56
Friday, June 6th, 1986, 7:22 P.M.
When Charlotte purchased the commercial office building on Wilshire Boulevard, it wasn’t solely for investment purposes. Within a short period of time, she moved herself in and set up the company’s corporate headquarters on the eighteenth floor. Now she had more elbow room when entertaining clients, along with a genuine feeling of being an authentic, corporate big-shot. It was such a relief for her to move out of the cramped offices she had been renting before the purchase.
It was difficult for Charlotte to decide which one of the amenities she liked best. Was it the waterfall that dropped into the Koi Pond? Was it the miniature four-step staircase that led up to her personal office? Was it the thick, glass partition and door that had her name on it? Was it the waiting area she had decorated with 60’s style furniture? It didn’t matter. She loved all of it.
Perhaps the most convenient and accommodating feature to the whole thing was the apartment she had constructed for herself adjacent to the west wall. It could only be accessed by entering the dark, wooden door marked PRIVATE in the rear corner of the main space. Charlotte had the only key. Oftentimes, when she told her secretary, Sheila, that she was going in there to make a phone call or find something important, she was actually going in there to take a nap. Sheila was not fooled in the slightest.
The apartment also proved itself extremely useful as Charlotte eventually started sleeping there on nights when she was too tired to drive all the way back to her house in Malibu. The only thing she worried about was Binky, which caused her to start leaving out extra bowls of food for The Binkmeister in case she didn’t come home on any given night.
But, those were not the only things that Charlotte envisioned for the apartment as a physically, healthy woman in the prime of her life.
Like many normal, horny women of power, she also pictured herself ensnaring a few flies in her web of iniquity along the way. She had already brought Sean back there a few times for the thrill of it, but that was to be expected. He was her steady guy.
Charlotte also knew in the back of her mind that it would only be a matter of time before her salacious scheming would backfire in one form or another. Sure enough, on one, inappropriate evening, she inadvertently held true to her plans and banged an editor from Newsweek magazine who was in town doing an article on Women Who Rock. Being from such a prestigious periodical as Newsweek, anything less than one of the Go-Go’s in his piece would not suffice. He contacted Charlotte before anyone else and she invited him up to her office after hours to conduct the interview.
The guy was a bit of a dweeb and the whole thing was completely unintentional, but he had thick, shaggy hair and black, horned-rimmed glasses, and that seemed to be enough for her. He reminded her of one of those hip, young writers from Rolling Stone or Guitar Magazine that Charlotte never had the opportunity to get involved with. When he had the balls to kiss her neck from behind and feel her up seconds afterward, she just caved. Her initial instincts were to turn around and say, “What do you think you’re doing?” Instead, she gave into him and just let it happen. It was a combination of confusion and daringness that later she would regret. She booted him out early the next morning and was absolutely positive she would never let something like that ever happen again. It was by far the most regrettable one-night-stand that she had encountered since becoming a celebrity. Naturally, there were worse one-night-stands she had experienced in her early days, but that was the result of being young, vulnerable, and naive. Those didn’t count. They were essentially erased from her memory.
Her momentary lack of judgement with the Newsweek dude, however, was not going to stop Charlotte on this particular Friday night. What she had planned for this evening was many months in the making.
To everyone who knew Jeff Joniak, he was an awesome guy. More often than not, he was the funniest guy in the room and equally as nice. He was easy-going and completely non-confrontational. It was almost impossible not to like him. He was not led by his inhibitions, a trait which made him admired by everyone around him. Charlotte absolutely adored him. They had worked together for three years now and a mutual attraction had formed. In fact, had it not been for her foolish obsession with Myles Morganstein, she would have easily considered Jeff the man she wanted to be with.
Jeff had not seen Charlotte’s new corporate lodgings, thereby, making it the ideal precursor to an open invitation. She told him she wanted to discuss scripts for the upcoming, final season, but that was just a load of crap. She wanted to taste his juicy lips.
Her plan didn’t take very long to gain traction. After a few drinks and some mild discussion about the show, they quickly found themselves back in her apartment.
He turned out to be everything she thought he would be.
He was perfect.
His kisses were warm, soft, and passionate. They felt like he had true feelings for her and Charlotte hoped hers had the same affect. He touched her in just the right way and was more than generous of the time he devoted into pleasuring her. She fell asleep in his arms and woke up in the same position.
It was a beautiful night.