When Lana was seven her parents were killed in a car accident.

There began the end of a life that had been surrounded by love.

Lana found herself in a series of foster homes, she grew to be a quarrelsome girl, she was disagreeable and it was little wonder to the child welfare that she became a difficult child to place.

Despite all her disagreeableness she was an intelligent girl and she did well at school and then it came as no surprise to anyone that she headed off to university.

She entered the corporate world and soon established herself as a brilliant negotiator, ruthless, being a word bandied around about her.

There were no loves in her life, she had neither time not inclination to date or enter into any relationship.

In her mind she was out to win at all costs, she had a driving ambition to succeed and if that meant walking over people in her way then so be it.

She had long ago left the world of love behind, for Lana love was a distinct memory but one she would revisit, the 25^th day of July each year. It was the only day in the year she stopped to remember.

Even years after the crash the memory of it was vivid in her mind, she had made sure that that day remained etched into her mind, never to be removed, for that was when her life ended and in its place was a world of anger and ruthlessness. For that was how she buried her pain.

This she kept hidden and her outside persona developed into that of a disagreeable adult, a woman men avoided, a ball breaker in their opinion, and she was happy to have that said about her, it kept them all at bay, where they belonged as far as she was concerned.

A promotion came up within her business, the extra money would be good, better still would be the beat James Flint to the job. For the first time in her life there was a competitor, one who didn’t show any fear of her.

To make it worse thought Lana, he was an ok man.

He was polite around her, didn’t engage in conversation, was efficient at his job and people liked him.

But he had a weakness and Lana was by now an expert in exploiting a weakness. James was too nice in her opinion; his affability would be his down fall. In the corporate world there was no place for the ‘nice’ guy.

Lana had a saying, one she said to herself never out loud as that would paint an even more vicious picture of her and she did know enough to use her cunning to her advantage. She would look an opponent over and say to herself that his heart would look good on her dinner plate and then set out to achieve just that.

She was an expert at undermining confidence, of spreading doubt in a person’s mind where he would begin to doubt his abilities and so at the last hurdle falter and give her the rails run.

So she set out to do the same to James.

A subtle comment over the coffee machine, a lost memo, an appointment not kept, a false statement indicating he had made an error when it was she who had manipulated his figures in her favour.

This tactic worked so well in the past, she knew it off by heart the processes she had to follow, the steps she needed to take to be a winner, and ultimately how big a step she’d need to take to finally step over him.

But this time it didn’t work so well. What had been effective in the past was not so this time. James seemed to deflect all her efforts to undermine him.

Her corrected himself when he noticed an error, he remained polite around her and any rumour she subtly mentioned he laughed off.

She was going to have to be more conniving than ever.

But to her surprise they were both called to a meeting. The boss looked at them  and said he had considered the position they were both up for and that James would be given it.

Lana was devastated. She stormed out. Doors were slammed. Papers thrown.

Defeat without even an opportunity to fight, never had that happened before. She spent the rest of that day seething at her desk, all the while hearing the cheers around the office as the news of James’ elevation spread.

Lana was stunned by the outcome, because in her mind she was better than James.  He was a male whose heart she had targeted, and she always won.

What was left for her in this job? It was clear that most of the office was pleased she didn’t win. They hated her and she didn’t mind, she didn’t want to associate with any of them.

The day drew to an end and with everyone leaving for the day, many going off with James to celebrate. Lana sat and schemed.

But everything she thought of was petty. That’s the trouble she thought with getting older, there’s a part of you that forces you to look at yourself and reflect on what you are doing or going to do. And petty wasn’t how she saw herself. No she was decisive, direct and successful until today.

The weight of the defeat kept her at her desk long after the others had left. She certainly wasn’t going to celebrate her enemy’s success. She sit and brood for a while, an idea of revenge would formulate she was sure, it always did.

Footsteps beside her desk made her aware of someone standing beside her.

She was shocked to see James standing there.

He looked at her and said he was sorry she didn’t get the job, as he knew she was the better person for the position and that he hoped she would continue to work in the office.

Lana was taken aback because no one ever spoke to her outside work hours and when they did it was always work related.

She looked at him, in her mind was a vision of his heart on her plate but right now was not a time to exacting any revenge.

She wanted to know why it mattered to him if she stayed or not.

He paused before answering as if thinking about his response, as if weighing up the impact of what he was about to say.

All the while James was focused on her, another thing she found unnerving, no one looked at her, rather they avoided her gaze as if her medusan qualities work their devastation.

James said the office staff had gone off the local club to celebrate and he was expected to follow. He said he liked Lana despite her abrasive character, her acerbic wit and her down right disagreeable nature.

She thought that summed her up well.

He said he wanted to work with her, not against her, he said that the office staff  to a person disliked her when she was without a doubt the most intelligent person in the office, the most efficient and the most innovative.

James had remained looking at her, his gaze never left her face, he reached down and touched her shoulder, she looked at him, startled as no one ever touched her, they only spoke to her when they had too.

She looked at him and saw some thing she had not seen in so long.

No fear.

Attention.

Kindness.

Attraction.

Now she was on the defensive. Her daggers sheathed.

‘Come,’ he said. ‘Lets go have a drink, I know a place where we can talk. I think we need to talk a lot, don’t you?