Reaching Lily

They are only moments, after all, and that one was mine. I already looked forward to remembering Adonis, whoever he was.

‘Wait for him,’ commanded Gwen, her voice high with excitement. ‘He’ll be out in a second. This is going to happen. Lily! This is going to happen, do you hear me?’

She jumped in a circle, while I nodded dumbly and let her grab my elbow. We waited by the train like a couple of teenage mall chicks in line for a Miley Cyrus concert.

Are girls still paying attention to Miley? Or did she go out like a wrecking ball? I never listen to the radio.

Anyway.

Figuratively speaking, I missed my train. The last of the passengers exited, and Adonis was not one of them.

But, like I said, sometimes a moment is enough. Though a ‘meet-cute’ wouldn’t have killed me, a ‘look-intensely’ would do just fine. Today. Because ten minutes earlier, today wanted to suck. But after seeing the man I would come to love – and then to hate – I felt a little gorgeous myself.

Is beauty contagious?

My throat dry as a gulch, I swallowed hard enough that it hurt while looking at Gwen, waiting for her to say her inevitable right thing.

‘Aw, shucks, kid.’ She punched me on the arm. ‘But, fuckin’ A, you two totally had the “five-minute marriage”, I’m telling you.’

‘That works. Thanks, Gwen.’

I thought so, too, and I guess she didn’t need to tell me whether I imagined that smouldering exchange. But yes, she did need to, because at the time I was even more insecure than I am now, and I would likely ask her to tell me again later in a weak moment. Normally I second-guessed anything which brought me a bit of joy, since life continually proved me wrong, every chance my silly little life got.

‘Come on.’ Gwen snapped her fingers. I was staring ahead, lost in my head and surely looking catatonic. ‘Let’s go, Lily.’

We headed toward the steps as the tube squeaked forward. I turned my head one last time, hoping for a final glimpse.

Not disappointed.

Because there stood the stranger, hanging onto a tall, steel pole. He looked out the window, and caught my eye once again.

There was a good, solid, old-school I see you and see you seeing me see you moment.

Then he grasped the pole tighter as the train jerked ahead with a warm, sympathetic, whoosh.

And then he was gone.

‘Lily’s got a boyfriend,’ Gwen singsonged.

Nothing’s changed, Lily, said a horrible voice inside my mind. Don’t go getting all happy and cocky. Go look in a mirror, and see if you still imagine that sexy thing would look twice. He was looking at Gwen, not you.

But this time I refused to listen to, or feed, the troll of my own self-doubt. I shook my head, trying to empty my mind and go back to my joyful space, which I should be allowed to feel. Because I was different, and liked myself a little better than I did, out sitting on the steps at South Station, hanging with the pigeons. They were special, too, I guess. In their little pigeony way.

Gwen and I ran up the steps together, excited to be out of the dark, back in the sunshine, where beautiful girls belong.

Chapter Two

Holder Tight

We arrived on the eighteenth floor at 9.07, only to find our tiny corner of Apollyon apocalyptically empty.

‘Fuhhck,’ I said. ‘Where are we supposed to be?’

‘Next floor up. Important And Mysterious Meeting,’ Gwen said, smacking her forehead. ‘Scheduled for Monday morning at nine sharp, and three email reminders last week. Thank God I persuaded you to be a responsible adult.’

‘No doubt.’ I peered around at all the abandoned cubicles. ‘Better to be fashionably late than not show at all, right?’

‘Time will tell.’

* * *

President Colossimo had a thing about punctuality – I suppose most bosses do – and since the Important And Mysterious Meeting appeared to be about something unpleasant to Mr Colossimo, he would be neither pleased nor amused by our tardiness. Gwen and I were both due for another written warning, and I was betting that this was our not-so-lucky day.

Gwen turned to me, fingers to lips. ‘Shh …’

‘Duh,’ I whispered. Stagefright. My stomach churned, and I was rethinking that breakfast burrito.

‘OK.’ Gwen shifted on her feet. Despite her devil-may-care bravado, she was one of the most scared people I’ve ever met.

Still is.

Brave but scared.

‘We so fucked up,’ Gwen said, as we trotted down the hall toward Conference Room Three.

‘I fucked up. You came and found me. And made me get on the train.’

‘True story.’ She gestured towards the door. ‘That means you go in first, buttercup.’

‘Yeah, OK.’ I surreptitiously opened the door of the conference room, where Mr Colossimo was holding court. He stopped, mid-sentence, and his bloated face was less than welcoming.

‘Ladies,’ he said, voice dripping with Mean Old Man sarcasm. ‘So glad you could join us.’

All heads turned – because late-comers who make the punctuality of others look awesome are fascinating – but our mumbled apologies were ignored by all-powerful Mr Colossimo. He cleared his rattly, jowly throat and continued. ‘As I began to say, by way of introduction: on my left is Joey Danforth, a.k.a. “New Kid On the Block”.’

He delivered that with ‘air quotes’, of course, and there was fake chuckling around the long table. What a bunch of suckups. But the heat was off Gwen and me now, and 35 curious faces took a look at the nervous new gofer, thankful for the distraction and reprieve.

‘Joey’s joining the Apollyon HR team, so Joey is always ready to –’ Mr Colossimo looked quickly at his legal pad ‘– lend an ear. Maybe he’s the “New Kid”, but we’re the – hold on.’ We waited while he looked back at his notes. ‘Funky bunch.’

Did Mr Colossimo really need to check his notes for this unfunny patter? Jesus. I hated him in a very unwholesome way right then. Anyway, poor Joey The New Kid. I waited for Gwen to text me. Sure enough:

new guy jo=totaly mark walbrg, undrcvr, RIGHT ;)

While adorable, Joey Danforth was no Marky-Mark. Really, Gwen. Luckily my phone was on vibrate.

Under the table I typed back:

STFU&no more txt

‘Dawna Jamison, tell us about the DVDs.’ Mr Colossimo gave a full-denture smile, or his closest reasonable facsimile. The attempt looked more as though he were gritting his falsies. ‘It seems we’ve had a good month?’

Dawna was in marketing. She seemed cool, far as I was concerned, though Gwen called her Team Slut. But when Gwen got all snarky on coworkers like Dawna, who came and went, I always said, ‘Not a slut, she just likes suggestive clothing.’ Trashing other girls isn’t my thing. For the most part.

Seeing as, if one were to be fair, I might have fallen into the slut category.

A slut on hiatus, but a slut nevertheless.

A secret slut.

‘Fabulous,’ Dawna Jamison said, beaming. ‘The Golden Ticket for the Pretty’n Pink free weights we put out with Joni Smith’s “Lite-Weight-Late-Nite-She-Bop”? It was retro-brilliant?’

Please ask me how much I like it when people end a statement with a question mark.

‘Go on?’ Mr Colossimo hunched forward on fisty, meaty knuckles, Denny Craning his neck.

‘Two birds with one stone,’ she said, smiling at us, ‘because what we started calling those “Freer-Than-Free-Weights” weren’t exactly flying off the shelves before this month? Like as soon as the video came out? Well, not to toot my own horn?’

Hmm. I mean, HMMM? For the record, I came up with the Willy Wonka concept, which was so not part of my job, and wrote the copy. Gwen designed the Golden Ticket and made it look all awesome. Basically if you bought the speed yoga DVD, you got a free set of pink dumbbells, and then a discount on all future free weight purchases. For the double record? Me, myself and I wrote the workout ‘You go, girl’ patter, to which perky speed yoga babe Joni Smith kept forgetting all my hooky one-liners. Grr.

Sorry, we all have our sticking points. I worked so hard to sell Apollyon shit, yet never so much as saw my name in a pretty font in the rolling credits. Furthermore, Ms Famous Fitness Guru Joni Smith miscounted reps. Now, I’ve done that speed yoga/free weight workout. Fuck, from the hours I spent in front of the flatscreen (refuse gym, prefer private fitness, despite the awesome bennies and personal trainer all Apollyonians have as an option), I knew from what. Learn to count, Joni.

Jealous, much, Lily? Why, yes, I was.

‘Great,’ said Mr Colossimo, his booming voice bringing me back to earth. ‘Let’s start putting those Golden Tickets in all the DVDs.’

Whatevz.

‘Let’s not forget about the killer copy on the back cover, and the script, which was occasionally forgotten by Joni Smith. Or rather, set aside by Joni Smith, if we want to give her the benefit of the doubt,’ piped up Jay-Jay Tanaka. Jay-Jay was the most agreeable fellow in my department. He loved me to death, for no reason that I could fathom. ‘Lily, your writing was nothing short of scrumptious.’

‘Jay-Jay,’ I mumbled, and wished he would stop. I was fine with Mr Colossimo refusing to remember my name, or ever having the word scrumptious planted in his mind regarding anything about any part of me.

‘Lily, you are the goddess of copy.’ Jay-Jay shoved his black-rimmed glasses up his small nose. ‘And, if memory serves, the Golden Ticket was your idea.’

I winked at him, while clearing my throat. Jay-Jay had never said a word at any of our meetings before. Apparently that was a wise decision, if this was his idea of how to conduct himself around a conference table. ‘Thanks, Jay-Jay.’

‘Since we currently have no creative director, coming up with ideas is every department’s job. We don’t have time to be patting ourselves on the back.’ Mr Colossimo gave me a brief glance. ‘You’re all Idea Men, now.’

Wow, really? I was an Idea Man. Just what every girl wants to be. Jesus. Why did Jay-Jay have to open his big gay mouth?

I ask that politically incorrect rhetorical question with total love and affection, btw.

‘Before we get on to other business, I need to tell you quickly why I called this meeting for nine, rather than ten. I apologise if it inconvenienced any of you –’ his eyes shot daggers at Gwen and me ‘– but there are about to be some changes around the office, not all of which are to my liking. And if they’re not to my liking, chances are they won’t be to yours, either.’

I sat up higher in my chair, already liking the ‘changes’ that supposedly wouldn’t be to my liking. Oh, boy! Maybe Mr Colossimo was going to take another one-month leave of absence to a ‘health club,’ also known as the psych ward, and get some shock-treatment therapy. Boo-ya! It had happened twice since I started at Apollyon. I reckoned he was due for another breakdown.

Yes, my boss was certifiable.

‘Apparently, Corporate is talking about me behind my back,’ he continued.

Here we go. Paranoia is how it all begins. Monday was improving with every passing minute.

‘They’re sending one of their “guys” from Denver to come see what we’re doing “wrong” –’ he gestured a few more air quotes ‘– and “suggest” some “changes”. Meaning, tell us how to do our jobs.’

Lots of serious nods and murmurs of ‘How could they?’ ‘How dare they?’ For the record, the entire office loved it when Mr Colossimo went all Blanche Dubois and left us to our own devices. We all performed better, no two ways about it.

‘Well, team Apollyon, I say we’re doing just fine.’ He paused, looked at us and thumped a rather flaccid fist upon the marble tabletop. ‘Can I have a round of applause for the May numbers? There was only the slightest drop. Slightest. Marginal, even. As opposed to April’s slightly more than minor setback. Which was a mistake in the books, in my humble opinion. Which, trust me, I will take up with accounting.’

Yeah, like there was humble anything about Mr Colossimo. We all clapped, anyway, because Apollyon associates are sheep. Clapping, applauding sheep. Fact is, Mr Colossimo just couldn’t think of any other positive news to report besides the success of our new DVD. That was just sad. What was a ‘slight drop’, anyway? A drop was a drop, we were looking at summer, when people obsessively exercise for bikini season, and our sales should have been rising. Significantly rising. Our club memberships were too expensive, our equipment was too expensive, we hadn’t done anything remotely cool in a gazillion years, and … now we were just another jungle-gym, yo.

Sorry, just channelling the Funky Bunch.

‘… despite what I see as a heckofalotta positive change.’ Colossimo sighed, drumming the table. ‘Just remember that I’m your guy. There’s one supervisor in the office, and it’s Mr Colossimo. Period. The end. End of story. Finito!’

Was Mr Colossimo speaking of himself in the third person again? Uh-oh.

‘Whoever this clown is from “Corporate”, you check with me before running off to do his bidding. I am your boss. Period.’ He stood up. ‘Are we clear?’

We all nodded, except for New Joey in HR, who raised his hand. ‘Sir?’

‘What do you want?’ Mr Colossimo’s face had begun to grow red. ‘I’m trying to run a meeting here.’

‘May I be excused to use the restroom?’ His voice squeaked from what I assumed was intimidation by our asshole boss. Poor kid.

‘Whattaya think this is, grade school?’ Colossimo waved a hand dismissively. ‘Go.’

And so the next fifteen minutes crept by. Handouts with charts, photocopies of some bullshit article about ‘team-building’ and STRETCHING AFTER ONE HOUR NOW REQUIRED BY DEPARTMENT OF LABOR flyers were passed around. Each department from my floor gave its discouraging report, and I tried desperately not to nod off. Until the door swung open, and banged loudly as it smacked against the wall.

Holy hell.

Adonis – yes, that one, as in riding the morning T – strode into the room, all piss, vinegar and Armani anger.

Cool anger, though.

Oh, yeah. He’s had this one.

Gwen shot me one of her ‘I don’t friggin’ believe it’ looks.

Nor did I. Believe it, that is. Synchronicity? What –

Adonis gestured with his thumb toward the door, which must’ve nearly come off its hinges. ‘Colossimo.’

‘This is a private meeting. I don’t –’

‘Out. Now.’ Adonis Trainman clutched his briefcase tighter, and some horrid part of me hoped he would sling it at my boss. Please, Lord. I haven’t prayed in a long time, but …

Mr Colossimo stood up to his full height, which wasn’t much taller than mine, actually. ‘What? Who in the name of God do you think you are?’

Good question! We were all ears. And all other things, as well; the entire female staff, including yours truly, were squirming in our seats, trying to dry off our Inner Goddesses.

The man stepped closer to Mr Colossimo, held out his ID tag, narrowed his eyes and proclaimed, ‘Dorian Holder, CEO.’

Dorian Holder, CEO was a good foot taller than my boss.

I frigging loved this.

‘Who –’

‘Holder Enterprises. Remember, those little people who own Apollyon?’ Dorian Holder, CEO lifted his chin. ‘Us. Me, rather.’

Oh, man. Someone got served …

‘And you’re fired.’

How could anyone say a classic Trumpism like that, yet still be so unbelievably sexy?

‘On what grounds?’ blustered Mr Colossimo. ‘This is wrongful termination!’

‘Insubordination, motherfucker.’

Yeah, my Adonis totally did this, and then looked at the rest of the Apollyonians, as though seeing us for the first time.

And then his eyes rested on me.

No, really.

I gulped.

He raised one eyebrow.

At least, I think he did.

‘Pardon my language,’ he said, not sounding sorry. OK. That there was a wink. And that wink was at me, no question. Absolutely positively true story. He knew I found him amazing. Not that every other woman in the room didn’t feel the same way, but I must have looked particularly starry-eyed.

Oh, and know what? That was the first time ‘motherfucker’ was ever uttered within the walls of the Apollyon conference room. I loved this shit. Dorian Holder, CEO was so totally our hero. This time we did applaud, unprompted, accidental and no brownie-hounding about it, starting with that slow-clap thing you see in the movies. It happened, and it was brilliant.

But Dorian Holder, CEO didn’t seem to notice. Or care. ‘Are you going to leave willingly, or will I have to call security?’

‘That … that …’ Mr Colossimo pointed vaguely at the wall. ‘It was the new HR guy, wasn’t it? He was a mole.’

‘Are you speaking of Joey Danforth? Yeah, he was. He is, rather. I’ll certainly be keeping him around.’ Dorian Holder, CEO actually grinned, just like on the subway. ‘You hired him, friend. Now get out of my conference room.’

Mr Colossimo gave us one last glance. His face was beet red, and his eyes were pink as a bunny rabbit. ‘Traitors,’ he snapped. Then he shrugged into his polyester-blend sports coat, buttoned over his generous tummy and schlumped out the door, defeated. For a second I felt bad for him.

Really, it was just for a second.

Apollyon LLC? Well, we had a new commander-in-chief, and he had our full undivided.

Dorian Holder is prepossessing to the point of ridiculous. In every possible way.

But at that moment, as I hadn’t any inkling of what a Dorian Holder was, his crashing the party was enough to rock my world … almost as much as his magical glow. You know what? My bets were on Mr Holder being crazy as Colossimo, yet in a far more interesting way: smarter, hotter, scarier. Already I couldn’t wait to witness the next thing he found remotely OK to say or do.

‘Well, then.’ Mr Holder’s walk, though confident, was graceful and catlike. No, make that lionesque. The man was clearly king of the forest. When Dorian Holder reached the far end of our table, he dropped his crazily expensive briefcase, picked up Mr Colossimo’s yellow legal pad, gave the scribbled notes a brief squint, then tossed them over his shoulder.

The list of all Mr Colossimo’s News That’s Fit To Print fluttered to the floor, like a giant, dead, swallow-tailed butterfly.

‘I’m told you’ve been briefed on the new regime at Apollyon.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘While I’m only going to be here for a few weeks until we clean up this mess, there’s going to be some major changes, just as your former president promised. Permanent changes.’

Mr Dorian Holder, CEO drummed the table with all ten fingers. His fingers were extremely fast, long and thick. I leaned forward, along with the other Apollyonians sharing this space, which suddenly felt tiny, stuffy and hot.

‘Vice President Babcock – I kinda liked the guy, for the record – left you a few months ago, so there’s no second in command. For now, I am indeed going to be the captain of the ship, and some of you will get thrown overboard. Period.’

All the smiles around the table faded.

Ruh-roh, Scooby.

‘At least, until our profit margin goes back up to where it had been. It’s nothing personal, but as we are all professionals, here, that goes without saying, right?’

He waited. We all nodded, eager to please him. Fearful of upsetting him. We were already in the palm of his large hand.

‘On the bright side, we are officially looking for both a new president and vice. In-house will be the first considered, though by law we have to advertise.’

We were silent. No one wanted either job at this point in time, no matter how ambitious s/he may once have been. Dorian Holder was scary as hell.

‘Obviously, I’d like this company to survive, or I wouldn’t be here.’ No smile. ‘But if there isn’t a significant change in numbers by August, Holder Enterprises will be forced to close the Boylston Avenue doors for the last time. Despite my fondness for the Beantown office, you’re just one branch of a very, very large tree. Holder Enterprises wins. That’s what we do. Period.’

For some reason, I looked over at Jay-Jay, who was mouthing Holder Enterprises Wins, as though in a trance.

‘Meanwhile, Apollyon LLC fails, whereas our other businesses are thriving. As you should know by now, where Holder Enterprises finds a weakness in the infrastructure, we rebuild. If rebuilding takes too much time and money, we eliminate.’ He raised his hand for emphasis, and we all cowered. ‘However, Apollyon has floundered in the past, and we’ve saved the company by implementing a few simple changes. Some of you may recall when my late father cleaned house four years ago? Sales skyrocketed, we put SFX under, bought out Planet Fitness, and everyone got massive raises. Remember what a raise was? That thing you haven’t had in at least three years?’

I’d only been at Apollyon two years, but had had neither a raise nor an evaluation since they bumped me up from lowly intern. Like, ever. And I was doing my manager’s job, leading people who actually hired me, none of whom wanted to pick up the slack while she was on maternity leave. See, I had no backbone. So I took on a managerial position without a change in title or reflection of the added responsibility in my paycheck.

Anyway, I fucking adored Dorian Holder, CEO right then, even if he frightened the hell out of me.

Well played, sir.

‘Today I’m going to be up on high looking over records, crunching numbers, seeing who’s been working and who hasn’t. We’ll start having individual meetings when I get a better idea of what’s gone so horribly wrong here. Holder Enterprises is top shelf, and every one of our acquisitions should uphold our spotless image. Apollyon is a sinking ship. There’s no need for this bullshit, and it won’t remain as such. We’ll get this place back up and running.’

Until that morning, I had no idea this enormous building to which I was so scared to go five days a week was a sinking ship.

Go on, Dorian Holder.

‘There’s money to be made. And we all love money, right?’ He looked around the table, kinda mad, I thought. Or maybe this was just something he did. Like a hotter version of that Baldwin brother’s monologue in Glengarry Glen Ross. We all nodded, simultaneously hopeful and fearful.

‘Well, I love money. Love. It. Out of all the businesses Holder En – rather, I – own, Boston Apollyon is a dark, gaping money pit.’ Dorian Holder, CEO cast a glance around the table, making us feel collectively responsible for whatever the heck he was talking about. ‘While recognising that some of this is the Forbes effect, there’s also major mismanagement and missing cash flow. A few floors up, a financial recovery team are conferencing even as we speak. There are solutions, and I intend to find them.’

All the businesses he owned. Wowzers. How many were there? I should have really googled Holder Enterprises, seeing as it – he – owned me. Us. He owned us.

He didn’t own me, yet. Not then.

But he would, in the not-so-distant future.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

‘So. I start one-on-one meetings with each department head this afternoon, from the bottom up. That is, I hope to, but the contractors –’ he rolled his eyes ‘– big shock, are still putting my office together on the thirteenth. You’ll meet with me by tomorrow at the latest, but be prepared for an email within the next couple hours.’

Sorry, but I was so confused right then. What exactly did he expect? My head was spinning.

Dorian Holder, CEO looked directly at me. Again.

Is he fucking telepathic, on top of everything else?