Private Relations

Chapter 7

Yi Wen arrived at work an hour later. She was out of breath, red faced, sweaty and looked ready to bite the head off anyone who looked at her the wrong way.

I didn't count, of course. Yi Wen loved me.  But even with my incredible charm, I knew Yi Wen would snap at  me if she didn’t get time to cool off. So I brought her a bottle of water from the vending machine and left her to her own devices for a bit. I caught up on some of my old work, little announcements and the such when I heard sniffling across my divider. I popped my head over and saw Yi Wen’s head bobbing up and down.

“Hey,” I said tapping her on the head “Are you crying?”

Yi Wen sat up and pulled a tissue from the box on her desk. “No I am not crying. My nose is running. It is so humid in here.”

“Okay.”

I had just sat back in my chair when Yi Wen rolled over to my desk.

“So have you thought of anything?”

“Anything? What was I supposed to be thinking about?”

Yi Wen pursed her lips and pinched the bridge of her nose before looking back at me “You were supposed to be thinking about Peter Bens! The first thing we have to do is arrange a meeting with that woman, Victoria.”

Oh right.

Oh shit.

I had absolutely forgotten about anything having to do with Peter Bens over the weekend. Which, I really can’t understand how I did that. Peter Bens was literally everywhere. He was on billboards, on TV, in the magazines—shit, he was even on my mp3 player, but I guess it just slipped my mind?

I rubbed the side of my face and let out a sigh. “Shit, sorry I forgot.”

“How can you forget about Peter Bens?” she asked and then leaned in to whisper softly “You were just obsessed with sleeping with the man and you forget him in 2 days?”

First of all, that was rude. Second of all, obsessed was a strong word. I leaned in close as well and whispered too.

“I was not obsessed, first of all. I just feel like a guy who has that many songs about sex would very good at it!”

“Problems in paradise, ladies?”

The two of us straightened up and turned to side before letting out loud sighs. We did a lot of sighing in the office.

“The phrase is ‘trouble in paradise’.” Yi Wen corrected, not even turning her head to acknowledge his presence.

James curled his lips and wrinkled his nose at the back of Yi Wen’s head. “Who cares. I just popped by and I couldn’t help but notice that you two seemed to be in a very heated discussion. I guess the newbie isn’t tough enough roll with big dogs.”

Oh my god how was it possible that James embodied every outdated catch phrase in America? I guess that’s what you turned into when you spent all of your time modeling yourself off of 1980’s mean girls.

Yi Wen spun around to face him at last, her face blank and stiff. “James, there are a lot of things in this world I care about. None of them are the words you are speaking.”

James really had nothing to say to that opting to blink back the tears in his eyes and run back to his desk. I didn’t understand that guy. He was never prepared to battle it out with Yi Wen or me. You can’t come to war wearing a nightgown, even if it was only verbal warfare, and James came out wearing nothing but socks.

Amateur.

Yi Wen frowned in his direction and then turned back to me. “As I was saying, the first thing we need to do is get to Victoria. I looked up her modeling agency but there was no contact information. However, I did read that recently Victoria got a PR agent who is based in Manhattan. The only thing I have to narrow that down group down is that their logo 3 letters.”