Chapter 33: The loyal

Luna closed her eyes as she recognized the voice to be Moira’s.

Shit, she thought to herself. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, she thought repeatedly to herself.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked at Rita for a few seconds before finally turning to face Moira. She was dressed as elegantly as always, and she looked as cold and vicious as Luna was starting to believe she was born to.

“Speak of the devil, and she shall appear,” Rita leaned down to whisper in her ear.

Luna watched as Moira’s gaze shifted to Rita, she watched as her icy blue eyes raked from the top of Rita’s head down to her toes.

“You brought a,” Moira paused intentionally, “friend.”

“I did,” Luna replied.

There was silence for a bit after that, Moira didn’t offer her hand in greeting, Rita didn’t introduce herself. Finally, Moira smiled at Rita, her smile cracking at the corners a little bit from the force she applied to it.

“What is your name, dear?” she asked.

“Rita Heron,” Rita replied, she still didn’t stretch out her hand. Neither did she add the usual ‘nice to meet you’.

Luna knew what she was doing, she was blatantly telling Moira it wasn’t nice to meet her, without words. Luna could see Moira got that too, her eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at Rita.

“What…. interesting…. friends you keep,” Moira said, her gaze still on Rita, but addressing Luna.

Luna didn’t say anything to that, Moira and Rita continued their stare-off.

“What do you do, Rita?” Moira asked.

“I am Luna’s personal assistant and executive,” Rita answered without hesitation.

Luna watched surprise enter Moira’s eyes at Rita’s answer. “You’re her personal assistant?” she asked as if she hadn’t heard her correctly.

“Yes.”

Moira’s lips curled slowly. “You’ve heard what they say about executives, right, Miss Heron?” she asked.

“No, I don’t believe I have,” Rita replied, meeting Moira edge for edge.

“They say they’re just glorified contract workers, they don’t have any real power and they work twice, if not thrice, as hard as anybody else in a company,” she paused, her lips tipped more in that sly smile, “As I’m sure you know,” she added.

Rita smiled. “Then I guess you were a glorified contract worker for, eight years, was it?” Rita cocked her head slightly sideways as she looked to be thinking about it. “Yes, I think eight years is about right. You worked as an executive for Logan Lake for eight years, that is before you married him.”

Rita’s voice dripped with subtle sauciness, her gaze was directly on Moira’s. Luna watched in fascination as the corners of Moira’s eyes twitched.

“He married me,” she corrected through gritted teeth.

Rita waved her hand in a dismissive manner. “Semantics,” she said carelessly. “After your marriage, you rose up the ranks pretty quickly, even the head executive of your department couldn’t have dreamed of the promotion you got just a month after your wedding.”

Luna could only stare as her friend destroyed the almighty Moira right before her eyes. The twitch at the corners of Moira’s eyes were more pronounced now, she was definitely bothered.

“I earned that promotion through my sweat and tears,” Moira defended, her eyes flashing angrily at Rita.

“I have no doubt you did,” Rita concurred. “You look like a hardworking woman, a woman who works hard to get what she wants, and most times, with hardworking women, the line between hard work and ruthlessness tends to get blurred a little, doesn’t it?”

“What?”

Rita shrugged. “I mean, you would know, right? You’re a hardworking woman, as we’ve established, and I’m sure the line has been blurred for you too more than a few times. In this world that we live in, ‘the men’s world’ as they like to call it, a woman’s gotta do what she’s gotta do to get ahead. Isn’t that right, Mrs. Lake?”

Luna was almost certain Moira would burst soon, with the way the corners of her eyes were twitching badly now. And she took a deep breath, a long, deep breath as she stared at Rita. And then her eyes narrowed slightly, a focused look entered them, she cocked her head slightly.

“I could say the same thing about you, Miss Heron,” Moira said, her composure clearly back. “Seemed like you started from some really rough low too, until you became so important.”

Moira’s voice dripped with sarcasm, Luna glanced at Rita out of the corner of her eyes. Rita didn’t look perturbed, on the outside, but Luna wanted to look past the surface. Because she knew her friend, she knew Rita hid her true feelings behind a facade as easily as she wore her clothes. But she couldn’t stare too long at her, Luna knew Moira was watching her even though she’d barely looked at her ever since she and Rita started going at each other.

“I did,” Rita agreed to Moira’s statement. “I am one in the population of the world who can truly say my present is better than my past.”

Moira nodded. “Right. I guess personal assistant is better than temp at Crasters Engineering,” Moira’s eyes narrowed slightly, “Or was that temp worker with the reputation of having slept with all of her bosses before her first year in the company, and still not getting a promotion?”

Rita shrugged again. “That doesn’t have such a nice ring as the first one now, don’t you think?”

Moira shrugged too. “Maybe. Doesn’t negate the facts now though, does it?” Moira’s eyes turned icy blue. “You’re not the only one who knows history,” she added, her tone as icy cold as her eyes.

She turned her head to give Luna one icy look before she turned and walked away.