Michelle
There were only a few women in this city who possessed what it took to work on Wall Street, a select few who understood the value of time and loyalty as well as I did. I'd built my company from the ground up, armed with a parting "Don't let that city eat you alive when" wish from my father and a worn black pantsuit that was two sizes too big.
I started off as a coffee runner—an unwanted scrub on some mega corporation's bloated payroll. Since no one was willing to give me a real job, I asked questions whenever I could. I stayed late and eaves-dropped on meetings under the guise of doing my college homework. And when none of the top tier executives wanted to stay late and re-crunch the day's numbers, I volunteered.
And years later, I built my own fund, invested in all the stocks they were too scared to touch. Then I eventually became one of the most revered businesswomen on Wall Street. If there was a company that piqued my interest, I bought it. If there was a stock that I wanted to invest in, I became an investor by dinner. And if there was a deal that I wanted to make, it was mine within seconds.
At least, I thought that was the case before this morning.
"What do you mean Watson's not sure if he wants me to buy his company anymore?" I looked at my advisor, Kate, in utter disbelief. "He put it up for fucking sale. Whoever buys it from him doesn't make one bit of a difference."
"I've told you time and time again that he wants the new owner to be a family-oriented person. You're not a family woman."
"I definitely have a family."
"A family of your own." She sighed. "Not a family you call every other week when you happen to remember that they exist. Oh, and definitely not someone who's been Page Six's Bachelor of the Year eight times in a row."
"Ten times in a row, but no one's counting." I smiled. "But if it'll make Watson feel any better about my personal life and how I'll run his fund in the future, I can call him and honestly admit that I haven't fucked anyone in over eight months."
She gave me a blank stare. "You're kidding, right?"
"Unfortunately, not." It's been slightly longer than that ...
"Even if I did believe you, which I don't, your restraint from fucking anyone doesn't make you a matriarch. It just means you're not behaving like your normal self. By 'family-oriented person,' he means someone who knows that life is not all work. Someone who can appreciate life's moments outside of the boardroom."
"I do a great job of that," I said. "You said it yourself. My company pays the highest salaries at every level so the employees can enjoy their lives outside of the boardroom."
"Right ..." She sat up in her chair. "When your second CFO got married, what did you give him as a wedding gift?"
"A generous bonus and a vintage wine."
"Um hmm. And what exactly did you write on that wine bottle's tag?"
I sighed. "I'm disappointed that you're getting married. I never thought you were the type."
"What else?"
I didn't answer. I didn't want to remember.
"You wrote, 'I'm pretty sure you'll be divorced in two years, so you're better off ditching her and flying to Florida to help me with this Tampa Deal.' Then again, at least you were kind enough to write, 'PS—I hope you at least got a pre-nup before you signed that contract. See you at work when you get back. Love, Michelle.' I think it was those last two words that made him quit."
"That was two years ago," I said. "I don't send those types of notes anymore."
"Because Anntonia does them for you." She rolled her eyes. "Outside of your company, you don't have any true relationships, and that's exactly what Watson wants his successor to have. He thinks it'll make the owner more empathetic when it comes to certain things. Don't you?"
Fuck no.
I wasn't sure why he was suddenly acting like a saint, since he was far more ruthless than I was when he ran his own firm decades ago. He'd once written the exact five words that summed up exactly how I viewed relationships: worthlessly fickle, useless, and unpredictable.
Once they crashed, they never recovered, so I never invested any energy into them. The idea of ever starting a family had never crossed my mind because I saw firsthand what it did to some of my most successful peers. Their work ethic gradually slowed, their drive for power waned, and they began to run their companies on happiness instead of financial sense.
And I was completely baffled as to why after six months of negotiating, five weeks of endless conference calls, and hours of back and forth, that this CEO was considering backing out of a deal over something so frivolous.
I sighed and leaned back in my chair. "I need us to seal this deal, Kate. I'm not taking no for an answer."
"I'm sure you aren't." She smiled nervously. "A five-billion-dollar deal would be a hell of a portfolio boost—especially since it'll make you double that in ten years, once the other deals go through."
But if we don't get it, we'll lose twenty billion in the same amount of time...
I could guess the rest of her thoughts without her saying a word.
"Do you have any ideas on how we could get him to change his mind?"
"Finally!" She laughed and opened a folder. "I've been waiting for you to ask me that all day."
Before she could launch into her strategy, my desk phone rang with an unfamiliar number.
"Hold that thought for one second." I motioned for her to give me a second. "This is Michelle Dee," I answered the phone.
"Ms. Michelle, this is Mr. Tanner from the Tanner and Associates firm across the street. You told me to call if um, if Ms. Anntonia Porsild ever come over again."
"I did," I said. "When was she there?"
"Just now, ma'am. She just left not too long ago."
I pulled out my phone and looked at my inbox. Her last email to me was from thirty minutes ago.
––––––––
Subject: Dentist Appointment
Ms. Dee,
I seem to have forgotten that I also had a dentist appointment scheduled for today. Since the office is close by, I'm just going to run over and personally reschedule it for a later time. Just like you suggested.
Anntonia Porsild,
Executive Assistant to Michelle Marquez Dee, Dee Industries
PS—I forgot to say it back. Happy Anniversary :-)
––––––––
She's still fucking with me...
"What did she ask you for, Mr. Tanner?" I asked.
"The same thing as always, ma'am. Inquiring if we could look at the contract again and find any loopholes."
"Are there any?"
"No, Ms. Dee."
"Good." I smiled. I had that shit looked at every year as well. "I'll send an intern over with a token of my appreciation at lunch. Thank you for letting me know." I ended the call right as Anntonia stepped into my office with a tray.
Wearing her favorite fitted blue dress that never ceased to get my attention, she walked across my floor in her red-bottom heels and gave me her usual sexy glare.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Dee," she said, setting the tray on my desk. "Kate. Here's your lunch and a copy of the Watson files like you asked. Can I get you anything else?"
"How was your dental appointment?" I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Same as the medical one," she said, narrowing her eyes right back at me. "I'll just have to deal with a certain cavity that'll rot for the next two years."
"That's not healthy at all, Anntonia." Kate placed her napkin in her lap. "I have a good dentist that can get rid of any cavity. You should see him, if yours is telling you things like that."
We both looked at her.
"What?" she said, stuffing a fry into her mouth. "He's a really good dentist!"
"Are there any more appointments you have scheduled for today, Anntonia?" I asked, trying my best to ignore the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra beneath her dress. "I'd like to know right now."
"I'm sure you would." She shrugged. "My lunch break starts now, though. It'll have to wait until I'm done." She turned and walked away, and I watched her every move until she was long gone.
Despite the glares she threw at me on a daily basis, the sarcastic hand-written post-it notes she slipped into my desk, and the fact that she was still "secretly" taking job interviews, I considered her to be my most loyal employee. And strangely, my only friend. Next to Kate, she was the only other person in this building I completely trusted.
She was also, unfortunately, the sexiest woman I'd ever seen in my life. With her deep and dark brown eyes, her brunette hair that fell past her shoulders in waves, and a wardrobe that made my heart stopped any time she walked into a room, she put every super model I'd ever met to shame. Over the past two years of her employment, I'd forced myself to deal with the torture of working by her side during countless ten and twelve-hour days. I was still suffering from the longest sexual dry spell because the only person I wanted to fuck was her, but I knew better than to cross that line.
"Okay." I took my coffee from the tray and cleared my throat. "Sum up your idea for getting Watson back on our side for this deal in five seconds."
"I think you should get engaged temporarily and show off your real family within the same time frame, so it looks like you're exactly the type of CEO he wants you to be." The words rushed out of her mouth faster than ever.
I stared at her long and hard. She'd suggested a lot of questionable shit since becoming my advisor, but this was by far the most ridiculous.
"Out of all the available options, you want me to pretend to have a fiancée, just so I can close a deal?"
"A five-billion-dollar deal." She nodded. "It makes far more sense in context. Let me explain ..."
————————
Several days later...
The words "Let me explain" were almost always a bad omen when they left Kate's lips, and in the case of Operation: Fake Fiancée, they might as well have been a curse.
"Wait, wait." The fourteenth applicant of the week stood by my door. "Give me one more chance, and I promise I won't lie about my past again, Ms. Dee. I'll tell you about all the drugs, I swear!"
Jesus Christ ... I shook my head. Sadly, she wasn't even the worst one we'd interviewed.
"Let's just go." Kate led her out of the office. "We'll be in touch."
I pulled out my cell phone and sent her a text.
"I'm only seeing one more today, Kate. I'd like to hold onto the rest of my brain cells. Thank you."
I hit send, and my desk phone rang.
"This is Michelle Dee," I answered. "You have two minutes."
"Good afternoon, Ms. Dee." It was a soft female voice. "My name is Cass and I'm with the Carriage Firm. I'm calling to ask you about your thoughts in regard to my proposal I sent to your office last week."
"I don't recall receiving a proposal," I said. "Did you get a confirmation email?"
"Yes, it was from the Anntonia."
"Anntonia Porsild?" I shook my head. I wasn't sure when everyone around me started adding 'the' in front of Anntonia's name.
"Yes, that's the one."
"Hold on for a few seconds." I placed her on hold and called my secretary. "Could you tell Miss Porsild to step into my office, please?"
I ended the call before she could answer, and within seconds Anntonia walked into the room. Dressed in a new dress, a fitted beige one that clung to her curves, she crossed her arms and pursed her pouty pink lips.
Jesus Christ...
"Yes, Ms. Dee?" she said. "Are you checking to make sure I haven't broken away from my chains today?"
"You've fantasized about me putting you in chains?" I asked. "Let's discuss that."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm on a conference call with one of your estate brokers right now. What do you want?"
"I have Cass from the Carriage Firm on the line. She claims you sent her a confirmation email about a proposal I've never seen. I know you're attempting to get fired, but surely there's a better way than hiding proposals from me."
"I'm not hiding anything from you," she said. "I read over it and decided it wasn't worth your time. She's only calling you because I told her that you had far more important things to do than read a high-school level brief. But by all means, if you'd like to take a look for yourself, I placed a copy of it in your cloud. Can I get you anything else?"
Your mouth. "I'd like some coffee."
"So would I." She walked toward the door. "There's plenty of it downstairs in the employee café."
I waited for her to softly slam my door as usual, and found the proposal right where she said it was. I managed to make it through the first five lines before surrendering.
I hung up on Miss Cass and quickly drafted an email with the subject line, "If Anntonia Says No, It's a Fucking No."
The second I hit send, an intern rushed into my office with a cup of coffee. She blushed as she set it on my desk, offering me a small smile.
"How many sugars did you put in there?" I asked.
"Zero." She blushed again. "Miss Porsild specifically said you wanted it black."
Of course, she did...
I pulled my drawer open and removed my hidden panel, finding a post-it note in Anntonia's handwriting instead of my stash of raw sugar packets.
––––––––
Stop STEALING the sugar packets from my office.
Thank you.
–Anntonia
PS—Not that I care (because I DON'T) but your doctor did say your stress could be lessened by limiting sugars in a few cups of your daily coffee.
––––––––
I groaned and sipped the bitter coffee. I started to text Kate about cancelling today's final interview since it was taking her so long, but she walked into my office with a pretty blonde at her side.
"Michelle, this is Alex." She walked her over to me. "Alex, this is Michelle Dee."
"It's so nice to finally meet you in person, Ms. Dee." Her cheeks reddened as she extended her hand. "I've read about you in a lot of newspapers and magazines."
"Only half of what's printed is true." I shook her hand and pulled out a chair for her, bracing myself for what I hoped would be the final interview.
"So, Miss Alex." Kate cleared her throat. "We're running a bit short on time today, so we'll skip the small talk and jump right into the improvisation part. I'm going to ask you a few questions regarding the documents I asked you to study and most of what you've already read about Ms. Dee and you're going to pretend like we're shooting a documentary and that you're her wife. Okay?"
"Okay." She batted her eyes at me. "I'm ready to play Mrs. Dee. I'm getting paid for this, right?"
"You'll get paid if you get the job."
"Wait. What?" She looked confused. "I don't do free job interviews..."
What the fuck? I shot Kate a look, but she ignored me.
"Miss Alex, we'll gladly compensate you for your time at the end of this interview."
"Will you also validate my Parking?" she asked. "I Parked in a MMD spot in the private garage."
"A MMD spot?" She looked confused.
"Yeah, the spot said MMD and it had CEO painted underneath it, but I figured it was an employee prank because Ms. Dee is the CEO, not whoever this MMD person is, you know?"
We both looked at her in a stunned silence.
"Miss Alex," Kate said finally. "Those three letters, MMD., are indeed for Ms. Michelle. They were painted there for brevity."
"Well, why would you ever go by the name MMD?" She snorted. "You have to know that Ms. Michelle Dee sounds so much better."
"Can we just get this over with?" I asked, downing the rest of my coffee. I felt like I'd already lost two brain cells during this conversation and I wasn't going to make it too much longer.
"Noted." Kate pulled out her notebook and sighed. "Miss Alex, what's your wife's favorite color?"
"Yellow." She winked at me. "But according to The Business Journal, sometimes it's green."
It's always black.
"How does she take her coffee?"
"With tons of cream—like at least five pumps. Oh, and she always has to have an extra shot of caramel."
I'm allergic to caramel...
"Her favorite movie?"
"It's a tossup between The Titanic and The Notebook." She smiled. "We watch them together all the time. Sometimes she cries at the end."
I've never cried at a goddamn movie.
"Can you tell me her favorite book?"
"No, but I can tell you mine. It's Cosmo."
That's not a book ...
"Okay, then." Kate shook her head and shut the questionnaire folder. "Miss Alex, did you happen to read any of the materials I emailed to you last week in regard to these questions?"
"I started to, but you emailed them to me on a Saturday. Saturday is my me-time."
"What about the days after? You had six other days of the week to prepare for this."
"Not really." She scoffed. "Sunday through Friday are the days I need to get ready for my me-time."
I let out a few loud coughs. My signal that she needed to end this shit before I did.
"Last thing, Miss Alex." She stood to her feet. "I called Harvard to verify that you were a student there and they couldn't locate your records. Did you attend there under a different name?"
"What?" She looked confused. "I never said I went to Harvard."
"You wrote it right here," she said, pointing to her application. "It says Harvard right next to the word college."
"Oh." She shrugged. "I just wrote that because I figured Ms. Michelle would be more into an Ivy-league woman."
"Fair enough." She clicked her pen. "What college did you actually attend?"
"Well, I applied to tons of colleges. None of them actually let me in, so it's not technically my fault that I don't have a true answer for that right now, you know? I tried."
Her jaw dropped.
"It was interesting meeting you." I stood up and extended my hand. "We'll be in touch."
"Oh, great! This was so much fun!" She smiled and shook my hand. Then she looked at Kate. "I meant what I said about being paid for this interview. My time isn't free."
"Go to the fifth floor and tell them Kate sent you. They'll take care of it."
"Okay." She slung her purse over her shoulder and winked at me as she walked toward the door. "I'll keep my phone volume on high, so I won't miss the call-back. When exactly will you be making your final decision?"
Neither of us said anything. And thankfully, she didn't stick around for an answer.
"Jesus ..." Kate slumped onto the sofa. "I didn't think it could get much worse."
"You and me both."
"You know what?" She sighed. "I'll find a new, different way for us to get this deal done and have some options to you tonight. I don't think I can sit through any more of these."
"My thoughts exactly. Where are we on the Smith & Claxton acquisition?"
"It's almost done," She said. "Last time I checked, Anntonia was having the contracts looked over by three different legal teams."
"And the Barron account?"
"Secured as of this morning, and the papers will need your signature tomorrow evening."
Before I could ask about another deal we were pursuing, a knock came to the door.
"Come in," I called out.
The door opened, and Anntonia walked into the room with a stack of freshly printed contracts.
"The Smith & Claxton contracts are officially binding and clear," she said, setting the papers on my desk. "I've highlighted a few questionable terms you may want to adjust in the final round of negotiations, but they're very minor."
Kate smiled at her.
"I've called ahead to The Four Seasons, since you're staying there tonight to finalize things with Hayward, and the manager has assured me that there won't be any caramels or sugars in the coffee stations. You'll have three pantsuit options in the closet waiting, although I highly suggest you go with the black and grey Chanel one, as that one looks best under the lobby's lighting."
"You told me you hated that pantsuit."
"No, I told you I hated how much you spent on that pantsuit." She uncapped a pen and handed it to me. "One of the interns is going to come by in an hour to pick up the Voss files, so you need to initial all sixty pages by then."
"Why are you leaving early again?"
"Because my amazing boss is unknowingly treating me to an anniversary spa session on her credit card, and I think I'm going to take my boyfriend."
"Since when are you dating someone?" I clenched my jaw.
"Seeing as though I never have the time, never." She sighed. "I'm going with my sister. Jealous much?"
Extremely. "Well, why couldn't you schedule your session on the weekend and not during the hours I'm actually paying you for?" I swear she was the only woman who could arouse me with her goddamn sarcasm. "I told you I needed your help to prepare for my four o'clock meeting."
"And I told you I placed some helpful post-it notes in the files." She crossed her arms. "Any other unnecessary questions before I leave?"
"I have some." Kate leaned forward in her chair. "Humor me for a second, Anntonia. What's Michelle's favorite color?"
"Black. Although she lies in every single interview by saying it's green because she somehow thinks that makes her look smarter." She looked at me and narrowed her eyes. "It doesn't."
"How does she take her coffee?"
"Two sugars if no one is watching." She shrugged. "Black if someone is."
"Her favorite movie?"
"The Godfather."
"One, two, or three?"
"I think she's watched them all so many times, she can't even tell the difference anymore." She headed toward the door. "Any other random trivia questions?"
"Final one, just for fun. What's her favorite book?"
"The Catcher in the Rye." She opened the door and stepped into the hallway. "I'm officially off now. Goodbye."
The door closed and Kate looked at me, smiling. "I take back what I said about drafting new idea options. I think we just found your fake fiancée."
I don't fucking think so...