Happy Wednesday, my dudes and dudettes!
Her Smile
"There's nothin like juggling. Until ya let the balls come crashin down," Ms. Scryer said wisely when he came to Alandra's office.
"I take it she's seen?" he sighed.
"Oh yes. Several of her friends, bosses, and co-workers were good enough to send her the links, most with questions about her sanity. What with her dating a man incapable of fidelity or commitment. Is she dating a man incapable of fidelity or commitment?"
Tyr was sure to look her dead in the eye as he answered. "No, ma'am," he said emphatically. "May I see her?"
"No," Walter said angrily, blocking the door to her office. "You've been playing the women of America for fools. I'm not going to let you-"
"I thought I told you to leave my office," Landi said sternly.
"Alandra, I just want to-"
"I didn't mutter or stutter. I said 'This is wildly inappropriate. Get out of my office before I call security'. Shall I make that call?"
"I was just trying to protect you," the man said indignantly.
"Ms. Scryer? Mr. Spiegel seems to have lost his way to his office. Please call security to escort him."
"Right away, Ms. Shaveed. Mr. Anasazi is here to see you."
"Ah. Please have him sit in my receiving room until security has escorted Mr. Spiegel out of my office. Then show him in. I've already had one testosterone moment in my office. I refuse to have another."
"Landi-"
"That is not a name you are allowed to use, Mr. Spiegel. That name is reserved for my friends, something that you are not. Friends don't throw things at each other without the other's consent. I have asked you to leave several times now. I know that you are not deaf or completely brain-dead. Leave. I do not wish to see you." Security burst into the office just then.
"Ms. Shaveed, what happened to your window?"
"Mr. Spiegel decided to redecorate it. While I was standing in front of it," she said calmly. "I will, of course, expect the damages to come out of his wages and I will be informing Mr. Myers and Mr. Myers of this incident. The man obviously needs anger management classes. I would like Mr. Spiegel to be escorted back to his office until then."
"Don't bother. Mr. Spiegel is suspended without pay until this mess is fixed. You may escort him off the premises." Walter was red and sputtering by now.
"I thought you were someone worth getting to know, Alandra," he said furiously as he was led away. "But I was wrong. You're nothing but a slut! Willing to wrap your slutty little legs around that spoiled whore of a prince-"
"Are you done with your juvenile outbursts, Mr. Spiegel? You're boring me," she said with a wry roll of her eyes. "I cannot believe I consented to go out with such a vindictive man-child." Walter was frothing at the mouth, struggling to get at the object of his ire.
"Why you-" he went limp suddenly, Tyr having come up behind the guards to knock him out. Tyr gave the room that sexy half-smile that made her eyes dilate to his delight.
"Forgive me for interfering, but you did say that you didn't want any more testosterone moments in your office." That got a giggle out of her. The guards took the man to the elevator but didn't know what to do with him now that he was unconscious. They looked to their boss for guidance, but he looked as lost as they were. "I would recommend that you gather his things and load him and them into a cab bound for his home. He'll be out for a while. I usually pay for the cab ride to avoid drama." The guards looked to Whitmore, who nodded.
"Employee termination is a joint decision. But I assure you that between your footage and the physical evidence of this assault, Mr. Spiegel will not be returning to work. Especially if throwing things at unsuspecting women is his idea of wooing them," he added darkly. "Excuse me. And thank you for your help, Mr. Anasazi," he said with a nod in his direction before taking the other elevator up to his office.
Once everyone but Ms. Scryer was gone, the woman addressed her unexpected guest. "Please, come in, Mr. Anasazi. Forgive the mess. It's been a trying afternoon and I haven't had a chance to call housekeeping."
Given that explanation, Tyr wasn't sure what to expect. But it certainly wasn't this tidy office. The desk was full of neat piles of paperwork. His flowers were sitting on the window ledge, and looked a little ruffled. There was a suspicious breeze coming into the room. He lifted the light-canceling blinds and stared in horror at the dent in what looked like reinforced glass. It seemed that a part of the vase had actually penetrated the glass, the spider's web of cracks around that point a testimony to Walter's strength. "He did this?"
"It seems that you chose your flower shops well. Otherwise, there would have been glass all over the floor. As it is, I barely got a chance to see the floral arrangement before Mr. Spiegel marched into my office uninvited, started screaming at me for having a good time during my date, and threw the flowers at me. I think he forgot about the cameras I had installed in my inner office a few years back."
"Cameras?" he asked uncomfortably.
"Oh yeah. The DA approached me about this hitman who was going to try and enlist my services. By any means necessary if you know what I mean - I told you that last night wasn't the first time I'd stared down the barrel of a gun. Well, they wanted to catch him in the act, and I allowed them to use me and bug my office. We caught the guy," she shrugged at his incredulous look. "But for some reason, the DA office never got around to taking out their equipment. So I get to rest in the knowledge that every consultation I do is recorded should I need to call someone out."
"Have you ever needed to do it? Call someone out?"
"A time or two," she said vaguely. "No one knows that they're being recorded, but most of my clients are desperate for my help and know that pissing me off isn't the way to get it. So, yeah. Smile! You're on camera," She ended her spiel. She crossed her office to the slightly crumpled flowers. "No one's ever gotten me flowers before. I was so excited, and now…" She reached in and pulled out a dented card. "Oh, what's this?" He watched her scan his message, eager to see her reaction. She grinned and blushed at the mention of where last night's date almost ended.
"More dates, huh?" she smiled at him putting the card next to the flowers. "I don't know. I'm gonna have to check my schedule. And I don't know if I'm interested in having last night's discussion whenever you take me out. Not to mention the question of incentives. I need some kind of motivation to say yes over and over again." He joined her at the window, not able to think of a better segue into giving her the bracelet. She hadn't seen it yet.
"You mean my pretty face isn't enough motivation for you?" he asked playfully. She traced one of the damaged orchids with her finger, somehow drawing attention to the calluses on her hands. He was tempted to ask about those calluses, but he decided to ask about them some other time. He had a bracelet to give her.
"You're right," she said, sweetly, snapping him out of his thoughts. "You do happen to have a very pretty face. I can't resist you." She moved towards her desk, giving him time to grab the bracelet from inside the vase his bouquet was in. Ignoring his indignation that the bracelet wasn't made readily accessible in the first place (or maybe it had been before the bouquet's close encounter with the equivalent of a brick wall), he turned and took her right hand.
"You're right. I do have a ruggedly handsome face that brings the girls flocking to me-"
"Wow, vain much? I didn't say all that. I'm not willing to feed your ego."
"But," he continued over her impassioned tirade, "just in case you need more incentive, there's this." He unveiled her right wrist, where he'd put the bracelet. Her eyes widened to almost comical proportions and she squealed so loudly that her secretary came running in the room.
"Child, what's happened?"
"Look! Look, look, look," she continued squealing, bouncing excitedly and pushing her wrist in the older woman's face. Taking the hint, Elspeth grabbed her arm to get her to stay still and looked at the bracelet.
"Well, aren't you the charmer?" the woman said, just as Hazma and Omar burst into the room, all deadly serious and ready for war. Ms. Scryer jumped in alarm, but Tyr and Alandra only raised eyebrows at them.
"Ma heroes," the woman said in a breathy Southern accent. She then continued in her own voice. "Thank you, Tyr! It's beautiful." She leaned up and kissed his cheek shyly.
"I have to get you jewelry more often if it gets such a visceral reaction out of you," he teased her, ignoring his guards altogether. There would have been hell to pay had they burst in thirty seconds earlier and deprived him of her wonderful reaction to his surprise. "Why don't you get back to work? I would like a word with your secretary before I leave you to it for the night."
"Oh," she said, looking disappointed to his delight. He lifted her head with a finger under her chin.
"I'd prefer to take you out again, little one. But it looks like you have work to do and I don't want to interrupt. It pleases me that you enjoyed your surprises so much. I will see you again, sooner than you think. Okay?" She was looking at him in that languid way that said that she wanted him to kiss her. Nothing would have pleased him more. But somehow, knowing that she'd never been kissed made him feel like he needed to make her first kiss perfect. And there was too big of an audience for her first kiss in this room. Instead of claiming those plush lips that had been haunting his dreams for weeks, he laid his forehead against hers and smiled into her eyes.
"I'll look forward to seeing you again then," she whispered. Then she sat at her desk and reached for a citation, getting back to work. Tyr smiled fondly at her.
"Good girl," he said sweetly, petting her bun lightly before leaving her to her work. Everyone filed out of her office after that, not wanting to disturb her. He waited for the secretary to close the doors to her office before getting down to business.
"When can I see her again?" he asked eagerly.
"I'm afraid that it won't be for two weeks, dear. Alandra has a series of client meetings next week. The Myers brothers are hoping to merge their company with a like-minded company on the West Coast. She'll be flying out tomorrow morning to be ready for her Sunday morning meetings. Whitmore is accompanying her."
"I see," he sighed, disappointed. He felt like he was accepting her table scraps by waiting two weeks to see her again. On the other hand… "When is the earliest I can see her after her trip?"
"Well, since this trip was planned, she took a vacation day the Monday after her trip. She will be spending the day with Ms. Chu. But her night is completely open."
"I'll take it," he said firmly, hoping that he didn't sound too eager. "What's she doing that Sunday? If you don't mind me asking."
"She flies back early Sunday morning. Then… Let's see…. There's church, a few hours of work in the office, a nap… Oh, here it is! She's having dinner with Joshua Myers and his wife."
"The Myers brothers are very… close… with my woman." He said this as neutrally as he could.
"Extremely," Ms. Scryer said smugly. "Joshua Myers discovered her talent while she was still in law school. Since then the two brothers have been grooming her for the position of senior partner. She could possibly take over the firm itself in time. Yer girlfriend has a real gift for law and diplomacy. The Myers brothers are like a second and third father to the lass. No one's ever gotten past them. Though our not-so-brilliant Mr. Spiegel was trying before he lost his mind."
"So, her bosses are the gatekeepers to… Who?"
"The real challenge. Her father and two brothers. She thinks the world of them and has never gone against them as far as I know. Goodnight, Mr. Anasazi."
"Goodnight, Ms. Scryer," Tyr said, suddenly feeling tired. "May I ask if there is a Mr. Scryer?"
"There was," the woman said sadly. "For forty-seven years I was the luckiest woman on the planet to have my Darren. Then three years ago he was taken from me. Cancer. It was everywhere by the time they found it." Elspeth sniffled before going on. "At least he went quickly. At least he didn't suffer. There wasn't time," she chuckled sadly. She unearthed a locket from the front of her shirt and showed the prince the pictures inside. One was of a handsome young man and the other one was of them as a couple. "You remind me of my Darren, Mr. Anasazi. He was a bad boy too at first. Wanted to reform the world in his image. Then he got it into his head to reform me. He used to say that I got under his skin; that I reformed him without even knowing that was what I was doing. He was a good man in the end. A real gentleman. Goodnight, Mr. Anasazi."
Tyr couldn't answer the raw pain in her blue eyes. Obviously, she had loved her husband deeply. The man left the office quietly, leaving her to her memories.