11

Another Job

Helen’s first week at work was a blast. She had no idea dull work could be fun if you were working with the right people. She’d often heard Mindy say things like that. It didn’t matter what your job was, as long as you got to work with fun people. Well, Mr. Mark Lewis had the market cornered on making the workplace fun.

For one thing, he was absolute eye-candy. There wasn't a woman who didn’t look on him like he was the ‘golden boy’ of the office. He was charming, charismatic, and he looked positively mouthwatering regardless of the circumstances. And Helen was his partner in crime. She was the little person he took everywhere with him. He took her to meetings and lunches with business partners while he fleshed out press releases and argued with talkative men about upcoming projects. He called it ‘training.' It made her feel instantly popular and accepted by everyone in the office.

Mark stayed in his office and worked on his computer responding to emails while she tidied the place up. He didn’t seem at all uncomfortable to have her there and didn’t ask her to leave the room when he talked about sensitive matters with executives over the phone. Helen thought it was a remarkable display of trust because her nondisclosure agreement wouldn’t be ready for her to sign until the end of the week.

Then Friday came. It would have been an ordinary day, except something unusual happened around lunchtime.

A tall elegant blonde swept through the elevator and made her way over to Mark’s office. Helen didn’t get the message herself, but she heard the receptionist buzz Mark to tell him Laura Figura was on her way to his office.

Helen heard it and attempted to hide her face. Mark might not be able to tell the difference between ‘Helen’ and ‘Vera,' but Helen bet Laura would take one look at her and the jig would be up. She had to hide!

Helen sat at her desk with her head ducked behind her computer screen. She prayed Laura would slip into Mark’s office without stopping to talk to her, but then she realized that Mark would probably introduce them. Helen got up. It wasn’t a very mature way to deal with the problem, but she’d have to wait in the bathroom until Laura left. Besides, it was lunchtime. They were probably going out for lunch together and if Helen could just stay out of sight for just a few minutes she’d be in the clear.

Helen hurried around her desk, but whoops—she wasn’t fast enough. Laura had already come around the corner and seen her.

Mark came out of his office.

Helen cringed. It was the end of the world. She was caught red-handed.

“Hi Laura,” Mark said simply when he saw the blonde.

Helen looked at Mark and then looked at Laura. She couldn’t help but wonder if they were still the couple Dominic said they were on Valentine’s Day.

“Hello, Mark. How’s work?” Laura chimed.

“I want you to meet my new assistant,” Mark said, beckoning for Helen to join them. “This is Helen Paul. This is Laura Figura from Financial Services.”

Helen was right about Laura. It took her about a micro minute to say, “Hello, Helen. Have we met before?”

Helen smiled but didn’t even get one word out before Laura finished up.

“Ah, yes. You used to date my brother Dominic, didn’t you? Or was it Alexander?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” Helen said, preparing herself to tell a few white lies. “I haven’t had a real date since high school.”

“Really?” Laura said, not exactly sounding catty, but definitely like she didn’t believe her. She sounded confident in her first instinct. Apparently, the ‘Helen’ in front of her was a person she could deal with, unlike ‘Vera.' “That surprises me. You’re very cute. Didn’t you meet some exciting boys at the college?”

“I was in administrative assistance,” Helen explained. “There weren’t any guys in my program.”

“Ah, I see,” Laura said, smiling warmly.

“Are you two going out for lunch?” Helen asked, backing away. “I’ll just get out of your hair. I’ll have those letters ready for you by the time you get back, Mark." She walked away from them expressing internal gratitude that she didn’t have to call him ‘Mr. Lewis.’

Then she worked like a demon through her lunch hour. There was no way Laura wouldn’t put the rest of the pieces together and bring it to Mark’s attention, and then Helen would be fired. The only thing to do was to work her can off to prove to him she wanted this job whether she used to work as an escort or not.

In the end, Mark didn’t come back from lunch, but instead, he called her and asked her to lock his office for him at the end of the day. He would see her on Monday morning. Something came up.

***

If Helen thought there was no price to be paid for taking a job at an escort service, she was wrong. Sure her parents didn’t find out and make a fuss about the morality of it and the possibility of her being attacked, drugged or raped, but worrying about what Mark was going to do when he came back to the office on Monday was torture.

On Sunday morning, Mindy came into the kitchen with the cordless phone and asked,

“Do you feel like doing one more job for the escort service?”

Helen sat at the breakfast table nursing a bowl of blueberry yogurt and thinking about her trouble. “One more job?” she asked emphatically. “Heck no! I’m already in deep water. I told you all about it.”

“You mean how that crabby woman from Financial Services met you as Vera twice and now she’s going to reveal your true identity to Mark?”

“Yeah,” Helen whined. She was so depressed about the prospect of being canned from her first real job and even more depressed about losing Mark. She’d probably never get another boss like Mark. Forget boyfriend. A boyfriend you only saw for a couple of hours in the evening. Her boss was around eight hours a day.

Mindy abruptly came up and grabbed Helen by the hair. “Since when did you turn into such a friggin’ sissy?”

“You’re hurting me!” Helen bawled.

“Then stop being so pathetic,” Mindy raged. She let go of Helen and slammed the phone on the table. “This is your chance to remove all suspicion that you and ‘Vera’ are actually the same person.”

“How so?”

“The person who’s requested you is Dominic Figura. Isn’t he the guy who outbid your precious Mark on Valentine’s Day?”

“Yes,” Helen answered.

“Didn’t he pay so much for you just so that Mark wouldn’t get to have you?”

Helen nodded.

“Then, here’s what I think. I think Dominic is asking you again because his snotty sister wants to show Mark that you are Vera.”

“All the more reason why I shouldn’t go!”