Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
Guest Star:
Jessica Hsuan – Naja Lu
Brad took a cab to St. Mary’s Orphanage with a backpack full of tiny cameras that were ready to be implanted. He walked towards the gate and pressed the call button “Who is this?” A young girl’s voice answered.
“My name is John, I’m here for the social service.” He answered.
“Oh, sure come on in.” she released the lock and let Brad in. He expected a teenager to greet him, instead she was an attractive woman not too much younger than himself. “Hi, I’m Naja.”
He smiled his friendly smile “Nice to meet you. That’s a very original name.” He commented.
“You mean ugly?” she laughed with her head shaking.
“Actually, I find it very exotic and different.” He said sincerely.
“Thank you, it’s Arabic. My parents were too into Indian cultures…” she smiled shyly “I’m the manager of this orphanage. What can I help the social services with?”
Brad nodded “Oh right, I almost forgot. It’s just an annual check on the orphanages, making sure the water and electricity is working. The environment has to be comfortable for the kids to live in…etc”
Naja nodded understandingly “Sure, let me give you a short tour.”
“Thank you.” Brad smiled as they began with the east wing “How long have you been working?”
“Here? About 1 year and in this business about 10 years.” She smiled when his lips turned into an ‘o’ shape “Is that a bad thing?”
He shook his head vehemently “No…it’s great. I just thought such a young girl as yourself would be in this job for so long, you don’t look a day older than 25, so you’ve been doing this since you were 15?” he reached under the backpack where a zipper was made especially for the mission and pulled out a tiny metal camera. He slipped it out quickly and placed it in a corner doorway that he had passed. He had to distract Naja so she wouldn’t be paying attention to his hand. It seemed to work since she turned away shyly.
“Actually I’m 27, but thanks for the compliment.” She pointed to a room “This is the control center of the heat/air conditioning as well as the main electrical for this entire building.
Brad nodded “I see…so where are the kids?”
Her face paled over as she dodged his eyes “Uh…they’re in school of course.”
“Don’t you have a school inside the orphanage?” Brad asked with pure suspicion.
The girl was flustered as she searched her mind to change the subject, but she didn’t have to when she saw a little girl about 5 years old standing at the end of the hall “Jackie, what are you doing there?” she rushed over the adorable girl.
“I don’t know where everybody is.” She said innocently.
Brad placed a few more cameras while Naja was preoccupied “I’m sorry Mr…”
“Lam.” Brad finished for her.
“Mr. Lam, I have to take care of her first, you can check out the control room for yourself.” Naja was glad to have the escape as she picked up the girl and rushed through an exit at the end of the hall. Brad stared after the girl with brows furrowed, she looked honest, but the strange behavior was obvious she was hiding something.
***************
Erin entered the giant office and found Darren sitting on his leather chair looking out the glass window “I knew you would come. But I’m a bit surprised that you would come into my office knowing how afraid you were of heights. I thought you said it made you nauseous?”
“Not really.” Erin replied.
Darren’s face froze as he spun around immediately not recognizing the voice “You’re not Mia.” He said flatly.
“No.” Erin smiled “But by the sound of your voice, whoever this Mia girl is, she would be important for you to be so disappointed.”
He leaned forward on his desk with an exasperated look “What do you want?”
Erin raised her eyebrows “Well, haven’t the tables turned? Last night you offered me a job…” he shook his head blankly at her and she tilted her head “Actually it was more of a threat.” This time Darren smiled recalling the situation “I’ll have you know, I don’t take threats very well, but I am very much interested in this job. I would like to take up your offer…that is if it’s still open.”
Darren clasped his hands together thoughtfully “No…”
She didn’t know why she felt relieved eventhough it meant her job for the mission was going to be changed. Erin personally did not want to work for the guy “Fine, I’m sorry I wasted your time.” She turned to leave.
“Wait…” Darren raised a hand “I’ve changed my mind. Yes, you can have the job.”
Erin wrinkled her brows “I don’t want to play games with you Mr. Chiu.”
“Oh, but I like to, my dear.” He said smugly before getting up and walking over to his bar. He poured two drinks in two champagne glasses “How about a toast to seal the deal?” he handed her a glass but she only stared at it. “It’s not poisoned.” He offered.
Erin shook her head “It’s not that. I don’t drink.”
“It’s just apple cider.” He said with a grin.
She didn’t believe him until he raised the glass to her nose as she gave it a whiff, indeed it was only apple cider “Thank you.” She smiled shortly and took the drink.
Darren smiled secretively “I stopped drinking a month ago.”
“Why?” Erin asked automatically but suddenly remembered what Mia warned her about. Darren’s face hardened “You don’t have to answer that. It’s really none of my business.” She added.
His smile reappeared as he clinked his glass against hers “Quick and ready to read a face, I could use you in this office. God knows you’re smarter than those idiots that call themselves account managers.” He snarled and then threw her the most charming grin. She soon realized how psychotic he really was.
Erin took a sip “I’m not good at office job, just people jobs.” He nodded without much feeling as he sipped his cider as if it was expensive cognac. “When do I start?”
“You will start when I ask you to start.” He returned to his desk and sat on the black leather chair “I will escort you there myself.”
“I didn’t know you were capable of doing things on your own.” Her words had a double meaning that he did not pick up.
Darren spun in his chair as he nodded at the gutsy girl “If you want to things right, you have to do it yourself. I wouldn’t depend on those idiots to do anything. They’ll just screw things up.” Erin seemed to be in a daze and was quickly snapped back to reality when Darren looked up at her “I’m done with you. Now get out before I call security.”
Erin nodded “So much help that will be. Bye.” She turned to leave when he stopped her.
“How did you get through security?” he asked with genuine curiosity.
“You’ll be glad to know your ‘security guards’ were not doing their jobs. I simply told them that I had an appointment with you and they let me walk right by, no questions asked.” Erin smiled with her head tilted and her hand on the door.
Darren nodded as he pressed the button for his secretary “Janice, remind me to fire the securities later.” He turned up to Erin “Thanks for the reminder.”
“Anytime.” She nodded and closed the door behind her. Her face turned solemn, she was so close to breaking down and just beating him up. Something about his attitude that just bothered her and it made it worse to hear that Mia had something to do with the monster behind the door.
************
Brad finished his job and returned to the headquarters the same time with Erin. They were the first ones back, but did not see Dennis or Mia “Hey…” Erin smiled as she greeted him shortly.
“Hi Erin. So how did it go?” he asked with interest.
She shook her head “As good as it’ll ever get. I swear Brad, I wanted to choke the guy…I mean wring my fingers around his neck and just squeeze it until the blood is drained from him…is that too bad?” she asked.
Brad’s eyes widened with each description she said “Boy, you’re having too much fun.”
“Can you tell?” Erin snickered.
Suddenly he snapped his finger “Oh, I almost forgot…I didn’t get a chance to thank you for the dagger. The lady at the shop told me it was $10,000., I have to pay you back.” he insisted.
Erin shook her head “No, it’s okay. Consider it an early birthday gift for the next ten years.” She was joking of course but he took it seriously.
“Done!” he was giddy “I have it framed inside this velvet framed I hand crafted and it sits right above my bed stand. You have to come by and see it.”
She smiled “Sure…we’ll find a date…I mean day!” she snapped with her head shaking. Erin rolled her eyes “This cold is getting to me.”
He thought nothing of it but he was concerned about her health “If you don’t feel good, you should go home, we can’t afford you to be sick.”
“Who’s sick?” Dennis stood by the door while Mia followed inside.
“Erin has a cold.” Brad pointed out.
Mia frowned as she walked over to Erin and placed her backhand on her forehead “You’re burning up!” she exclaimed and then pointed to Erin’s cheeks “You’re face is all red!”
Erin looked flustered as she shook her head again “I feel fine…really, it’s just a little cold.” She insisted and took a seat.
Mia shrugged while she turned to Brad “If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was blushing…” she cracked up at her own joke and suddenly felt a foot kick her leg from under the table. “Ow!” she cried and reached down on her leg to rub the pain away.
“What’s wrong?” Brad asked.
Mia narrowed her eyes at Erin “Nothing…just an ant bite.”
Brad shook his head at Mia “I told you not to bring snacks in here.” He scolded.
“I’ll remember not to bring in anymore.” She took a seat next to Erin and widened her eyes at her friend “What was that for??!” she hissed when Dennis and Brad began talking in low voices.
“I wasn’t blushing!” Erin whispered in return.
“Yes you were!” she insisted making Erin let out a sigh. Mia looked at her friend strangely “What’s the matter with you anyways? You’re acting really strange…” she said suspiciously while looking at Brad and then back at Erin. Suddenly a knowing smile crawled up her face “Ooohhh-” she began to point at Erin.
Erin placed a hand over Mia’s mouth “Don’t you dare!!” she hissed “Not a word from you!!”
Mia’s round eyes grew wider as she nodded with Erin’s hand over her mouth and Erin let out a breath as she let her hand go “He won’t hear it from me.” She said teasingly.
The meeting soon took place with everyone in their places, Erin threw an evil eye each time Mia started giggling because Dennis said Brad’s name. After the fifth time, Dennis stopped and turned to Mia as he dropped the file he was holding onto the table with a splat “Would you like to share with us why you are giggling like a school girl?” he asked Mia sternly.
Erin covered half her face as she turned to Mia on her right “I’ll kill you…” she said through clenched teeth.
Mia stood up and clasped her hand ready to give a speech while Erin stared at her in disbelief “I want to apologize to all of you, I didn’t mean to disrupt the meeting. I just have a case of the giggles…I heard this joke this morning and it’s still stuck with me. I’m sorry.” She bowed a couple of times before sitting back down calmly with a grin on her face while she winked at Erin.
Andrew seemed to have noticed something out of the ordinary “I think we all can use a joke, right?” he looked around with a nod. He turned to Mia “Why don’t you tell us.” He crossed his arms with a mischievous grin.
Mia exchanged glances with Erin but she looked like a lost puppy “Oh…Uh…okay. It’s a blond joke. There was this married couple, the wife is a complete airhead and her husband was fixing the plumbing that the plumber screwed up on. The wife ask the husband why they didn’t call the plumber. He said the plumber will be back for the bill tomorrow and told his wife to give the man a dollar and screw him. So the next day when the husband went to work, the plumber came and she gave him a dollar and screwed him, thinking it was a cheap bill for the plumbing service.”
After she was done, everyone looked at each other while Andrew muffled a laugh. Dennis was not amused as he shook his head “Mia, you find the strangest things amusing. Now can we get back to our meeting?”
Erin looked at her friend earnestly “Sorry…” she lipped.
“You owe me…” Mia muttered while she threw daggers at Andrew, who now had the giggles.