Be Mine. Victoria Dahl

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СКАЧАТЬ Emily said.

      “So I gather you slammed the door in honor of Richard Parker?”

      “Yes.”

      “I know how you can handle Richard Parker.”

      “How?” Emily broke off another piece of chocolate. She wasn’t interested in handling Richard Parker. She wanted, in fact, to eliminate him, but she was always interested in Jane. She didn’t insist that the company pay Jane a lavish salary just because they were friends; she insisted because Jane had a lot of ideas and none of them were dumb. If Emily did get to be president, it would be due as much to Jane’s brains as to Emily’s.

      “I think you should seduce him,” Jane said.

      Emily reconsidered her thoughts about Jane not having dumb ideas. This seemed to be one.

      “Why?”

      “Because you need to get out more. You live in the office. You only stop by your apartment to shower and change. You don’t even have a pet, for crying out loud. I’m your only companionship.”

      “I like it that way.”

      “Well, it’s not natural. And it sounds like Parker is the same way. You could save each other. He’ll be grateful and fall in love with you, you’ll get married, and I’ll get to buy baby gifts, instead of accepting them from you. You’re not going to eat that chocolate, are you?”

      “Yes,” Emily said, breaking off another piece. “How will marrying Richard Parker help me?”

      “Sex always helps,” Jane said. “It’s like chocolate.”

      “I need help at the office,” Emily said. “This guy is going to tie my hands.”

      “Kinky.”

      “Be nice to Karen,” Emily said. “This could get very dirty. Now go get Parker on the phone. I have an eleven-o’clock meeting with him, and I want to hear what he sounds like first.”

      “A meeting, huh? Why don’t you change your look? Let that long dark hair down. Take off your suit jacket. Especially take off your glasses. You look like a bug.”

      “I want to look like a bug. I have a hard enough time getting respect around here looking like a bug. If I start taking off my clothes, no one will pay attention.”

      “Want to bet?” Jane looked at her boss. “If I had your body, I’d take off my clothes all the time.”

      “You do take off your clothes all the time,” Emily pointed out. “Has Ben ever seen you clothed?”

      “Certainly,” Jane said. “I was dressed for my wedding. You were there. You slapped the best man at the reception.”

      “You never forget, do you?”

      Jane got up and headed for the door. “I’ll get Parker. Don’t slap him. I’ll make friends with Karen, but we’ll get further if you seduce the guy.”

      “Feel free to sacrifice my body for your ambitions,” Emily said as Jane went through the door.

      “Our ambitions,” Jane said. “And I’ve seen him. It would be no sacrifice.”

      * * *

      “MR. PARKER ON LINE TWO,” Jane said in her secretary voice.

      Emily picked up the phone. “Mr. Parker?”

      “Yes?”

      “This is Emily Tate. I understand we have a meeting at eleven.”

      “Yes, Ms. Tate, we do.” He sounded bored but patient. She’d been expecting the high tight tones of a monomaniac; his voice was deep with a little bit of New York rhythm in it.

      “Is there anything you’d like me to bring to the meeting?”

      “No, Ms. Tate, I have everything I need. Is there anything else?”

      Sorry, Emily thought. Taking up your time, am I? “No, Mr. Parker, there’s nothing else.”

      “Eleven, then,” he said, and hung up.

      Not good, Emily thought. Efficient and not impressed with her in spite of her terrific track record. Which must mean he was still hung up on the budget overruns.

      Jane poked her head in. “Okay, so he’s not a charmer. But I still say go for it. Maybe he loosens up in bed.”

      “Not a chance.” Emily hung up the phone. “He probably doesn’t go to bed. He probably sleeps standing up in a corner of his office.”

      “Do you need me in the meeting to take notes?”

      “No. Do you want to take notes?”

      “Yes.”

      “Then come along, sweetie, and we’ll have lunch at the Celestial afterward. We can discuss the situation.”

      “Good idea.”

      “And, Jane, try to pretend you’re really a secretary in there. He doesn’t need to know you’re the brains of our outfit.”

      “I’ll stick a pencil through my bun and borrow your glasses,” Jane said.

      “What bun?”

      “I’ll have one by eleven.”

      “This I’ve got to see.”

      * * *

      WHEN EMILY LEFT THE OFFICE at five to eleven, Jane really had pulled her hair into a bun. It was a terrible bun, with wisps of hair escaping and two pencils jabbed through it, but it was indisputably a bun.

      “That’s really disgusting,” Emily said as they waited for the elevator.

      “Wait.” Jane lifted Emily’s glasses off her nose and put them on. “How do I look?”

      “You look like a bug with a very bad hairdo,” Emily said. “You look like Norman Bates’s mother as a young mental patient. You look like—”

      The elevator doors opened, and they got on with several other executives. Emily glanced sideways at Jane and tried not to laugh. If things got really bad, she’d just look at Jane and feel better.

      “It’s a good thing there’s only going to be the three of us in this meeting,” Emily whispered. “Anybody else would know you were up to something.”

      Jane pushed the glasses up the bridge of her nose, sniffed and said loudly and nasally, “I just want you to know, Ms. Tate, that it is an honor and a privilege to work for you, and I really mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

      “Thank you, Mrs. Frobish,” Emily said. “Your loyalty is heartwarming.”

      “Do you have any СКАЧАТЬ