Free Breakfast with Mia by Jordan Bell Page B

forgotten his smart phone
at home and we had to go practically around the city like tourists to get it
and come back. It wasn’t even kind of my fault, but the sting of The Dragon’s
whip left welts and set the day on the wrong foot entirely.
    The Dragon followed Mr. Vaughn into his office, harping and
tossing off threats before he took off his coat.
    “Shrew.” I unloaded my crap onto my desk when the door shut behind
them. Across from me, my admin twins, Bethany and Laura, made dagger slices
across their throats in solidarity.
    The Dragon unleashed a fireball in Damien’s office, a
barbarian scream preceded the breaking of something expensive, and then the
door flew open with Corrine Aguirre, blonde and tucked and pulled to pinching,
filling the doorway. Everyone in the office turned to stare while pretending
not to stare.
    “You’ve a lot of nerve, Damien. You can call my secretary to
reschedule. Do this to me again and you’ll be sorry you’ve ever wasted my
time.” The Dragon pointed a red manicured nail at my boss, stabbed the air with
the tip, then abandoned him. I wondered if she actually asked for virgin’s
blood red when she went in to get her nails done.
    We all stared, how could we not?
    I turned and gave Damien a what-the-hell-did-you-do look and he shot back an equally impatient mind-your-own-business glare
and shut his office door.
    “Oooh, girlfriend, one of these days that woman is going to
burn this building to the ground. You just wait. It’s a whole new brand of
crazy when she starts attacking a Vaughn.” Bethany stood like she was
stretching and bobbed her head in the direction of the corner closet. “Copy
room?”
    I nodded. “Give me five.”
    The copy room was the co-ed women’s bathroom sanctuary for
gossip and conspiracy theorizing. We used the noisy copier to hide our voices.
    Laura had a comforting arm around Cara when I finally eased
into the supply closet. Poor Cara had the unfortunate job title of The
Dragon’s Bitch .
    “It’s the shoes, that’s what’s got her panties all bunched
up. She accidentally put on her last season’s Minolo Blahniks and it’s been
hell since. How that monster doesn’t get fired is beyond me,” Cara sniffed.
    “She’s putting out to the partners,” Luke suggested, but I
jumped in quick.
    “No, she’s not.”
    “And you know every little thing going on behind Vaughn’s
door, do you?” Bethany hooked her hip against the copy machine and crossed her arms
in a gossip showdown.
    “No.” I thought for a moment. That wasn’t true at all. “Well,
yes, actually, but that’s beside the point. The Dragon likes women.”
    The four of them gasped in stereo. Bethany swatted my
shoulder, Cara crossed herself, Laura giggled nervously, and Luke grabbed his
heart and fell into the paperclips
    “You dirty little liar!” Bethany swatted me again and I swatted
back. She spun her hand in the space between us. “This is sanctuary and you’ve
never said! How do you know this, you backstabbing gossip hoarder?”
    I hopped up onto the stack of paper boxes and kicked my toes
at the ground. They waited expectantly, salivating over such tender, juicy
gossip. “Because she’s practically a partner, right? She’ll be there as soon as
Georges retires in the fall. That woman is already bending over for those old
men and taking it like a champ. But she can’t be a lady with them; she’s got to
be a weapon they can use against corporate lawyers during their violent
take-overs. She’s got to be like them, so she never gets to be an actual woman.
She won’t want to go home to another man bending her over. She’ll want to go
home to someone who lets her be a girl, and she’ll want the painted toes and
smooth legs and stockings, not more stilettos and handcuffs.”
    Luke made a little sound at the back of his throat. Bethany
fanned herself.
    “Mia, you’re like a sexy magic-8 ball, you know that?” Laura
gave a little whistle. “Tell us more. What about