Prettiest Girl in the Room

The figure of 'ten million' struck a chord with Candice. A guy named Eric had been in earlier in the day looking for that identical amount. Could it possibly be? Candice wondered.

"Does this big client have a name?"

Brian screwed up his face, but couldn't seem to cough up a name. "Not sure, but Racheal at the front desk would know, as would Mable and probably Sandra and Daphne, although Daphne is off sick. Doherty sent out memos to all of them, as well as to all the tellers. But I never had a chance to glance at the name off hand."

Candice breathed a sigh of relief. Sandra had introduced Eric to her without any fanfare about him being super important. Neither had Mable. Still, Sandra, if she remembered correctly, had only been filling in for Rachel at the front desk. What if she never read the memo addressed to Rachel, nor received the one sent to her office because she was too busy relieving the front desk? Old memos often got buried dangerously quickly under new memos.

"Do we have to leave just now?" Candice asked, breaking out in a desperate sweat. She certainly wouldn't be able to enjoy lunch with Brian, working or otherwise, with such a large sword potentially hanging over her head. She had already pilfered the boss's parking spot. But summarily dismissing such an important client? Even insulting him to boot? That would certainly be one way to lose your much needed job on your very first day.

"Something come up?" he asked. "You seem anxious and worried."

She cringed. No way did she want Brian to know she might have fucked up big time.

"Nothing really. Just need to check on something is all. Can you give me ten minutes?"

"Fine, I'll come back in ten. But no longer or they might give our table to someone else."

"No more than ten, promise."

Brian spun on his heels and marched off. Now it was time for a backtracking Candice to do her detective work.

She dialed the number to the front desk.

"Hello?" said Rachel, not bothering to go through the whole standard bank greeting, seeing as how it was clearly an internal call.

"Candice here."

"Ah so nice to finally hear your voice at last. Sandra told me she had brought in a client to see you. I'm glad she was able to cover for me. With Daphne off sick, I was lucky to even get a break."

"I hate to bother you," Candice said. "But that client that she brought in to see me, do you know if he was-"

"Not sure who she brought in to see you," Rachel interrupted. "Like I said, I was on break."

"Does the name Eric Holding ring a bell?"

There was a pause. "Isn't that the name of the client that Mr. Doherty warned us about? We're supposed to let him know the minute he arrives."

"Shit."

"What was that?"

"Nothing. What I meant to say is that he already arrived."

Another pause.

"The client Sandra took to see you?"

"The one and the same."

"Damn. So you gave him the loan, right?"

"Wrong. I never got the damn memo, and since you never mentioned it to Sandra, then-"

"You fucked up and suddenly it's my fault?"

"How was I supposed to know?"

"Did you check the mail and memos dropped on your desk? I'm sure Mable must have dropped them off earlier. The note about Eric was in there, I'm sure of it."

"Well it's my first day. I do, come to think of it remember her saying she was dropping some memos on my desk. But I didn't realize I had to-"

"Just what did you think memos delivered to your desk were for, if not to be read?"

An even longer pause.

"I didn't know they had to be read immediately is what I'm trying to say."

"So you sent the guy packing, is that it?"

"Sort of, well, I mean he wanted ten million. And he claimed to be a romance novelist. It sounded so-"

"He claimed to be? Girl where have you been all these years, with you head buried in the sand? Eric Holding is one of the top romance novelists on the planet. He writes under different women's names."

"That's what he said. But I-"

"Listen girl. All I know is that since he lives in town they often get him to do book signings down at Grady's book store at Camdons Square One Mall. He's going to be doing one there today as a matter of fact. I was actually planning to nip by on my lunch to buy his latest release then have him autograph it for me."

"His latest release?"

"Yeah, entitled, 'Storm Clouds for Tracy,' by Mary Tolston."

"Mary Tolston? She's one of my favorite authors."

"Yeah, well now you know that 'she' is actually a 'he,' and that the name of that 'he' is Eric Holding. If I were you I'd bugger off down to the mall book signing right now and beg him to come back to the bank so you can do the paperwork and approve his loan. His publishers are serious international clients for the bank, if Eric lets them know you turned him away, they might ditch our bank. You'd be staring at an automatic pink slip if that ever happened. And you know how damn hard jobs are to come by in this fucking town."

Candice was instantly incredulous. She had stolen the boss's parking spot and was about to get him in hot water with head office over having insulted and turned down a major client. There would be no way to keep her job if she didn't somehow find a way to get Eric back to the bank and then approve his ten million dollar loan immediately.

There was a knock at her already half open door.

Candice looked up, already half covered in nervous sweat.

Brian was standing there. "You ready now? We really gotta be going right away if we're going to-"

"Can I take a rain check?" Candice blurted out, causing Brian to be taken aback. She had earlier promised to have lunch with him, and now she was calling it off. He took it as a personal slight.

"I blew off some important staff meetings to even take a lunch today," he lied. "If this is how you're going to keep your word then you're going to be in for a rough ride."

She sighed angrily. All her life her spectacular looks had failed to give her the advantage in a man's world that so many of her friends insisted they would. If anything, her spectacular looks had only made her front and center in the sights of super horny males who held the upper hand and were always trying to make her flirt with them non-stop until she might do a whole lot more. Letting him glare down her generous cleavage at some boring lunch was one thing, but sitting back while he had her unfairly terminated was something altogether different. And this time she wasn't having any of it.

"If you want to screw me over where not passing the three month probation is concerned," Candice shouted, clearly frustrated at her whole day. "Than just make sure you have all your I's dotted and your T's crossed. Cause I can shove the labor board so far up your ass with a sexual harassment charge that you'll be shitting your brains out of your ears for a whole year."

Her words floored him. His face turned beet red. She had only been working there a quarter day and already she was self-destructing, holding herself out as some trouble making super hero.

"Whatever, bitch," he said, spitting the words out at her venomously. "Do what you want, but don't ask for my help whenever you fuck up, which will probably be every day."

He stormed out of her office, and she gasped in utter frustration.

"Fuck," she muttered at herself, barely above a whisper. Then she said, much louder, "shit, shit and more damn shit. It just keep going from bad to worse."

She was less than three hours into her first day on the job and she had managed to upset the manager, lose a major client, piss off her supervisor and-

"Hi again."

The voice startled her, especially since she had been muttering curses to herself. Still, the voice was unique enough that she recognized it immediately. Without even needing to look up, she could tell that it was Gerald, the broad shouldered, quite handsome, pearly toothed black business owner wannabe that had graced her office about an hour earlier. She had given him the unorthodox approval to take her out to a working dinner. The thought made her break out in a sarcastic smile. Guys were always trying to take her out on dates because of her sizzling long legs, eye popping twin melons where her chest should have been, wide sexy hips, thick succulent lips, and long 'cock hardening' hair that could give men a heart attack just by watching her toss it to the side.

She looked up and broadened her already broadened smile. It was indeed Gerald in all his muscle chested glory. Being a black woman was hard on her because most men thought that black women might make an easier target where getting seduced was concerned because black women usually had to be twice as good at everything as white women were.

"I thought you said I'd be meeting you at Mario's after work? It's only eleven. You've come to change our plans?"

"Kind of. My mother just phoned me and said they've moved up her chemo treatments from eight at night to five this afternoon. Won't be able to make that working dinner. So I was thinking that maybe lunch at eleven, instead?"

Candice glanced at the clock. 10:59. Only a minute to go. In a way she was glad that the opportunity to go out with Brain had been negated. A lot of white guys acted as though they were God's gift to black women. And in a way, Gerald's countenance told her that he had humbled himself from his earlier stance. He desperately needed that loan, or it would be slaving away at some back-breaking minimum wage job with zero benefits and a cloudy future. And he was smart enough to know that her in-depth knowledge of businesses in the area could, when coupled with the loan, help give him a leg up on the completion.

"I think it's nice that you care so much about your ill mother. But to tell you the truth, I think I'll be skipping lunch today. I need to spend my lunch hour getting a book signed by an author down at the Square One Mall."

"Ah, you must be referring to the great Eric Holding."

His words had the same effect of a submarine launching a torpedo.

"You know about Eric? Being a romance author and all? Using women's pen names? How is it that everyone on the face of the earth seems to know about him but me? How is it that I never knew most of his pen names even though one of the ones he uses, or rather the woman he writes as, is my favorite author."

Gerald smiled. "So you're a 'know it all' about most things, like setting up businesses, but not when it comes to the books you read? Just goes to show you how much of a pushover women are when it comes to a good romance novel. Speaking of romance, are you seeing anyone at the moment?"

His question caught her off guard and she was about to let him know his question was a little on the private side, but the clock told her she was hanging around on borrowed time. The clock read 11:01.

"I'm off to the mall," she said, grabbing her jacket.

He smiled again and nodded from side to side, willing to get his jabs in. "Off to the mall to get a book signed by your favorite author whom you thought was a woman but whom just happens to be a man."

Candice looked at him impatiently then said "guilty as charged." She then hustled passed him.

"You seem to be in an all fire hurry to meet your favorite author and get him to sign your book. Mind if I tag along? Maybe, if the line's not too long we can still have time to grab a slice of pizza or something? You do, after all, get an hour for lunch and the mall's only about a fifteen minute walk away."

"Or a mere two minutes if I drive."

"Let me drive you," he said. "I'm parked across the street, on the same side as the mall. And so you won't have to make a U-turn coming out of the bank parking lot, and there is always a long line of cars turning at the light. It can take forever."

"Fine, anything to save time."

Candice really didn't want him tagging along, but it was a game of survival. And if he could save ten or more minutes getting to the book signing and then another ten minutes getting back to work, then that just might make all the difference. She had to be back at twelve noon sharp from lunch.

True to his word, he was parked in a very advantageous position.

He used the remote to unlock the passenger side for her, then he slid behind the wheel and revved the engine.

"You don't mind if we talk about my loan on the way to the mall, do you?"

"Not at all," she said, gratified as he backed up then swerved carefully into the oncoming traffic. The cars on the other side were snaking impossibly long toward the light. They, on the other hand, could simply bypass all the heavy traffic. They were going to make it to the mall in no time.

"But before we talk about my loan, you still never answered my question."

Her mind was racing in all directions. And speaking of loans, she was out of her mind with worry. She was afraid that the Eric signing books at the mall had either already told his publisher she'd turned him down for the loan, or might not listen to her beg him to give her another chance where granting the loan was concerned. She recalled the conversation back at her office with Eric and knew she had insulted him.

"Boy, your mind really is twisted in knots, isn't it? You can't be that in love with a romance author can you?"

"Huh?"

"Well you seem so preoccupied with Eric's book signing, almost as though it were life and death."

Candice pondered over the lessor of two evils. He had sought to ask her about her failure to answer his earlier question, which was, 'was she seeing anyone romantically at the moment?' He had also sought to find out why she was so desperate to have some book signed. Was she obsessed with some guy? And how could that even be possible if she hadn't even known up to a short while earlier that Eric was really the female author she thought she knew but didn't. She didn't want to discuss her love life with Gerald, at least not just yet. But she didn't mind letting him know why she was so desperate to talk with Eric. Maybe if Gerald knew the reason why, then he would help her get to Eric faster. It was, after all, in Gerald's best interests that she keep her loan officer job at the bank. She was favorable to him getting the loan, but a new loan officer might not be.

"I fucked up," Candice admitted softly, ejecting the words from her mouth as if they were cartridges being spent from a rifle.

"I don't understand."

"Quite simply, I was supposed to give Eric Holding a loan but I didn't know he was a multi-million dollar best-selling author. And I didn't know his publishing company did hundreds of millions of dollars in business with our bank worldwide. I thought he was a crack pot, and I even insulted him, and, oh shit, never mind-"

"Sooooo, I'm guessing you want to ask him to forgive you and to have him come back to redo the loan paperwork so you can approve his loan and not get fired?"

"Something like that."

"Would they really fire you over that? It was, after all, your first day on the job."

"That's no excuse for costing the bank one of its biggest clients. It took me six months to get this job. There is just nothing in this damn small town. If I lose this job then I'll lose my home, and my car, and my closet full of nice clothes. Then I'll have to move to the city and I love this town. I grew up here. My parents and grandparents live here."

She suddenly regretted spilling the beans to a guy who was basically a stranger. Still, he was driving fast and efficiently, pulling into the mall, making a b-line for the south-east entrance where the book store was. If there was anyone that could get her into the book line quickly and efficiently, then it was him.

He came to the closet possible spot and outmaneuvered some guy in a jag vying him for the same coveted spot.

As Candice stepped out of the car she noticed the smitten driver giving her the finger. She prayed he wouldn't try to make a damn scene over Gerald reaching his parking spot before he did. She just didn't have time for any delays.

Gerald stepped out of the car, and when the white guy saw how broad shouldered, and big chested and tall he was, then he backed off and drove away.

She moved quickly for the door and her heart sank when she stepped inside the mall and saw the long line of anxious ladies stretching past the book store doors.

As she got closer she sighed wearily in the knowledge that the long line of more than a hundred ladies, all making small talk as they reached Eric, were going to make her wait in line over an hour. She joined the line quickly. And Gerald soon reached and stood next to her. Someone muttered that he had butt in. Gerald ignored the remark. The line was growing longer and longer.

"You'll need to have a book to stay in this line," a lady with a red sales jacket warned Gerald.

"Oh, I'm just waiting with her," he said, pointing to Candice standing next to him.

"Fine, but then where's her book?"

"My book?" Candice blurted out, looking puzzled.

The store saleslady seemed agitated. "This is a book signing. Everybody has to have a book to meet with the author. You have to grab a book off of that table back by the front door. Then you have to rejoin this line. You pay for it when this line reaches the register and then you have him sign it behind the register by that desk where he is sitting. You can't meet him unless you've purchased a book."

"I see, okay, I'll get a book."

"I'll wait here," Gerald said. "You don't want to lose your spot in line. I'll hold your place for you."

"Yeah, of course. Thanks a lot. I'm suddenly really glad you came."

She walked over to the remaining stack of books on the table by the front door, then grabbed one of the books and carried it back to the line.

"Thanks for holding my spot," Candice managed.

"Don't mention it."

"I feel really guilty over how I had you stereotyped at first as a male chauvinist asshole. And how I berated you back at the bank" Candice said to him.

He smiled. "No need to apologize about you being a hard ass. Most loan officers are. I'll admit though that you're the most beautiful hard ass I've ever seen."

"Don't push your luck," Candice cautioned playfully. "You've just begun to get into my good books. You don't want to blow the chance later for a date if that's what you're angling for."

"As long as that date has a little bit of black on black crime that goes along with it, if you know what I mean."

Candice snickered. "I'm very discerning. Can't help but having high standards."

"Hmm, are you trying to say I don't make the cut?"

"Maybe, maybe not," she flirted, making him crazy.

"I'll have to admit," he offered. "That you're the hottest woman I've seen in a long time, black or white. And you surely know how to push all a guy's buttons."

"Yeah, but most guys don't have a clue as how to push mine. And so I end up turning down most offers, even if they're well intentioned. And so it's been long time since I've been in the saddle. I might want to not bother and just stay rusty." she countered, again playfully. Flirting was her strong suit, making him twice as crazy, only she wanted to keep her cards close to her vest.

"You're good at teasing," he admitted, starting to break out in a sweat. "And probably the best at pleasing, if ever you get around to it."

His candor, desperation, and natural longing puppy dog eyes pulled at her heart strings. She now decided that she had totally misread him earlier as an egocentric, macho cardboard cut-out, with super-hot looks but super cold class. Now he just seemed rather nice, kind of like a giant needy teddy bear. She hoped her opinion of him wasn't being flashed on her sleeve.

"Next, please."

Candice didn't notice the woman at the cash beckoning to her.

"You're next," said the middle aged plain looking woman behind her.