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Continued from previous page…
It was crunch time.
Before this critical moment, Jennifer had never been involved in such an elaborate scheme in her entire life.
Nothing even remotely close.
She was about to embark on something that was way beyond her ken. Something way beyond her instincts and abilities. She was about to be propelled into a dark world of deceit and treachery. Nothing she had ever done previously could possibly prepare her for this manipulative course of action. For a brief second, she almost ran out of the building. She was going to run out of the restaurant, into her car, and drive directly to Charlotte’s home. She was going to fall to her knees and beg for forgiveness for not being able to complete her mission.
But, she didn’t. She stood steadfastly and thought about an expression she had heard at one time or another in her lifetime —
“Life often comes down to a few precious moments… This is one of them.”
As she absorbed the gravity of that statement, she took in one, last, deep inhale and looked over at her friends sitting in the booth. They looked confused as to why she was so hesitant about going to the restroom.
Especially Blair.
“What’s the matter?” she asked. “Did you forget how to pee?”
Jennifer looked down at Blair and her condescending expression. It was different this time. Blair seemed to have a strange sense of understanding about the situation. Could she possibly know what was going on? Is it possible that Charlotte had sent her along to keep an eye on her? All of these thoughts raced through her mind in a nanosecond. It was similar to the shadowy, implausible beliefs that one has when imagining that their significant other is cheating on them with a friend. Charlotte would never do something like that. Her and Charlotte were pals and confidants.
Or, so she thought.
Blair was indeed in on the plot.
CUE THE MUSIC: DAH-DAH-DAH-DAHHHH !!!
Did you really think our blonde bombshell would allow such an important part of the equation to go uncovered?
Of course, not.
In fact, Blair was one of Charlotte’s favorite counter-spies in many of her mischievous machinations.
And even though Jennifer was the president of the fan club, and this was a blatant disregard of military protocol to usurp the authority of a higher ranking officer, Charlotte could never allow her to find out. Besides, who was a higher ranking official than the gorgeous Goddess of Go-Go guitar playing than Charlotte?
No one, I say. No one.
“No,” Jennifer answered back. She was clearly agitated at the reverberance of Blair’s tone.
Blair continued to stare at Jennifer with her smug expression. Being young women, it was only a matter of time before neither one of them would be able to keep such a juicy secret from each other. Surely, one of them would have to blab about who was the better co-conspirator to Charlotte.
You’d think Charlotte would know that.
“Good luck,” said Blair, her secret starting to ooze out.
Jennifer took one last look at Blair before glancing over at Natalie and Tootie. Both of them were beginning to wonder what the hell was going on.
Jennifer turned around and eyed her quarry.
But, in response, it was not Mr. Goodrow who returned any sort of attention. His back was turned towards Jennifer, therefore, it was his legal assistant, Alex, who initially noticed her. As he sipped his martini, his gaze was affixed on Jennifer the whole time as she approached the bar.
“Ooh, look at this nice, little honey,” observed Alex. “She’s coming our way.”
Barclay turned around and observed Jennifer walking towards them. He started to look back, then did a double-take. He was more attracted than he thought.
Obviously, this was exactly what Jennifer was hoping for. Even though she had virtually no experience in picking up men in this type of environment, she played the part perfectly. She held off smiling at the man until she was three feet away from him. Then, she looked up at him, smiled, and pretended to stub her toe. She stumbled right into him, but not in a forceful way. She regained her balance at just the last second in order for the man not to be annoyed at her clumsiness. She prudently made it seem like their mutual gazes had made her lose her balance.
“Oh, oh, I’m sorry,” she gushed. “I’m sorry.. did I make you spill your drink? I’m sorry.”
“No, no, it’s alright,” he returned. In actuality, a tiny bit of his martini did land on the sleeve of his suit jacket, but he chose not to acknowledge the minor mishap.
“I’m sorry.. I looked up at you.. and I didn’t see where I was going,” Jennifer continued to explain. “I’m such a klutz.”
“No.. it’s alright,” Barclay insisted. “Catch me in about an hour or two.. and you’ll probably see the same thing.”
A collective chuckle emerged from the three potable participants, as Jennifer continued on with her charade.
“Oh, God, me too,” she confessed. “My friends are over in one of the booths over there.. We’re whoopin’ it up pretty good.. In about an hour, you’ll probably have to carry me outta’ here.”
Barclay and his assistant exchanged eager glances. They both liked the sound of that.
Jennifer’s performance was spot-on.
“Uhh.. do you guys know which way the bathrooms are?” she asked.
Both men at the same time fervently pointed out the direction for which she should go. In the historically masculine battle for a woman’s attention, it was all-out warfare at this point.
“Okay, thanks,” she said, politely.
She finished up with a suggestion that she was pretty sure would get an enthusiastic response.
“Maybe I’ll see you guys later,” she proposed.
“Sounds good,” they both said in one form or another.
As Jennifer walked away, a very satisfying and devilish grin began to spread across her face.
Phase One was complete.