Karla's sandals clicked loudly on the pavement as she briskly walked over to the starbucks where she was meeting Tammy. She was excited about a girls day and to be honest it was the first girls day she had had in years. After her parents had passed away and she'd been left to raise her brother she'd pretty much lost contact with her high school friends. They'd understood obviously but over time they grew apart, friends would come back from college or studying abroad and want to go out and party and reconnect. Karla, however, had a nine year old at home so she couldn't just meet everyone out at the bar like she had wanted. She had had a full time job and responsibilities. She had tried to make friends with some of the commuters at Syracuse University but even they were without the baggage she had. The closest friend she had had was Audrey, a receptionist at the news station who had a daughter close to Anthony's age and was a single mom. She understood the stress that Karla was dealing with so they'd met for coffee many times. So today's shopping excursion with another girl was much needed, Karla didn't even really know what girls gossiped about nowadays.
"Hey lady! I'm so glad you made it." Tammy said as Karla entered the store and took a seat at the table Tammy was at.
"I wouldn't miss this for the world. I need a girls day." Karla said placing her cell on the table and purse on the floor beside her.
"Well I already ordered you a coffee, it's delicious, so I thought we'd just start off with Stamford Town Center? It's a really nice mall, then we could make our way back to headquarters and stop at the little boutiques along the way." Tammy said excitedly sipping her drink.
"Yeah, that sounds awesome!" Karla said containing her laughter at Tammy's last sentence. Head back to headquarters? What were they now, superheroes? It sounded so ridiculous.
Stamford Town Center did not disappoint as the average mall. It was flanked with the typical Bon Ton and Macy's, with the normal sort of stores you see inside. Tammy spent what Karla imagined to be thousands and wondered to herself where a receptionist got that kind of cash. As for herself, Karla had splurged on a new bra and panty set and some new urban decay makeup items. She put a nice three piece suit on reserve for Anthony to come back and try on, he'd need a good suit for college. They decided to stop for lunch at a sushi spot in the mall and gossip more about life with the WWE.
"Well, you've got to watch out for Vince. He doesn't actually come around much but when he does he like literally want's everyone to like fawn over him. Like I was really nervous the first time he came by and Sherry, my supervisor, was like you can't be shy, you have to just go out of your way for him or he will have you dropped." Tammy said in between bites of spicy tuna.
"Okay, I'll keep that in mind. I've met Stephanie but she was super nice." Karla said taking a sip of her miso soup.
"Oh yeah she's great. She basically runs development anyway with John and whoever else. But they like run things from their floor, the sixth floor. Then you have the real hub which is your department and then like the promotions department and PR and media. That's what really runs it, then everyone on the sixth floor just approves things and does the financial end. Your really lucky to be downstairs if you ask me, it's more laid back and you get to know the wrestlers too which helps to promote them." Tammy said. She was actually really full of information regarding the business, it was surprising since she was just the receptionist at the hotel.
"Wow, that's really helpful to know, you know Tammy with this kind of knowledge you should be working inside, why are you just out at the apartments?" Karla asked, biting a fried noodle.
"Well actually I was going to Sacred Heart University, it's not far from here. I was going for PR and Marketing and I had my internship with WWE, that's how I got involved, I actually thought wrestling was stupid beforehand, but once I was here, there are so many ways to market it, it was like I'd hit a jackpot." Tammy said, her face suddenly less Barbie-esque and more glowy and excited.
"So then what happened? Why did you move to being a receptionist?" Karla said, very interested now in peeling back the layers of this obviously complicated girl.
"Well, I was into my fourth year of school and I was engaged to this great guy and everything was going great and then out of the blue he just left me. I know it sounds stupid, but I'd let him take care of so much in our lives it was like suddenly I was without an apartment and without a car and without my financial rock, so I left school fall behind and I lost my scholarships and my internship and it was just really hard. It was harder to crawl back home with my tail between my legs though, my family is pretty tough when it comes to failure. But the friends I had made through my internship helped me out and got me the job with the housing here, and twice a week I help out with the PR team making copies and putting together the portfolios. This all happened in the last year though, I'm going to try to get back into school next fall." Tammy said, sighing.
"Well that's great, you should do it. But I have to ask if you had all that happen where do you get all the money for shopping? I mean, you look so put together all the time." Karla asked, regretting immediately her boldness.
"Well, my dad coaches at UCONN, and my mom's a really successful magazine editor down at Elle in the city, so I'm a little spoiled I guess you could say." Tammy said laughing. "I may have failed a little bit and hit some speed bumps, but I'm still the baby of the family and the only girl, so I've still got my black Amex on hand." Tammy added as the girls paid their check.
Once Karla got back to her room she was happy she'd gone out and made a friend in Tammy, she was realizing that the first impression she'd gotten, a blonde bimbo, was not accurate at all and it made her think, if she could make such a quick judgment about this girl, maybe she done the same with a certain someone else?
Anthony was snoring on the couch when Karla arrived and she starting making dinner trying not to wake him, but his nose was far too powerful.
"MMmmm, Karlie that smells great." Anthony said as he walked into the kitchen, sleepies still lining his eyes.
"Yeah, just some pasta with a carbonara sauce. Did you want any tomatoes in it? Or I can add some diced chicken too." Karla said, stirring her sauce.
"Yeah that sounds great, I'll make some bread for it." Ant added, heading to grab the ingredients to make some delicious cheesy garlic bread. If there was one thing the Torricelli's could do, it was make a mean Italian dinner.
"So how did it go with Tamara, did she ask about me?" Ant asked, giving Karla a look.
"Well she did ask how you were getting on before school, I found a suit for you to go down and try on so that's really the only thing that brought you up. She's like four years older than you anyway, so I wouldn't get your hopes up too much." Karla said, straining the fettuccine.
"A suit? Really? For what?" Ant asked moaning.
"Well you'll need something for college if you have any events where you need to wear a suit, and you can't really wear one of dad's old things you know." Karla said, a rock suddenly forming in her throat. She forgot for a second what that might mean to Anthony, he should be doing these sort of guy things with his father, not his sister.
"Oh Ant, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, I just meant, you know you'll need at least one nice outfit to wear." Karla said looking back at her brother who was now no longer smiling.
"It's okay Karla, they were your parents too. I don't know why you walk on eggshells about them all the time. I feel like we never talk about them." Ant said, fixing a salad.
"It's just hard you know. I would rather just remember that time in my life as a wonderful time that came to an end like all things usually do, and that's it. They aren't coming back so why should I punish myself by thinking about them when that makes it so much harder? Anyway, let's eat, we've got this great dinner, plus I want to talk about what we need to do before you leave, it's coming up quick you know." Karla said, bringing the pasta to the table. They ate mostly in silent, Ant busy on his phone and Karla reading some reports from production on a new line of wrestling toys she would need to market. It was hard to talk about her parents with Anthony. She didn't ever know how to talk about them without upsetting him or stirring up emotions. It was better to just leave that chapter of the book closed.
Anthony excused himself to go to his apartment and shut the door connecting their too living rooms. He was obviously upset because he usually just left that door open so it felt like just a big house, but not tonight. Karla could hear the buzz of the tv and heard him talking to someone on his cell. It had to be hard being here, away from all his friends at home so close to when they'd all leave for college. He should have been going to barbeques and seeing his friends before they left, instead he was here in Connecticut stuck on what was basically a strip of businesses with no one to talk to but his sister. Hopefully he'd have a great time at school and make tons of friends there so he wasn't so lonely when he returned home.
Karla finished cleaning her kitchen and sat down with the latest issue of vogue. She thought of maybe trying to incorporate more fashion with the diva's outfits, maybe strike a deal for a photo shoot interview especially now that she knew Tammy had connections at Elle. Karla wondered to herself if maybe she'd ever used her connections.
The next day started off terrible. It was just one of those days where nothing seemed to be going right, from her hair to her outfit choice. To top it all off it was the day that Karla could be meeting Mr. McMahon who was in the Connecticut office today. From what Tammy had said Karla now didn't know what to think about her CEO. She was nervous that he might live up to all the horror stories that Tamara had gone on about.
Karla's brand new Louboutin heels clicked across the slate floor of the main building. Butterflies grew in her stomach as she made her way to the stairs to head to her office. This was the first official day in the Connecticut office where she was actually just another employee and not the new girl. She'd been pulled around to meet so many people and been introduced and given a run through one how things went that she hadn't actually accomplished much actual work. But now she'd pretty much met everyone and it was actually time to get to business. As Karla rounded the corner to head to her office she was suddenly face to face with a rock hard body. It was one of those moments that went in slow motion, she felt herself hit that rock wall and then suddenly she was falling back tripping over her five inch heels.
"Oh my god, are you alright?" A man with a thick southern drawl asked as he reached for her hand.
"Yeah, I think so. Sorry, I didn't see you." Karla said, flipping her hair back over her head.
"Oh, no please, I apologize, you definitely took the brunt of that collision." The man said now staring into her eyes. Karla now found herself face to face with what she was sure had to be a god. Had she actually died? Was this heaven? He had the most chiseled face with just a hint of five o'clock shadow, but in a sexy way, not grungy. His chocolate brown hair was mussed a little like he was in an Abercrombie ad or something and he was about six foot two, just right to her five foot seven. But it was his eyes that struck her most, they were the brightest electric blue that they should have been fake, but with the rest of his beauty she knew they were real. It was as if he'd stepped out of the cover of a cheesy romance novel.
"I'm Jonathon, Jonathon Banks. And you are?" He asked with confidence.
"Um, Karla, Toricelli. I'm one of the new PR and marketing directors." Karla spat out, trying to make herself sound professional.
"Well then, we'll be seeing a lot of each other. I work with Product Development, I was just on my way to the marketing offices actually, care to join me?" He asked as she smoothed out her skirt.
"Uhh, sure, I'd like that." Karla said following the equivalent to McDreamy all the way to the marketing department. I wonder if this falls into the fraternizing category she thought to herself. He's not talent right?