“I want to understand you,” Vicki said.
“I’ll tell you,” April said. “But I want to know something in exchange.”
Vicki raised an eyebrow. “For a submissive, you’re very demanding.”
April shrugged. “Those are my terms.”
Vicki shook her head. “All right. What do you want to know?”
“I want to know why your job means so much to you,” April said. “I want to know who you need to prove yourself to.”
For a moment, April thought Vicki was going to clam up. Then she rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling.
“That ugly metal thing on the table in my office?” Vicki said. “It was my father’s, but he didn’t give it to me. He loved that thing, he’d never give it away. I stole it from his study the last time I was home. That was almost ten years ago.”
“You haven’t been home in ten years?” April asked.
“I haven’t wanted to go home. And even if I did, I have no idea if my parents would even allow me to walk through the door. I’m the black sheep of the family.”
“Seriously?” To April, Vicki seemed like Little Miss Perfect.
“I was never the daughter they wanted me to be,” Vicki said. “They wanted someone like my younger sister. She married the son of one of my father’s business partners and has popped out three perfect little grandchildren. Me? I never wanted that life. When I was younger, I naively wanted to work for my family’s company, to take it over one day. I was smart enough for it. But because I don’t have the right plumbing, that honor will go to my little brother. So, there’s that. And there’s the fact that I’m a lesbian. On top of liking women, I’ve never conformed to my parents’ ideas of how a woman should present, even when I was a young girl.”
Suddenly, April felt guilty for assuming Vicki had it easy all her life. She knew all too well that the world could be a cruel place for kids who were different. April reached out and stroked Vicki’s arm. She felt the other woman relax slightly at her touch.
“My parents did everything they could to try to change me,” Vicki said. “Shoving me into dresses. Trying to set me up with their friends’ sons as soon as I hit my teens. Once, they made me meet with some religious nutter who claimed he was a psychologist and said he could ‘cure’ me. In the end, I kicked up enough of a fuss that they never tried that again.
“After that, I went to college on the other side of the country,” Vicki continued. “When I came back, I decided I’d had enough, and that I needed to find my own path. When I told my father, he cut me off. He told me I was a perverted, ungrateful brat who was never going to amount to anything. He said I was crazy for even trying.”
“That’s awful,” April said.
“There was a silver lining. My father’s words motivated me to prove him wrong. I had some money of my own tucked way, an inheritance from my grandparents that my father couldn’t touch. It got me through business school, but after that, I needed to find a job. I looked for a position where I could put my degrees to use, only to find that my father had effectively blacklisted me. No one wanted to hire Harold Blake’s renegade daughter.
“That was until I reached out to Oasis,” Vicki said. “They’re one of my father’s biggest rivals. They offered me a job that was well below my qualifications, but I was desperate, so I took it. It wouldn’t surprise me if they only hired me to annoy my father, but I was determined to show them I was worth more. So, I worked my ass off until management noticed me and gave me a promotion. And then another, and another, and so on, and here I am.”
Vicki folded her hands behind her head. “Sure, I had an easy start to life in most respects. I had every possible opportunity available to me. But my career at Oasis? I earned it through my own hard work. The promotion I’m up for is a chief operations officer position at our head office in Boston. When the CEO retires in a few years time, as COO I’ll be next in line. And I’ll finally be able to say to my father, and my family, and myself that I’m capable of succeeding without them. That’s why this job is so important to me.”
“Vicki,” April said. “Your family… how could they?”
A faint smile played on Vicki’s lips. “You’re a real bleeding heart, aren’t you? Don’t feel bad for me. Everything with my family is in the past. It doesn’t bother me anymore. Every so often we run into each other, and I’m reminded of how much better off I am without them.”
April couldn’t help but wonder if it was April that Vicki was trying to convince, or herself.
“Now it’s your turn. Why is this library of yours so important?”
“It’s hard to explain.” April sat up in the bed, tucking her knees under her chin. “The library is my sanctuary. Well, not so much now. But I used to go there a lot as a teenager.”
Before April could elaborate, Vicki’s phone started ringing on the nightstand. Vicki glanced over at it.
“Shouldn’t you get that?” April asked.
“Let me check who it is.” Vicki rolled over and grabbed her phone, then groaned. “It’s Oasis head office. They never call this late unless it’s an emergency. I should take this,” she said apologetically.
April nodded. “Go ahead.”
Vicki got up from the bed, wrapped a robe around herself, and walked out of the bedroom.
April stretched out her arms and made her way to the bathroom. She could hear Vicki’s voice faintly from the living room. As she washed her hands and fixed her tousled hair in the mirror, she thought back to everything Vicki had shared with her. All along, she had seen Vicki as this privileged snob who had everything in life handed to her. She was starting to wonder if she had Vicki all wrong.