Private Relations

Chapter 19

When I stepped outside the conference room a few minutes later, I stripped off my sweater and walked back to my cubicle. I expected to see Yi Wen there, buzzing along, but remembered that she was out sick. I threw the sweater over the back of my chair and pulled out one of my desk drawers. Pushing the countless piles of scrap paper and candy wrappers out of the way, I pulled out an old crumpled knit cap from the back. I knocked off all the dust and bits of paper and frowned at it. It was a very ugly blue and green fluffy mess of a hat that I had bought on a whim and liked for a day before getting sick of it. But it was a good thing I had stuffed it in the back of the draw because the weather certainly wasn’t letting up.

I stuffed the hat into the sleeves of one of my coats and looked out of the window at the side of my desk. The snow was really coming down hard. In fact, I could only barely see the outlines of the skyscrapers, buildings and cars. Hell, I could barely see the building across the street. Getting home was going to be a bitch. I sat back down at my computer and checked my emails again, rolling my eyes at all that had piled up. So many annoying little things. I ignored them all and clicked open another email that Yi Wen had sent me while I was in the meeting with Peter. She asked if I had gone down the list with Peter and told him the schedule of events that were going to happen. I was all set to write a long, detailed email back, but I kind of missed not hearing Yi Wen’s voice all day so I gave her call.

The phone rang for longer than I would have liked and I almost hung up when a very hoarse voice spoke through the line.

“Hello, this is Yi Wen Choong, how may I help you?”

“Why are you always so formal on the phone?”

“Shut up Destiny. How was the meeting with Peter?”

“It was okay, actually. I was super nervous that I was going to freak out and mess up everything without you but once I started talking about appearances and donations and all that, it go super easy.”

“I knew you would be okay. Did you go down the entire list I sent for you?”

“Uh, actually, I didn’t.”

“Destiny—“

“Hold on, hear me out. I convinced Peter to let me call Victoria’s agent and arrange for them to be seen together walking their dogs and I told him I would look up a list of women’s shelters in his hometown to donate to. I didn't tell him to anything else because you and I know that after a huge scandal people are always looking out for obvious PR moves. Going on a TV show tour and shaking hands and being too public is a dead giveaway of a PR agent. We’re supposed to be doing the opposite of that, right?”

Yi Wen was silent on the phone for a very long time and I brought my fingers to my lips in worry. Maybe I had overstepped my bounds or something. Yi Wen knew what she was doing, who the hell was I to change it? I flinched and looked down at my bloody fingers before sucking my wounded bottom lip into my mouth. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut.

“Destiny, you are right. I do not know what I was thinking when I wrote that list last night.”

“Holy crap, don’t scare me like that! I thought I did something wrong!”

“No, you did it right! The cold must have really messed up my brain if I thought going on TV show after TV was smart after a large scandal. Good job on trusting your gut.”

We spoke a little longer, me telling her about my strategy and her telling me about the color of the phelgm that she spat out this morning before the conversation winded down. 

'So, did anything else happen during the meeting?" she asked.

The words ‘yeah, Peter Bens asked me to be friend’ stuck the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t make myself say the words. And what for? I didn't know? It wasn't like I fucked him in the bathroom, but for the moment, I just wanted to keep it to myself.

“No,” I finally said, “Nothing really. He went right home after the meeting was over.”

“Good.”

“Hey, can you give me the number of Victoria’s agent? I need to set up the paparazzi meeting.”

I scribbled the number down and said good-bye. My stomach grumbled and I thought about going outside and braving the weather for about two seconds before I stood up.

“Hey! I’m ordering Chinese, who wants in?” I announced the office.

The break room was filled to the brim with takeout menus so I picked up my favorite one and passed around copies.

I took the requests, the money and made the orders. I slipped in a 20$ tip. The delivery boy would need it.

I was too hungry to do anything more than laugh at other people's misery so I made my way over to NAGL. The first story that caught my eye was a picture post of the newest couple in tinsel town, Cuban firecracker Denia Gutirrez and recently deceased TV werewolf Matthew Martinelli. While the pictures in the post showed them walking around arm in arm, I didn’t buy it.

In fact nobody bought it.

Denia and Matthew’s relationship was the most blatant PR set up in the world. It didn’t help their case that they both were under the same agency. Not only that but, nobody was really checking for either of them, so I guessed they both needed some ‘controversy’ before one of their movies/CDs/new show came out.

I really couldn’t blame Denia for hopping onto that train wreck of a PR move because Matthew Martinelli was fine as hell. 6 feet tall, tan, salt and pepper beard and soft shiny hair, all on top of a fit, tight body? She was probably playing while she did her work. My phone rang and I was alerted that the food had arrived. I picked up the food, gave the kid the money and went back upstairs.

I was nearly run over when the scent of the food escaped into the office. They were like a pack of animals. I took my food and hit the bricks. When the smell of the sweet, sticky sesame chicken and fluffy white rice hit my nostrils, my mouth overflowed. Each bite of chewy, savory chicken was amplified ten fold while reading comments about an affair that pop superstar Miss Steffy had had with one of her back up dancers. The outraged gifs and disbelieving stans almost made me choke on my lunch. Some how that one post had amounted over six thousand comments and didn’t show any signs of stopping. The only reason I had stopped clicking the refresh button was because I ran out of food.

My food done and my day pretty much over, I slipped out a little early in and effort to rip the bandage that was my commute home off as quickly as possible.  The moment I set foot into the lobby of my apartment building I damn near got on my knees and kissed the carpet. My trip home was terrible. Not only was I stuck behind three trains the entire ride, when I got above ground the wind was blowing at 100mph! It felt like glass shards were constantly slapping me in the face with every step I took. My nose had been running a mile a minute and my hands had been burning from the cold. No matter how deep I buried them in the pockets of my coat, the tingling numbness persisted.

I snatched up my mail and ran up to my warm apartment. I bundled up in my thickest PJs and made some tea. It was heaven. My tea was interupted when I head the vibrating hum of my phone. It was struggle going all the way over to my door to get it, but I made it.

My phone was filled to the brim with notifications from Peter. I sipped my tea and scrolled through all the messages he sent.

It’s really cold today

Holy crap this guy just ate it all over the sidewalk

Did you call Victoria yet?

And the rest of the texts were all in the same vain. It was so weird. Of all the people Peter probably had in his phone he was texting me, this nonsense? With the exception of the inquiry of me contacting Victoria, these texts had no point. I’m guessing Peter was a guy who really thought everyone he spoke to and didn’t ask for money counted as a friend. He was probably a hugger.

 Peter was such a certified weirdo. He was lucky he had cute butt.