It would surely solve a lot of issues, but I didn’t see how we could pull it off. The truth was, Harris Electronics was biting more than it could chew, though business seemed to truck along just fine.

“Takeover,” Another one chimed in. “We’ll just flush them out of their seats and swoop in.”

My jaw clenched and so did my fists. Anger, again, which I tried to contain. “And then what? Fire everyone, sell the assets and pretend we didn’t fuck over the entire goddamn company?” I scoffed.

“We were thinking of ways to ease the transition and…” The man continued, seemingly unfazed by my reaction. They would usually retreat, these pathetic worms. But something was different that day.

“Mister Harris, we didn’t come here to seek your approval,” Another one declared. “The takeover will most likely take place in the coming months. The decision has been finalized.”

I made no attempts to stifle a sardonic laugh. Twelve men in that room, and not one of them with a set of balls big enough to confront me directly. The clock finally reached eleven and I stood up to get out of that hellish room. One of the men stood up with me blocked my path, grabbing me by the arm.

“There is no point in going against this, mister Harris. Even their directors agree Reynolds is too old to lead the company, and he won’t give up his seat! It’s the only way, I’m afraid,” He confided, trying his best to pretend to have a genuine interest for the lives they were planning on ruining.

The man was right, despite how much I hated him for it. 

Francis Reynolds may have created his company from nothing, but the industry moved faster than he could catch up with. When my father died, he was quick to capitalize on our weakness and pull ahead, yet now the situation was reversed.

A merger would be fine, or at least easier to deal with than a takeover. I couldn’t see the point of it, especially considering how ruthless they usually were. Scorched earth policies were as commonplace as they were senseless.

The takeover would inevitably affect Lucy as well, though I decided to withhold the information for the time being. She didn’t ask what the meeting was about, even if she noticed I wasn’t in the best of moods when I came back up to my office. I downplayed it, and she didn’t investigate further.

I had enough matters to take care of and worry about without adding in more corporate bullshit. It never ended.  

Evening rolled by and washed away the stench that day left in my nostrils. 

Lucy sat in front of me as we waited for our food. I’d ordered a simple steak and she instead picked what looked like a mix of every vegetable known to man, at least judging by the picture they put in the menu.

The restaurant we — I, really — chose was a little gem, hidden away somewhere in the East Side. I couldn’t remember how I found out about it, perhaps word of mouth, though I would often eat there. The atmosphere was calm, and the dim lights added to it. Most of the people I associated with would prefer cookie cutter establishments sporting waiting lists longer than a year. I instead couldn’t care for any of that.

I had to reluctantly admit it was a date of sorts. The realization wasn’t too hard to swallow, after all. Lucy was the first woman I actively wanted to spend time with, even if I’d already had my way with her.

“You seemed nervous today, is everything okay?” She spoke, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I just had to wait forty minutes for those jackasses to arrive. Thousands of dollars on watches and they still can’t tell the time,” I replied, causing her to smile sympathetically.

“My father used to complain about the exact same thing,” She nodded. “It’s been a while since I heard from him though…”

A dash of worry, or even fear flashed on her face. The dim lights couldn’t hide it. “How’s he doing, by the way?”

Lucy shrugged. “Doubt there’s anything that can take him down.”

Anything except twelve greedy men with too much time on their hands, that is. The takeover would surely be a hard blow to withstand. 

“I’ll say. Except maybe if he hears about this,” I admitted. He would probably blow a gasket if he knew.

She agreed. “It’s alright. He doesn’t have to,” She replied, winking at me. 

Eventually, however, he would find out. Part of me really wanted to see his reaction, and part of me dreaded it. I had nothing to fear from him, we were both adults capable of making our own decisions. Perhaps it was that last shred of respect I had towards him.

Our food finally arrived and the conversation got slower as we ate.  Despite my best attempt to relax and enjoy the date, that damned meeting was still weighing me down.

The future wasn’t looking too bright for old man Reynolds, and part of it was my fault.