Chapter Text
In the last two years, it was rare that Mel found herself at a loose end. If she wasn’t collecting Valentina’s dry cleaning and delivering her piping hot coffee no matter the time, location or terrain, then she was committing unspeakable acts - albeit, all through a screen as to maintain some modicum of morality and perhaps a touch of plausible deniability.
In any case, she had little to no spare time in the day and when she did get home it was all she could do to rifle through the cupboards for something that resembled dinner, pour herself a large glass of wine and stick on reruns of the Real Housewives of New York City. That’s why she was somewhat blindsided when she received a text from Val at around lunchtime that effectively relieved her of her duties for the day. The Contessa claimed that she was feeling under the weather, another highly unusual occurrence, and that in her absence there was no need for Mel to stick around.
Having only moved to New York upon receiving an offer for the assistant job, Mel had had little time to make close friends in the area. However, she occasionally visited a few of the coffee shops in her neighbourhood and had become friendly enough with one of the baristas, a tall, blonde woman named Emma. Having no better ideas and deciding she should at least head back in the direction of her apartment, Mel packed up her things and took the lift down to the entrance of one of Valentina’s more elaborate offices.
She arrived at the cafe, which was tucked in a corner between a small boutique and beautiful florist, to find it mostly empty following the lunch time rush. Picking a plush looking seat near the window and deciding what to order, she didn’t notice Emma approach her table. The taller woman cleared her throat and Mel startled.
“Emma, hey. How are you?”
“Oh you know, same old same old. Nothing new here other than the cat from down the street that keeps coming round back and eating out of our rubbish. Business as usual, you know. Which is more than can be said for you, what brings you away from your big girl job and on a Tuesday no less?”
“You know what, I wish I could tell you but I’m not very sure myself. My boss wasn’t feeling well which is really quite unlike her and I would’ve booked her an appointment with our in-house medical team but she scarpered before I could do anything. Just sent me a text telling me I could leave for the day. I’m a little worried to be honest with you.”
“Wow, well you’re a far better employee than I am. If my boss was ill there’s no chance I’m getting near him let alone sending out for some posh doctor. But enough about bosses. Why decide to come here, you should be off taking advantage of the afternoon, see a museum, hangout, go for some beers - no?”
Mel had the decency to look sheepish at this, already feeling a little embarrassed that her only friend - acquaintance more like - was a woman who served her coffee and whose last name she didn’t know.
“I mean, it’s a little embarrassing but I don’t really know anyone here and I haven’t had much of a chance to explore New York since I started my job, I don’t know what’s good.”
“That’s not embarrassing at all,” Emma gave her a toothy grin, “you spend almost every waking moment tending to your boss’ every need.”
“Valentina.”
“Sorry?”
“My boss, her name is Valentina.”
“Oh, right.” Emma seemed a little taken aback by the earnestness in Mel’s voice, but she recovered quickly. “Well, I think Valentina works you too hard, you deserve a break. Look, my shift finishes in just over an hour. Why don’t you take a coffee to go, get changed out of that suit into something a bit less Devil Wears Prada, and come back here for 1430.”
“I uh. What?”
“No wonder Valentina values your time, you’re so eloquent.” Emma teased, breaking into another toothy grin. “Come back here silly and I’ll take you out in New York, proper New York that is.”
Mel thought of the nights spent alone, eating takeout and reviewing work emails in lieu of real conversation. Perhaps making a real friend wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
“Alright, you’re on. I’ll see you at two-thirty.” She paused a moment. “And Emma, thank you.” The blonde merely gave her a nod of understanding before returning to the counter to fetch Mel her usual caramel latte and send her on her way.
As she was getting ready for her afternoon with Emma, Mel’s mind drifted to Valentina, as it so often did. She wondered what was wrong with the woman, if she was at home nursing a cold, or worse, perhaps she had been infected with something during one of the lab trials. The thought of the older woman trapped in a perspex box while her army of scientists prodded and poked and tried to figure out what was wrong with her sent a shiver down Mel’s spine. No. She thought. There was no infectious lab, no common cold, it was almost certain that Val was hiding something from her assistant. The past few weeks she’d been taking more and more phone calls out of the room, assigning Mel frivolous tasks and setting up meetings across town under the pretence that it would help the young woman’s career to “get out on your own and rub shoulders with the only people in New York that matter, Melissa.”
Mel had no doubt that her boss truly wanted her to succeed, in the way that if Mel was successful, then by default so was Valentina. She was her prodigy, clay to be moulded into whatever shape Val saw fit to do her bidding, but whatever was happening lately was clearly above her pay grade.
Letting thoughts of Valentina and her secrets go, lest they ruin her afternoon off, Mel focused on putting the finishing touches to her outfit. Unlike her usual style of pressed slacks and crisp shirts, she had decided to go for a casual look and something she hoped Emma would deem “proper New York”. On her feet she wore red ballet flats which she had paired with a tennis style skirt, v neck jumper and Red Sox baseball cap purchased on a school trip to Boston a number of years ago. Overall, she looked good, great even.
Emma thought so too when she met her outside the cafe not 30 minutes later.
“Hey, Gold, you scrub down nice.” Mel merely raised an eyebrow at the turn of phrase, though she felt a light blush creep up her neck under the sweater. She let herself be led by Emma, down to the subway and across town.
The two women spent the afternoon ducking in and out of music shops, antique stores, small bars and restaurants that were little more than a handful of chairs and tables. They ate small plates of waffles and even smaller tacos, washing it all down with sodas from Emma’s favourite bodega. Mel couldn’t remember the last time she had this much fun, the last time she’d gone so long without thinking about Valentina. She was laughing at something Emma said, when the aforementioned woman grabbed her sleeve and pulled her towards a side street previously unnoticed by Mel.
“Oh hey, we have to grab a drink here. It’s like the cutest little place. It’s all decked out in the style of a speakeasy, run by this woman Janelle and her wife - you’re going to love it Mel.”
So, she let the blonde drag her towards the bar chuckling at her eagerness and hoping it served a good martini. On the latter she shouldn’t have been worried.
It was clear upon entering that Emma was a regular. The bar staff knew her by name and were eager to learn more about Mel, where she was from, what brought her to New York. She kept her story suitably vague but as close to the truth as one could, when one’s job involved covert CIA operations and a boss partial to schemes which often toed the line of the law. When Janelle herself came to join them Mel was instantly taken by her, an older woman with long hair in a complicated updo, glowing, dark skin which belied her age and dressed in a sharp tan suit. In a way she reminded her of Valentina, with a no nonsense attitude and critical eye, but she was also more open and interested in what Mel had to say.
In fact, she was deep in conversation with the woman, waiting for Emma to return from the loos, when her phone began to ring. There was only one person it could feasibly be, and while a part of Mel was sorry for her conversation with Janelle to be cut short, a bigger part of her felt a surge of excitement at the prospect of speaking to the woman she had been away from for less than 12 hours. She gave the owner of the bar an apologetic look before answering.
“Val, hi. How are you?”
“Oh good Melissa, you’re up.”
“It’s half past nine at night Director, I…”
“Right, right. Anyways, I’m afraid you’re going to have to come back to the office, there’s been a. Mishap.”
“What kind of mishap, are you alright? Are you still sick?”
“What? Oh uh right, well, I’m feeling a lot better now. Thanks. But the mishap, yes, I’m going to need you to help me.”
“Of course, it’s no trouble.”
“Good girl.” Once again Mel felt an involuntary shiver run up her spine, though this time is was less to do with fear and much more to do with the way Val punctuated the two words, putting Mel back up on her pedestal. Her number one girl, always reliable. Before she could reply, Valentina continued. “I’ll send a car to your house to pick up you up, it should be with you in half an hour,”
“That’s very kind, but I’m not actually at my apartment.”
There was a brief pause on the line, like Valentina hadn’t ever considered that would be a possibility. However, she recovered quickly.
“No trouble, I’m en route anyway the driver and I can make a detour to pick you up. Send me your location.”
Mel did so, and was met with another pause, this one longer.
“Valentina, you still there? Did you get my pin?” The silence stretched on another moment.
“You’re at a gay bar.” It was a rhetorical question but Mel was loathe to let the awkward silence continue.
“Uh, yes. I mean, I guess so? Is that a problem?”
“No. No Melissa of course not, I don’t care what my staff get up to in their spare time or who they date.”
“It’s, I’m not on a…”
“I said it’s fine Melissa, we’ll be there in 10 minutes.” With that Valentina put the phone down without so much as a see you shortly.
Well, thought Melissa. As I f this day couldn’t get any weirder.