by Lara Hunter
“It’s all a metaphor. He’s ‘begging’ her to ‘stop’ being his friend. That’s going to seep into her subconscious for sure. She’s a tricky one.” Lindsey let out a big sigh. “I’m so over couples.”
“Robert still not calling back?” Emily asked of her friend’s most recent blind date.
“We don’t speak of Robert.” Lindsey narrowed her eyes and shook her finger in an over-exaggerated fashion. “Speaking of couples, you coming tonight?”
Emily had almost forgotten. Tonight was the company’s annual charity ball. Lindsey had an eye for what made a good party and a list of contacts long enough to fill a novel. In the past she’d thrown celebrations at art exhibitions, jazz nights, standup comedy shows, hot-air-balloon rides, casino nights. The list went on.
“Company ball, right?” Emily murmured, now turning her gaze away from Tom and Katherine who could now be seen at the coffee station engaging in a long, passionate kiss. Nothing too graphic, but definitely not 10 a.m. material, either. She hoped Lindsey wouldn’t see them.
“Yep,” Lindsey shrugged, grabbing a donut off of the counter. “Charity auction, if you recall.”
“Yeah, looking forward to it. Black tie, right?”
“Right, and I have a favor to ask,” Lindsey said. She scowled at the couple getting fresh before escorting Emily into her office, shutting the glass door behind them and drawing the curtains.
“This is suddenly feeling ominous,” Emily giggled.
“I just can’t stand looking at them anymore. It’s soul-crushing.” Lindsey shook her head. “You’re coming tonight, right?”
“I’ve told you yes about a thousand times. Including literally two seconds ago.”
“Great!” Lindsey grinned, setting her coffee on her desk and taking a seat. She looked up at Emily and cocked her head to the side.
“…What?” Emily frowned. “What’s the vibe I’m getting here?”
“Well,” Lindsey made her hands into a steeple. Her tone was all business, but Emily could see the smile curving around her friend’s perfectly painted lips. “We still need one more girl to sign up for the charity auction.”
“Nope! Don’t even think about it!”
“It’s for cancer research,” Lindsey pleaded. “All you have to do is sign this waiver saying we can use you as one of the dates up for grabs in the auction.”
Emily laughed. “No way!”
As successful as Lindsey’s parties were, Emily wasn’t exactly jumping at the chance to be sold off like cattle at an auction to spend some fake forced date with a stranger. Or worse, somebody she knew from the office.
“Oh, why not? You’re a catch!”
Emily’s face flushed. She didn’t think of herself as a catch; not by her standards, anyway. She could certainly rock a pencil skirt at the office, but her unruly chocolate brown hair was an explosion of curls and she never knew what she was doing with her makeup.
“Don’t make me pull out the big guns, Em.” Lindsey grew quiet and Emily raised her brows with suspense. “Didn’t your aunt have cancer?”
“Yes.” Emily’s forehead creased; she’d only been about five when it happened.
Lindsey nodded sadly. “And if there were more funds going to cancer research like I’m trying to do with this fundraiser, maybe you would have gotten the chance.”
“She’s still alive!” Emily shouted with laughter. “We grab lunch once a month!”
“Even more reason to be a part of the event!” Lindsey shrugged. “Think of where you’d be without your aunt in your life.”
Emily went to speak and then paused, thinking better of it. She smiled awkwardly and pressed her eyes shut. “Linds, please, don’t make me do this. I’m way too shy for this kind of stuff. It’s a great cause, really, and I’m sure it’s going to be beautiful. But the night can go on without one more date for sale, can’t it?”
“Nope! This one’s all you, Em. You’re going to do amazing! Besides, you’re always saying how you haven’t been on a date in forever and how you need to put yourself out there more often. Why not rip that Band-Aid off nice and quick at my benefit?” she asked while enthusiastically miming along with her words. “Raise some money and do some good at the same time. You’ll be a world-class multi-tasker!”
“Can I say no again?”
Lindsey shook her head. “No.”
“Why don’t you do it?” Emily teased, taking a seat across from her friend. “You’re used to blind-dates, and it’ll be the perfect way to get over Tom!”
“I’ve given up on love, remember? But you, Emily Michaels, are still a young and enthusiastic optimist. Perfect for starry-eyed rich guys looking to buy a date.”
Before Emily had a chance to protest, she and Lindsey were interrupted by a network of beeps ricocheting through the office around them.
Emily furrowed her brows at the noise and the sudden hush of silence that ensued. She opened Lindsey’s office door and looked around curiously. Everyone was transfixed by their computer screens, even more than usual.
“Come here,” Lindsey said quickly.
Emily walked over to her friend and peered over her shoulder, at the mass e-mail that had just been forwarded to everyone in the office. The subject read ‘URGENT’.
Scanning down the text on Lindsey’s computer screen, Emily’s stomach started to churn. The e-mail was from one of the company presidents and detailed how reports of embezzlement had reached the higher-ups’ attention. Someone had been stealing money from the company and they were now launching an investigation into the matter, and would be conducting in-depth interviews with most of the staff.
“Wow,” Lindsey said under her breath. “Somebody’s in trouble.”
Emily nodded but said nothing. She slowly made her way toward the door and nodded her exit to Lindsey. “I should get back to work,” she said in a small voice.
“’Kay,” Lindsey said dismissively. “Hey, Em!”
Emily peered back into the office and cocked her brows curiously.
“You think about that fundraiser!”
She breathed shakily and politely left the room, making her way back to her cubicle. She sat at her desk and looked up at her computer screen to see the same e-mail displayed on the screen in front of her. Her stomach began to twist as she clicked the box closed and quickly left her desk.
It was all Emily could do not to run full steam ahead to the restroom. Instead, she made slow strides, trying to come off cool and collected, before storming into the bathroom. She put all the subtlety she’d ever learned from awkward family dinners and relationships gone by to good use and checked all the stalls as casually as she could. Once she found that she was alone in the bathroom she could finally relent to the meltdown she was having within.
She walked to the bathroom door and locked it; heaving cold breaths in and out in sheer panic. Her stomach knotted over and over with a sick, white pain as she replayed the e-mail in her mind, full in the knowledge that she was the one who had been stealing from the company, and that soon they were going to figure everything out.
TWO
Emily had never intended for things to end up this way. She’d never stolen anything in her entire life, save for a gummy worm she’d taken out of a bin at a candy store when she was five, and even then she’d cried to the shop owner, begging him for forgiveness.
Now, 21 years later, she was still stealing and hoping for forgiveness, but the outcome wouldn’t be the same, she realized. The senior management team was going to conduct interviews with everyone, and it was only a matter of time before they found her out.
Emily’s mother, Janet, had fallen ill several months ago. She had recovered quickly from her life-threatening illness, but with no health insurance to cover the expenses, no sooner had she left the hospital than she was saddled with thousands of dollars’ worth of medical bills. Janet lived several hours away, making the ordeal especially painful; there were some days Emily simply couldn’t be there for her. In desperatio
n, she had done the unthinkable and used company finances to pay off the medical bills. She’d covered up the theft using a bit of accounting wizardry, and fully intended to pay the borrowed cash off over a period of time. She just hadn’t expected to be found out before then, if at all.
Realizing that she was trembling, Emily began to do some breathing exercises she’d seen in an online video. They were supposed to help with stress or something. Her mind reeled, trying to come up with ways to avoid being found out, to no avail. She wondered if she should just put in her two weeks’ notice now, but figured that might look more suspicious. She could just quit right here and now, but that would only raise eyebrows, and lead them to her faster.
Emily unlocked the bathroom door and walked back over to the sink to dab some water on her face. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she choked down a guttural sob. Who had she become? This was supposed to be a small loan, that was it. She was so careful to cover her tracks; she never should have gotten caught.
She sighed as she heard her cellphone going off, and took it out from her blazer and stared down at the name. It was a text from Lindsey.
‘Signed you up for tonight. Lucky number 22! Thanks girl, you’re a lifesaver.”
Great, Emily thought. It looked like her day was only going to get worse.
***
The day wore on like a snail racing through peanut butter. Emily spent the rest of her time at work in absolute fear that any moment she was going to lose her job. She could tell everyone in her department was a bit more rigid than usual that day. After all, it was natural to assume that if anyone was stealing money from the company, the accountants would be the ones with the easiest access to cover it up.
Several hours later, after one of her most horrendous days at work, Emily found herself standing at the entrance to Lindsey’s fundraiser; she’d figured it would look suspicious if she didn’t show up, so here she was, making small talk with some of the staff as they hustled into the building.
“Thank goodness you’re here!” came Lindsey’s voice. The girl knew how to yell, that’s for certain. Her words cut clear across the crowd as she offered Emily a smile and waved in her direction.
Once she reached her friend, Lindsey gaped, eyeing Emily up and down. “You look gorgeous!”
“I do not,” Emily huffed bashfully.
“Little black dress. It’s perfect.”
Emily laughed nervously and batted her friend’s hands away. “Lindsey, I’m not going on stage!”
“Em, I’m so not kidding around right now. We really need you. You’re number—”
“Number 22, I got your text.”
“No, no, no!” Lindsey grabbed Emily’s hand and started rushing her toward backstage. “Forget about number 22, you’re number one now!”
“I beg your pardon?”
Lindsey ushered Emily through the crowds and took her into the beautiful backstage area. She always managed to find the most beautiful venues in Arizona for her benefits—old, historical buildings full of character and class. Anything less just wouldn’t be Lindsey. Emily marveled at the beautiful wooden arch that lined the hallways leading to the area behind the stage.
Once backstage, Lindsey sat Emily in front of a makeup stand; women with curling wands, flat irons, beautiful cocktail dresses, and makeup cases full of everything a girl could need to cover up and contour charged around in a frenzy. The other participants in the auction were prepping and primping in their mirrors. Emily, for her part, frowned up at her friend and finally asked, “What do you mean, first?”
“Sarah pulled out last minute. Flu, or something. You have to help me out, Emily. Please, please, pretty please?”
“Trouble with the little lady?” came a familiar voice. The source of the nasal tone was Emily’s boss, Mike Burke. He was around 40, maybe older, and he’d hit on Emily multiple times since she’d been hired, to no avail.
“Hi Mike,” Emily said, her tone friendly.
Mike nodded and raised his brows as he began, “I couldn’t help but overhear—”
“No, you could have. Very easily, in fact,” Lindsey said with a tooth-baring grin.
“I couldn’t!” Mike insisted. “She hits the same decibels as my wife when she—”
“Ex-wife, I heard,” Lindsey beamed sarcastically.
“And here I was thinking I had to introduce myself,” Mike said awkwardly. “I think we’re getting off on the wrong foot.”
“Eavesdropping tends to have that sort of effect on relationships,” Emily said lightly, not wanting to watch an argument erupt.
“Whoa, there!” Mike exaggerated his tone and bent down to regard Emily; his eyes roving over her body before landing on her lips. “Relationship? Getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren’t we? Aren’t I suppose to buy you dinner, first?”
Lindsey put her hand on Mike’s shoulder and began pushing him from the dressing room before huffing, “To do that, Mike, you’d have to land a date with her.”
Mike slapped his hand on his cheek in mock surprise and looked down at Emily. “Well color me tickled, aren’t we at a charity auction? And I hear you are going up first, aren’t you, sweetheart?”
Emily nodded halfheartedly and looked up at Lindsey, nonverbally screaming a giant “Thanks a lot” at her.
“That’s me,” she breathed, setting her jaw.
“Speaking of which, time to go, Em!” Lindsey said, rushing Emily to the corner of the stage.
They walked to the staircase that led up to the raised platform and Lindsey made a face. “Gross. I’m sorry about that, the guy’s a creep. Here’s hoping he isn’t your highest bidder!”
With that, Lindsey gave Emily a gentle push onto the stage, causing Emily’s eyes to widen as she looked back at her friend. “Wait, wait,” she whispered. “What do I do?”
“What you’re supposed to do: stand there and look pretty!”
Lindsey pulled her headset close to her ear and began talking in a hushed voice into the microphone, alerting her staff that the auction was about to start, before disappearing behind the curtain.
Emily stood awkwardly on the stage and turned scarlet red under the stage lights. The room was full of businessmen and women sipping champagne in their finest black-tie ensembles. She’d heard there was to be a male auction right after the female one.
She scanned the room for familiar faces and was startled as the announcer began reading off her name and declaring her as the first participant of the night.
As the bidding began, Emily forced herself to stay put and not flee from the stage. She wasn’t exactly a social butterfly, nor had she ever been one to participate in events where she had to be the center of attention.
She was astonished, therefore, when at least six of the men in the audience raised their paddles in competition. As the round came to a close, however, only two men were left battling back and forth. Her slimy boss, Mike, and a handsome man she’d never met before, who looked to be Middle-Eastern. She didn’t know what would be worse: a blind date with a man who thought she was the type of girl to auction herself off, or a date with Mike.
“Sold, for ten-thousand dollars to Sheikh Tariq Al Habib Bin Hasan!”
Emily gasped on stage; how could she have sold for so much? Not far off the amount she’d embezzled from the company, as it happened.
Her stomach turned again. Best not to think about it, at least for tonight.
THREE
Within a couple minutes, Emily had made her way backstage and then out into the main hall. She could see other women on the stage waiting to be bid on. Her eyes, however, were scanning the room for her new date. She spotted the man and walked by Mike in the process, his face unmistakably cross. He gave her a smug, yet disappointed look and then shrugged as if it were all just one big joke. She hurried passed him and finally met up with the Sheikh.
The fact that a sheikh had been the one to bid on her already sounded like something out of a fairy tale. She wanted to know what he was d
oing here, and what made him bid on her. In reality, though, she wasn’t sure she could muster up the courage to ask him anything. She was fine around her male friends, but once she knew a romantic date was about to ensue, she generally turned into a shy teenage girl.
“Sheikh,” she said with a tickle in her voice, reaching her hand out to shake the man’s hand.
“Emily,” the man said and took her hand into his, kissing it in a way that was both sweet and formal. “You’re even more beautiful up close.”
“Oh, thank you,” she stammered, looking around the room almost uncomfortably. “Seems like we have a date to plan, don’t we, sir?”
