Elizabeth's hand slipped back and she stood with a languid motion, her foot dropping quietly to the floor while taking the offered file with a slight smile. Her tongue twisted in her mouth and her eyes slid up to Jason's at his first question.
She gave him a coy smile, "It's the job of an assistant or subordinate to get done whatever needs doing for her employer, isn't it?" Her brow quirked slightly at the end of her question- truer words for her had never been said. But to Jason, it was not an admittance, but not a denial either.
Then the question she knew would come, slipped from his lips. She looked down at the files on the table and stacked them back into her folder and closed it. She stacked the tablet on the folder and then picked them both up and held them to her side. "It's an acquisition for acquisitions sake." She gently lifted both shoulders subtly and dropped them, not a fully committed shrug. "Can you afford to do it? Yes. Will it really benefit your company? Not really, in my opinion. The money and effort could have been better spent on distribution rather than further manufacturing. Our shipping and packaging have needed updates for at least a year and if you look at the numbers, they have been slowly slipping and current market research points to the packaging design we haven't changed in three years." She took a breath and let her cheeks flush, as if realizing she'd said to much, when she'd really said precisely what she'd meant to and not a word more.
She flexed her fingers tighter around her bundle, "I apologize, it's not my place to tell you or Mr. Lewis or anyone for that matter, what is or is not best for this company." She swallowed as if she wanted to say more and then licked her lips and said it, "It's just, a large and increasing share of our consumers are women and no offense, but your company doesn't have many of us in positions of real influence."
She flushed again and turned back to the table glancing at her watch, as if she needed to be somewhere else or as if looking for something else she could pick up. Then she steadied herself and looked back at him with an abashed smile, "I'm sorry, again. I'm just passionate about this company. I wrote my legal dissertation on it. Your father did some amazing things in the last twenty years with this company, but in the last five the progression had stalled, despite continued growth." She shifted her weight from one foot to another, her hip popping out slightly as they continued to talk, her telling she'd worked in sales when she was in secondary school at a local branch near her home town, how she'd studied the company and wanted to be a part of it. How she admired his choice to keep the business in the family.
She looked up with a look of surprise as Marcy came in, even though she knew they were a good few minutes past the extra half hour meeting mark. She smiled, a flush to her cheeks as if she just realized again who she was talking to and that she'd let her mouth get away from her as Marcy mentioned the fabricated connection they had.
There had been an Elizabeth in Professor Philip's Psychology class, but it hadn't been her. She'd exploited it in the break room and now she and Marcy were fairly good work friends, moving to after work drink friends once in awhile.
When Jason looked back and smiled at her, she flushed deeper until his concentration returned and he then he was gone with a mention to let Sael interview her.
She turned to Marcy who was shaking her head.
"What was that about?" As if she hadn't expected him to offer her the job, she was slightly disappointed it wasn't given to her out right, but she knew she'd get it now.
Marcy shrugged, "He wasn't expecting you, but he must have liked you. He hasn't smiled it weeks."
She saw Marcy write her name down on a list with four other women. "Really?" Her eyes looked toward the glass doors as if she was amazed, when she really wasn't.
"It could have been what I said about us being in a psychology class together, but with him it could have been anything really. Jason wasn't ever cut out for corporate life. He should be touring the world playing the violin with an orchestra somewhere, but he's here."
Elizabeth turned and looked at her but didn't comment. She knew his background of course, but there is only so much that research can tell you about a person.
Marcy touched her arm and they started to walk out, "This is a good thing Liz. You've wanted a position of influence and if Sael likes you and you can hold your own against him, you'll have it." She looked down a the schedule, "I've already scheduled the other women, so you'll have to go last. Four o'clock good for you? We could go get drinks after work too. I wanna know what you said to Jason, but I've got to run now. Good luck."
Of course the time was fine, but Elizabeth simply nodded as if dumb struck at her luck. "Sounds great. Text me when you're done for the day." Marcy nodded as she walked away.
When she was back in the elevator alone, slipping silently back down to the 30th floor, she smiled. Not a happy smile, but a triumphant smile. She knew the other women on Marcy's list, and none of them had the same... visual appeal as her. Sael was as easy as a book to read when it came to women.
She'd have to play into his ego, pretend to be flattered by his smutty attention, but be in charge enough to pique his boyhood notions of being dominated, while mailable enough to let him feel in control. She had to be a seductive challenge, leaving him wondering how long it would take before he could convince her to sleep with him, while all the while still being an assistant his brother would approve of.
So in other words, a walk in the park. Her smile spread for a brief moment, and then disappeared as the doors slid open and she went back to her 'job'.