Empties by Jay Caselberg

Author:Jay Caselberg [Caselberg, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J. C. Productions
Published: 2020-12-17T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Alliance

There was a couple, originally from Stase’s work-based social circle, with whom Chris and Anastasia maintained a fairly friendly relationship. There were dinners and cinema excursions, and the occasional theatre outing. In many ways Jason and Claudia were not that different from Anastasia and Chris. They kept pretty much to themselves and had a narrow circle of friends. Jason worked for one of the major brokerage firms at a fairly senior level, Vice-President or something, and Stase met Claudia through work. Claudia was Austrian, a heavier-set girl with long blonde hair. She was opinionated and brusque, always speaking her mind and not really giving a thought about what the consequences might be. She was apparently damned good at what she did at work, so even though she was seen as a bit of a star by management, she wasn’t particularly popular among her colleagues. Stase, on the other hand, was unpopular for other reasons. She threatened the other women in her workplace. Her attitude, her hunger, her image as a focused, hard-nosed bitch totally dedicated to success did nothing to win friends and influence people among her female colleagues. She used to laugh that the males at her work simply lived in fear. Chris was convinced that in a way, women were a lot more competitive than men, and that was just another example of it. The history of women’s roles in the workplace probably had a lot to do with it. Over the years, they’d had to compete a lot harder and though Chris understood it, he didn’t really relate to it.

It may have been that Claudia and Stase recognized something in each other, but they naturally fell in together. Claudia eventually moved on to another firm, chasing opportunity, but they remained friends despite the fact that Claudia had the apparent gall to tell Stase exactly what she thought about some of the things she did.

Jason came from a background of money, and was just the sort of person that Stase liked to cultivate. She did well enough, her background was of a level, but always she seemed to want more. It was just like the house. An icon she could hold out to the world. As much for that reason as any other, Claudia and Jason became the perfect addition to Stase’s social circle.

When Chris first met them, it was out to an introductory dinner at an upscale restaurant that was starting to build a reputation for itself in the city. The food was superb and indulgent, and the wine flowed freely. Jason and Chris hit it off straight away. He was a stocky guy with a broad, jolly face and a wickedly wry sense of humor that Chris appreciated immediately. All through the dinner, they were passing little pointed one-liners between themselves while the girls were talking about this or that person they both knew but who meant nothing to either of the boys. Most of the traded one-liners seemed to go right over the heads of the women, or else they simply weren’t interested in what the pair of them had to say.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.