Chocolate Girls with Golden Hair (10 page)

Bianca's face was locked with the
compact mirror as she wiped the smudged eyeliner from her face with
her pinky finger. "I'm sorry, something about lunch. Of
course."

"And don't worry. Camina isn't coming
with us this time."

It was as if Michelle knew of Bianca's
plan to never have lunch with Camina again. But things were
different now. Bianca was no longer intimidated by Camina's crass
words.

"She can come with us. I can handle
Camina."

"Are you sure?" Michelle asked
her.

"Trust me. I can handle
Camina."

"Well. I better get back to work."
Michelle was about to walk away when Bianca called to
her.

"Does your friend still want to meet
me?"

"I'm sure he does. I'll get back with
you."

"Don't take too long," Bianca said
while she fiddled with her hair.

After a short silence, Michelle crept
away silently.

Barely at her desk long enough to
answer the phones, Bianca made three trips to the ladies room to
fuss over her hair, which needed to always sit perfectly on her
head. When she returned to her desk, the documents in her in-box
from her boss were piling up. This was a telltale sign that it was
time to do some work. After all, that was what they paid her
for.

Most of the morning had elapsed so
quickly, and the only thing that Bianca successfully completed was
booting up her computer and positioning her desk radio to the
perfect station.

Finally, Bianca got around to revising
one of the five documents from her in-box. Right in the midst of
printing the document, she glanced up and saw her boss, Lillian,
standing at her desk. Lillian was a chunky woman who always wore
black, no doubt, to hide the bulge that lurked underneath her
expensive dresses.

"Do you have that letter I left for you
this morning?"

Bianca failed to see Lillian all
morning. She found it interesting that Lillian had yet to
acknowledge her new appearance, but Bianca couldn't concern herself
with such minor occurrences at the moment. She was more concerned
about the whereabouts of the letter in question.

"Letter?" Bianca questioned.

"I left a tape for you to transcribe in
your chair."

Bianca frantically fished for the
missing tape. She searched underneath the scattered papers on her
desk and through the documents in her in-box. Then mysteriously on
the floor, she spotted the mini-cassette tape and felt as small as
the ballpoint pen on her desk. She immediately reached down and
picked it up. "This must be it."

Lillian exhaled what seemed to be a
breath of frustration and a tinge of annoyance. "You think you
could get that to me right away?"

"Of course."

When Lillian disappeared into her
office, Bianca quickly transcribed the tape. So preoccupied with
her new look, new hair and flattery from everyone, she forgot why
she was there. In her mind, the morning seemed more like a social
festivity than a workplace.

Upon completing the letter for her
boss, Bianca delivered it to Lillian's office. She then grabbed her
purse from her desk drawer and made another famous trip to the
ladies room to see what her new double-breasted pantsuit would look
like without the jacket. Not to mention it was time for another
coat of her favorite glossy lipstick, which she adored so
much.

In the ladies room, Bianca shot down
the Chardonnay from her travel mug. She stood in front of the
full-length mirror, unbuttoned her jacket, which revealed a silk
blouse underneath. Just as Bianca turned to the side, admiring the
shape of the loose-fitting pants on her narrow hips, Camina came
through the door. Her arms were folded as she stepped behind
Bianca.

Bianca studied Camina's reflection in
the mirror. "Are you lost?"

Camina stepped forward with her arms
still folded, and Bianca turned to face her. It was obvious that
Camina wanted to say something, and Bianca decided to help her out.
"What? Do like what you see? Is that it?"

"As a matter of fact, I don't," Camina
said.

"You could have fooled me."

Camina pivoted around Bianca like a
piece of art for sale. "You've been drinking in here, haven't
you?"

With a fake smile on Bianca's face, she
turned, about to walk away. It was true. She had been drinking, but
how did Camina know?

Surely Camina did not smell it on
her.

"You really think you're something,
don't you?" Camina asked.

"Not think, honey, I know," Bianca said
before she made an elegant exit.

A half hour later, Bianca received a
call from her boss, Lillian, wanting to see Bianca right
away.

Bianca stood at the entrance of
Lillian's office. Though the door was ajar, Bianca knocked. "You
wanted to see me?"

"Yes," Lillian said as she stood up
from her desk. "Come in."

Bianca was clueless as to the purpose
of this meeting, and she remained calm, as she would find out soon
enough.

It wasn't until Lillian closed the door
that Bianca realized it would probably not be good news.

"I wanted to talk to you about
something."

Bianca pushed her hair behind her left
ear and asked, "May I sit down?"

"Of course."

Bianca sat across from Lillian's desk
and crossed her legs.

"This is not really my place, but since
you do work for me, I just wanted to bring to your attention
something that was brought to my attention. It's never been my
policy to accuse anyone without first asking questions, so I'll
just come right out and ask. Were you drinking in the women's room
this morning?"

Right away, Bianca recognized this as
the work of Camina, but she was not going to fall victim to
Camina's petty tactics.

Calmly she stared directly in Lillian's
direction. "No, I was not."

"I really don't care what you do when
you're not here in this office, but since something like that can
greatly affect your work, I thought I would bring it to your
attention."

"I'm glad that you did," Bianca said.
"And I'm also aware that it was Camina who told you that." Bianca
stood up. "I don't know why Camina would tell you that, but it's
not true."

"I didn't think it was, but I wanted to
ask you about it anyway."

Lillian could have come out and rightly
accused her but she didn't. Instead she simply questioned her,
which was one of the things Bianca liked about her─her sense of
fairness. Yes, it was true that Bianca lied about the whole matter,
but her boss didn't know that and didn't need to know.

Bianca thought it strange that Lillian
never mentioned one word about her new look. It didn't much matter
because everyone else's awareness made up for it. She felt
empowered that Lillian believed her over Camina. Though she was
glad, she didn't believe she quite deserved Lillian's
trust.

On Bianca's way back to her desk, she
made a stop in the lunchroom to buy a stick of gum from the vending
machine. With her back to the door of the lunchroom, she turned and
saw Bruce Colby coming towards her. He carried a prescription
bottle in hand, probably his heart medication, which everyone in
the firm knew about.

"Hi, Bruce."

"How are you, Bianca?" he asked as he
proceeded to the water cooler.

It was time for Bianca to make her
move. Here was a way to avenge Camina and have some fun at the same
time. After already having captured his attention, now it was time
to seal the deal.

Bruce stood at the water cooler and
spilled the pill from the prescription bottle into his hand.
Purposely, Bianca dropped the coins from her hand onto the floor,
knowing Bruce would be watching. It was not enough that he was
watching; she wanted him to know that she knew that he was
watching. Slowly and meticulously, she arched her body forward to
pick up the coins so that Bruce could see how her pants sensuously
hugged her ass.

She took her sweet time picking up the
coins, and then arched her body up to a full stand and turned her
head so that their eyes locked with each other. Just as she
suspected, Bruce's mouth hung open, a silent sullen look on his
face as she approached him.

"See you," she said, before breezing
past him.

As far as Bruce Colby was concerned,
this was just the beginning of much more to come. Ordinarily,
Bianca would never be interested in a married man. But Bruce was
special.

He was Camina's beau, which made him
the coveted prize. A victory such as that would surely strike
Camina where she lived. Bianca's trifling behavior was not like her
at all, but much more like the tactics of her late sister. And that
was what her ploy was all about─to be as much like her sister as
possible.

Around twelve-thirty that afternoon,
Bianca, Camina and Michelle stood on the elevator on their way out
for Bianca's belated birthday lunch.

It was evident that Camina and Bianca
were not on each other's Christmas list. But Bianca knew why Camina
chose to attend her birthday lunch this day. It wasn't because
Camina wanted to participate in the birthday celebration; it was
Camina's evil motive to torment Bianca with her harsh comments. But
this time Bianca was well prepared for it.

They reached Nick's Fish Market on
Madison Street. As usual, Bianca didn't have much to say. She
allowed Camina and Michelle to do most of the talking while she did
the listening. She patiently waited for just the right moment to
verbalize a few choice thoughts for Camina.

After their food arrived, the
conversation grew shorter and more spaced apart, exactly the moment
Bianca had been waiting for.

Bianca wiped her mouth with the napkin
from her lap and did not blink once. "You know, Lillian called me
into her office today, wanted to know if I had been drinking in the
ladies' room. You know anything about that, Camina?"

"I don't know what you are talking
about," Camina said.

"No?" Bianca asked with a double dose
of sarcasm.

"Were you drinking in the ladies'
room?" Michelle asked.

"Ask Camina," Bianca said.

Michelle stared across the table at
Camina as if she was about to ask her something when Camina said,
"I don't know what she's talking about, Michelle."

Michelle changed the subject. "Anyway,
here I am at my desk, I have Dave breathing down my neck, standing
over me waiting for me to finalize his letter, and he knows I hate
that."

"I hate that too." Camina
said.

"Then Mitchell comes over to me. He
sees that I'm in the middle of a rush and he asks me if a fax came
in, as if he can't go to the fax room or even call to see for
himself. So I ask him if he can give me five minutes to finish up
with Dave. You know what he said, don't you? No."

"Some of them are like that, but not
Bruce," Camina said with a brush of confidence in her
eyes.

"Lawyers. You can't work for them and
why should you have to?" Michelle said. "I bet Bruce wouldn't be so
sweet if it weren't for those perks you so willfully offer, then
the real Bruce would come out. You'd see he's just like all the
rest."

"Bruce isn't like that," Camina said.
"In fact, I don't think he'd want anyone working for him but
me."

"Honey, Bruce will fire and hire in the
blink of an eye, just like the rest of them," Michelle
said.

"Not me he wouldn't."

"You just keep thinking that if it
makes you feel better."

For a moment, Bianca actually felt
sorry for Camina. Camina naively bought into the fantasy that
secretaries really meant something to the attorneys they worked
for. Bianca learned a long time ago that secretaries were just a
service and nothing more. Outside of the service they provided,
they were absolutely useless to them.

And poor Camina was
clueless.

Bianca sipped her water, peered over at
Camina, and then returned her glass to the table. "Bruce has a
thing for blondes, doesn't he?"

"What?" Camina asked,
astonished.

"You heard me," Bianca said. "I mean,
look at the pattern. You. His wife. And me. I'm sensing a pattern
here."

Camina's nostrils flared, and Bianca
could tell that she had struck a fragile nerve.

As usual Michelle was the voice of
reason. "I can tell where this is going, ladies, and let's
not."

Camina ignored Michelle's words, pushed
her plate to the center of the table. "Look, bitch. I don't know
what kind of game you're playing with your cheap clothes, fake
nails and poorly-bleached hair, but I can tell you right now, Bruce
has no interest in you, blonde hair or not. You're not his
type."

"That's not what I heard," Bianca said
to Camina.