A Dream of Age & Beauty

My mood darkened when I twigged to the man, an annoying wanker from New York. He'd seemed very condescending in London but at the same time strangely fixated on Yvonne, to the point even she was a bit put out. I recalled he was just past 50 and his wife was the stereotypical quarter-century younger blonde trophy wife with fake tits straight from central casting.

"Putting it on big screen," I said into my mic and I clicked the button to enable the link to the telly, applause picked up when the audience saw their Chairman and the others.

"Can you hear us, Mr. Smythe?" Yvonne said, although their smiles at the applause indicated we were on.

"Yes, yes we can, Yvonne, thank you all for letting us intrude on your celebration," he said, avoiding maximum stentorian for now. He introduced his female companion as Margaret Timmons, the company CFO, for the benefit of the room and the man as a senior Vice President and the top dog at the New York office. What did New York have to do with this? The CFO, sure.

"Why New York?" I said quietly on my direct line to Reg.

"No idea, been here couple of days," I could hear the shrug in his answer.

Smythe asked Margaret to highlight the total financial achievements of Yvonne's office, the highest per-employee of any office. I mouthed 'quite the arse she has' to Yvonne and nodded at the screen while Margaret spoke. Her hand motion of sawing off one of my limbs with a wire saw was probably only discernible by me, if anyone else saw her instead of the screen they'd likely just think she was shifting her weight.

Smythe took back over and asked for the various folks recognised earlier to wave as he reran the earlier announcements. I watched Yvonne watch the screen, sending half smiles my way every so often, applause and cheers from the group.

"Now," Smythe's voice in full I'm In Charge timbre, "I'd mentioned to the best MD we have I have a surprise for tonight."

I saw Yvonne's jaw clenched and her eyes go slightly tight, but her extreme professionalism kept the neutral smile on her face.

"We asked her to announce your 5% bonus earlier, but that's not what she wanted you to have."

Her eyes a bit more hooded now.

"No, she wanted you to have 10%."

Looks her way now as Smythe read his audience and paused.

"I'm here to announce we've agreed, 10% it is."

He went silent which was fine. The roar in the room made anything else hopeless. I watched my lover exhale slowly and her face loosen into a genuine smile. This had apparently been a discussion she'd thought she'd lost. After a vigorous hip, hip hoorah the sound in the room lessened. Above Yvonne's head at the table we'd occupied at the far end I saw a broadly smiling Kate with a couple of the restaurant servers uncorking a number of champagne bottles and setting up flutes.

"Thank you, Mr. Smythe, that's very generous of the Company!" Yvonne said on behalf of her folks.

"Now that's taken care of, the important announcement," Smythe started again, "I'd like Senior Vice President Joel vanDusen to make it. Joel..."

'What?' I was quite sure was what Yvonne mouthed, then her jaw tightened again and she stiffened. I'd learned many of her subtle signs these last few months and that she pushed her face into a neutral smile was impressive. I'd seen her anger although it had never been directed at me, but it could be epic.

"We know you love Yvonne. So do we. So much so that as of the New Year she'll be our newest Vice President," Smythe's mellifluous British accent replaced by this Yank one, I think that sort of polished 'we pretend we're almost British' sort of accent.

That silenced the crowd. I expected to see a sort of joy or at least a smile of accomplishment on Yvonne's face but I saw instead a look of... confusion, even seeming... anger? She caught my eye with a look of distress that I'd never seen on her before. I was suddenly very confused. Was this not good news?

"As part of this we'll be taking her away from you and she'll become my number two for North America, in New York City."

"Fuck," I said quietly. Now I really didn't like the guy.

"Fuck, indeed," I heard gently in my earpiece. Oh, shit, not muted. But. What. New York? Huh? I looked right at her, my mouth hanging open a bit. She looked at me, I mouthed 'you could have told me..."

The look of distress on her face was strong, beginning to break through her now-wavering smile. Apparently she read my lips, now I read 'I didn't know...' Then she swallowed.

"I really don't know what to say, Mr. vanDusen," she managed aloud.

The crowd's stunned silence was beginning to break, mixture of cheers, good shows and murmurs.

I caught her eye and there was no twinkle there. She mouthed 'sorry, sorry' to me.

"Just call me Joel. We'll be working together after all. We know this is a big surprise, but don't worry. We want to make sure our best office doesn't miss a beat, but we expect Yvonne will have New York breathing down your necks in no time. We'll be in touch this coming week but for now, everyone have some champagne and have a great, relaxing weekend. You've all earned it. We'll let you go now."

"Thank you, sir, Joel, we appreciate it all," she held her composure, "good day."

"3, 2, 1," in my ear, the far end went dark, I stopped our camera.

"Hey, man," in my ear, "wow, good luck."

"Thanks, Reg, May we live in interesting times. Cheers!" I disconnected. I didn't feel that last word but I'd really liked him when we met in London so pushed myself for that reason.

I lifted the headset off and looked for Yvonne, saw her in the middle of a scrum of her employees, concern on some faces, well wishers on others, some I couldn't read. She caught my eye and quickly motioned to everyone to give her a minute, then she strode quickly and wrapped me in her arms, pushing us deeper into the shadowed spot in a bear hug, her arms tight around my back and I returned the embrace.

"Two years," her quiet voice meant just for me, "the fuckers told me I needed to keep things going here two more years. THEN they'd talk promotion."

She took a deep breath. Everyone tried to not stare at us but most weren't succeeding. At least they were giving us space.

"I knew a promotion would mean leaving, I'm topped out here, so either new company or new country. But I thought I, no, I thought WE, had time."

"Sweetheart," I said quietly, "it is what it is. We'll deal with it. Tomorrow. Tonight, some champagne is definitely in order. Maybe you'll get lucky if you get me a bit drunk and we can treat this as one of your very, very, annoying conference calls?"

She pulled her head back to look me in the eye. Finally a genuine smile and the beginning of a twinkle in her eyes.

"You beautiful cheeky nasty uncomplicated boy," then she kissed me, hard and open mouthed, her tongue going fast and deep. Any doubts her staff may have had about us would be gone now. Despite the crowd, her kiss and the pressure of her body meant my cock was as hard as possible, fortunately hidden by her body for now as it was constrained only by my slacks, commando in sympathy with her state. She felt it and pressed in. After some fair while she backed off the kiss, but held me tight.

"You've got lipstick all over your face, might want to clean up," the twinkling eyes fully on and her thigh nudging my crotch, "and don't let my people see that thing, some will want in on the action. And it won't just be the ladies."

"Yeah, I'll get it. I think your people need you," I said, "I'll get this stuff packed up. I get you after they're finished tonight."

"Yeah. My bones picked clean..."

I kissed her quickly and we released and I tried to move quickly to hide the bulge I had, the shadows helping. But I was forgotten almost immediately as everyone had a million questions and eyes only for my lover. I didn't blame them, this was their livelihood.

Me, her, it was just our lives.