Chapter Text
One and a half years ago.
Leonora Lesso was a scam, and she was well aware of it.
Okay, maybe ‘scam’ was too strong of a word, however, ‘fraud’ sounded even worse to her. But what else would someone who has been lying to their father about going to college and being busy with her new job while, in reality, she hadn’t been going to classes for almost six months and officially dropped out four months ago, and was unemployed and surviving using her savings and was running out of money and time to get a job? Leonora didn’t know what to call herself, but what she knew was that, in any case, it wouldn’t be anything good.
She had been lying to her father, Rafal, not because she was afraid he would be mad with her about dropping college - she knew he would never be -, but because she was ashamed to admit so.
Maybe ‘coward’ would be a more precise term for her after all.
Leonora knew he would do anything and everything to help her, as he always did before, but she wanted to prove to herself she could do it. And by ‘it’ she meant finding a path in life.
She had chosen to study literature at college because she wanted to be a writer. She had been working on her first book for a few months before the classes started but she soon realized it was not helping her write, but actually getting in the way of it. And anyway, she managed to continue going to classes for two years until she couldn’t take it anymore.
It was Tuesday morning and she was going for what she was thinking as her last chance at getting a job as she didn’t have money to keep this endless job searching.
It wasn’t a good position by any means. She applied for a position as a personal assistant for a marketing coordinator but it was at a publishing house so it meant she would be a step closer to her dream of becoming a writer. She would only need to build a good network net there to get a chance to have her manuscript read.
But things were already going incredibly wrong for her.
It was raining a lot, so her curly red hair was all over the place and she forgot to take a hair clip, and to make things worse, the traffic was terrible. She had left her apartment earlier than necessary but it was for naught because she was ten minutes late for her interview and it would take at least fifteen more minutes for her to arrive there.
For some miracle, she did manage to arrive in fifteen minutes and as soon as she was out of the car, she started to run in the direction of the building, praying to at least still have the chance to do the job interview.
Once inside the building, she reduced her speed. She was not running anymore but was walking quite fast for the heels she was wearing.
Leonora took her phone to confirm the name of the one who would be responsible for her interview so she could ask for directions when she bumped into someone, or someone bumped into her, she couldn’t exactly tell.
“I’m so sorry!” She cursed internally when she noticed the woman she bumped into had been carrying a cup of coffee and at least half of it was on Leonora’s clothes and part of the other half was on the floor and on the stranger’s clothes. “Fuck!” She cursed quietly, she knew she probably had to at least offer to get the woman’s clothes cleaned for dirtying them, but Lesso didn’t have the money to do so. And if the clothes stained, what would she do? They looked like they were worth more than her car.
The first sign of luck coming to her side that morning was that the stranger didn’t think it to be her fault.
“I’m the one who needs to apologize. I’m late and I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” The woman said assessing the damage to her clothes and Leonora finally took a good look at her.
The woman was shorter than Leonora, even while wearing high heels. Her skin was a dark shade of brown, and it reflected some of the bright yellow light that enlightened the inside of the building, making it look golden. Her eyes were hazel with a touch of green, and her hair was dyed strawberry blonde.
She was stunning and the ginger woman was too caught up admiring her, she didn’t notice she was being talked to.
“… just leave your contact there, okay?” Leonora blinked twice and nodded, even if she didn’t know what she was asked. But the other woman seemed to not notice any of the younger woman’s turmoil, so she just smiled and turned to leave; quickly disappearing on one of the elevators.
It took a good minute for Lesso to finally get herself together and continue with what she was doing before, completely forgetting about the status of her clothes for a moment.
“Excuse me, I’m Leonora Lesso and I have a job interview with Clarissa Dovey.” She gave her ID to the receptionist who looked her up and down with a judgmental face before she told the red-haired on which floor Dovey’s office was.
Lesso spent the whole time in the elevator trying not to freak out. She was not successful, but at least she managed to not look like she was feeling.
Everyone always said she had a good resting bitch face.
There was not much she could do about the state of her clothes, but as her blazer was black, as was her trousers, they weren’t so bad. So she buttoned up her blazer to hide the coffee stain on her beige blouse.
When she finally arrived on the floor she saw what would be the personal assistant’s desk at the right side of the corridor that ended at a smoked glass door. She took a deep breath and knocked on the office door.
“Come on in, please.” She was so surprised to hear a familiar voice that Leonora needed to take another deep breath, and then she exhaled slowly before opening the door to the familiar face of the beautiful woman she bumped into earlier and ruined her clothes.
She was fucked. There was no way she would get the job now.
“Leonora Lesso? It’s a pleasure to be formally introduced, I’m Clarissa Dovey.” There was recognition in the black woman’s eyes and a small smile on her lips as soon as she was completely in Dovey’s view. Leonora noticed the marketing coordinator was wearing a different outfit than she had earlier, she must had spare clothes at her office “Please, close the door and take a seat.”
Lesso did as she was told and prepared herself for whatever was to come.
“I’d like to apologize again for earlier, I’m so sorry for ruining your clothes and probably your day too. I’d like to buy you new ones as a way to make up for it.”
For a quick second, the idea of accepting Dovey’s offer crossed Lesso’s mind. But even if the older woman was way wealthier than her, and Lesso really needed new clothes, it wasn’t right to let her buy her new clothes for something that was not entirely her fault.
Cursing herself for being a decent person, the red-haired shocked her head.
“There’s no need, I was not looking where I was going either. It’s not completely your fault.”
“Are you certain?” The black woman asked while raising one eyebrow, looking a little amused; and Lesso nodded, confirming her answer. “Okay, then, but don’t think any of what I decide here has anything to do with it. I read your resume and personally chose you for this interview, I think you may have the qualities we need for this position and could be a great asset to our team.”
The aspiring writer wanted to scoff. What could possibly be the qualities needed for a personal assistant position? It couldn’t be that hard of a job, nor one that really needed a special set of abilities.
But she couldn’t and didn’t react the way she wanted to, so she just nodded again to what the woman said, as there was a slight but still existing chance she would say something without thinking, so keeping quiet was the best idea for now. Lesso may not agree with anything the marketing coordinator was saying, but she still needed the job and there still seemed to be a chance for her to get it. She had to behave and control herself.
.
.
Almost an hour later Leonora went back to her car and sat at the driver’s seat in silence, staring ahead without anything to focus on, for a good couple of minutes.
She got the job.
Even after bumping into Clarissa Dovey and making her coffee fall all over themselves, the black woman hired her.
It felt like a good sign for her, like the universe was telling her everything was going to be fine. And things would finally fall into place.