"Meeting new people is always nerve-wracking. Period. There is just simply no two ways about it. I won't bore you with the lecture that I've had drilled into me since I was about three that 'first impressions will remain the only impressions until you do something extraordinarily great, or you mess up astronomically'. It's always of course, easier to do the latter.
But let me tell you something from experience, no matter how many people you know or have met in your life, you will always end up meeting more, be it voluntary or involuntary. And, even those who meet new people daily still have those uncomfortable moments when they second guess themselves; when they question themselves; when they think of the dreaded 'what if's. I for one know I do, all the time. When I was younger (under 10) I didn't really care. However my father did and for that I resented him, and maybe even hated him, for a huge part of my childhood. He insisted that I be polite, mind my manners, learn proper dining room etiquette - down to which spoon to use for soups and which fork to use for tiramisu. It stood me in good stead, even now and as stubborn as I am, I know when I'm wrong. If he were still here, I'd tell him and apologise for the many fights we had had when I was younger. I can't now, but hopefully, he'll understand and know, even though he's no longer here.
What can I say? The circumstances may change but the fundamental facts of human psychology remain steadfast and unchanging. We grow and we change, our lives are weathered by the actions we, take, the decisions we make and of course the events that we come across. I can only hope I have changed for the better.
Now, to meeting new people and getting reacquainted with others."
The two women stepped out of the town car and Selena felt a huge sense of dysmorphia, she could never imagine herself in a place such as this. Still dressed in her business attire of the day which she had thrown on in the morning, she still felt overdressed. Elise seemed unfazed, however, as Selena had come to learn in the past few weeks, Elise truly was the personal assistant of all personal assistants and was definitely the work kind and not the other kind that her father had been known to solicit the company of. She was unshakeable and completely professional at all times, so much so that it scared Selena a little.
Selena herself felt incredibly overdressed, she scuffed her toes on the pavement with far too much awkward energy than she knew how to deal with and waited meekly while Elise walked around to the driver side of the town car and spoke in low tones to the driver before handing over a healthy tip to the figure inside the vehicle. After she had successfully sent off the car, she turned and gestured for Selena to follow.
It was clear that Elise knew where she was going, whether she was just crazy efficient and had somehow managed to case the area before they arrived while on the way or before while she had been working on her other work from previously; or she had been to this part of town so often that she knew the streets and back alleys like the back of her hand. She lead Selena around the back of the streets where she proceeded to slip through a crack between two fairly well-lit streets into another that plunged them into pitch darkness.
Selena could do nothing but follow, fumbling in her coat pockets to find her phone and switch on the torch function. The harsh beam of light that illuminated the otherwise dark and deserted street revealed rows of metal rolling shutters, each painted bright blue with a number from one to thirteen spray painted crudely onto the corrugated metal. Each numbered unit building had its own parking spaces out front in the yard and there, in some of the bays, were parked several huge trade trucks. Had she not been with Elise, Selena would have had no shame in admitting that she would have been absolutely terrified.
Selena had never been terribly superstitious, preferring to look at all her problems with a logical balanced point of view. While some might fancy that there were ghosts, ghouls and the spirits of ages past lurking in the shadows, Selena was more worried about gangs of boys and men, the kind that caused havoc reported on the front pages of newspapers, their shives hidden in hoodies and clenched fists in their pockets. Each of the cargo lorries looked like huge slumbering giants, guarding their respective entrances and Selena found herself sticking to Elise like glue.
They made their way down to the end of the yard, up to Unit 7. This was the smallest of all the units; the corrugated iron and aluminium alloy mix had rusted so badly that the front of the unit was covered in trails and splotches of rust. The blue paint, once vibrant, was now peeling away under inches of thick dust and general trade yard grime. There was a car parked horizontally to the front of the unit that looked entirely out of place. For one it was about five times smaller than any other vehicle parked in the nearby vicinity, and for another, the motor was running even though it didn't look as if anyone was in there Selena couldn't be sure as all the windows by the side had been tinted and there were no lights on inside.
"Elise, why on earth are we meeting the 'Uncle' here? And also, who is he? If I know him, why on earth can't we meet in person at say the offices?" Selena whispered.
"As it's your first time we agreed that it's for the best. The news outlets haven't tired of you as the hot topic yet. Hopefully what runs in the papers tomorrow will though," Elise added as an afterthought before walking straight to a small door, that had been concealed by the dark before, and knocked, three long, three short and a sharp kick with the ball of her heeled foot.
The door creaked loudly and Selena winced. Elise spoke in hushed toned and the door swung open wider to reveal two figures that Selena knew. "Marcus, James!" She smiled excitedly. Marcus nodded without changing his features, but James smiled broadly, pulled Selena in for a bear hug, and kissed her on the cheek lightly.
"Hey jailbait," James smiled down at Selena and pulled away, "hey Elle," he grinned winking in Elise's direction.
"What's the occasion?" Selena asked, smiling at the slightly odd nickname and pushing away from James, "I know you're cheerful but this is far too much."
"Carter's closed a long deal, means raises and a lot of alcohol for all of us, and unlimited stock," James grinned from ear to ear and Selena could feel the edges of her own lips curling from his infection grin alone.
"And Carter's the 'Uncle'?" Selena asked uncertainly, the words felt strange on her tongue. She knew the name from somewhere but just couldn't, for the life of her, place that feeling. No one answered her, but Marcus did move to open a door that Selena hadn't noticed before and both Elise and James moved through the doorway. The secret entrance concealed by the dark lead to a series of dingy corridors, lit sparsely by the odd luminescent 'Exit' sign or lamps that had been nailed crudely into the walls. After what seemed to be hundreds of turns later (which in reality had only been a few, however, due to all the corridors looking identical, Selena could hardly tell) they stopped in a fairly open, large room.
The room was not unlike the warehouse, with significantly less machinery and many more home comforts, including a cards table and leather sofa set. The cards table sat empty off to the side, however a figure sat at the end of the sofa with a hat pulled low across their face so that, no matter how hard Selena strained, she couldn't make out much of their facial features. In the dim light, she could only see that they was dressed in some type of long, thick coat. There was a rhythmic shuffling noise, which confused Selena at first but then, as her eyes adjusted, she realized that the person on the sofa had been shuffling a deck of cards in such a methodical manner that the sound closely resembled that of a card shuffling machine.
Marcus closed the door behind the door and coughed lightly. The figure set down his cards and tilted his hat slightly. Now that Selena could see, the figure had been, as she had suspected, a man; who's piercing gaze terrified Selena a lot more than it probably ought to have.
So this was the 'Uncle'.