The business man's long legs kicked a few papers, pens and pencils off of his area of the table and propped his feet up. He leaned back a bit in his cushioned, swirly chair and clasped his fingers together. The look on his face was currently unreadable.
Varrick did that a lot; leaving his face unreadable. He says it's a great skill to acquire for life, especially when you're in the "business world."
The young woman physically fought herself not to go up and fiddle with her hair, or let her fingers tangle with each other. She made sure to keep her posture and face as straight as possible, even if she could feel a line of sweat forming on her back.
Pitching ideas was never an issue for Korra, she was very good at what she did, but this time she found herself being a little more nervous than usual. She remembered back to the night at the bar with Asami who told her how highly Varrick actually speaks of her. It made her proud of course, and way more confident than she already was. However, now she was aware that Varrick talks about her to the heiress.
What would she think if my idea went horribly wrong and Varrick told her about it ... Especially with his history of overly exaggerated stories.
Sure Korra had thought that she had made a decent enough impression on the engineer, but she still didn't want to screw things up somehow. Even though they've both already somewhat succeeded in that considering how neither of them have the other's phone number.
It's only Monday, I can ask Varrick for her number if this all goes well and he's in a good mood. Plus I'm sure she's been trying to locate my contact information since Saturday, right?
Right ...
The small room stayed silent between the two as Korra stood still at the projector. She waited impatiently for Varrick to decide on something, or at least say something so she would stop itching. After about another long minute, the man stood up abruptly and made his way to stand besides Korra. He looked intently at her idea board that was casted on the screen. The business man narrowed his eyes, placing a hand on his chin.
"Uh, is there anything that I should make more clear?" Korra spoke up, eyeing her boss with a raised brow.
"Nope! You have made yourself very, crystal clear, my friend!"
"So, do you like my idea?"
"Of course I do!" Varrick swiftly launched his arm around Korra's neck, causing her to be pretty annoyed as she gave him a glare from below, but it's not like he would notice or care anyways. "Like I said, kid, you're my favorite employee!"
And Korra somewhat believed that, thanks to Asami.
"Now how about we do everything you want, and then add some of my own jazz! Let's talk deadlines and budget."
"So how did your pitching go?" Bolin quickly began to interrogate his friend during their lunch break the second he sat down at their round table.
Korra smiled to herself again, thinking back to Varrick going on about how well thought out her idea was. Though she didn't want to brag, she had to share some of her glory with her co workers.
"Not to be a show off but he was basically on his knees asking me when we can start putting my plan in motion." She playfully bowed the upper half of her body with a smirk shooting towards Opal and Bolin. They rolled their eyes in response at her usual cockiness.
"Yeah yeah, anyways have you gotte-"
"Opal." Korra whipped her head and scolded the tanned girl that sat next to her. "I told you, I'm working on it!"
"Working on it? Well thank god you're not this slow with your actual job." Opal mumbled under her breath, but still loud enough to receive a groan from Korra and a chuckle from Bolin.
"You know, you guys are both idiots." The green eyed man started with an obvious tone. Opal shared a shocked expression as she pointed to herself. He shook his head and continued. "No not you, Korra and Asami Sato."
"You can just call her Asami, Bo." Korra huffed, going back to eat her fruit salad.
"Well it's not like she's our girlfriend, she's yours-"
"MY WHAT?!" Korra had to rub her eyes to make sure she heard her friend correctly.
"Alright now, calm down. I'm right though, you're both idiots. You were together for an entire night and made plans and didn't exchange phone numbers? How did either of you even expect that to work?"
Korra scratched her cheek lightly, letting out an awkward laugh. "Well, we were just so busy talking it kind of felt like we've actually known each other for awhile. So having to exchanging numbers never really crossed my mind, I'm not sure about her though."
The three carried on with their lunch, throwing casual banters here and there of course. Their break ended off with Opal having to take a few calls with clients so the other two decided they should get back to their personal offices.
The work day was coming to an end, a few employees had already left the building, this including both of Korra's friends. She stayed back for awhile so she could work out some final tweaks and minor issues for her newest marketing assignment. Her short hair had turned a bit frizzy, the black blazer she wore earlier was thrown on to one of the arm chairs, and papers were scattered about her desk. The woman wasn't stressed, in fact, she was in her element. Korra worked best when she told herself that she was under pressure even when she knew she wasn't.
Not entirely at least. She just didn't want to fail and have Varrick embarrass her to Asami.
Varrick!
"Hey! I'm really, really sorry to disturb you but do you know where Varrick is right now?" Korra had ran into one of the only offices on her floor that still had an occupant; Mai.
Mai didn't like Korra. At all.
The gloomy worker with dark eyeliner and eyeshadow to match her hair pulled her eyes away from her phone to look up at her co worker. Her facial expression didn't change, but that wasn't anything surprising.
"How should I know?" Her voice was rough. Korra would be ashamed to admit that when she first got moved up to this floor, she had a small crush on Mai for a short time. That was before the two had ever had an interaction.
The tan woman would normally play with her fingers anytime she spoke to this particular peer, which was only when it was extremely necessary, but right now she wasn't in the mood for Mai's bullshit.
"Listen, I know you know where he is, you always seem to know everything that goes on in this place. So can you please for the love of spirits just fucking tell me!" Korra's stance in the doorway shifted to something more grounded.
Mai was slightly impressed, but she wouldn't let Korra see it. Instead she looked back down to her phone and held up three fingers. "Floor three."
With that alone, Korra thanked the pale woman and headed straight for the elevator. Luckily it was empty, so she boarded it by herself in a rush to catch Varrick before the man disappeared again. She aggressively tapped her foot on the floor, shoving her hands in her pants pockets, and the ride felt longer that it should have. As soon as the doors cracked open, she was out of there.
Floor three was mainly filled with student interns, so she figured Varrick would be torturing some poor kids with his completely unrelated stories when they just want to know about the business world. Korra thought to ask someone to point her in a direction towards her boss, but noticed that she didn't know any of the employees there at this time, so she decided not to. She walked around the halls only relying on her sense of hearing to listen for Varrick's voice.
He was always pretty loud when he spoke, so it couldn't be so hard.
The blue eyed woman peaked in nearly every room she passed, but no such luck of finding her boss the one time she truly wanted to see him. She was about to look into another meeting room when she was nearly scared shitless at the sound of roaring laughter behind her. She turned around so quickly you could say she got whiplash from her bob.
There stood, or squatted, the business man, hands on his knees holding his upper body up as he hunched over, barely able to breathe. Korra stood there with balled fists and a temper hot enough to explode. If he wasn't her boss, she would have gladly decked him across the jaw.
Keep it professional.
"What the hell are you doing?! Wh- what's so funny?!"
So professional.
Varrick finally collected himself and perked up to stand straight. "Sorry kid, but you should've soon the look on your stupid little face!" He pointed a slender finger right at Korra's nose, she stared at it in shock then slowly put his hand down.
"I've been looking all over this floor for you! Where were you?"
"This floor? Why on earth this floor?" He began walking back down the hallway they both came from.
"Huh?" She followed after him quickly. "Mai told me you were on the third floor."
"Mai, ugh I love that woman! So deceiving! I was on the fourth floor with Zhu Li, we've been getting pampered all afternoon in the spa." Spa? "Couples back massages, couples feet rubs, couples face masks, couples mud baths, couples manicu-"
"Alright I get it we for some reason have a spa in the building. But anyways, I came to talk to you about Asami. Asami Sato from Future Industries."
"Asami!" The tan man screamed. Varrick suddenly came to a stop right as they were about to turn down another hallway. Korra was caught off guard and almost stumbled over air, but luckily caught herself. She looked at him with a raised brow, tossing her arms in the air basically saying "what the hell was that?!"
The Blackstone hurriedly pulled out his phone, unlocking it, and pressed on a certain contact. He put the caller on speaker while it rang exactly three times before it was answered.
"Hello, Dear."
"Zhu Li, what was it that the Sato wanted me to do?"
"Miss Asami Sato or Hiroshi, dear?" Korra could imagine the wife's face herself as she spoke to her husband; it was still and she always looked like she was busy with something.
"The little one, Asami."
"She wanted you to contact a new acquaintance of hers, one of your employees. Korra from the eleventh floor in the marketing department. Miss Sato wanted you to pass on her information to her."
Varrick snapped his finger, and it looked like his brain turned on for the first time all day. He thanked his wife and they cut the line.
"Wait, Asami told you to give me something that is very important and you just forgot?" Korra tried to come off as irritated, but she couldn't ignore the wide smile forming on her face even if she tried to. "When did she ask you to do that?"
"Yesterday morning, she said she caught up with you at some club or whoever." Her boss snickered to himself as the young woman stood there with fidgeting hands, watching him as he searched through his phone for the engineer's information. The minute he emailed Korra Asami's personal contacts, she basically fled the building all together, barely being able to wait until she got back to her apartment.
Korra had been staring down at her the her friend's number for the past five or maybe ten minutes. She sat at the small breakfast table that leaned up against her brickstone's bay window, the device laying flat on the surface next to a glass of wine. At first, finally getting Asami's number had been the highlight of her month, now she was terrified about what to do next.
Should I call her? No I can't call her, she doesn't even have my number herself. She'd probably block my ID.
Maybe I could email her. She's this big, fancy, professional business woman. She gets emails all of the time.
No what the fuck why would I email my friend?! The girl is gonna think I'm some freak.
Korra decided to pour herself another half glass of wine. She got up and walked over to the mini rack of bottles that sat on her kitchen counter.
But I really need to talk to her. What if she's waiting for me? What if I'm taking so long she thinks I'm ignoring her?
With just that thought, the business woman sped walked back to her phone, picking it up and clutching it in her hands quickly. She pressed on the number, which gave her the option to either call or text it.
Text. Text is always safest.
Now what do I text her ...