Chapter 1

• The sound of rain drizzling wakes me up, and I glance at the table clock by my bedside. “time! Thirty minutes early, it's still seven-thirty. I have to be at work by eight, so I lie in the bed and stare at my almost empty apartment.
• I am twenty-seven, and yet my life isn't as rosy as I imagined years ago when I left school.
• Being one of those who had calculated life to be all merry after school, reality had eaten away my delusion, and here I am at thirty-five still paying my student loan.
• A job that helps me get by properly, and easily live in Beverly hill or somewhere famous after paying bills and mortgages, having no wife, no kids, and no vacations.
• It can't get any worse than this, I tell myself. Standing up and walking to the bathroom to shower. I come back out and put on a new suit, my only suit. I feel it's new because I took to my dry cleaner and he cleaned it too well.
• Looking at myself in the mirror and trying to smile. Everything looks wonderful except my eyes.
• I looked tired, too tired.
• It's all Maria's fault, my boss at AMT Internationals. They sent her from hell, always yelling at Arnold to do this and do that.
• Walking out of my apartment building, I look up and notice the rain is getting fiercer by the minute. I turned to go back in to get an umbrella. I need one before I get a cab, and after,
• Geeez! I have to walk back up!
• I was about to turn when I heard a voice call out to me.
• Hey, do you need a lift?
• The Mercedes-Benz GLE 350 SUV was staring at me. Her face shines in my eyes as I walk up close. I can feel the rain slow down when she asks me, do you need a ride?
• "Hell yeah, I need a ride, I need a ride in a ride", but I reply with a nod and pull open her door and escape from the rain.
• "Where are you headed?"
• "May street, AMT building."
• "You work there?" she asks me.
• "Yes, I do."
• "So what do you do?"
• I hesitate for a minute as her blue eyes peel me open.
• She hits the throttle and heads straight into traffic.
• She says to ease the silence now looming over us,
• "My name is Queenie Dale." I smile and say "Arnold, Arnold Shaw"."
• And stretch my hand out. It was routine for me to do so after saying my name, so it happened as a reflex.
• She stares at my hand and leaves a quick smile that says "I can't shake you now".
• I don't mind, I put my hand by my side where it belongs. and then I look out the window counting the taxing drops on it.
• She asks again, "what do you do Arnold?"
• This time I just say it, "I help the big guys upstairs run analysis, just the paperwork".
• "Okay," she answers, the traffic moves slowly, she puts on the stereo, and the beetles come on and she sang along with them.
• I watched her, and all I could notice was her cleavage. My eyes would not stay with me after that moment, and the question pops into my head about sex. "When last did I have sex?
• And now it occurred to me, like a revelation, that I am deprived.
• "Are you married?" She asks, cutting my thoughts.
• "What?
• "I said have you married Arnold?"
• "No, I am not married.
• Okay, that is good. Let's have lunch then
• I watched her with my mouth slightly open wondering if I had heard her correctly.
• Until she affirms one more time, I want to have lunch with you Arnold, and then she parks the car and says we are here.
• I say "okay." Not knowing which I was replying to. I drop down and hurry to my office building.
• I enter the building and Maria Caslov is on the ground floor waiting to yell "you are late!
• "I don't care," I say in my head, but I rush straight to the elevator and then press the button continuously. but the door doesn't close until Maria enters the elevator, like a conspiracy.
• I stand there and think about my morning as the lift takes us to the fifth floor.
• I hurry to my desk and begin to sort out the files piled on it. It's just nine o'clock, and the files here could pull a camel, a bit of an exaggeration. but that is how I feel right now, like a camel being pulled by files.
• "Listen up everyone, we have a new owner, I hear Maria Caslov", my immediate boss says.
• AMT International has been bought by 'DALE cooperation'.
• Miss Queenie Dale is our new boss.
• The second shocking news for today. I rush to the bathroom and wash my face.
• My breath skipping, I say it out loud so it would make any sense, but it freaks me out the more.
• ' I just got asked out by my boss!
• I calm myself down before I go back to work, but curiosity gets the better of me and I look her up online. She was everywhere, from buying businesses to real estate and philanthropy.
• Just everywhere, you just pick your poison and paint a picture.
• "Arnold, the boss wants to see you?"
• I look up and Maria smiles at me. Maria never smiles at me.
• I stand slowly sweat covering my whole body as I walk to the elevator and press the 13th number, which is the last.
• I go upstairs and straight to her office and knock.
• "Come in," I hear her sweet voice call to me.
• I enter and stand a little distance from her large oak table.
• Waiting for her to finish what she was doing, I look around and admire the office, how spacious it was, and how beautiful it was too.
• "Did you consider my offer?"
• "Yes, Miss Dale." without a second thought.
• "Call me queenie," she says and stands up with a warm smile on her face. Come, she motions to me, and there it was a table set for lunch.