Chapter 5

I came home from the park completely wrecked. I took off my coat and, without turning on the light, went into my bedroom. I collapsed onto the bed and lay there, going over everything that had happened today. What a horrible day!

I had lost my job. My boyfriend had dumped me. My career was ruined.

There was no point even dreaming of saving my reputation as a successful ad professional after losing a top-tier project. By tomorrow, every agency in the city would know about my screwup. Goodbye, Art Director Vetrova. Nobody likes a loser.

Seriously, what an absolute jerk Orlov was! And on the outside, nothing but cold politeness: “Lina, may I have you for a minute…” “Lina, are you all right?”

Phony!

Although hadn’t I known exactly what he was like before?

And Regina was a snake too. She forgot in an instant how much I had done for the agency. She had seen how hard I tried for her. For everyone!

Only Marik was decent. And the girls from the department. I could just imagine how “thrilled” they would be when Allochka got the position she had been dreaming about. My position.

I didn’t want to think about Arnold. It was too unpleasant to recognize the obvious fact that he had never loved me…

And I hadn’t loved him.

So what was this day, then? Some kind of revelations-and-hard-truths special?

 
That was the crushed mood Zhenka found me in when she came home from university. She dropped her backpack and her mouth fell open when she heard that, on top of my morning adventures, my boyfriend had dumped me and I had been fired from work.

“No, that’s impossible, Gel! Are they suicidal?!”

“No one is irreplaceable.”

“No, some people are! Or rather, you can’t be replaced. You’re the best!”

“That’s what you think. I’m your sister and you feel sorry for me. Everyone else couldn’t care less.”

“They care if they’re not idiots.”

“So everyone around me is an idiot?”

“Apparently!”

“Zhen, I want to lie here. Close the door on your way out.”

“Yeah, right! So you can suffer in here alone? No way. Let’s suffer together!”

Fine. I might as well start:

“I have no job, no personal life…”

“Pff! You never had one!”

“…and soon I won’t have any money, either. Then I’ll go back to cleaning the park. I wonder what Sergeant Leshenko would say if he found out I once worked park cleanup for an entire winter. Remember those days?”

My little sister sniffled.

“I remember. I brought you tea in a thermos and helped you haul frozen leaves around.”

“Come on, Zhenka, don’t you start crying too.”

“Maybe I’m crying from happiness because you dumped Arnold.”

“I did?”

“Of course, and don’t argue with me! This morning, remember? There has to be at least one piece of good news today!”

I hadn’t forgotten. I was suffering, but I wasn’t thinking about Merzlyaev at all. Something had been bothering me for the last half hour, some detail I still hadn’t paid attention to. And that detail was practically itching under my skin until it finally made me sit up in bed.

Zhenka got out of her coat, ran to the kitchen, brewed tea, and brought it in. She sat cross-legged beside me on the bed, clearly planning to keep cursing out the entire world for daring to hurt her beloved Angelina.

“…I hate that Imperial-CUBE,” my sister went on with great feeling. “Especially pretty-boy Orlov! Always posing with Daddy and Daddy’s connections behind him, and in reality he’s just as dumb as Allochka!”

I shook my head.

“If only. He won the academic competition at my university.”

“So what?” Zhenka twitched one shoulder. “You were in your second year then, and you definitely didn’t have time for studying. Besides, he’s gotten dumber since! You can see it in his eyes! Here, look!”

I followed the competitors’ official page on social media through my sister’s account, and very often she learned news from inside Imperial-CUBE faster than I did.

Gossip, of course, never slipped past Zhenka’s attention either. To her, I was the fighter she always rooted for in the ring. She hated Regina Style’s main rival even more than I did.

My sister reached for her backpack and pulled out her tablet. She turned the gadget on, found the right page, and curled her lip.

“Ugh! Just look at Orlov preening like a peacock. Standing there with some brunette and smiling like an idiot. Probably thrilled he picked up another weekend girlfriend. What’s supposed to be smart about his face? The dentures?”

“Those are his real teeth.”

“Then the brunette has dentures,” Zhenka snorted. “She’s looking at him like she wants to eat him!”

“That’s Kira Krapivina. Imperial-CUBE’s new client relations director,” I commented without much interest on the rumors everyone at work had discussed. “The daughter of his dad’s friend and, allegedly, the future Mrs. Orlov. Allochka threw a full-blown fit at Regina over her appearing on the scene. She and this Kira used to be friends.”

“Then they’re both gross, just ugh!” Zhenka summed up with disgust. “Let Max deal with his own staff, then, instead of stalking you through parks. He’s got a whole harem going. What a player!”

“He is dealing with it,” I sighed, finishing my tea. “He stole the project, and now he’s looking for a secretary. After the elder Orlov stepped away, hardly anyone from the old staff stayed on as permanent staff. And showing up in front of the Koreans without a secretary isn’t a good look.”

“Aha! And I bet he’s looking for one,” Zhenka chimed in angrily, “who won’t embarrass him as part of his image! I won’t be surprised if she’s not very smart either! Max is such a bastard, pretty face or not! And… why are you looking at me like that, Gelya?” Zhenka mumbled in confusion when she noticed my frozen stare. “I said that objectively.”

“Repeat that!” I suddenly blinked in amazement and waved a hand. “No, not the part about the pretty-faced bastard. The image part!”

“Well, Orlov is an attractive man. That’s just a fact,” my sister repeated uncertainly. “Imperial-CUBE hasn’t missed a single prestige event since Daddy appointed him executive director of the agency. Brand of the Year, Art Show, Digital Breakthrough. Which means he’ll find himself the kind of secretary everyone drools over. You know, for the agency’s prestige.”

Zhenka took the tablet and opened the competitors’ website. She started poking around there, looking for the information she needed.

“Exactly, Gelya, look!” she suddenly announced, pleased. “The executive director’s secretary position is open! The main interview for all applicants will be held tomorrow in the conference room at ten a.m.!”

“Tomorrow…”

I had managed to get out of bed and limp to the bathroom, pull down my pants, and even sit on the “sort your thoughts onto neat little shelves” throne before I yanked my bikini panties back up and burst into the bedroom, hopping on one foot.

“Tomorrow?!” The door slammed against the wall, and my sister flinched.

“Yes,” she squeaked. “That’s what it says here.”

“Zhenka!” I breathed. “I have to get that job!”

The younger Vetrova’s mouth fell open, and the tablet dropped onto the pillow.

“But Orlov knows you,” she offered, putting forward the strongest argument against it.

“Then we have to make sure he doesn’t recognize me!” I crushed it with my counterargument.

“But you’re limping…”

“Perfect! Then he’ll have a limping secretary!”