Categories > Anime/Manga > Yu-Gi-Oh! > The Chase
The Opinions of Others – Part 3
Andrea looked up from her work as the outer door to the office swung open and her boss entered. He stood still as the door closed silently behind him cutting off the low level noise of the communal area on the other side.
Without saying anything she scooted backwards, her chair moving smoothly over the polished wooden floor, and then, with a well practised movement, she swung around and opened up a panel in the wall behind her desk. Inside there was a small sink and a variety of equipment, including a small microwave, a toaster, a kettle and top of the range coffee machine. Andrea pulled a mug out from a small cupboard and, setting it in the correct place, she hit the button marked 'espresso'.
As the dark liquid began to pour from the stainless steel nozzle she looked back towards the young CEO. He hadn't moved but was now gently massaging his temples with his fingertips. He looks tired, she thought to herself, well aware that any actual expression of sympathy from her would be met with cold distain. Still, it was true; Seto Kaiba was looking distinctly worn out.
Not that she was surprised. His morning had been taken up with the bi-monthly share-holders’ meeting, an event that she'd once had the dubious pleasure of attending during her one month trial period. The meeting had been long, slow and seemed to her to revolve around various people within the company trying to out do one another in terms of their achievements. She had left feeling distinctly irritable, thinking that, if the meeting would be something she would have to regularly attend then it was yet another reason not to stay.
Andrea had already been dubious about working for such a young boss, she'd heard that he was a demanding and somewhat arrogant man and his track record for keeping hold of PA's was not promising; nine young girls had come and gone in the brief time he'd been in charge. The meeting had come in the last week of her trail and, up to that point, Mr Kaiba had hardly said two words to her that did not involve a direct instruction. After the meeting though, as they travelled up together in the lift that was later to be the scene of so much drama, he had looked directly at her and, his piercing blue eyes locking onto hers, he had asked what she had thought of the meeting.
Andrea was an experienced and extremely professional woman who had worked for top ranking business people for most of her adult life. She knew exactly what she ought to say to such a question but, even as the platitude formed in her mind she had recklessly dismissed it. 'It seemed like a lot of posturing to me Mr Kaiba, if you don't mind me saying so,' she had said bluntly. 'There was nothing said that couldn't have been written down in a memo or a short e-mail, and as for the excessive use of holographic technology just to show pie charts... I mean, really!'
He had laughed then, a single barking 'Ha!' that had made his whole face light up. He hadn't said anything else and, when the lift doors had opened he had walked directly to his office without a second glance. A few minutes after she had settled herself back behind the desk though she had received an e-mail.
'Trial ends now. You have the job if you want it. However, the job description has changed very slightly from the advertised: you will not have to join me at pointless, posturing meetings with holographic pie charts. You will be expected to maintain your existing levels of direct honesty.
S. Kaiba
P.S. I need an espresso after any and all such meetings. Please bring it through.'
Andrea still kept the e-mail in her archives and would occasionally look at it when Seto was being particularly belligerent or antagonistic. She was still unsure of why it had swayed her; perhaps it was the glimpse of the personality that was kept so well hidden beneath his cold exterior. Perhaps it was because he had used the word 'please' for the first time in nearly a month. Either way, she had taken the job and, over the following fourteen months, she had worked closely enough with him that she now felt attuned to his moods.
His mood now meant that she was already dreading having to give him the messages that had come through over the last few hours. Whilst the rumours about her young boss' arrogance had not been underplayed, no one had ever quite got the measure of just how hard he worked, a fact that was a constant point of admiration for Andrea even though she sometimes wished that he would learn to relax once in a while.
With a vigorous shake of his head, as if trying to shed himself of the remnants of the meeting, Seto moved slowly across the reception area. As he drew level with Andrea's desk he came to a slow stop, resting one hand limply over the top of her computer screen. He took the espresso from her without any outward acknowledgement of gratitude; something she had long become accustomed to.
‘Andrea.’
‘Mr Kaiba.’
‘Any messages?’
‘Peterson's PA called. He needs to get together with you to discuss the London case – today if possible.’
Seto grimaced, ‘How am I fixed for that?’
‘Two o’clock should be doable if you want me to call and arrange it.’
'Mmm,' he said with the slightest shift of his head that Andrea took to be a 'yes'.
‘The Manager of that electronics company…’ Andrea glanced briefly at her notepad, ‘Vimtech, called he’s quite eager to set up another meet-.'
‘No.’
Andrea nodded and jotted something down next to the note.
‘Dr Wilkins is also… eager to address the situation from yesterday and thinks the two of you need work together to try and stem the harmful negativity that has arisen in your attitude to her sessions.’ Andrea was holding her notepad up like a script and had made a show of reading the message, even affecting a slightly haughty tone which succeeded in drawing a small smile from Seto. Andrea smiled too; something about her young stern-faced boss smiling always seemed to lift her spirits. It didn’t seem right somehow that he should be so young and yet so serious all the time.
She put the pad down and leaned forward slightly. ‘I know how you feel about it Mr Kaiba,’ she said sympathetically, ‘but I would suggest you call her. She is only trying to do her job after all and she could make life difficult for you with the directors if she chose to.’
Seto rolled his eyes, ‘Okay, okay, I’ll call her.’
Andrea sat back in her chair once more. ‘Lastly, Roland called. It seems Murdoch has successfully tracked down Miss Valentine to her place of work.’
The change in Seto’s countenance was instantaneous. His blue eyes suddenly seemed to shine and he leaned towards Andrea eagerly. ‘Where?’
Taken by surprise by the change in mood Andrea hurriedly shuffled through a separate pile of notes on her desk. ‘Umm... a bar called Corelli’s.’
‘Right…’ Seto stood upright once more, staring down at the neatly written note that Andrea held. It was a mixture of short and longhand but Andrea knew that he could read all of it, his mastery of shorthand writing being just one of the surprising skills that she'd discovered he had.
‘I’ve e-mailed you the full address and phone number.'
‘Great.’
Andrea expected Seto to disappear into his office, maybe check out the details of the bar which seemed to have actually engaged his enthusiasm for a change. Instead he just stood in front of her desk, seemingly lost in thought.
‘That’s it. No more urgent messages,’ Andrea prompted.
‘Andrea?’ Seto said, as if he hadn’t heard her speak.
‘Yes, Mr Kaiba?’
‘You’re a woman.’
Andrea raised an eyebrow. ‘Last time I checked Mr Kaiba.’
‘What’s a good present to get from someone?’
Andrea blinked in surprise. Well, well, she thought smugly to herself, isn’t this a turn up for the books. She knew perfectly well that Seto had dated people in the past – the other PA’s (all of them at least twenty years younger than Andrea) had always made a point to show her the articles which talked salaciously of the CEO’s supposed romantic entanglements with various society girls, models and actresses, but, up to now, Andrea had never heard any mention of them from her boss, no matter how ‘smitten’ the gossip magazines claimed he was supposed to be, and certainly no one had ever actually arrived at the office in the way that Miss Valentine had. Mr Kaiba had always been very strict about keeping his private life and his working life separate. In fact, up to the moment when Miss Valentine had strutted confidently into the building, Andrea might have been forgiven for thinking that Seto didn't even have a private life. Whoever the young woman was, she had certainly got his attention in a way that Andrea had never seen before.
‘A good present?’ Andrea said after a moment. ’Well, that depends.’
‘On what?’
‘On who the giver is and on what occasion it’s being given.’
‘How do you mean?’ Seto asked eagerly.
‘Well, my husband, God rest his soul, once gave me an iron for my birthday. I’d say that wouldn’t constitute as a good present.’
Seto nodded seriously, if he had seen the humour in her comment he certainly didn’t show it.
‘What if you had recently got to know someone and you were hoping to get to know them better?’
‘Well then I’d say you can’t go far wrong with a nice bunch of flowers, Mr Kaiba.’
'Flowers, right,' Seto was frowning slightly as if working to mentally store the information she was giving him. 'Anything else?'
Andrea was finding it hard not to smile. She was all too used to Seto looking far older than his twenty-one years, far more unusual, if not unheard of, was for him to look like an eager schoolboy desperate to learn something new. 'I wouldn’t overdo it too soon,’ she said kindly, ‘but a small gift, something unique and thoughtful that will mean something to you both. That would go down well with any woman on any occasion.'
'Like what?'
'I can’t help you there. You just have to think what you could give her that would show her that you know a little about her and that you’ve bothered to give it some thought.'
'Right.'
There was another long silence. From the corner of her eye Andrea could see her small switchboard blinking furiously with a number of incoming phone calls. Chatting was all very well but there was work to do.
‘Would you like me to arrange some flowers for you Mr Kaiba?’ she asked, hoping to snap him out of the thoughtful silence he had lapsed into once more.
‘Hmm? Yes, that would be good,’ he nodded and began to walk away. ‘Make sure they’re… pretty,’ he added as an afterthought.
‘Pretty… right,’ Andrea couldn’t hold back the smirk any more as, by habit more than anything else, she wrote the shorthand symbol for ‘pretty’ on her memo pad.
Seto stopped at his office door and turned around. ‘Thank you Andrea.’
Andrea smiled up at him. ‘It’s my pleasure Mr Kaiba.’
He looked at her for a moment as if contemplating something peculiar, then he gave a small smile. ‘An iron huh?’
‘He only did it the once Mr Kaiba.’
Andrea looked up from her work as the outer door to the office swung open and her boss entered. He stood still as the door closed silently behind him cutting off the low level noise of the communal area on the other side.
Without saying anything she scooted backwards, her chair moving smoothly over the polished wooden floor, and then, with a well practised movement, she swung around and opened up a panel in the wall behind her desk. Inside there was a small sink and a variety of equipment, including a small microwave, a toaster, a kettle and top of the range coffee machine. Andrea pulled a mug out from a small cupboard and, setting it in the correct place, she hit the button marked 'espresso'.
As the dark liquid began to pour from the stainless steel nozzle she looked back towards the young CEO. He hadn't moved but was now gently massaging his temples with his fingertips. He looks tired, she thought to herself, well aware that any actual expression of sympathy from her would be met with cold distain. Still, it was true; Seto Kaiba was looking distinctly worn out.
Not that she was surprised. His morning had been taken up with the bi-monthly share-holders’ meeting, an event that she'd once had the dubious pleasure of attending during her one month trial period. The meeting had been long, slow and seemed to her to revolve around various people within the company trying to out do one another in terms of their achievements. She had left feeling distinctly irritable, thinking that, if the meeting would be something she would have to regularly attend then it was yet another reason not to stay.
Andrea had already been dubious about working for such a young boss, she'd heard that he was a demanding and somewhat arrogant man and his track record for keeping hold of PA's was not promising; nine young girls had come and gone in the brief time he'd been in charge. The meeting had come in the last week of her trail and, up to that point, Mr Kaiba had hardly said two words to her that did not involve a direct instruction. After the meeting though, as they travelled up together in the lift that was later to be the scene of so much drama, he had looked directly at her and, his piercing blue eyes locking onto hers, he had asked what she had thought of the meeting.
Andrea was an experienced and extremely professional woman who had worked for top ranking business people for most of her adult life. She knew exactly what she ought to say to such a question but, even as the platitude formed in her mind she had recklessly dismissed it. 'It seemed like a lot of posturing to me Mr Kaiba, if you don't mind me saying so,' she had said bluntly. 'There was nothing said that couldn't have been written down in a memo or a short e-mail, and as for the excessive use of holographic technology just to show pie charts... I mean, really!'
He had laughed then, a single barking 'Ha!' that had made his whole face light up. He hadn't said anything else and, when the lift doors had opened he had walked directly to his office without a second glance. A few minutes after she had settled herself back behind the desk though she had received an e-mail.
'Trial ends now. You have the job if you want it. However, the job description has changed very slightly from the advertised: you will not have to join me at pointless, posturing meetings with holographic pie charts. You will be expected to maintain your existing levels of direct honesty.
S. Kaiba
P.S. I need an espresso after any and all such meetings. Please bring it through.'
Andrea still kept the e-mail in her archives and would occasionally look at it when Seto was being particularly belligerent or antagonistic. She was still unsure of why it had swayed her; perhaps it was the glimpse of the personality that was kept so well hidden beneath his cold exterior. Perhaps it was because he had used the word 'please' for the first time in nearly a month. Either way, she had taken the job and, over the following fourteen months, she had worked closely enough with him that she now felt attuned to his moods.
His mood now meant that she was already dreading having to give him the messages that had come through over the last few hours. Whilst the rumours about her young boss' arrogance had not been underplayed, no one had ever quite got the measure of just how hard he worked, a fact that was a constant point of admiration for Andrea even though she sometimes wished that he would learn to relax once in a while.
With a vigorous shake of his head, as if trying to shed himself of the remnants of the meeting, Seto moved slowly across the reception area. As he drew level with Andrea's desk he came to a slow stop, resting one hand limply over the top of her computer screen. He took the espresso from her without any outward acknowledgement of gratitude; something she had long become accustomed to.
‘Andrea.’
‘Mr Kaiba.’
‘Any messages?’
‘Peterson's PA called. He needs to get together with you to discuss the London case – today if possible.’
Seto grimaced, ‘How am I fixed for that?’
‘Two o’clock should be doable if you want me to call and arrange it.’
'Mmm,' he said with the slightest shift of his head that Andrea took to be a 'yes'.
‘The Manager of that electronics company…’ Andrea glanced briefly at her notepad, ‘Vimtech, called he’s quite eager to set up another meet-.'
‘No.’
Andrea nodded and jotted something down next to the note.
‘Dr Wilkins is also… eager to address the situation from yesterday and thinks the two of you need work together to try and stem the harmful negativity that has arisen in your attitude to her sessions.’ Andrea was holding her notepad up like a script and had made a show of reading the message, even affecting a slightly haughty tone which succeeded in drawing a small smile from Seto. Andrea smiled too; something about her young stern-faced boss smiling always seemed to lift her spirits. It didn’t seem right somehow that he should be so young and yet so serious all the time.
She put the pad down and leaned forward slightly. ‘I know how you feel about it Mr Kaiba,’ she said sympathetically, ‘but I would suggest you call her. She is only trying to do her job after all and she could make life difficult for you with the directors if she chose to.’
Seto rolled his eyes, ‘Okay, okay, I’ll call her.’
Andrea sat back in her chair once more. ‘Lastly, Roland called. It seems Murdoch has successfully tracked down Miss Valentine to her place of work.’
The change in Seto’s countenance was instantaneous. His blue eyes suddenly seemed to shine and he leaned towards Andrea eagerly. ‘Where?’
Taken by surprise by the change in mood Andrea hurriedly shuffled through a separate pile of notes on her desk. ‘Umm... a bar called Corelli’s.’
‘Right…’ Seto stood upright once more, staring down at the neatly written note that Andrea held. It was a mixture of short and longhand but Andrea knew that he could read all of it, his mastery of shorthand writing being just one of the surprising skills that she'd discovered he had.
‘I’ve e-mailed you the full address and phone number.'
‘Great.’
Andrea expected Seto to disappear into his office, maybe check out the details of the bar which seemed to have actually engaged his enthusiasm for a change. Instead he just stood in front of her desk, seemingly lost in thought.
‘That’s it. No more urgent messages,’ Andrea prompted.
‘Andrea?’ Seto said, as if he hadn’t heard her speak.
‘Yes, Mr Kaiba?’
‘You’re a woman.’
Andrea raised an eyebrow. ‘Last time I checked Mr Kaiba.’
‘What’s a good present to get from someone?’
Andrea blinked in surprise. Well, well, she thought smugly to herself, isn’t this a turn up for the books. She knew perfectly well that Seto had dated people in the past – the other PA’s (all of them at least twenty years younger than Andrea) had always made a point to show her the articles which talked salaciously of the CEO’s supposed romantic entanglements with various society girls, models and actresses, but, up to now, Andrea had never heard any mention of them from her boss, no matter how ‘smitten’ the gossip magazines claimed he was supposed to be, and certainly no one had ever actually arrived at the office in the way that Miss Valentine had. Mr Kaiba had always been very strict about keeping his private life and his working life separate. In fact, up to the moment when Miss Valentine had strutted confidently into the building, Andrea might have been forgiven for thinking that Seto didn't even have a private life. Whoever the young woman was, she had certainly got his attention in a way that Andrea had never seen before.
‘A good present?’ Andrea said after a moment. ’Well, that depends.’
‘On what?’
‘On who the giver is and on what occasion it’s being given.’
‘How do you mean?’ Seto asked eagerly.
‘Well, my husband, God rest his soul, once gave me an iron for my birthday. I’d say that wouldn’t constitute as a good present.’
Seto nodded seriously, if he had seen the humour in her comment he certainly didn’t show it.
‘What if you had recently got to know someone and you were hoping to get to know them better?’
‘Well then I’d say you can’t go far wrong with a nice bunch of flowers, Mr Kaiba.’
'Flowers, right,' Seto was frowning slightly as if working to mentally store the information she was giving him. 'Anything else?'
Andrea was finding it hard not to smile. She was all too used to Seto looking far older than his twenty-one years, far more unusual, if not unheard of, was for him to look like an eager schoolboy desperate to learn something new. 'I wouldn’t overdo it too soon,’ she said kindly, ‘but a small gift, something unique and thoughtful that will mean something to you both. That would go down well with any woman on any occasion.'
'Like what?'
'I can’t help you there. You just have to think what you could give her that would show her that you know a little about her and that you’ve bothered to give it some thought.'
'Right.'
There was another long silence. From the corner of her eye Andrea could see her small switchboard blinking furiously with a number of incoming phone calls. Chatting was all very well but there was work to do.
‘Would you like me to arrange some flowers for you Mr Kaiba?’ she asked, hoping to snap him out of the thoughtful silence he had lapsed into once more.
‘Hmm? Yes, that would be good,’ he nodded and began to walk away. ‘Make sure they’re… pretty,’ he added as an afterthought.
‘Pretty… right,’ Andrea couldn’t hold back the smirk any more as, by habit more than anything else, she wrote the shorthand symbol for ‘pretty’ on her memo pad.
Seto stopped at his office door and turned around. ‘Thank you Andrea.’
Andrea smiled up at him. ‘It’s my pleasure Mr Kaiba.’
He looked at her for a moment as if contemplating something peculiar, then he gave a small smile. ‘An iron huh?’
‘He only did it the once Mr Kaiba.’
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