Someone to Vouch

After spending half of the day at home, Richard was feeling more annoyed then he had in the morning. He wasn't a man who was used to taking a day off during the week. Rather than allowing him to relax after the weird night, it made him feel as though he was even further behind on work than he had been.

Earlier in the morning, taking the day off sounded like the better option with his mind being distracted. Now that he was stuck waiting, it felt like the wrong choice.

He had some work he had been behind on he could catch up with and the day off also meant that he could work on the contact and conditions for work that he knew Daniel would be wanting to see soon, but beyond that Richard felt as though he was wasting a perfectly good day at home that would've been better spent at work.

Eyeing the pack of cigarettes that had been left on the countertop near the coffee pot with dark green light that he had been trying to avoid since morning, he finally gave into the temptation to have one and promised himself that he would blame Chelsea for it next time she came through if he ended up getting hooked on them again. Nicotine had always been the one substance he had a weakness to. Mostly because it helped clear his head when he needed to focus on something important.

Hardly a minute had passed since he lit the cigarette when his phone pinged letting him know that he got a text. He saw that it was from Daniel but knew right away by the message that Melissa was still the one in charge of his phone.

'saw your little fireball today.' he could almost hear the smirk in her voice as he read the message and this made him scoff under his breath as he replied back

'she's an ember and not mine.' He took a deep drag of the cigarette, closing his eyes for a second before he exhaled the smoke. He could already feel that it was helping his mood ever so slightly as he continued to text Melissa who was intent on teasing him about Juliet.

they weren't texting for more than two minutes before she was suddenly calling him. Had it been any other day, Richard wouldn't have answered accepted the call due to work. But since he was at him, he answered it.

"You're smoking aren't you?" He had hardly put his ear to the phone before the woman was already starting on him.

"What makes you think that?" he asked back, adjusting the cigarette in his hand to get a better hold on the phone. He sometimes wondered how she was so quick to pick up on such things even when she wasn't in the same room with another person.

"The only time you ever text so slowly is when I've seen you with a cigarette." was the reply he got.

"Observant as ever I see." he murmured as he took another drag from the cigarette before snuffing it out in the ashtray. "You can blame Chelsea for living them behind."

"Chelsea! She was with you this week and you didn't bother bringing her by? You can't just keep her to yourself all the time." Richard felt a touch of a smile at the corner of his lips at Melissa's reaction. He was already surprised how the two women got along so well. He had assumed that with such similar personalities they'd have clashed, but he had been completely mistaken.

"She was just passing by for the night." he replied. Picking up the cigarettes and lighter, he put them in his pocket before heading towards his office as he listened to Melissa continue to talk at him.

"Does she know about your new girl?" and there was the teasing again. He held back the sigh as he replied.

"I told before, she's not mine. The contact she's signing for work is a nonsexual one."

"That's an unusually move for you. Is there an ulterior motive behind that decision?"

"If I'm doing this for Daniel, it's simply just another job to me and because of that, I need a work partner who's not expecting anything else than to be working with me." He replied smoothly as he went into his office and shut the door behind himself.

"And you don't think this girl will end to falling for you? I thought you've tried this before without much success."

"I have, but based upon her personality, she's also different and has shown she's fairly unwilling to step into this job if there's a risk that any part of it could be sexual."

"How's she's supposed to now it isn't? From what she said today, it doesn't sound like you've explained much to her and she's only got the contract to go off of yet you're already using the point system with her." by the tone of her voice, he could that she didn't sound like she was certain he was going about the situation with Juliet in the right way.

"I'm sure told you I wanted her to do independent research. She's never heard of this type of lifestyle before from what she's told except what her friends have talked about. It's easy to form the wrong ideas based upon word of mouth rather than seeing physical proof yourself that you're not being lied to."

"Maybe she didn't so much research then because she still sounded pretty clueless when we were talking to her. Maybe she needs someone else to vouch?" Melissa suggested.

"And you think that person should be you I'd assume?"

"Or a friend. Maybe someone she feels comfortable with who knows something about this type lifestyle who could assure her you're not trying to pull one over on here." He couldn't deny that Melissa's suggest wasn't a bad idea. On the other hand however, they didn't know the reason he was able to bribe Juliet into taking the job with him.

"I don't feel like it would be a wise idea to involve more people than necessary. Especially since this project hasn't even taken off yet. If people start making a fuss about it outside of the club, I'll be in no position to quit if everything doesn't work out."

"Don't worry about that. Daniel can easily take care of it by making anyone sign an agreement that they won't disclose anything they see or find out about until a certain date or they're contacted and released from the agreement." Melissa replied, waving off his concern

"So what you're basically telling me is that I don't get a say in the matter?" Richard pinched the bridge of his nose. He really didn't want to deal with more people.

"Exactly. You catch on quick. I need to leave, but you better text her now and let her know that she should bring someone with her tonight."

"Fine." was all Richard replied before hanging up. If she wasn't together with Daniel, he wouldn't have let it slide.