"Right, what have you got for me?"
"Well just these"
Quinn handed her boss her violet Usb stick. He snatched it from her fingertips and Quinn shot him a menacing glare before she looked down at her fingers and started to fiddle with them, anything to not look at her boss.
She heard him mumble something inaudible as he stuck the Usb stick in to his laptop and continued to play with her fingers to pass the time.
Her boss wasn't exactly a computer genius. Her boss was a short man that could have been considered a dwarf when he wasn't in his leather office chair that made him seem of average height and his hair was styled in a brush-cut and dyed a midnight blue except for the grey streaks that ran along the sides. He had eyes that reminded Quinn of drying mud and slightly yellow teeth whenever he opted for an open-mouthed smile and to Quinn's knowledge, only dressed in Hawaiian shirts, khaki shorts and hideous dark red flip-flops.
Quinn wasn't fond of her boss but then again no one that worked for him was. He wasn't a nice man; in fact he was rather foul and pretentious and on more than one occasion tried to pass at his female employees. Quinn grimaced as she remembered an instance when he had decided to grab her ass and wink at her on her second day working there. But because it was her second day at work and she hadn't met her boss, she ended up breaking his nose by accident and threatening him. When she had realised who she had defended herself against, she made sure to kiss his ass so that she wouldn't be fired. After all she needed this job.
"Some of these aren't bad" said her boss fondly and Quinn looked up at him smiling.
"Thanks"
"But the rest are shit and too far to be honest"
"Well I'm not a miracle worker and I happen to respect the law between stars and us paps" said Quinn, annoyed by her boss's careless tone.
Her boss sighed and looked up at her, his fingers drumming on his ivory desk.
"Do you have a problem with me, Fabray?" her boss said, his tone sounding hurt. "I can hear the annoyance in your voice and I don't like it"
"You barely like anything" said Quinn and she fixed a smile on her face.
"Aren't you brave today" her boss said in mock surprise and he flashed a smile of his own in her direction before he frowned. "I'll pay you thirty per good photo"
"And how many are there?"
"One"
Quinn gritted her teeth and rested her hands on her boss's desk. "Bullshit"
"Watch your tongue Fabray" said her boss and he stopped his fingers from drumming. "I may allow you to talk to me like we're friends but at the end of the day I'm your boss and I run this company"
Quinn stayed silent, biting her tongue to stop the flurry of words that she wanted to spill on to her boss.
"Now if you had let me continue, you would have known that I would pay twenty for the rest"
"For all of them?"
"No for ten of them" said her boss and he ejected Quinn's usb stick from his laptop and held it out for Quinn to take back.
Quinn licked her lips as she added up the sum that she was getting. On a day like today, Two-hundred and Thirty wasn't exactly what she needed. Any other day she would have been fine with the sum, having already calculated how much she would have paid for her bills and the amount of food-shopping she would have to do, but today she needed more than that. She hadn't paid her rent for three-weeks running and today was the last day her landlord had given her to pay up.
"Five hundred and you got a deal" Quinn said, her eyes shining with ferocity as she slipped into her bargaining mode.
Her boss shifted uncomfortably in his chair under her gaze and the corner of his smile turned crooked. "Come on kid, I don't even pay that much to any-
"Please" Quinn cut over him, rolling her eyes. "You must be an idiot if you think I don't know that I'm the only one that gets short-changed in this company. In fact, Toby seems to be pretty sure that he'll be getting five hundred for his pictures"
"Yeah well Toby's an idiot" her boss muttered.
"But that doesn't excuse that if he asked for Five hundred you'd give it to him"
Her boss was silent as he stared up at her, his stubby hands pressed against each other. He sighed as if in defeat and threw his hands in the air.
"Fine, you win" he said through gritted teeth. "You get your five hundred, hell, I'll even up it to six hundred just for the fun of it, you know why?"
"Why?" said Quinn, staring at him blankly and folding her arms across her chest.
"Because there was a reason I hired you" her boss said, taking Quinn by surprise. "You aren't like the rest of the dicks in this building, no you aren't. You're fierce and when you want something you want it and that's what I like about you Quinn Fabray, that is what I want" her boss slammed his hands on his desk and laughed. "You're a fine pap, your pictures need some work but you got the attitude down. You think I would have taken your bullshit from anyone else? You bet your ass I wouldn't and that is one fine looking ass I would bet on"
"Watch it" Quinn warned him but her boss dismissed her warning with a wave of his hand.
"Anyway, I have a job waiting for you" said her Boss, getting up from his desk and walking towards her.
He walks like a penguin Quinn thought suddenly, only now noticing the way he seemed to wobble on the balls of his feet and tried to stop herself from laughing.
"Same target, different location"
Quinn groaned. "Rachel Berry? Again? This is the fifth time this month that you've made me take pictures of her"
"It's what the people demand and she sells better" her boss said as he walked passed her and towards a small glass cabinet that housed a brandy set. Her boss fished out a rusted key from his khaki pants pocket and opened the cabinet, taking out a short crystal goblet and a glass brandy decanter modelled after a phoenix before walking back to his desk. "They're calling her the next Angelina Jolie if you can believe such a thing; personally her nose offends me to no end but what can you do?"
Although she didn't like taking pictures of Rachel Berry, for some reason Quinn didn't like the remark her boss had said. It didn't sit well with her as, in her opinion, she thought that Rachel Berry was the most stunning and most beautiful person she'd seen in her life, but also because she still harboured a deep crush on the celebrity from since she first met her back in October of last year.
She'd seen her by chance as one of her close friends called Sam Evans went to college with her and gave her his ticket to see her at a show she was doing. She was reluctant at first as she never really liked theatre, finding it boring and a waste of time, but she didn't want to disappoint Sam and say no, so she took the ticket and decided to go. She was glad she did.
Her voice was nasally and somewhat annoying when Quinn heard her first speak, but the more she heard it, the more it started to seem cute. Then she sang and Quinn's mouth hung open, waiting for the flies to gather inside. To Quinn, it reminded her of the time when she first heard Frank Sinatra sing when she was browsing her mother's record collection. She remembered listening to My Blue Heaven and getting chills down her spine from how smooth his voice was and the sudden joy his voice brought to her and the way it could get her up and dancing on her feet.
That night, after the show had ended and Quinn rode the train back to her college campus, she lay in her bed thinking about how talented Rachel Berry was and how she'd like to meet her one day.
How things change, now I'm taking pictures of her, and not in a good way, and she probably hates me Quinn thought and she found it fascinating as to how she could dampen her own mood so easily.
"Starting today you'll be on Rachel Berry watch for the rest of the year" her boss said, breaking Quinn out of thoughts and bringing her back to the present situation at hand. "It's known that she's going to be staying in town for a couple of days, something about staying with family so I expect plenty of pictures"
"I can't just follow her to her family's house! Isn't that a brea-
"Fabray, You've already hustled me in to giving you more than I planned for your pictures, All I'm asking for you is to do your job. This isn't the time to be worrying about morals, you knew what you were getting yourself in to when you signed the dotted line"
"I know but that doesn't mean I have to like it"
"Well tough!" said her boss, shaking his head as he downed the brandy that was in his goblet. "Now get out, I've had enough of your face"
"Gladly," said Quinn, but she stood her ground. "When I get my money of course"
Her Boss shook his head and sighed, glancing up at her before opening the draw of his ivory desk and pulling a stack of money as thick as Quinn's hand. Quinn watched as he brought his right thumb to his lips and licked it before trailing the hundred dollar bills that were on his desk. He counted them until he had exactly six-hundred dollars in his hand and held it out for Quinn.
Quinn smirked at her boss as she took the money from his hands and curtly nodded at him in thanks and spun on her heel, thankful she was finally leaving his office.
"What'd you get" Toby asked as Quinn closed the bosses door behind her.
The corner of Quinn's mouth twitched up in to a smile and she folded the money and put it in her Denim jeans jacket pocket.
"None of your business" was all Quinn said to Toby and watched as his expression changed from smug to confusion before she walked off, her head held high.