Something about Elle Ch. 01

"You really think so."

"Bet my life on it?"

"Careful, your mom whispered to me I have to look after you on her behalf."

"She said what!"

"She's entitled - she's your mom."

"I don't believe I'm hearing this."

"Your mom is entitled," interjected the cabbie uninvited.

"Well said," grinned Donovan, automatically increasing cabbie's tip in his mind.

Donovan had cautioned Elle that while the offices were airy, spacious and colorful, being a warehouse conversion, they were not opulent, simply because their clients of languishing or failing businesses would find openly flaunted opulence an unacceptable abhorrence.

"But not cheap and nasty?"

"Correct?"

She smiled and said sincerely, "How perfect" and he turned and looked at her and positively beamed. She thought they were establishing a beautiful working relationship. She sighed, thinking she'd triggered that, standing at the double-door entry to the coach at the Christchurch depot greeting her charges.

Being winter in New Zealand in August, she was dressed in a tight dark blue wool jacket and long skirt, with white lace-front shirt and a multi-colored scarf, sun glassed raked back into her hair.

He gave his name, she ticked him off on her list and attempted to make him feel welcome as he was the youngest on the tour - aged no more than thirty she thought and the only unaccompanied person in the group of nineteen.

"Ah obviously you're not the Ugly American of literature," she'd said.

"You think I look like Marlon Brando?" he asked, surprised.

Elle skipped commenting on that and said Eugene Burdick and William Lederers' book was a modern classic in her opinion.

"You sound interesting, we must talk."

"Okay if you feel that way, take that seat against the window behind the driver - that's where I operate from."

Now she was seeing him operate with his team, handling them sensitively and as equals, with humor and totally lacking formality, which is just how he said he operates the company. He'd told her everyone had a formal title as clients would expect, but before too long clients slipped into using the more user-friendly titles like 'boss' and 'the Lego Man'.

"But your mom doesn't wear a silly title."

"Oh yes, we named her money bags, but she objected, saying using the word 'bag' in association with older women came perilously close to self-inflicted character mutilation so we softened the title to 'money distributor'.

"How considerate of you."

"Our company personnel are one happy family," although outrage and stress are not unknown. Training for our executives includes learning how to defuse people quickly and safely and how to help individuals ease back on stress.

"You have been a busy boy boss."

"Wrong, I'm not responsible for all the good things or all aspects of progressive management. Interpersonal relationships are one of the responsibilities of Carol van Kampen who practiced as a psychologist for five years before I recruited her."

"So she also recruits personnel?"

"Yes, she chairs the staff management committee and she works with me on executive recruitment; I don't engage any executive if I doubt their ability to integrate quickly and well as a full team player."

"Ah, the big picture concept. Did you make a mistake with Roger Grossi?"

"Heavens no, he and I launched the business. We were at university together. He's defensive and can be abrasive, but you'll see a completely different person when he is explaining concepts to clients and selling ideas to his team. I'll say this confidentially: he's the most productive executive in the team."

* * *

Just before the meeting closed on Elle's arrival day at the company she was invited to speak to the group.

"I come from a little country that is only two-thirds the size of California with a population a little over four million, or about half the population of Los Angeles County. Being small and isolated, is has become a tradition of our country to think big, to be inventive and to feel inferior to no one. You'll find those characteristics embodied in me."

"I am well educated, my MBA is from Chicago and I have been well briefed about your company's mission. Finally, I don't regard my appointment as a challenge, I regard it as a privilege and no one will be assessing my performance more intently than me. I aim to be a good team member. Thank you."

Other executives hurried off to supervise the Monday start-up of personnel, leaving Randy to lead Elle to his office to start the briefings and familiarization tour.

But before they left the room Elle excused herself to have a brief word with Donovan.

"This Milly person who's apparently your business partner - you hadn't mentioned her to me in detail and yet she seems pivotal to my appointment."

"Oh no I didn't and apologize. I didn't need her approval to appoint you to a temporary position, and temporary it must be until you your position becomes permanent."

"That sounds a little shady Donovan."

At that Elle caught her first glimpse of an arrogant component to Donovan's character.

"We had time to discuss this on the aircraft, but I didn't want to unsettle you as you were so excited about what lay before you. The damn regulations are to control the entry of brainless, untalented people and real undesirables - not to keep out high worth top contributors like you with immaculate credentials. It's just red tape Elle and you're under my protection. Sometimes it's necessary to take short cuts to get the job done so we can tear into our job, which is to make money. All Americans understand this. We have political friends - just don't worry; everything is sunny."

"Are you sure; am I breaking any laws?"

"No, given the circumstances I'll certain we're doing the right thing."

Ell watched Donovan hurrying away, thinking 'given the circumstances' sounded like a strong piece of weaseling. God, if anything went wrong over this as she was deported, she'd never be admitted into the United States again.

She smiled, deciding not to worry. Worry fixes nothing.

After his briefing Randy took Elle to the office next-door - Hannah's.

During the preliminaries Hannah asked Elle where she was living.

"Nowhere at present; I spent last night in your son's apartment."

"Was that wise?"

"You mean did Donovan feel safe?"

Hannah smiled.

"With your accent and your perky sense of humor you'll find it easy to win friendships in this city. What I meant was if you wish to keep your reputation lilywhite you don't stay in the apartment of unattached males."

"Quite and I could have stayed at a hotel but when he suggested the alternative I took it, as it was the better proposition - having someone to talk to, I mean."

"What happens now?"

"From tomorrow I spend the first two hours of worktime looking for a studio apartment until I find one."

"But that could take weeks - you don't know the city."

"True but that's how it has to be. I guess I'm about the find out the quality of your realty agents."

"Look come and stays with me for a month, and if it works out we'll extend the term. I'll set a modest rental for your bedroom and overheads such as electricity and gas and cleaning materials and we'll run a joint pot for the cost of food; I'll not ask you to contribute towards fixed costs."

Elle was happy about that offer but foresaw a possible problem.

"Are you sure - what about if you have guests who want to stay?"

"It is a three bedroom apartment. A couple of times a month I spend a night with a friend who's not female and I expect it will work out very well, really."

"Perhaps we should agree on a week's trial instead of four weeks which is a rather long time for a trial?"

"Four weeks is fine; I've already decided I like you."

"Oh thank you; you are so sweet. When do I shift in?"

"This evening - we'll collect your things on the way home by cab; I'm only two blocks away from Donovan. There will be room for you to park a small car."

"A car and why would I need a car?"

"No one walks in Los Angeles. If you do the Police will be very suspicious and may stop and search and question you."

"How odd, wouldn't criminals have cars?"

"Well yes, I suppose so, unless they were desperately poor."

"Would I walk look desperately poor?"

"Of course not; now that you mention it, stopping well-dressed citizens sounds like harassment, doesn't it."

"Perhaps it gives the cops something to do."

"Elle you do have a wicked sense of humor."

Over dinner that evening Hannah asked, "Do you like my son?"

"Oh yes, very much indeed. He has such an open and well-managed mind and obviously has vision, is very personable and I was fascinated to watch today the ease in which he handled people. He..."

"I get the picture - you do like Donovan. Um may I ask what about romantically?"

Elle chewed some food, buying time.

"I hadn't really thought about it but I suppose given time we could grow close if that's what we both wanted."

"Saying you hadn't really thought about it doesn't mean you haven't thought about it."

"You have a sharp mind and a mischievous one Hannah."

"I know how to amuse myself. Would you like to know about his experiences with the opposite sex?"

"Yes I would be interested, but in fairness I would prefer hearing that from Donovan."

"That's an excellent answer my dear; I really like you already."

Elle asked Hannah about this Milly woman.

"Milly Hepburn is only a few years younger than me. She sold her business ready to retire when she heard that Donovan was quietly looking for a business partner - she worked many years with her husband as an accountant, but he went off with some young thing so she divorced him and ran a public relations company for almost ten years."

"Donovan had over-extended fitting out these offices and paying big money to lure Bill and Leigh into the fold and a couple of our clients went belly-up in the early stages of reconstruction, owing us big money and in came Milly with her buy-in money."

"What's she like?"

"A bitch."

"Oh enough said. I feel very much at home here already, Hannah despite the fact that I'm probably an illegally working alien."

"No don't harbor such a thought; we took advice legal advice and the methods we are using are considered perfectly legal. This temporary H-IB visa arrangement can continue for six years, with provisions for extension, but we are confident your Green Card application will be processed quite soon and your card posted to us. Then you will be placed in the best possible position, able to work anywhere with permanent residency assured. I understand you have already applied for a Social Security card?"

"Yes."

"Well then, sit back and relax while the bureaucracy does its work."

The apartment was large, very comfortable and tastefully furnished. Hannah said her husband Robert signed it over to her when they split up twelve years earlier. The two girls Kate and Annie had opted to go with their father to live with him and his new girlfriend while Donovan chose to stay with his mother because his father tended to bully him.

There were recent photographs of the girls in Hannah's bedroom. They both were blonde California beach babes aged twenty-two and twenty-four, the elder Kate finished her degree and like both parents was involved in business administration while the Annie was half-way through her degree in architecture.

Watching Elle admiring the photos of her children Hannah said with about the same emotion as announcing lunch is ready, "Robert and I never divorced."

Not divorced? At least Hannah had the experience of being married, thought Elle, becoming aware that some sort of deep emotional call was stirring within her. Ohmigod.

"You're very quiet dear - where has Miss Chatterbox gone?"

"I'm sorry; I know I tend to yap on a bit."

"Yap on a bit? My dear many of the words you voice is interesting and has to be examined for fuller meaning."

"You're in danger of going over the top," Elle giggled.

"I have to occupy myself while waiting for the answer to my question."

"Which was?"

"I'd asked where had you gone - a minute ago you were in deep reflection. Was it something you wish or at least can share?"

"What is it like being married Hannah."

Hannah's head lifted slightly and light reflected from her eyes.

"Oh what a question and where do I start?

"I'll say this, through marriage if you're lucky enough you find your best friend ever. Unluckily for me, my husband found someone he liked even better than me, and so poof! My marriage collapsed like an implosion. We were on our path of eternal and developing happiness one day, and then he'd taken a fork on that pathway before I'd noticed."

"That's powerful imagery."

"Thank you, but scarcely surprising as I've had hundreds of lonely days and lonelier nights to think about what I lost - it's been twelve years."

"Do you ever think about the time you a losing by not moving forward into a new life?" Elle asked gently.

Hannah gazed at her guest.

"Donovan said your mind works in an unusual way with astonishing simplicity. He actually described it very simply but I can't quite recall."

"He used the term the big picture?"

"Yes that's it."

"You can have it too Hannah. Donovan has it to some degree. You mind can be trained just like your dog can be trained to respond with fidelity."

"I'm accountancy-trained, Elle. You are in danger of losing me."

"I did say trained like a dog. You just need some special support, and perhaps with me living with you'll benefit from my support."

"What? But I don't want to be changed, I'm happy as I am."

"I'm waiting for a more fulsome answer; what's it really like being married?"

"For me, the number one thing was having someone I loved sharing my personal space. The funny thing is I never realized that until I lost it."

Elle listened as they walked back to the sitting room and looked out the night sky to the moonlight Pacific Ocean in the distance, the panorama interrupted of course by tall buildings - buildings lit like jewels. But she also thought of something Hannah had asked earlier, "Do you like my son?"

Did that question emerge almost involuntary because Hannah wanted to see Donovan married? And did Hannah see Elle as a potentially suitable bride for her son? To her surprise Elle felt fuzzy warmth percolate her chest. But a caution was necessary: Mother would want an all-American girl for her pride and joy. She must not prime herself for the ultimate possibility of bitter disappointment. She should just let things happen.

Later in a brilliantly comfortable bed in a beautifully decorated and furnished room, an obvious output from a woman with excessive time to spend doing such things, Elle opened her mind to the question of marriage.

It wasn't a difficult reflection as she'd always known, rather than assumed, she'd marry one day. The only uncertainties were the obvious ones: Which day, and to whom?" More to the point, where was her plan? She had a plan for most things but not this life-changing event. How most un-Elle-like! There would be a reason, of course. Of course!

Two 'of courses'? That's you stalling my girl and that was unusual for her. She knew that and this was the one topic she really preferred to keep blacked out. But why?

It was because she didn't think about as it involved significant unknowns. She sighed and tried to go to sleep. Images of Donovan drifted through her mind. He was clothed, of course. Of course...of course...of course... Two yawns later and she realized she was on her way to sleep.

Hannah surprised her next morning.

Elle, dressed in a lightweight white matching jacket and above the knee skirt - purchased on Rodeo Drive within hours of arriving in America - and with a narrow black choker and tiny studs her only jewelry, entered the kitchen.

Hannah flew at her and hugged and kissed her,

"Oh, I'm so happy. It's exhilarating having someone in the apartment knowing they'll be here tomorrow, the next day and days after that."

"Please sit down; you're not going to have just black coffee and a piece of dry toast."

"That's great because I prefer something like a canned fruit smoothie and either fruit or yoghurt and white coffee in the morning."

"You eat for your brain, not your body, don't you?"

"Yes and how perceptive of you," smiled Elle, enjoying Hannah's triumphant look.

The benchtop TV was giving its understandably narrow and parochial view of the troubled world, troubled America and selectively a troubled but also a vibrant and successful California which really meant Los Angeles.

Both women stopped chatting as soon as a talking male head faded out to be replaced by a chic woman who invariably had something worthwhile to say.

During a film clip about car racing, Hannah said: "I didn't sleep much last night. I thought about what you said about moving forward. But I'm scared, Elle. I've already lost a great deal and Donovan must surely fade away from me in time."

"That's why it's necessary to move on. Do you really want me to help you?"

"Yes and that's what I'm saying, isn't it?"

"It is but indicates nothing about the level to which you are willing to commit."

"I'll give it everything."

"Everything?"

"Well, within reason."

Elle paused then said, "First I want you to drop him immediately."

Panic struck the face across from her.

"I can't and Donovan has broken his promise by telling you; I never believed he would do that," Hannah said, voice rising.

"Hush, hush. He never said a word."

"But how..."

"You told me by not telling me. You mentioned going away two nights a week to be with a friend. You managed to say that person was not male. Rather cute, I thought, but it also told me that he was probably married and you were just a tiny bit ashamed of this liaison."

Hannah had calmed and looked at Elle without trying to hide her astonishment.

"You are simply amazing."

"The mind is far more sophisticated that many of us realize. When people have a problem you first must listen, not only at what they are saying to probing at what they are not saying which can throw you down many dead-ends. The secret is listening and looking for clues. Your cuteness triggered my belief that your friend was married. That makes it dead easy when it's confirmed, a waste of time or even landing yourself in an embarrassing situation if you're wrong. The trick is getting the person to admit more that they initially were willing to divulge."

"I see, like my earlier decision never to tell you anything about him?"

"Exactly but I don't need to know anything more about him because you are telling him today it's all over, aren't you?"

A near panic-attack occurred.

"But I can't, at my age I won't find anyone else."

"Hannah don't even think like that; you're not a loser. You are an attractive woman, very attractive for your age and care for yourself beautifully and you converse intelligently and vibrantly and with humor.

Men love to be with women like you, and if you're also good at sex that's a bonus."

"I..."

"I don't need to know Hannah. "Will you either call him or see him today and pull the ripcord."

"I'd like to, as what you say makes sense, but he's a persistent person; he won't accept a brush off."

"Then slam him."

"How?"

"Tell him I've moved in with you and we've commenced a relationship. It will shock him."

"What!" Hannah yelped. "A lesbian affair. I couldn't tell him that."

Elle grinned. "It certainly shocked you."

"Yes it certainly did," Hannah said, managing a faint giggle. "But I don't think I have the courage to say that to him."

"You have the courage to go to bed with him knowing he was a married man."

Hannah looked quite pleased about that.