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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Thirty Seven
This chapter has a visit from a character developed for Barkie's story Port Charles. Back chapters of that story are located at http://www.insidetheweb.com/mbs.cgi/mb698286 . Since I demand she read and reply to my stories feel free to reply to the Character of Maddy Reynolds. She needs the feedback to get that story muse jumpstarted.
Partner.
Sliding her tray along the railing, Emily chooses between the two entrees offered at Port Charles High: Mystery Meat Pot Pie or Upchuck on Noodles. Something had to be done about the school cafeteria. Never in her worst nightmares of hell had she contemplated food worse than GH's. Francois had been in the midst of a tizzy this morning. All she'd been able to do was grab her thermos of espresso and get out before he blew, and she was in for it now. Never, Ever, Ever again was she not going to bring her own lunch. Grabbing a large chocolate milk, Emily pays and finds an empty table pausing only long enough to zap the milk in the microwave. Precisely focusing on the task before her, Emily grabs the thermos from the back pack. Using the cup on the top she pours about a jigger of espresso adding the heated chocolate milk and adding a sprinkle of cinnamon/sugar on top. "That's the ticket." She sips and relaxes.
"Why Emily Quartermaine?! How are you doing? What an ... interesting outfit you're almost wearing." Emily stiffens at the sickeningly sweet voice across the table. What was it about this place that had her regressing back to the easily bruised taunt magnet? Hell. She was in Hell. This is what she got for not challenging out of this torture chamber. What she got for having friends who all graduated the year before. She looks up at the bane of her PCHS existence.
"Valerie." Emily pushes her tray back and leans back in her chair ready for anything. Her posture appears easy but appearences are deceiving.
"Excuse me, you're blocking my seat. So why don't you just carry your ass where it's welcome?" A silky low feminine voice comes from behind Valerie.
Valerie turns to blast the rude newcomer and then recognizes who it is. "Maddy."
Maddy just smiles, lifts a single brow and tilts her tray slightly--warningly. "Do you mind? This slop is getting heavy. That is silk, isn't it?" Valerie beats a quick retreat. Maddy sets her tray down and eases into a seat tossing her black leather back pack to a nearby chair. She extends a hand to Emily. "Maddy Reynolds. A mutual aquaintance suggested we meet."
Emily takes the hand and shakes it firmly. "A mutual aquaintance?"
"Benny Abrams."
Emily is momentarily blank. "Benny." And then awareness dawns. "Jason's Benny?! How do you know Benny?"
"I run a small business.... a shopping service for busy people looking for exclusive merchandise."
Emily gazes at Maddy a frown furrowing her forehead. She takes in the whole package from the designer shades to the full length ultrasuede coat in the latest animal print with the matching Prada boots. Tall and graceful, her companion would give Tyra or Naomi a run for their money. "What kind of merchandise?"
"Furby, Beanie Babies, Pokeman-- if there's a shortage, I've got the market. Men like Benny Abrams have no clue what their grandkids want for Christmas, birthdays. I make him look better than Santa and charge through the nose for it."
"What do you have on Valerie?" Emily asks curiously. She automatically mixes another mocha latte and slides it to Maddy.
"Little Val has a serious lust on for Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. She is totally convinced he'll take one look at her and offer to father her baby. I have front row tickets with back stage passes. I'm her next best pal..." Maddy shrugs taking a sip of the fragrant brew. "...at least until the concert. But she'll be after me for something else-- They always do."
"Why me?"
"Why not you?" Maddy leans in resting her elbows on the table. "I like to keep my assets diversified. Benny told me you were both the brains and the brawn behind a project I want in on."
Em reviews her projects before guessing. "The Prominade."
Maddy toasts her with her latte. "The coffee kiosks specifically. I've already got a couple strategically placed around town: the courthouse complex and down in the business district. But I really need to branch out to the waterfront. I've already got a strong customer base down there that isn't being adequately served.
"And with the docks and the construction crews, the need is there now."
"Exactly. People working long hours, making a union wage with no time to shop: Christmas, Hannakuh, Kwanzaa. My kind of action."
"So the kiosks are just a sideline-- somethin' to get your name out there? For the shopping service, I mean."
"Right. But I've got the carts, the personnel-- the permits. I can be up and running by tomorrow."
"I have the contacts and contracts." Emily counters. "And like you I need to diversify my assets." Her posture had changed over the course of the conversation. More and more elements of the Suzie Corporate side of her personality had come to the forefront rather than the regression that walking through the doors of PC High seemed to bring on.
"The kiosks are my... legitimate income." Maddy protests already suspecting what is to come.
Emily doesn't bat an eye or miss a beat at Maddy's admission. "Perfect-- because I have tons of legitimate income managed by trustees, parents and family. I need a discretionary income from a business where my name doesn't appear anywhere." Emily tempts. "I'm willing to make a significant investment plus I can negotiate coffee and confections for your other kiosks in addition to the prominade. The coffee would be at near cost and the confections at a reasonable markup." Emily shrugs. "You get a mostly silent investor and all I want is 50% of the profit from the kiosks at the prominade." Emily offers up her cup of coffee in a toast. "Partner?"
Maddy hesitates and then wincing taps her cup to Emily's. "Partner."
Wyndemere Light aka the Victorian Nik is working on. Nikolas slaps the cell phone shut-- busy again. It had been busy for over a week. Through the grapevine he knew that Emily had been grounded for something... something to do with Katherine and Deception. He'd gotten that much information out of Lucky before Liz had collapsed in some form of contagious hysteria. Hysteria that had been repeated whenever Katherine was mentioned. The house keeps him busy while trying to make contact. Both the neighboring houses were less than rubble. Already the crews had come through and filled where the houses used to be with topsoil, seed and covered it to give the seeds protection until they could germinate come spring. The roof had been torn off on schedule and already the sounds of hammering fill the air as the roofers put the finishing touches on the new roof. Nikolas looks around the carriage house. The controlled chaos of the salvage fills the building. The contractor had him inventorying every brass fitting and foot of antique lumber as soon as it had become apparent that Nikolas was going to be a hands on pain in the rear client. Nikolas thumbs through the project book the contractor's partner had started.
"What is that?" Asks a voice from the doorway.
Nik starts and looks up. "Father. It's a pictorial chronology of the project."
Stefan walks over gingerly stepping over items that block his path. "May I?" He holds out a hand assuming aquisence and getting it. Stefan starts at the beginning with the the detailed photographs of the before and descriptions of the properties as they had appeared in the Real Estate Multiple Listing Book. "I hope you didn't pay full price." Stefan mutters and then flushes slightly. Nikolas grins. His father, the secret bargain hunter and almost as bad as the swiss bankers for squeezing a dollar.
"No. The main property I picked up for half of the asking price and the neighboring properties were purchased for the cost of the back taxes."
"And it was on one of those that your brother realized his windfall?" Stefan refers to the millions of dollars in old stocks Lucky and Nikolas had discovered in an old safe.
"Yes, the safe was in the house over there." Nikolas points off to the right. "Needless to say that property has already paid for itself... many times over. You'd like the contractor on the project I think. Larry is like the tutors back on the island. Whenever I have a question he brushes me off and tells me to look it up." Nik continues ruefully.
"What would you have to look up?" Stefan asks curiously and offended on Nikolas' behalf.
Nikolas hands Stefan another notebook. "So far this has been my contribution to the project in addition to the financial backing of course." Stefan glances through the itemized list waiting for Nik's explanation. "This is the inventory of all the items salvaged from the neighboring houses before their demolition. Nik looks around the room at the boxes of brass, the stacks of lumber, the coils of copper. "Each piece has my mark on it. Larry believes that what isn't used in the house proper can be sold to other people doing renovations to make back some of the costs. Perhaps enough to pay for the wreck on the left." Nikolas laughs ruefully. "It is busy work, much the same as you give me."
"Nikolas..." Stefan protests.
"No, it's true. But as with the busy work you assigned me I am learning much. By the time the house is finished I'll know every nut and bolt. It will be mine even as I hope it will be Emily's." Nikolas glances over at the cell phone willing it to ring.
"You still haven't heard from Miss Quartermaine?"
"Not since she was grounded for some infraction. And everytime I call, her line is busy."
Stefan frowns. "How likely is that?" He pulls out his own cell phone and hands it to his son. "Try mine." Nikolas dials and sure enough reaches Emily's voice mail this time. He leaves a message and hangs up handing the phone back to Stefan. "I would say someone has blocked your calls. You've called from the cottage as well with the same result?" Nikolas nods. "Who would do that?"
Nikolas winces and then runs his fingers through his hair mussing it. "Her Grandfather. It sounds right up his alley."
"Edward opposes the match?" Stefan inquires offended again on behalf of Nikolas and the Cassadines in general. The Quartermaines had no room to be so sanctimonious.
"I believe her grandfather opposes any match. Much the way you will once my sister reaches her full potential." Stefan glances away. He really didn't want to go there. Laura had already caught him vetting Lulu's play dates. Stefan turns the page in the project notebook to see the designer's renderings of the outcome.
"These are quite ambitious." Stefan warns.
"Yes, but everyone on the project is motivated." Nikolas explains further. "Larry has a sound reputation in this town and his partner, the designer, was overlooked for a position on the historical board through some political jockeying. The house is a showcase for both of them. Why don't we go up to the house? I'll take you through it if you'd like. Then I have to try to get hold of Emily at school now that I realize what the problem is with her phone."
Later as the end of school approaches, Nikolas pulls into the student parking lot. Glancing around he finally finds Emily's Harley and parks next to it. The final bell rings and a stream of students flood from the doors. Some greet him remembering him from his brief sojourn into the life of a normal high school student-- something he'd gotten over in short order. Others pause to lust over his jag. Nikolas finally catches sight of Emily in the company of another girl. They're in deep conversation, and Emily doesn't see him. They stop by a black van. The other girl slides open the side door and climbs into the back of the van. Emily does as well. Nik grows concerned. Locking the jag, he walks over to the van and knocks in the side panel. Nik steps back as the side panel slides smoothly back.
"Well Well Well." Maddy looks over Nikolas from head to toe and likes what she sees. "Step into my parlor."
"Said the spider to the fly." Emily finishes laughing. "Maddy Reynolds, this is Nikolas Cassadine, a friend of mine."
"A taken friend?"
"Very taken." Nikolas says firmly. Maddy steps back and allows Nikolas access to the back of the van closing it behind him. Nikolas sits down next to Emily on the bench seat in the back of the van. The persistent whine of a fax machine distracts him. "What in the hell is going on?"
"Just finishing up a little business." Emily says mysteriously winking at Maddy who makes herself comfortable in one of the captain's chairs .
"I'll have them in position tonight, ready to go tomorrow with my existing stock." Maddy adds cryptically. "I'll be ready to take delivery anytime."
"Day after tomorrow." Emily replies. "I need to make the deals. I should have an exact schedule tomorrow." Nikolas watches the two women converse in some kind of code like a tennis match first one then the other with growing impatience. Impatience that both read. "I'll meet you at my locker tomorrow?"
"Works for me." Maddy reaches over and opens the door again. Nikolas climbs out and turns to assist Emily. Maddy leans over and whispers in Emily's ear. "And feel free to bring the eye candy anytime."
Emily laughs and shakes her head. Nikolas puts a proprietal hand in the middle of Emily's back and starts herding her toward the Harley. As they get a distance away he asks, "What was that all about?"
"I'll explain over coffee at kelly's if you want." Emily offers.
"You're not grounded?"
"No longer. Grandfather interceded with Monica last night-- got me off the hook."
"Your grandfather." Nik says wryly. "Just who I want to talk to you about."