Free Charity's Warrior by Maya James

people sleeping with each other, most of them married. We ate burrito bowls at Chipotle, not my first time, but the first one I had found in New York. I was glad to see a familiar place. I watched the busy crowd rushing by the windows as we talked.
    Kathy is a younger, well dressed lady that works for the CFO. She has a professionalism that exceeds her years, even when relaxed at lunch. Clarice was really just as professional, but I had a hard time seeing her that way because each time anyone said her name, all I heard was Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector. She worked for the COO. Jennifer is the friendliest of the bunch, and the oldest. I got the impression she was also the busiest in the bunch, taking care of the Director of IT for an IT Security company. The Research and Development team fell under her, along with the entire Monitoring department and Customer Service. The General Council has Lynda for support. Lynda was a hippie fifty years too late, but her smile is infectious and her laugh contagious.
    "So," I asked, "who supports the CEO?"
    "No one," Kathy replies. "He says he doesn't need someone dedicated to him."
    Jennifer chimed in, "Actually, Lena does enough for him to qualify, it's just that her actual position managing HR is above that on the org chart."
    "And pay scale," Lynda added. "I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, it's just a fact. She does a ton at Panther, running HR and personal assistant to JP."
    "JP?" I asked.
    "The President and CEO of Panther," Kathy replied.
    "He started the company," Clarice added. "You probably won't see him any time soon—he's almost never in."
    "He's not running things?" I ask.
    Lynda smiles. "Oh, he is. He runs it all and runs it well. He just does it remotely. He trusts his officers, which is kinda rare, let's them do what they gotta do, but don't think he doesn't know exactly what's going on."
    "What's he like?" I asked, curious.
    "Hot!" Lynda said.
    Jennifer agrees with a huge smile and several rapid nods of her head.
    "He's handsome," Kathy says, laughing at the others. "But we don't know his story."
    Clarice seemed to read in my face that I wasn't following Kathy. "She means we don't know a damn thing about his personal life, not if he's married or single, or even gay or straight—nothing! Business is business with him, and personal is personal. We've tried to crack Lena for details, but she's a rock."
    We all laugh.
    "He pops in, sometimes unexpectedly, but most of the time he only shows up for executive meetings. You'll see the invite for the next one show up on John's calendar, and he'll point it out, he will not want to miss it," Kathy said.
    When we walk back, I felt less like the new girl, and more like just one of them. For a moment, I thought about Justin, and that made me smile at first, remembering his tongue on me, the way he had pulled my hair, but that faded away quickly. I didn't hear from him for the rest of the weekend, probably wouldn't again, just as Trisha had warned me. He was likely on to the next girl already, and the next time I see him, he will want me to be his friend instead of his lover.
    Unless he waited for me to call him this weekend, and I was screwing it up.
    I don't have a clue how to do this! I need advice, I need a good friend, but no one from home would be of any use for this. I needed Trisha. After work I planned to head to the bar for dinner, hopping she was working.
    At the office we use our own chat program; something on Microsoft's Lync I think is what they told me. After lunch I signed on the laptop and the chat opened. My account was already there, part of the company's login, and I can see the entire staff, broken into their departments. In the executive team I saw an entry for JP, the owner. He was online.
    It was probably a good idea if I tried to say something, introduce myself, but as I hovered the mouse over his name, I couldn't find words I was comfortable with. If I'd met him, I'm sure it would be easier. I