Amanda
When I pushed into the ladies’ room on my floor, someone unfamiliar washed her hands at the sink. She wasn’t from our building but I did recognize her. I stopped and frowned.
“Miss Fischer, right?” I asked.
She looked up and nodded. Her face was unreadable. If she was shocked she didn’t show it. Maybe it was just me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Miss Fischer looked down at her hands.
“I needed to use the ladies’ room,” she said.
Was she being obtuse on purpose?
“I meant in my building,” I said tightly.
“I’m here with Caleb,” she said. “I’m his trainee.”
Right. They’d said that yesterday, too. I narrowed my eyes at her.
“Who were you meeting with?”
She shook her head. She was beautiful in a way that irritated me. Women who didn’t have to work hard to look good always made me feel like I was a waste of space. I knew I was beautiful but I spent a lot of time and money looking the way I did and it wasn’t fair that some women didn’t care and were still handed their beauty.
“I’m here with Caleb for a meeting. He’s showing me how he runs his business. I’m shadowing him, as it were.”
It wasn’t an answer.
She wore black pants with a sharp crease down the front like they’d been pressed professionally and a cream blouse that did wonders for her skin. She knew what her color scheme was. Her freckles were unfortunate, though. I would have covered them up. And she’d done something with her hair, as well. Perhaps something shorter. She was beautiful but not refined.
Her authority shone through. She didn’t look like someone who was shadowing someone else. Trainees usually looked scared of their own shadow, as if they were out of place and trying not to be seen. They usually felt inadequate. This woman was everything but shy and timid. Despite her obvious lack of grooming she was comfortable in her own skin – I hated women like that – and she stood upright and proud.
I didn’t like her.
Her phone rang and she pulled it from her handbag. Her handbag was worn like she used it all the time, and her shoes were cute but she’d walked many miles in them. She wasn’t from the same social class as I was. The clothes she wore, her accessories, were all good but well-used. People who didn’t have an excess of money didn’t replace the things they used the most.
She was one of those. I placed her somewhere in the middle class, a woman that worked for her money instead of working to make her money more.
She ended the call on her cell phone and rubbed her forehead with her fingertips, thinking. Women who wore a lot of makeup, often, didn’t touch their faces. She was one of those I would have looked down on in my younger years.
Now she was a threat.
“Is Caleb here, now?” I asked.
Ava Fischer nodded. “He’s just finishing up.” She hesitated before adding, “with James Weber.”
I frowned. “I wasn’t aware they were having a meeting today.”
She shrugged. I realized what I sounded like. I shouldn’t have cared about whatever meeting Caleb had with James. I was panicking, though. I felt like my control was slipping, that things were happening that I couldn’t stop.
And I didn’t know what. Not knowing was driving me crazy. And this woman was so calm and collected. With a lot of money and the ability not to care at all – the way we the upper-class elite functioned – she would be deadly.
I doubted she was like that. This one had heart, still. She looked like she cared about things. Her eyes were softer than they should be in a cutthroat world like this.
That made her weak.
“I should be getting back,” Fischer said, nodding toward the door I was blocking. I hadn’t realized I was keeping her in.
“Of course,” I said and stepped to the side to let her through. She opened the door and it swung closed behind her. I looked at myself in the mirror. The image was familiar – I looked at myself every morning. I was immaculately dressed and wore makeup that made me feel invincible.
I didn’t feel invincible, now. I felt unsteady on my feet.
When I finished in the ladies’ room I walked back to my office. Fischer sat in one of the armchairs in the waiting area, talking to Lauren, smiling and laughing. They both fell quiet when I walked in. I glared at Lauren.
Caleb walked from James’s office to where Fischer sat.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
She nodded and stood up.
“I didn’t realize she was involved in all your contracts,” I said to Caleb when I joined them.
Caleb nodded. “I can’t show her the ropes without her being involved in everything. You know how it goes.”
I nodded, forcing a smile even though I didn’t agree. I wouldn’t have taken on a trainee, a ‘shadow’ in the first place, but to each his own, right?
“Speaking of meetings and the like,” I said, looking at Caleb. “I would prefer our meeting to be private.”
Caleb looked at me with a blank expression. He glanced at Fischer.
I put my hand on Caleb’s arm and nudged him so he would step away from her. He did as I asked. I stepped closer to him and spoke softly.
“I don’t feel comfortable with a stranger knowing everything about our finances. I’m sure there are other clients that feel the same?”
Caleb nodded. “I understand what you’re saying. I’m sure I mentioned before that Ava works with me under the strictest confidence?”
I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.
“I understand that. I would like to discuss some things with you in private though.”
Caleb nodded hesitantly. He may have been a friend of James and that was why he was our advisor in the first place, but we still paid him and the client – me – was always right.
“Thank you,” I said. “I appreciate it.”
I just wanted to find out what Caleb knew. I couldn’t very well ask him about the business with a stranger hanging around, taking notes about everything I was saying. If something came out she couldn’t know.
This was, quite literally, a matter of life and death. For the company, as well as my reputation.
When we turned back to Fischer she stood with her feet together, her handbag hanging front both hands in front of her, looking at a painting on the wall. I glanced up at it. I hadn’t really looked at it before. It was a scenery of the ocean, a sunset scene with purple skies and palm trees. At the bottom, a small plaque read ‘Forgotten Coast’.
“That’s a beautiful painting,” Fischer said to Caleb.
“Reminds me of home every time,” Caleb said, agreeing. Fischer smiled and looked back to the painting.
“It does,” she breathed.
“Where is home?” I asked.
“Apalachicola,” Fischer said. She looked at Caleb suddenly. He shuffled his weight from one foot to the other.
“You’re from Apalachicola?” I asked. “What a coincidence. Caleb grew up there.”
“What are the odds?” Fischer said smoothly, smiling at me. I looked from her to Caleb. Caleb had one hand in his pocket, the other fussed with his tie. I couldn’t read either of their faces but Fischer’s reaction after she’d said it made me suspicious.
Did they know each other outside of the office? What were the odds Caleb’s trainee being from the same town he’d grown up in? Something wasn’t quite right. I knew I didn’t like Fischer but now I suspected them of lying to me, too.
James’s door opened and he popped his head out.
“I thought I heard a conversation going on,” he said and stepped out of his office. He walked toward us. “It’s a whole party out here.”
I rolled my eyes and didn’t try to hide it.
“Have you met Ava Fischer?” James asked me. “She’s working with Caleb.”
“Yes, I heard,” I said. James’s smile was forced. He was upright, hands hanging loosely by his sides. I knew this look. He was forcing himself to be calm. I’d known James long enough to know all the tells when he was bluffing or putting on faces to hide what he was really feeling. He’d had this same face on in many business meetings where he didn’t feel on top of things.
His eyes were glued to Fischer’s face. I glanced at her. She wasn’t looking at him at all. She must have known he was staring at her.
Something was going on here. I didn’t know what it was but I didn’t like it. I felt excluded.
“Now that we’re on the topic of parties,” James said. I willed him not to do it. “Why don’t you and Caleb join us at our annual Appreciation Event? We’re hosting one again this weekend and it would be great for you to join us.”
Fischer looked up at James. I tried to read her face, but couldn’t. Her poker face was a lot better than James’s
“Thank you,” Caleb said before she could answer. “I’ll definitely be there. It would be nice to be appreciated occasionally.”
He and James laughed like the joke was funny. I didn’t see the humor.
The laughter died and James looked at Fischer, eager to hear her answer. She shrugged.
“I can’t see why not,” she said. “I’ll be around for a while.”
Around?
“How convenient,” I said. “I guess we’ll see you there, then.”
Fischer nodded and smiled at me. James looked satisfied.
“I’ll get Lauren to send you the details,” he said. “It’s formal.”
“I didn’t expect anything less,” Fischer said. I couldn’t tell if she was joking or if he meant it as an insult. She was hard to read. James frowned slightly as if he didn’t know, either.
Caleb glanced at his watch.
“We have to get going, Ava,” he said. “We have work to do.”
“Right,” she said and looked at James. “Until the weekend, then.”
James smiled at her. She turned and left with Caleb. James watched them until they disappeared in the elevator.
“You like her,” I said.
James looked at me. “What?”
“Caleb’s little shadow. You like her. I see the way you look at her.”
James shook his head. “She’s not my type,” he said smoothly and walked away.
Something was going on. James was a womanizer. I heard often enough that he visited the gentleman’s club or that he took women home after parties. If he denied liking Fischer something had to be up. James would take any woman if she was offering. I didn’t get the idea Fischer was that type – she stoically ignored James, which took a lot of strength – but that didn’t change that James had been staring at her.
I turned around and walked to my own office. Something was up and I didn’t like it. I had to find out what was going on. Was hiring a private eye to spy on my financial advisor too much? Maybe.
I dialed Derek’s number and, finally, he answered.
“Did you die?” I asked him. I didn’t sound friendly at all.
“I’m sorry, Amanda. Family emergency. I’m back in the office now, though, and at your disposal.”
“Good,” I said. “I need to meet with you as soon as possible. I want to talk about the papers you’ve given me.”