Prettiest Girl in the Room

"I don't know what to say," Candice whispered.

"Just say you'll help me."

"Help you how?"

"Just send in a revised application, identical to the last one, except this time merely ticking the box to say that the appraisals were done to confirm the value. The man on the phone with me wasn't asking for the actually appraisals themselves, he was only asking that the box be ticked so they knew the appraisals were done. That way, if the loan goes south, they will be off the hook."

"And I'll be right on that hook for lying, won't I?" blurted out Candice, visibly shaking because he was suggesting she lie for him.

"It's not like it matters," Gerald countered. "We both know the restaurant will be a rip-roaring success."

"But if it's not? And they sell your properties and can't get their money back? And if they ask to see the appraisals at that time? What then?"

"I thought you believed in me and were buying into my dream. But you're just like all the rest, aren't you? Bean counting hypocrites."

With those last words he spun round and began marching away from her office.

She flew to her feet and ran to where he was, grabbing his arm to stop him mid-stride. She glanced around tentatively to make sure no one was within ear shot.

"You have no right to talk to me like that," she said. "And you're being very unfair. You know damn well I've been very supportive of your loan application and pushed it and expedited it along. I even stuck my neck out to Brian so he would approve it then fast track it to Doherty. A loan app that should have taken a week or longer to reach head office only took one day. And in most cases it wouldn't have even gotten out of the branch at all. They were all taking my word for it that your loan should be approved and approved very quickly. It's not my fault that head office decided to audit your loan app."

"False promises," he shouted back, causing a few heads to peek out from their offices. She was mortified.

"Keep your voice down," she begged.

"Why? You don't want everyone in this bank to know the truth? That you're a liar that uses men to get what she wants?"

Candice lost it. "What the hell are you talking about? What did you ever do for me besides make me waste my damn time by feeding me lies about the value of your properties that are probably worthless?"

"Not as worthless as your friendship has turned out to be. And to think I actually liked you, and wanted to start up a dating relationship with you. I must have been nuts."

He yanked his arm out of her grasp, then marched away in a rage. If she wasn't going to lie for him, then he wasn't going to get his loan. And if he wasn't going to get his loan, then his dream would be destroyed. In that regard, she supposed she couldn't hold him responsible for cursing her out. He was out of his mind with grief and disappointment. He had been certain he was going to get his take out bar, and even more certain that she was going to help him set it up and rake in the big bucks. Only now he had to accept the fact she wasn't even willing to help him get it off the ground. Not if it entailed lying for him. And most certainly not if it entailed losing her career over it.

She now sighed in anguish, and was horrified at the five or so female co-workers peeking out of their offices to savor the juicy argument. More embarrassment. More rumor mills. More gossip.

She scurried back to her own office and shut the door. She was only gratified that it was a slow day with the horrific rainfall. That meant the bank had no customers in it and that she had no loan apps to fill out. She could meditate woefully on the day's events in solitude and merely spend all her time licking her wounds.

She felt terrible for Gerald. She knew only too well what it was like always living on the financial edge, never quite having enough. For once in his life he had achieved a dream that would have fulfilled all his fantasies, and he was only one step away. Candice knew that she had assured him the loan would be his, and the money making restaurant would be reeling in money for him hand over fist. Only...only...real life isn't always like that, and for Gerald, it would undoubtedly be going back to some menial, mind numbing, back breaking minimum wage job, where some loathsome task master would be ensuring he slaved away for each hour of the day. And to what end? To make even less than Candice, and to eek out a living in some one bedroom apartment? Driving a rust bucket that always leaked oil and always needed repairs? No wonder he was bitter. Still, she hoped that when he calmed down and realized how he'd hurt her feelings, that he might phone her up to apologize.

Rachel knocked on her office door then opened it.

"Candice."

Candice didn't hear her. She was still pondering Gerald's state of mind. And then Candice thought to herself that if she had of had enough money saved, then for sure she would have lent it to him. Better yet, if she was rich like Eric, then she would have just given it to him, and...and...the wheels in her head began to churn overtime. If Eric wanted to, he could easily lend the 150k to Gerald, or even give it to him and never miss it. After all, Eric was a man that dealt in millions, not thousands. And not only that, but Eric had some powerful connections to the bank. The publishing company that put out Eric's books, did hundreds of millions of dollars a year with the bank worldwide. A simple phone call from Eric or his publisher and they would instantly lend the money to Gerald without any hesitation or damn conditions at all. Her mind was now running amok. Eric seemed truly smitten with her, and was begging to start dating her. Surely he would be anxious to do her a favor. Wouldn't he? Such a favor would be peanuts to him but mean the world to someone like Gerald.

Rachel's face reddened with frustration. Candice seemed to be on another planet.

"Candice. There is a client looking for a loan."

Again, Candice heard nothing. Instead, she began mulling over her thoughts. But then it hit her. Wouldn't Eric feel that she was just trying to use him? And that she was just trying to milk him for cash and take advantage of the fact he really liked her?

She now tried to weigh the danger of asking Eric for favors at the exact time Eric was asking her to be his steady girlfriend. And then it dawned on her. As upset as he might become if she were try to tap him for 150K, he might also view it as an opportunity to make her feel indebted to him. And Candice knew that she might become so desperate to try and help Gerald that she might even find herself taking off her clothes so that Eric would do her that favor. She cringed at the thought. Nothing in the world was free. Price tags were always attached to everything, and if a price for a favor was not even mentioned, then surely it would be implied. Eric was crazy about her. Candice was sure of that. She had heard of guys falling in love at first sight. Could Eric be bitten by the love bug? And if so, would he be willing to prove his love? And at what price?

Rachel marched over to her desk and slammed her hand down hard on it.

"Candice, for heaven's sake. Snap out of it."

Candice came to herself and almost leaped out of her skin. "Oh sorry. I was daydreaming."

"I'll say. But if you were thinking about men, you needn't bother. With your stunning looks they'll find their way to your door twenty-four seven."

"Not all it's cracked up to be," Candice retaliated coyly.

"The hell it isn't. Most of us girls working at this bank would give our right arm to have your man troubles."

Candice shrugged. If Rachel was looking for more ammunition for the gossip mills, she wasn't going to get it from her.

"As I was saying," Rachel continued. "There is a lady at the desk looking for a car loan. I just wanted to make sure you were free. Or if your head is still going to be stuck in the clouds for a while, I could always sent her to Sandra or Daphne."

"No, I can use the practice. I'll take her. Only I'm surprised someone would bother coming out in such a downpour."

"Wow, you really are behind the times, aren't you? The rains subsided twenty minutes ago."

"I hadn't noticed," Candice said. "The rains may have stopped but my thoughts were still pouring through my mind."

"I'll bet, what with Brian nipping at your cute little, chocolate flavored heels."

XXX

She made it trembling to her bedroom. She then tossed herself onto her bed, and felt the avalanche of tears flow freely.

Candice sat up with her back against the headboard and peeked at her reddened eyes in the dresser mirror. Even the mascara was starting to run profusely.

She next pulled her knees up into her large, firm breasts and felt herself shake like a leaf. Her life was coming apart at the seams and it was her own damn fault. Her dinner with Eric, instead of being a fairy tale acceptance of his fabulous gift, had turned into nightmare of dust and ashes.

She began banging the back off her head off the head board. How could she have been so incredibly stupid as to ask Eric to fund Gerald's restaurant? She told herself that she ought to have known Eric would have felt used and scammed by such a suggestion. She had barely known Eric for a few measly days, and yet she had taken it upon herself to ask if he would be willing to cough up 150K to let Gerald keep his dream alive. And the result? Eric had exploded with rage and leapt to his feet, saying he thought she was different than all the other female gold diggers in his life, all only caring about one thing and one thing only, his money.

She opened her purse and took out the impressive gold plated desk name plate he had gotten made for her at the jewellers. Three ounces of pure gold had been used to cover the name plate, and fifteen ounces of pure silver had been used to make the letters in her name. He had confided in her that it had cost him ten thousand dollars to have it made. But instead of her thanking him for it and acting all appreciative, she had succumbed to the impulse to suddenly ask him for the 150K.

She began kicking herself in earnest. How could Eric have not thought she was trying to scam him?

She closed her wet, red eyes and tried not to remember the carnage that took place immediately after she suggested that Eric write her out a check.

Still, having closed eyes couldn't stop the wretched memories from flooding into her mind. He had abruptly ended their dinner, tossed two hundred dollars onto the table to more than cover the half eaten meal, and then had tossed a hundred more onto her lap and told her to take a cab. He had also mentioned as he was leaving, that he never wanted to see her ever again. And then he had stormed red faced and angry out of the restaurant.

She now pondered over the unfortunate and atrocious events of the last three days. Her stunning world class looks were proving to be more of a curse than a blessing. Events had conspired to cause her to meet three really great men in the space of only three days. But during that short time, she had somehow managed to get into a shouting match with Brian, and have Gerald accuse her of being a manipulative promise breaking bitch, and have Eric insinuate she was nothing but a gold digging, self-serving scam artist that needed to be shunned.

XXX

Day four on the job as a loan officer at the bank. Candice had been summoned to the bank manager's office. Once there, she was seated across from the bank manager, Mr. Doherty, and next to the assistant bank manager, the heart throb Brian.

Brian, who was the only man still standing in her life, was about to introduce her to a rude awakening. The independent auditing firm hired by head office to inspect the integrity of business loan applications, had zeroed in on the recently rejected application for Gerald's seemingly doomed restaurant. At question in the auditor's preliminary findings, was not so much Candice's failure as a new loan officer to do at least some research on offered assets as collateral, but rather the lightning speed with which Brian had approved the application she had fast tracked, and sent it flying across Doherty's desk so it could be again fast tracked to head office for recommended approval.

"You should have told me that you hadn't at least done some research on the two condo units he owned," Brian lamented to Candice, red faced and angry. "In today's soft market, a quick two minute check of comparable units on the real estate listing's page would have told you he was stating the value of the properties for twice what they were actually worth. And since you already had a reliable list of the mortgages assigned to his two properties, that would have been very easy and quick to do indeed. Two minutes was all it would have taken to confirm the value of his assets."

Brian then turned to Doherty. "Still, seeing as how she is new to the job, I should have checked more thoroughly at what she was doing. If it would have taken only two minutes for her to check, then it would have taken only two minutes for me to check. I think therefore that I should be held accountable."

Mr. Doherty glared at his Assistant Bank Manager. Brian had been a Godsend, working extra hours, and working on his own time from his computer at home, and handling a lot of the bank's affairs so that Doherty himself wouldn't have to bother. And he knew only too well that Brain had never so much as once fucked up before. Doherty guessed that Brian had some strong feelings for the new loan officer and had obviously allowed that to cloud his judgement.

"Listen Brian, I've already placed a reprimand in your file," Doherty said. "But as for Candice here, she had the two day orientation session at the head office training center before she started working for us four days ago. She was properly taught how to fill out loan apps and to recommend them for either approval or rejection. Her failure to do her job has put the bank's standing with Government financial watch dogs at risk. It also calls my own judgement as bank manager into question. It was me, after all, relying on both your judgements that caused me to fast track the app to head office."

The bank manager himself, however, was not about to take any formal responsibility for such a debacle. As he had just stated, he had relied on the judgment of Brian, his Assistant Bank Manager, to scrutinize the assigned value of each offered up asset to ensure its authenticity. But it was obvious from even the minutest of evaluations, that Gerald's properties were already over leveraged and worth grossly less than what was stated on the application. As such, the bank had approved, at the branch level, a hundred and fifty thousand dollar business loan based on assets that were basically worth nothing.

Candice decided to suddenly plead her case. "I am certain, that if that loan were to be approved, the proposed restaurant would be a major success," Candice protested, adding. "Gerald's lifelong dream was to be in business for himself. He had a great business plan and he deserved to have a chance."

Doherty eyed her carefully. She was by far the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, black or white, but she was also the most naive. Did she really believe that banks were in the habit of tossing a hundred and fifty grand into the winds on a whim? The bank couldn't care a less if the restaurant succeeded or not, or if Gerald 'deserved' to have a chance. The only thing the bank was supposed to care about was the applicant's credit rating and even more importantly, the quality of the assets that were being put up for collateral. Gerald's credit rating was only so-so at best, but his collateral could be considered fake if not actually non-existent.

Then Doherty shook his head at Candice and laid down the law. "I'm sorry Candice, it's sheer bad luck that there just happened to be an auditor at head office that day, and even worse luck that he just happened to focus on your loan app as opposed to the hundreds of others laying around from other branches. But even with the rousing success of how you handled Eric Holding's loan, the application to Gerald calls into question all of our loans past and present, and will also put us under intense scrutiny for the future. If I allow you to remain working here, then head office will view all our future applications as suspect. And so I'm afraid I am going to have to let you go. Effective immediately, you no longer work here."

"I don't think you have to fire her," Brian protested. "Just a write up and suspension should satisfy head office."

"I'm sorry," Mr. Doherty spat out, glaring at Brian. "Someone has to be on record as taking the rap, and Candice here is the one that created the situation in the first place. Listen Brian. You could have been fired as well, had head office requested it. So consider yourself lucky to be getting off so light. But Candice? She has to go and she's gone."

The humiliation began to eat away at Candice. She wanted to get up and run out of the damn bank at once. Still, she needed to know how her financial situation, already bleak and dismal, was going to be affected.

"How much severance pay will I be getting?" Candice asked, wondering how on earth she was supposed to buy groceries much less pay her formidable rent."

"Unfortunately you have not been with us for three months so you could pass your probation. That means you will only be paid the two day training and four days here at the bank, which I'll generously credit you even though you're only into an hour of the fourth day. So altogether, just the six days."

Candice wanted to beg for a second chance, but had had her fill of asking men for things as of late, particularly since the sting of Eric's tantrum was so damn fresh in her heart and in her mind. She had stumbled across three absolute dream men on her first day on the job, but by day four, they had all disintegrated into dust.

"Fine, I'll be the scapegoat," she muttered. "Just like you men to stick together against a woman."

She rose and stomped out of his office, headed for her own cubicle so she could retrieve her things.

Brian didn't follow her as she supposed he would. Instead, after entering her own office and closing the door, she realized that Brian no doubt wanted nothing to do with her again either. Just as was the case with Gerald and Eric, she had become public enemy number one where the assistant bank manager was concerned.

She found, shoved in a corner, the empty box that she had used when carrying her things inside just four short days ago. She hadn't gotten around to disposing of the box, which was just as well. She would need it again immediately.

She yanked her degrees off the wall and tossed them in the box. Then she flung open her drawer and grabbed her nail polish and personal pens. Next she swiped the nick knacks off her desk into the box as well, including the picture of her dead parents. She frowned as she looked on their faces. If only they could see their daughter now, neck high in worthless degrees that had devoured the inheritance they'd left her.

"If only you guys could see me now," she whispered to the picture, adding "busted and disgusted."

She scoured the room frantically with her moistening eyes. She wanted to get the hell out of the bank before the damn waterfalls started. She had gone from being admired by the men of her dreams, to being hated by them, and she had succeeded in getting fired from a job that had taken her six long months to obtain. There were no more jobs to be had in this dead end town, which could mean only one thing. She was royally fucked.

She got up to leave and then noticed the amazing name plate sitting on the edge of her desk, the same name plate that had been given to her by Eric last night at dinner, just minutes before she had stupidly asked him for a loan for Gerald. She now wondered how she had managed to do something so incredibly stupid. And speaking of stupid, she now also wondered why she had brought the name plate into the bank in the first place. She now had to ask herself if she had damn rocks in her amazingly pretty head. Ounces of gold had been used to gold plate it, and ounces of silver had been used for the lettering. It was worth anywhere from five to ten thousand. Maybe more? Anyone could have stolen it. Thankfully, it was still there. She picked it up and dropped it into the box.