The Nexus

Chapter 1

"You know, Emma, you and I have a lot in common."

Emma resisted a sneer and kept her face straight at that comment. She looked at the woman speaking to her and imagined the satisfaction that she would feel if she ripped the esophagus out of her neck. She was completely capable of doing it, too. It was just one of the reasons that she knew her and this woman, who wore a little too much make up and had a bad, black dye job, did not really have much in common.

She breathed in calmly and all visions of physical assault started to fade away. It seemed that lately Emma was constantly at war with herself when it came to the people around her. She really didn't want to hurt anyone and she was always alert to her feelings, but her innate instincts were hard to fight all the time.

"Yes, Deborah, it is possible we have some things in common, but I'm sure you don't know me that well," Emma responded plastering a Mona Lisa smile on her face.

Deborah's physical response entertained Emma, she wasn't expecting Emma to reply to her statement and she had to straighten herself out and reposition her straight-backed posture. "Either way, I am your boss and you are not to question me. Do you understand that?"

"I understand," replied Emma.

"Okay, I trust that we can move beyond this little incident and I will have your full cooperation from now on," Deborah stated.

"Not a problem," Emma said as she got up from the white couch that sat too low in Deborah's office. Emma noted that the couch felt like hard cardboard and smelled like it, too. Expensive looking on the outside, but cheap overall; like Deborah.

She reached for the door handle and Deborah said, "Also, next time, make sure that I have dismissed you before you get up and leave."

Emma turned to face Deborah and Deborah must have caught the murderous glint in Emma's eyes for a split second before it disappeared, because her whole body recoiled a little. "I'll remember that," Emma said with another soft smile.

As Emma walked out into the rest of the office and turned down the wall of cubicles toward her own space, she decided that she was going to destroy Deborah.

She had been doing well at maintaining her inner peace for the past few months. She also knew that there were bigger things to worry about than a narcissistic, bi-polar, delusional bag like Deborah, who would never really be bigger in the world than she actually was, but there was that animalistic part of Emma that needed to prove to Deborah that Emma was much more powerful than she.

Her cubicle was on the end of a small sea of gray. She walked through the small opening, sat down in her cushioned office chair, and took a long, refreshing breath through her nose. She cleared her mind to focus. Emma had been studying and reading for almost a year, trying to understand how to fit in to the social world. She had initially retreated at a Buddhist abbey in Canada to walk through the world in silence occasionally attending teachings on how to be more human. After close to six months she had felt that she might be able to operate in the world of people and their idiosyncrasies.

The book she was reading currently was about the ego and how it blinds you to the beauty of the world. Emma knew it was her ego that wanted to take down Deborah, but unlike the author of the book she was reading, she also realized that her ego needed a little feeding now and again to keep it healthy and at bay. The smile on her face got even bigger as she continued to relax and clear her head. After a few minutes, Emma was completely ready to start making her sales calls.

On the outside, the office she worked in was in a large building that looked like a giant, burnt-orange hut with a black roof. She had chosen to work here based solely on the look of it; like some giant Asian hut dropped on the edge of a modern, American city. Also, the fact that it was close to the mountains made her feel at peace. When she arrived in Colorado she knew she wanted to live at least in the foothills and had chosen her work accordingly.

Emma had walked into the five-story hut and looked at all of the different businesses that operated out of it and went home to design multiple resumes. The next day she had walked into fifteen companies that sounded interesting and dropped off the resumes she had created. She knew she could handle any job that came her way, and when she got calls for interviews she just used her ability to manipulate information through the internet to create fake background checks and work histories for each job that she wanted.

The job at AmeriFoods had seemed like the best option for her because she got to leave the office half the week to go on sales calls. It was perfect because she loved cruising around the Denver Metro area on her custom, purple Harley Davidson Sportster on as many sunny days that the state had to offer. So when they called her for an interview, she turned on her charm to the highest degree and cancelled all other interviews. AmeriFoods had no way to say no to this charismatic woman that could sell anything to anyone. 

 If she had known that Deborah was going to be her supervisor she might have thought twice. On the other hand, Deborah was really helping her work through some of her anger issues.

Deborah had been out of town during the interview process and was not pleased to return from Hawaii to find that her personal territory was being trampled on by a younger, better looking, woman. She had donned a terrible fake smile as she shook Emma's hand for the first time. The smile had made her actually look like someone playing a witch in a movie or on TV. Emma had read all the body signals immediately and tried to steer clear.

The truth of the matter was that Emma just really wanted to fly under the radar at this point in her life. She just wanted to blend in, have a job that paid the bills, and live the rest of her life hiking, riding, and dreaming, with maybe a little bit of gambling. So she did her best to keep Deborah at arms length and not threaten her in anyway.

The problem was that Deborah was a horrible supervisor and Emma couldn't believe that Deborah's ideas ever contributed to anything in the company. Today, Emma had finally had enough when, earlier, Deborah suggested that all new customers be given a gift basket of coffee from a trendy coffee shop. It didn't make any sense for AmeriFoods to give their customers a product that came from a different vendor. Emma had not been able to contain herself and had suggested that if they were going to waste their time putting together gift baskets they should at least use their own foods and beverages. Emma wondered how the hell someone so inept could have this job.

Deborah had smiled her witchy, I-hate-your-face, smile and had said, "Well, let's save our suggestions for private conversations," and had continued the meeting. The other sales reps had looked at Emma in pity since they knew what was now headed her way.

Currently, Emma made some sales calls and focused on her work. She would have time to take care of Deborah later. She had to drive into Denver and go schmooze a big client she was about to land. This commission would set her up so well she could take some time off and break in her new skiing equipment when winter rolled around. Those were the real important things in life.

She put her leathers on over her well-tailored pantsuit and headed downstairs and out of the building. This job had been paying her well over the past three months. She had found that she was great at selling people more than what they needed. It was not hard for her to read people. Being tall and athletically built served her in making sales, but her body was conspicuous enough to come off as average when she needed to blend in. She also knew that showing up on a motorcycle helped her clients feel that she was one tough cookie. It all worked for her, so far, and she was happy to do it forever, as soon as she dealt with Deborah.