Holy Crapola. Did you read the final issue?
5:33 pm
Ring-a-Ring Da Ding. Ring- a—
Sasuke looked at his phone and saw an unfamiliar number. He answered it with a confused: "Hello…?"
"Hi, Sasuke?"
"Yes."
"It's Sakura; I got your number from your secretary."
"Oh hey."
"I was just wondering how I should dress for the dinner tonight?"
"What you were wearing today will be fine."
"Thanks! I'll meet you there tonight."
"I could pick you up. You know…car pool."
"That's okay I wouldn't want to make you go so far out of your way," she said nervously.
"I wouldn't mind, honestly."
"I'll just meet you there. Thanks anyway though," Sakura insisted.
Sakura hung up her phone. She looked around her apartment and felt embarrassed. She looked in her closet and felt embarrassed. She bit her lip and headed out to catch a bus to the dinner.
6:22 pm
Sakura hugged her jacket close to herself to keep warm. The bus could only bring her so close so now she had to walk. She jogged next to the building and rounded the corner. To her surprise, up ahead of her in the distance was Sasuke still in his suit. Was he waiting for her? Why would he, it's not like this was a date or anything.
She approached him and said, "Hi Sasuke."
"Hey, ready to go in?"
She nodded and they walked in, side by side.
The large dining room was the most elegant room Sakura had ever been in. There were hundreds of people packed in; smiling and talking all dressed in tuxedos or floor-length dresses.
"Sasuke I'm way underdressed," Sakura whispered to him.
"So am I, it doesn't matter. Hungry?"
"Um, yeah, but—"
"Don't worry about what they think, let's get something to drink."
Sakura followed him across the hall, rubbing shoulders with people worth ten times what she was, to a table willed with wine glasses. He took one in each hand and passed one to her.
"Thanks," she said.
"Mhm."
They stood together, off in a corner, in silence sipping on their drinks until dinner was ready. Sakura still felt awkward being here; sticking out like a sore thumb. Sasuke wasn't feeling weird at all; he just plain didn't want to be here.
Sakura decided to break the silence, "Have you been in New York long?"
"Hn, for the past five years. You?"
"Three years, just for college."
"Oh…cool," Sasuke said shakily.
"I saw this news piece a while ago, and—is it true you didn't graduate from high school?"
"Yes."
"How did you get, well, anything?"
"Now if I went around telling everyone that, I would have a lot more competition."
"I also read you took advantage of people during the recession."
He shrugged, "I made some good decisions at the right time, and now I'm here"
"Well that's good. You know I also—"
"Little brother! Glad you could make it," Itachi bellowed as he wrapped an arm around his shoulder, "And you too, Sakura."
Sasuke looked noticeably irritated and said through his teeth, "Eh, yeah sure."
"Come with me I want you to meet someone."
Before Sakura had a chance to ask if she should come too, Itachi dragged his brother away. She stood there awkwardly by herself. She sipped on her drink and looked to the floor. A small group of wealthy-looking people grazed near her chatting about something; Sakura tried to keep to herself.
One of the women started staring daggers at her. Sakura tried to ignore the unwanted attention but it was hard to avoid. Maybe it was the cheap clothes she was wearing or the lack of jewels and diamonds adorned on her that gave her away.
The stranger finally asked, "Um, are you lost?"
Sakura looked at her sheepishly, "No…"
"Are you, working here?"
"No I—"
"Sakura let's go," called out the familiar voice of Sasuke.
Everyone turned to Sasuke who stormed up to Sakura, ignoring everyone else.
"That didn't take long," she commented.
The woman who was questioning Sakura cooed seductively to him "Hi Sasuke, how have—"
"Yeah," he cut her off impatiently, "Sakura, let's go."
Sasuke walked away and she joined him, leaving everyone else confused.
Sakura caught up to him and asked, "Is everything okay?"
"Hn."
"I think dinner is about ready, want to sit down?"
"Do you want to be here?"
Sakura was dazed. She tentatively inquired, "W-what do you mean?"
"This isn't the kind of place you're used to, or have even been to at all. Do you even want to be here?"
She bit her lower lip and thought hard before saying, "Professionally, I should be with you in places like this in case any media—"
"Yeah but do you want to be in places like this? Because I sure don't."
"Well, no I don't either."
"There's a diner across the street, wanna eat there?"
Again she was shocked: "You don't want to stay with your brother?"
"No."
"All right."
The two of them walked through the cold to a small and mostly empty diner. They didn't say anything to each other; Sasuke seemed troubled by something. They sat down in a booth and promptly ordered, but then returned to silence.
They were quiet for many more minutes until Sasuke said out of nowhere: "He got married."
She looked up to him and asked, "Who?"
"Itachi."
"And…you didn't know until tonight?"
"I didn't even know he was dating anybody."
"Wow, have you two always been this distant?"
"No, not always."
"You should go talk to him," she plead.
"Eh, I didn't want to be there regardless."
"He invited you for a reason, maybe he misses you."
"I don't miss him."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, let's talk about something else."
"Ok…so, I've been wondering, why was I picked for this position?"
"Why not?"
"I have almost no experience, I haven't finished school and…and yeah that's about it."
"Two reasons?"
"Two big reasons."
"To be honest, it was mostly random."
"Mostly?"
"That's the word you're interested in?"
"It makes sense you'd pick at random, that's just how you seem. What do you mean mostly?"
"I got rid of everyone with too much experience, then I picked at random."
"Why?"
"I didn't want anyone bossing me around too much."
"Oh, that makes sense…kind of."
"How long do you think you'll be working at my company?"
"As long as I can."
"What about college?"
"Yes, I still have a year left starting in the fall. I might have to switch to part-time and work on weekends, but if you'll have me, I want to stay."
"You like it here that much?"
"Of course."
"Good…"
Something clicked inside her head and she blurted out, "Do you like working here?"
"It's my company."
"Do you like it, though?"
He shrugged, "Nobody's asked me that before…I do like it, but there's a lot more to it than just the job. I like the money and the freedom, but I don't like the lifestyle that goes with it. The people pretending to be what they're not, the fancy dinner and the media. I would rather live like a "regular" person."
"I guess the grass is always greener on the other side."
He smirked in amusement.
Their food came and they went back to silence, but it wasn't a weird silence. It was a content, friendly silence in which they enjoyed each other's company. In between bites of food they would chit chat about the city, their families and the weather, things like that. It was nice. Sakura felt like she was talking with a friend and not her boss. Sasuke felt like he was talking with a friend and not his subordinate.
When they finished eating Sasuke left a hundred dollar bill on the table and they walked out together.
"and then I said 'why the long face?'!" Sakura exclaimed.
Sasuke chuckled at the story she told. They got back to the entrance of the banquet. The only light in the parking lot they were standing in was from inside the building and the full moon overhead. They could see inside that there were only a couple dozen people left inside.
"It's getting late, we should get home," Sasuke suggested.
"You're right. I had a really nice time tonight."
"Me too, I'll see you tomorrow," Sasuke said with a grin.
"Bye," Sakura sang out, then began walking around the corner she passed earlier.
"Sakura?" he called.
She turned around, "Hm?"
"Why'd you park over there?"
"I, didn't see any room over here" she lied.
"Okay…"
Sasuke turned back to look for his car and Sakura walked away towards the bus stop. She walked a block and sat on the cold bench. She waited there a while, memories of the night overpowering the coldness surrounding her. It didn't take long before a sports car slowed down to a halt across from her. The window rolled down and, surprise surprise, it was Sasuke.
He yelled out across the road, "Car get towed?"
"No," Sakura admitted; she didn't like lying to her friends, "I'm between cars right now."
"Get in."
Sakura knew saying no wasn't an option, so she walked around and got in the passenger seat.
"Thanks," she muttered in awe of the car he drove.
"Where do you live?"
Her stomach turned at that question, but she answered truthfully: "815 Oceanic Lane."
"Hn, that's south?"
"Yeah…" she sighed, knowing that quality of life dropped as you went down.
"Hn, do you like…living there?" he nervously asked.
"It's fine. I'm at school or work most of the time anyway."
"Okay," he shrugged off.
They drove down the street, noticing the increasingly dilapidated buildings. Eventually they hit a red light. They were listing to the radio when Sasuke's phone began ringing. He turned down the radio and answered it:
"I'm driving, make it quick….what?...when?!...ok I'll be there as soon as I can," Sasuke hung up the phone.
"What was that?" she asked.
"It was Temari, and our stock prices dropped."
"How much?"
"They're worth almost half as much, and it will probably continue to fall," he stoically said.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"How bad is this?"
"Really. Really bad," he slowly declared, gripping the steering wheel tightly.
"We should go back to the office," Sakura suggested.
"I will as soon as I drop you off."
"No. Let me come with you," she begged.
He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "This could take a while."
"It's fine, please, let me help."
"Alright, let's save this company."
Next Time: Sakura has a sleepover at the company as it goes through financial hell. Sakura overhears a conspiracy. Sasuke has to make some tough decisions.
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