Impending Doom Of Regret

After making my deal with Gervais I half expected him to come out with a contract I had to sign in blood but instead he and Ladonna left with the same imperious Dubois rush that they came in with and nothing more had happened. I went to work half expecting a million strange messages from Gervais or at least something from Ladonna but everything was eerily quiet, Caspar was nowhere to be seen and the rest of the staff wandered in an out doing whatever they were supposed to do. I wound up tidying the display area and feeling about as useful as I did when I worked for Liselle. Lunch came and still no sign of anything, it was as if the visit of yesterday had not happened at all. Finally I worked out that I had probably imagined everything about Gervais and that he was just playing some mind games for something to do.

I went to lunch at Djini’s as usual with a much lighter heart and was just enjoying a salad when Gervais comes in, this was totally predictable and why I had even deluded myself into thinking that it was safe to eat here or that I could avoid Gervais now was beyond me. He had Nadia Voss in tow which seemed rather odd as I do not remember them having any sort of friendship at all for Gervais was not the person you would think she would target for her career aspirations. He and Nadia sat down at my table as if I had arranged to meet them and Nadia looked around for anyone more important to focus on. When she did not see anyone she yawned rudely and flicked her fingers at a waitress for service.

I tried my hardest to ignore Gervais sitting there and desperately focused on my salad because I knew if I interacted with him in anyway he was gong to say or do something to destroy my world. And since my world pretty much was crap these days I did not relish anything else bad happening to me. Luckily Nadia filled the void by bitching about Tony, then bitching about Osric and finally bitching about Zizi.

Zizi had folded and was going to have talks about a contract with Osric which Nadia was convinced happened because Jago had pulled strings and was telling anyone in listening distance how Zizi had got her start due to her father and not on talent like other harder working artists. I wanted to smack her right then and there because anyone who knew Zizi knew that she wouldn’t take a piece of lint from Jago much less a contract but it was pointless to argue. Nadia wanted success the easy way and instead of putting the hours improving her skills she was determined to sleep her way to the top.

I decided to do a Coco and sit staring vacantly at my salad while Gervais chatted to Nadia as he sent me the occasional creepy smile, the bastard knew he was freaking me out and enjoyed every second of his evil game. When Nadia was distracted by a new ear to bitch into Gervais put his hand on my arm, leaned forward and murmured in my ear that he had not forgotten our arrangement yesterday. I tried really hard to play dumb and asked what arrangement was he talking about, I was confused. But Gervais was a master of manipulation and did nothing more than lift an eyebrow, he informed me cheerfully that he would see me at the wedding then and my heart sank. If I did not admit that we had a deal he was going to make it his business to ensure Taryn got her way and I could not help but sigh in defeat which made him smile even more.

Why can’t some people be deemed too dangerous to be allowed out of their houses? I was stuck with whatever game Gervais wanted to play and no matter what I did I was going to lose. So I told Gervais not to plan the wedding so soon as it was not going to happen which made his eyes narrow and I could practically smell victory oozing from his pores. He said he was pleased our arrangement stood and then he put his horrible hand on my arm, leaned in like the conspirator he is and said how pleased he was that I had seen the futility of attempting to back out of our little agreement.

It was at that moment as I sat there with Gervais leaning into me, his hand on my arm and a smarmy grin on his face that Jojo chose to enter the café. As the colour drained from my face I could feel Gervais tighten the grip on my arm and Jojo took one look at us his face going black and grim. He turned his back on us as he ordered and I felt the first pangs of misery that were about to become my life. The minute Jojo left I grabbed my purse and made a hasty exit before Gervais could reply to my goodbye and as I drove back to work I was still frozen in shock. It wasn’t until I was looking at some ghastly puce silk that the reality of my life set in for not only had I burned my bridges but also the boat across the river, I was doomed.

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