Our lead wakes to the sound of muffled shouts. It takes him a minute to get oriented and remember why he’s in this guest room and why his body is so heavy and bobbling as he gets to his feet. The voices shouts louder but he also hears a more calm and poised voice between the anger. Shaking his head free from the night cap, he tosses the long hair behind him and quickly grabs a dress from the closet to investigate the disturbance. Sneaking down the hall, he listens to the one-sided argument downstairs. The angry voice sounds familiar and that’s definitely his boss’s voice with her practiced cutting dryness. He creeps farther, setting up at the stairs where he can get a view.
The familiar voice, it’s the CEO, his former boss. He’s pacing back and forth, rambling, as the owner calmly sits on her sofa and sips coffee, waiting for pauses in the shouts. He’s ranting, something about stepping down, no refusing to step down. He won’t be forced out of his company? At this, the old woman laughs. HIS company? Even when he was in charge, it was never HIS. The board may have forced her to retire when they decided she was too old to be the face of technology, but that company always remained hers at its core. Did he really think she wasn’t aware of everything that went on? That she wouldn’t pull strings while everybody thought she was a useless old lady resting on her billions? She knew exactly who the man the board hired to replace her was. And the rumors about how he treated his secretaries. And that he would be too sure of himself to question why a sexy young secretary would be transferred to his office. He finally stopped his pacing and shouting. Did she- The woman laughed again. Of course that young woman worked for her. Got paid quite well for her troubles and the hassle of making out with a slime like him. The CEO shouted. Her assistant! He talked! Nobody else had ever seen the two together at night! The old woman angrily scoffed. That boy he sent over was useless and she canned him a week into his tenure. Shipped him off to some overseas branch. She’d have to go look up which one, he wasn’t worth it for her to even remember.
Tired of the uncouth rants, she slides an envelope over to her guest. Inside is paperwork setting him up for his exit, effective immediately. Everything is confidential and he’ll be paid a handsome fee for leaving the company on good terms. Refuse to sign and all the dirt comes out and the secretary testifies to the board. Then he’s gone with no bonus at all and becomes tarnished goods. Either way, she’s free of him, so it’s his choice if he retires rich and in peace or retires after her friends in the papers drag his name through the mud.
Our lead hears a moment of silence and then a pen slams. He scoots back into the shadows out of sight as the former-CEO goes stomping down the hall, slams the door, and his car peels out of the driveway. After a beat, there’s the calm tap of shoes on the floor and a shout that he can come down now. Our lead descends and the old woman apologizes that he had to witness such a scene. Rather unprofessional of him. She waves to the sofa and the maid hands him a cup of coffee.
As she gathers her signed paperwork, he finally speaks. So she’s going to take over the company again? She sighs. She really thought she taught him to think things through more. As much as she loved running the company in her time, being the face is his job. She’s more the brains running the empire behind the scenes now. He fumbles with his coffee. His job!? She nods. He’s still a barely developed young hooligan, but he’s shown his promise during their work together. His reports and analysis are rather well done, he networks easily, and, she gestures at the dress wrapped tight on him, he handles stressful situations well. With her guidance and her power with the board, he’ll be given the CEO role and push the company back to the more daring and forward thinking plans she established the business with. He scoffs that it will be that easy to just step into the role. She says it will, given that the agreement they brokered yesterday will give the company a major deal on the ground floor of a medical chemical company that needs to buy a lot of tech right away. Turn her protege down, and that deal and its billions go to somebody else.