Chapter Text
Running through New York was not Lance’s favourite thing in the world, especially carrying 2 hot coffees and his heavy backpack, dodging people, and crossing illegally through the New York traffic to his final destination - Wall Street. In short, Lance was running late. And of course, it wasn’t his fault - the line in the coffee shop was way too long. But at that moment he asked himself what was worse: being late or not bringing his boss her coffee.
If you’d ask Lance he would say he hated his job, even if it was his high school dream to work on Wall Street. Even so, when he was in university he imagined his life differently - he was going to be a broker, he was going to make million-dollar investments - he would see the numbers floating around him like magic. Well, that didn’t happen entirely. Instead, he was an executive financial analyst assistant to one of the worst people on the planet - Katie Holt.
Head Partner at Altea Equity, Katie Holt entered the investment world at a young age, creating her own tech security start-up just out of high school. Getting people to invest was not that hard - her microchips worked at a speed never seen before and improved the security of hardware pieces designed for electric vehicles by impressive numbers, so she managed to sell that company for a hefty price, making her one of the youngest millionaires. Going into quantitive finance hasn’t even been her priority, but after getting a taste of what securing an impressive investment can do, she got a job at a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley right after graduating from university with a computer engineering degree. She was able to give investors what they couldn’t achieve - expertise in the tech companies they invested in. A woman that had the brains for computers and finance? Lance loved that. And he would have adored Katie if she wasn’t such a bitch.
Well, you see, Katie was one of the best in the field of technology investments. She was great at finding the most obscure and ground-breaking firms, analyzing them from every possible point of view. What made her so hated in the company was her straightforward, antipathic personality. And Lance had a front-row view of what she was really like - a heartless, coldest witch. He had been stuck being her financial assistant for over 3 years, even before she was promoted to one of the highest positions. Of course, the Mighty Holt had never wanted to be appointed one, but Allura, the CEO, had the final say: “ Katie, I know how great you are, but your expertise is in the technologies. Lance here will be your right hand in fundraising and the financial analyst of the product.”
He was sure Katie didn’t like him - the feeling was mutual, and even if his job description entitled him to help her out with every investment, she mostly used him as her secretary. All his family and friends always told him to quit, daily. But he didn’t - he could feel the promotion coming. He was a financial manager, but he could become a partner if he showed Allura how great he was. And that meant sticking behind Katie Holt even if he didn’t want it. That included late nights and wasted weekends at the office analyzing too many Excel sheets and graphs for his liking, accompanying her around the world and god knows how many tech conferences and expositions, and even interviews and photo shoots for big financial newspapers. (Did Lance have a secret stack of old magazines with each one of Katie’s interviews? Yes. Would he ever admit that he secretly admired her a lot? Of course not, silly!)
Nevertheless, that would have to wait, as right now he was stuck running around the building, trying to catch the elevator in time. The office was buzzing, as he made his way to his desk. 8:59. He had made it!
Just as the clock struck 9, Lance silently acknowledged the small pop-up message on his computer: “ The witch is here! ” The room stopped buzzing, and everybody hurried to their desk just in time as the doors opened and Katie Holt made her way across to her room.
Now, you might imagine an old lady, maybe you thought about Meryl Streep in ‘The Devil Wears Parda’. Well, Katie was not the head of Vogue - she was a 27-year-old technology geek with an investment banking hobby . And well, even if she didn’t look like Mark Zuckerberg, she also didn’t look like a banker. Katie was short, well 5’4, so shorter than everybody on Wall Street. And even if she didn't see the point in dressing like a rich banker, Katie liked walking in the room as if she owned it - like she was the smartest in the building. And well she was, Lance couldn’t deny that - but that didn’t mean she had to be a bitch. She incorporated the stereotype that investment bankers have no soul.
“Your Coffee, Katie,” Lance said as she passed by him. He followed her into her office room and closed the door behind him. Katie didn’t even acknowledge him, taking the cup from his hand, sitting at her massive desk, and opening her computer.
Every day was the same. At that point, Lance couldn’t even get mad.
“You have a staff meeting at 10 and a conference call in 2 hours. Also, your immigration office had sent you some paperwork to sign.”
“Cancel the meeting and move the call to the afternoon,” Katie said, not raising her eyes from the computer screen. “I managed to sign the deal with cancer nano-tech patent.”
“Nice job,” Lance exclaimed. The company had wanted the tech under their wing for a long time and her managing to convince the founders to hand it over to her was amazing.
“When I want your praise, I’ll ask for it. Is Lotor here?” she continued, finally meeting his eyes, as Lance stood awkwardly by the corner of her desk.
“Yes, probably. Want me to put him on the phone?”
“No, we are going directly to him,” she said, grabbing a portfolio and shoving it in Lance’s arms. As the two made their way across the floor to Lotor’s room, everyone raised their heads to look at the two with great curiosity.
Shit is about to go down.
Katie didn’t even knock, as she opened the glass door of the room, startling Lotor in the process.
“Hey Lotor,” she said, not even bothering to sit on the armchair in front of him. Lance followed her but chose to sit in the corner, trying as much as possible to blend in the background. He knew that there was a very high tension between the two investors. Lotor hated her more than everyone simply because she was promoted to partner before him. Simply put, she had the upper hand and he despised it.
“Do you know how to knock?” he asked annoyed, looking up from his computer.
“Not really,” she answered sarcastically. Lotor rolled his eyes but didn’t comment anymore. “Lotor, I’m letting you go,” she continued.
“Sorry?” Lotor asked and Lance was as shocked as he was.
“You’re fired, Lotor.”
The man was still as dumbfounded as before. “What?”
“You see, this isn’t working out.”
“This is not a relationship that you can break up, Holt!” Lotor continued, now more furious.
“I asked you to review the cancer nano-tech patent.”
Lotor nodded. “It’s impossible to do it.”
“Well, I just signed the contract.”
“But…”
“No buts, Lotor. I’ve been a chief investor for 3 months and all you’ve been doing in this time is slack off. I let you off the hook for so long. You didn’t even try to get the patent.” Lotor said nothing, but Lance could feel his nerves going out the roof. “I’ll give you 2 months to find something else - you’re a smart guy I know you can find something. Just like that, you can say you resigned.”
Katie smirked and off the door she was, with Lance on her heels. Lotor had not even a second to protest. The woman took the lead, as Lance turned around to take a peek through the glass walls at the other fuming investor.
“Oh, he’s about pop, Holt.”
Lotor was immediately out the door.
“You can’t fire me, you bitch!” he screamed, 2 feet away from Katie, who stopped in her track to calmly stare at the man. The office fell deadly silent.
“I gave you a civilised way out. What are you doing?”
“You are such a lying bitch! You are firing me because I’m your competition! “
Katie could only laugh. “Come on Lotor, why make a spectacle of yourself? You can never be me. I’m firing you because you are lazy and incompetent - you only got this job because your daddy is a friend of Miss Altea’s family. So if you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut up and go back to your little corner or Lance here is going to call security on you. Capiche?”
Lotor didn’t even nod, simply staring at her defeated, glaring daggers as Katie and Lance walked away, talking in hushed tones.
“I need a list of all the projects he had under his wing. We need to see if he has something noteworthy as soon as possible.”
Lance sighted defeated. When Katie wanted to take on new projects that meant only one thing: long lost weekends spent stuck in the office looking over documents and running analyses.
“Ok…I’ll just cancel my weekend trip…”
Katie turned to give him the side eye.” Did I give you the weekend off?”
“It was my grandma’s ninetieth birthday. But no big deal, I need to stay focused. We need to save those projects.”
Katie nodded silently, pleased with his response, and went to her office.
God give me strength…I will strangle this woman in her sleep.