Starr Fated (8 page)

“You’re the
special one, Sera. For you, I will wait until you say you are
ready. Just come on a date with me, please?”

“Okay. How
about Saturday morning? I have to work in the evening, and I’d
planned to study in the afternoon, but the morning is free, if
you’re willing to get up and go out somewhere?”

I always spent
Friday nights drinking with my rugby club mates, and it usually
went on pretty late, so I didn't normally get up until around lunch
time on a Saturday. But I could hardly turn her down after pleading
with her could I?

So that was
how we ended up going to the Tate Modern art gallery so that she
could show me her favourite pieces of art on the first Saturday,
while the following week I took her to a rugby match, because we’d
agreed we could take it in turns doing things that were new
experiences for each of us.

And we did
sort of have fun. I liked walking along the embankment holding her
hand, even if I did think the Damien Hirst exhibition we’d just
viewed at Tate was a load of old rubbish. And I'm not sure in all
honesty that she fully appreciated the whole Twickenham rugby match
experience, even though it was an England versus Ireland match, but
she gamely entered into the spirit of things and cheered for our
team whenever I did.

But how long
it would be before she was going to feel relaxed enough to finally
let me get her into bed remained to be seen.

I’d been
away
in the States
again, building up my business contacts in order to expand my
interests over there. On my return, I’d instructed Simon Draper, my
Creative Director, that I wanted SCV to have a complete image
makeover, with new logos and brandings, something fresh and
stimulating to replace the current boring image we had. I gave him
a month to come up with something, and ignored his protests that
this was too short a time frame. I wanted the new image in place
for some important meetings I’d managed to set up in the States, so
they just had to get their act together. I’d given them detailed
instructions about what I wanted, and more importantly what I
didn't want, so how hard could it be, for fuck’s sake?

It was Sunday,
so Jamie was coming over for a belated birthday lunch celebration,
since I’d been away at the time. I was curious to find out how he
was getting on with this girl he’d been chasing after for months
now. Hopefully he’d finally got her out of his system, was bored
with her and regretting his decision to let her have a room in the
house. Perhaps that would teach him not to think with his dick in
future.

Having
terminated my arrangement with Kimberley, I’d not had a chance to
organise a replacement since I’d been away on business so much
lately. Now that I was back, it was something I’d have to turn my
attention too. I had needs - very urgent needs. I have a high sex
drive, and lack of sex was definitely making me tetchy and
irritable. I had someone in mind – the blonde who regularly worked
out next to me at the gym had been sending unmistakeable signs of
interest, and a few discrete enquiries with Scott Franklin the gym
manager, my usual contact in these matters, had revealed that she
was into the no strings kind of sex I was interested in. I just
needed to set something up, and I’d have to get onto it first thing
tomorrow.

Once Jamie had
arrived and we were sitting eating our lunch, I broached the
subject of this stupid girl he was infatuated with. I didn't beat
around the bush.

“Have you
fucked her yet?”

Jamie
spluttered as he choked on his food.

“Excuse
me?”

“This girl.
The one who’s been leading you a fine dance, playing hard to get
and all that malarkey. Have you screwed her yet?” I watched for his
response as I took a mouthful of the rather good beef casserole
that Agnieszka had left for us this week.

“I take it you
mean Seraphina.” By Jamie’s defensive attitude, he clearly hadn’t
fucked her yet.

“If that’s her
name, then yes. Seraphina. Have you finally managed to fuck her?
Has the novelty worn off so you can move on?”

“Liam, you
really are a nasty shit sometimes. It’s not like that, not with
Sera. She’s different, I keep telling you.”

“So you still
haven’t got around to shagging her yet. Jesus Christ almighty, what
is wrong with you? Why the hell are you wasting your time on a
prick teasing bitch like her?”

“She’s not a
prick teasing bitch, it’s just complicated with her. She’s got
issues. If you must know, I did actually get her into my bedroom at
my birthday party, but just as I thought we were finally going to
make it together, she freaked out on me.”

“She’s got
issues. This just gets better and better,” I muttered in disbelief.
My brother could pretty much have the pick of any girl he wanted,
but he had to go and get himself mixed up with this nutty cow
instead.

“It turns out
she’s still a virgin. She’s got herself so hung up about guys
touching her and having sex that she’s worried she’s a lesbian,
which I'm sure she’s not. Well, at least I hope she’s not.”

“So she’s
either frigid or gay. Well done, little brother, you certainly know
how to pick a great girl. So what do you plan to do? My advice is
to walk away now, before she completely does your head in. Oh but
wait, you can't; dick brain that you are, you gave her a room in
your house, didn't you?”

“I don't want
to walk away. I’ve told her I’ll wait. I’ll be patient and give her
time. I’ll wait until she feels ready for us to have sex together,
and I love the idea of being her first guy. So we’ve been going on
dates, spending time together, getting to know each other
first.”

“So you want
to pop her cherry. How sweet. But what happens if she decides she’s
gay instead? You watch her walk off into the sunset with another
dyke?”

“Liam, do you
have to be so fucking nasty all the time?” Jamie snapped at me. So
he was worried that his precious little Seraphina was gay, and that
he was wasting his time.

“Just telling
you how it is. I think you need a reality check instead of living
in cloud cuckoo land. How long are you going to give her to decide?
How long can you last without a proper, decent fuck instead of
making do with a wank while you watch some porn?”

“We haven't
actually discussed any kind of a definite time limit, but I’ve got
us tickets for the Spring Ball. I’ve booked us a room to stay the
night at the hotel where it’s being held, so that’s when I'm
thinking it’ll finally happen between us. Sera might be going to
the States on an exchange program at the end of term, so I'm
certainly hoping things will have moved on between us by then. I
thought maybe I could go and visit her over there when I’ve
finished my exams, seeing as I’d planned to do some travelling
anyway.”

“She’s going
to the States?”

This sounded
more promising. Just get her away from Jamie for a while, and he’d
soon forget about her and move on. It was only because she was
right there in the same house taunting him that he was still so
obsessed with her.

“It’s not
definite she’s got a place yet. There’s a lot of competition, and
she’d stand a much better chance if she could get an internship in
a decent company here first, but it’s really hard to get a place
apparently. So I did wonder if maybe…”

“What?”

“If you would
agree to give her an internship at Starr Capital, just for a month
or so. It would look really good on her application.”

“Did she put
you up to this?” I asked suspiciously. I wouldn’t put it past the
conniving bitch to have had a motive like this all along.

“No! Not at
all. When I mentioned the idea to her, she was horrified, actually.
She’s fiercely independent, and hates the thought of me trying to
help her out. But if it helped her reach her goal, then I think I
could persuade her to see sense.”

“Hmm. My
Creative Director claims his team is snowed under at the moment, so
I suppose I could take her on. She could help out by doing the
photocopying, making the tea, answering the phone, running errands,
that kind of thing. It would be unpaid though. Her payment would be
having Starr Capital Ventures on her CV.”

I wasn’t
offering this placement to help her. I was doing it to hopefully
enable her to move away from Jamie. I wanted to break them up, one
way or another, because my brother deserved so much better than
this time wasting female he’d got sucked in by.

“That’d be
great! I think it would make all the difference. I’m sure I could
get her to agree, and hopefully then she’ll be really grateful and
happy…”

“And then you
think you’ll finally get laid, eh?” I smirked at my brother. I
didn't think he stood a chance in hell, whatever happened. He was
just being strung along by this flaky, opportunist bitch, and I was
going to prove it to him.

The
ultra modern
offices of
Starr Capital Ventures were pretty much how I expected them to be.
Set in an up and coming and area on the edge of the city financial
district. Minimalist modern style offices, bare, cold and soulless.
Monochrome colour scheme, all black, white and chrome. Everybody
dressed in boring bland corporate suits and shirts, as per the
strict dress code that Liam Starr insisted every member of staff
adhered to, be they male or female, although there weren’t very
many women employees in any case, I quickly realised.

I still felt
very uncomfortable about the fact that Jamie had persuaded his
brother to give me this placement rather than getting it on my own
merit, but as he’d pointed out, I’d have been stupid to turn down
this golden opportunity to add a sterling name like Starr Capital
Ventures to my CV. He had argued that other people benefitted from
strings being pulled, so why shouldn’t I? And so I’d taken up the
hastily arranged placement, in order to meet the final application
deadline for the exchange program. At least it tied in with the
Easter break from uni, so I didn't have to miss any lectures or
seminars.

I would be
forever grateful to Jamie for pulling this out of the bag. He
really was such a sweet guy to me, despite the fact that I couldn’t
give him what he wanted from our relationship, not yet anyhow. We
were working on it, and he was being very patient and understanding
of the fact that I’d freaked out when he’d tried to make love to me
at his birthday party a while back. It had been so mortifying for
me, and exactly what I’d feared would happen yet again. It always
did. Jamie was good looking, had a great body, was friendly, kind,
a bit immature maybe, but that was only to be expected from a
fellow student. So why on earth I couldn’t just let go and enjoy
myself with him, and finally lose my wretched virginity with such a
great guy, I didn't understand. But I just couldn’t.

Abbey had no
such problems – she and Toby had had a great night together, she’d
informed me the next day. He’d certainly been grinning from ear to
ear the next morning when she’d left, and from the unmistakeable
sounds coming from his bedroom in the early hours, it’d been
obvious why. Now they saw each other now and again for repeat
performances whenever either of them felt the need. So why couldn’t
I be more like her? Although Jamie had tried to his best to hide
it, he’d obviously been green with envy, and I truly felt sorry for
the poor guy. I tried to tell him I’d understand if he wanted to
move on and go out with other girls rather than be stuck with a
freak like me, but he’d insisted he was happy just spending time
with me.

On my first
day at Starr Capital Ventures, I was left in little doubt about all
the correct protocols, first by the pages of very detailed
instructions I received, and secondly by the lecture I had to
endure from Simon Draper, the fifty something, old school Creative
Director who headed up the team I was doing my ‘internship’ with.
General dogsbody was more like it, but as it was only for a month I
wasn’t bothered. All that mattered was that I would be able put a
well respected company on my CV to help with my exchange program
application, and longer term to get a decent job. Everyone bigs up
their role on their CV anyway, so I was sure I could be just as
creative in describing mine.

Simon had made
it crystal clear that all I was expected to do was general running
around – the kind of thing a kid on work experience would be
allowed to do. I would be entrusted to do the photocopying, make
the tea and coffee, go get lunches, that kind of thing. And then,
if I was really lucky, after a couple of weeks, if I hadn't stuffed
up majorly in any way, they might actually trust me enough to
answer the phones and take messages. Whoop de doo. Lucky me.

I was
certainly not expected to make any kind of an artistic
contribution, but at least I was there in the office, watching what
was going on, listening in to all their discussions. It was very
interesting and useful, and by lucky chance, the brief the team
were currently working on fitted in perfectly with my final
coursework assignment for uni:

‘
You are
working for a mid-sized design agency and have been tasked with a
brand refresh for a well-known company to use across multiple
channels. The Brief requires a full presentation including
conceptual work, a range of options, along with your recommended
route.’

Of course the
high and mighty Mr. Starr wouldn’t dream of entrusting an outside
agency with any of his precious work. He had his own in-house team
to work to his very exacting and precise instructions. Toby had
called him a control freak, and as I listened to the team trying to
come up with some interesting options for their boss to choose from
for his new logo and image, I realized that was exactly what he
was. He’d left them with virtually no options. Despite the name of
the company, he didn't want any kind of a reference or image
connected with a star – apparently he considered that too obvious,
that it was tasteless, tacky and lazy. Nothing colourful, he
decreed. The font must be plain, bold and clear, nothing too fancy
or artistic.