2 Chapter 2 : Silly man! I broke his finger but I can negotiate

She went. Victor dressed her up, made her wear really uncomfortable high heels and a tight dress that left nothing to the imagination. She hated it. What was wrong with jeans and converse for a laid-back dinner invite. Throw a baggy t-shirt with a fun print on it and it was perfect. She never cared about looks, but loved cute stuff, anything that smiled or was pretty.

Her mother always said it softens her direct, sharp character and is more likeable, so she kept this idea in mind always; for casual outings of course. Business was business and there was an etiquette to follow – easy!

"Is this man like the last one? No thanks, if I have to suffer through 2 hours of nonsense bragging again I'd rather go watch a romcom with you."

"ooooh nooo!! That bad??!! You didn't say the last one was that bad…"

She was trying very hard to remember what the man said for 2 hours. It was the most boring conversation ever, until he got insulting and she broke one of his fingers 'by accident' of course.

She was not a strong woman, nor muscly, but she did get some basic training to help her out of moderately dangerous situations. She was better at shooting but that's difficult when someone is trying to grope you under the table…

"Vic, you know I love you, but I really can't – you're the only man I need, I promise!"

He chuckled loudly …

"I can see that the man traumatised you. I heard his company's move to the European market got put off. He's not shown his face at any parties recently." He said with a tone implying something more was going on there.

"Hah… idiot!" she snorted "nothing to do with me Vic, I swear! I mean some nasty pictures might've shown up on the company's website in the 'about us page' but who could blame whoever posted them?! It was all about him…believe me…" .

She did do that, but only because he really went overboard on that meeting. The broken finger for the attempted groping would've been enough for her, but what he said after… she couldn't let it go. It wasn't an ego thing it was a logical reaction. When threatened, one must protect themselves. It was the logical thing to do.

"Raven what did you do?! I thought we talked about disproportionate retaliation… you said you understood" he sounded like he was about to cry. He did tell her on multiple occasions that every time she did something like this his reputation was suffering but…he shouldn't have introduced her to shitty men to begin with.

"We did talk about it" she said sheepishly, trying to find another excuse for something she thought was perfectly justified. " but what would you do if someone threatened to bankrupt you? Would you let it slide?"

"Eh?!!" Vic sounded confused. "what do you mean threaten to bankrupt you, you didn't say anything about that!!"

"Well, the man – whatever his name is- was absolutely convinced that with his and his family reputation they could bankrupt me if we didn't go back to his hotel. He also offered to buy me a bag and shoes… very confusing." She was giggling, just remembering the guys face after she broke his finger and security escorted him out instead of her… she forgot to mention she owned the hotel they were having dinner at. It was quite satisfying, and that was certainly a type of feeling she could understand.

"Oh my gawd! Terrible!! I'm so sorry darling, he really seemed nice!!! And everyone kept saying he was sooooo smart" she could practically hear Vic's eyes rolling in his head as he was saying this.

"I promise darling this new one is much better! And certainly closer to your level he made it in top 10 most desirable bachelors on Kianna's list, and you know everyone swears by that list!'

"Who's Kianna?" she was full blown laughing now, that was the most ridiculous list to determine someone's worth. It was basically a top of rich, unmarried, good strict family and high positions men, for whom every socialite would drool over.

"No way Jose! Now you're just making fun of me, I know you know that list! You're on the female list you know?! Number 2 actually! You could've made it to number 1 but no one actually knows what you look like since you have 2 names!! Why must you do this to me daaarling!!! Why?!! With your looks and your brain you could conquer the world! Pleaaaase let me share a picture of you… pleaaase!!"

"Absolutely not! And you know why." She almost whispered the last part, the threat in her voice audible.

Vic went silent, he knew he sort of crossed a line, but she was so stubborn. How was she going to get married if she kept hiding herself from the world. It was true she didn't need to, but he wanted to be an uncle and look after cute babies that he can get in magazines shoots and brag to everyone about how pretty and cute his nephews and nieces were… 'was it so hard?! Did he want too much?!'.

"I'm sorry darling I know, I know, I didn't meant to push you" his tone now mild, tyring to pacify what he thought was a furious Raven.

She really didn't mean to sound threatening, just meant to remind her friend that there were very good reasons why she kept her business identity hidden. Most of the execs in her companies had no idea who she was or what she looked like. They knew her name, and everything about how successful she was, but not a single photo was available, she made sure of that. Most of her business and meetings were conducted online or by proxy and her human (this time) assistant was very good at representing her everywhere.

Victor's social club or 'the giraffes on roller-skates' as she liked to call them all knew her as Orchid. Coming from a good family, with a decently fat bank account but nothing out of the ordinary and quite withdrawn as she never really spent time with them.

The 'roller-skating sparkly giraffes' were her kryptonite, if Vic was not part of that group she would've never associated herself with them, but alas he was, and so she was too.

She sighed deeply and continued the conversation. It was getting late and she needed to start the board meeting, but Vic was becoming increasingly entertaining with his gossip about who did who and who had what fashion accident and last night's party. When he finally finished, he pleaded with her once more

"Please darling! For me! Just this once, and I'm sure it's the last one!"

She really considered it. She was great at negotiation, maybe this was her chance to get him to stop, once and for all.

"Vic I'll do it on one condition."

"Name it! Anything!"

"Remember you said it, anything!"

She could practically hear him swearing under his breath for saying something like this. He knew she'd take him for everything he's got if he said something like this.

"Yes I said it!"

"OK Victor Esteban Perello, I will hold you to it."

"Fine fine just name your price!" he was practically shouting with excitement at this point. He made up his mind, whatever she wanted, he'd pay for it. He's never met a more materialistic and bottom line oriented person as her before, and he knew a lot of gold-diggers. Raven was not a gold digger, not exactly, she had her gold and was not stingy with it, at all; but the woman had a way of sensing profit and capitalising on it. Maybe it was unfair to call her materialistic, it wasn't about the money, maybe it was more about the game and winning. He could never figure her out, but he didn't care, the woman was a genius and she was his friend. Stranegly enough, as emotionless as she was, he would probably only call her if he ever needed to bury a body, she'd probably come up with some random robot nano chemical thing-a-majig to get rid of that body. Just as he was thinking that he was brought back to present by the sweet melody of her voice and that silly pretentious British accent. She was educated abroad afterall.

"Victor, darling, my condition is this" she paused to give him time to get even more agitated. He squeaked like a little mouse in front of a massive piece of cheese.

" I will go and meet this fancy man of yours under the condition that this is the last date you will set me up on".

Vic inhaled sharply, he did not expect that. He was sure she was going to ask for some astronomical figure that he could not afford and then refuse to go on the date.

"But Raven darling, what if you don't like him??!! What bout my nieces and nephews?!"

"Eh? What nieces and nephews, what does this have anything to do with that?" Vic thought for a second imagining her face looking absolutely puzzeled. She was cute, but could be sooo dense sometimes.

"Nevermind darling! Can we negotiate? No more dates for a year?"

"5 years?" she liked to negotiate, it was always fun to push her adversary into a corner. Realistically she had the upperhand, there was nothing he could to do make her go so she didn't need to negotatie anything, but it was fun to tease him and she would not break her friend's heart over something so trivial as going on a date, even if it was a waste of time.

"2 years? Best offer!"

"Hahaha " her crystalline laughter carried through the phone making Victor smile. She could be so charming when she wanted to and had the voice of an angel. Too bad being in the limelight was the last thing she wanted. She could've been a superstar.

" You do realise this is not really a negotiation, but fine, 2 years and only because I love you. Really Victor you're the only man for me you know that!" she kept laughing as she was now starting to lose interest in this conversation, she had better things to do.

"Please, please do it for me! I'll even hang up right now! I know you're over this conversation already… pwetty pweaase with a cherry on top?!"

"Ok fine. 2 years. Now hang up, I need to get ready for a meeting"

"Thank you daarling, muah muah!!"

"Yea yea… love you too…"