The Agency

IX. the bodyguard

It was late morning when Virginie woke, the sun bathing her room in its light. She stretched and yawned, rubbing her eyes. She was already exhausted from thinking about her day. She was going to have to call the boss, talk to him about the mission, call Robert, tell him the lie about the mission so she could protect Alex, and then go over all of it with Alex. She didn't like repeating the same thing over and over again but chores like this came with the job.

She sniffed the air, smelling strawberries and chocolate and smiled knowingly.

Colette was making crêpes.

Virginie jumped out her bed and headed to her bathroom. She stared at her crusty eyes in the mirror and began to brush her teeth. She then did her morning skin routine: cleansing, toning, and moisturizing.

Once she felt like she looked alive, she walked out into the kitchen space, her thoughts confirmed. Colette stood over their stove, flipping the thin cakes in her velvet pajamas. She smiled when she heard Virginie approach.
Virginie kissed Colette on both cheeks as she hugged her from behind. "Good morning, love." She unwrapped her arms and moved away.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," she replied, not turning away from the stove. "How was your night?"

"Weird," Virginie yawned, pulling up a stool to the island table. "I saw Alex again last night. He was there with some society bimbo."

Colette already knew this, of course, but said nothing. After Virginie left, she searched Alex up and found photos of the two of them at the gala. Their union was causing quite a stir in the society pages. "Oh, really? Did you talk to him?"

"No, he talked to me. I walked in with Robert and then he starts running towards me like a man with no sense." She laughed. "I think he was pretty drunk so I'll forgive him for that."

"Did Robert see you with him?" Colette asked, her voice wavering. She had read in Robert's file that he was a jealous man who did not let his partners talk to men without his permission.

"No, do you think I'm stupid?" Virginie snapped. She could feel Colette's hurt stare and immediately regretted her words. "Sorry, I didn't mean that. Sometimes I just...anyway, I told him to go to get me a drink and brought Alex to one of the side rooms in the hotel. I asked him what the hell was going on and he told me that he wanted to me to protect him since I did such a stellar job in the coffee shop."

"What did you say?"

"I asked him if he had made a request with the Agency because you know the boss is so anal about everything that I do." She rolled her eyes, eating some grapes that were in the fruit basket on the table. That man was insufferable. He just didn't know how to leave her alone. He never had. "He said that his brother had called and the boss was completely okay with it."

"What a surprise," Colette responded sarcastically. "I don't know why he asks people to make everything go through him when he knows that he's going to say yes anyway."

Virginie bit her lip. She knew that the boss liked to do that to show that he still had power over her but she didn't want to tell Colette that. "Yeah, it's stupid. But anyway, I'm going to have to call him so that we straighten up my backstory for spending a lot of time with Alex."

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm gonna say that modeling is getting boring so I got an internship at a law firm and I'm shadowing the top partner because I want to learn from the best. I think for the amount of time that I'm going to be with him, that sounds most plausible. I'm going to have somebody at the Agency cook me up a criminal justice degree from UPenn."

"I like that idea. Robert might be annoyed at the fact that you're going to be shadowing a guy but he'll get over it." Hopefully.

"Let me get this call to the boss over with." Virginie grabbed the house phone and walked towards the living room for more quiet. She dialed the number for the Agency and gave the special order for her to be connected.