"They are good kids, aren't they? That Mona especially. She’s so mature for her age."

Miss Planner was in a playful mood. She kept stealing Erica's french fries right off her plate with shameless persistence. Erica sat quietly with her head down, trying not to look annoyed.

"... yeah." said Erica softly. "Could you... stop taking my food?"
"Oh, please, let me have a few more," Miss Planner cooed with a smile and wiggle in her chair. "I'll split this burger with you. How does that sound? It's a bacon burger! Mmmm!"

"Fine..." said Erica, resigning herself to Miss Planner's tyranny and accepting the half-eaten burger with tears in her eyes.

"Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, yes! Mona and the other kids are graduating next month! Garth and his friends, too. I was thinking we could get them a little something to commemorate the occasion. Maybe a cute photo album, something like that. We could take some pictures this week and swing by Papercrafts Plus to get them laminated... what do you think?"

"Uh, sure. That sounds good, I suppose."

Erica had a large collection of candid photos of Miss Planner from various office parties, work functions, and charity events. She used to pull them out of her desk and fawn over them like an infatuated teenager whenever she needed a morale boost. It was a bad habit of hers... looking at them always made her feel a little hollow inside.

Most of the photos were taken without Miss Planner's knowledge or consent. None of them were particularly artistic or interesting... most were just quick snapshots Erica took with her phone while the little blonde manager was distracted... smiling and talking to someone in a crowd, unconsciously putting her hands on her hips or laughing with a hand over her mouth, or sometimes sitting back looking completely bored while everyone around her laughed hysterically...

Erica had hundreds of images of Miss Planner like that. It was a little creepy, actually, and she knew it. She'd been thinking about deleting them, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to do it just yet. They were a reminder of happier times. The good old days, back when Miss Planner wasn't quite so high and mighty...

"Mmh... did you get a chance to read my memo? Nuke Black is a real game changer!" said Miss Planner. "I got to try some this morning! Oh! My God, it makes the hair on your neck stand up, and you start sweating all the way down your body..."

The tiny blonde woman reached over and grabbed another handful of her protégé's fries. Miss Planner smelled kind of weird. It was a minty chemical smell, a little bitter, a little sweet. Was that from the Nuke Black? It made Erica's skin crawl a little.

"Oh, the m-memo... um... I saw that you sent it, but I figured you'd tell me in person if there was anything important... and, well, uh..." said Erica weakly, staring at the half-eaten bacon burger and wondering if Miss Planner really expected her to finish it or not.

"No, no, nothing important! But the truth is I had a really hard time writing the last two paragraphs and I wanted to know what you thought... here, let me pull it up. This is a work in progress, by the way. 'The Chosen Ones have brought forth a special kind of beauty in this artistically designed cigarette.' Does that sound natural to you?"

"Hmmm... that's kind of clunky."

"Our ribbon-cut Chosen Premium Blend has a unique taste that is rich, smooth, crisp, and light all at the same time. These smokes are truly worthy of the coveted Nuke Plus standard of quality."

"I think that part sounds... fine. But it doesn't make me want to try it. What were you saying earlier about how it made you sweat? You should, um, include that...?"

"Hey! Good idea! Yes, yes. Looking at this now... hmmm... there's a lot I want to change. 'Potent top-secret blend.' Too opaque. 'Striking black color of the paper.' Don't like that either."

Miss Planner typed away at her phone with her greasy fingers, muttering to herself like a lunatic all the while. Erica stared off in another direction and prayed for strength. She knew she could take a quick photo without Miss Planner noticing. But this wasn't exactly the type of moment she wanted to remember forever. It was just another weird, uncomfortable moment with her boss, like so many others.

She'd been telling herself she was going to start acting more confident and assertive around Miss Planner lately. Show her how much she'd matured since they met. How much more comfortable in her own skin... blah blah blah. She clearly hadn't gotten any more comfortable, or confident, or mature, not really, since she crumbled every single time. Why was it so hard to get a decent conversation going with the only woman in the Tower she had anything in common with?

Miss Planner was lost in her own little world, adding and removing sentences, fixing formatting errors, and making little tweaks here and there for readability, muttering to herself all the while. Erica took a brave bite of her bacon burger, which had long since gone cold. She chewed with a sigh and stared blankly out the window. It seemed like it was getting dark so early these days.

"Did I tell you about the Knife Slaves?" said Miss Planner suddenly, still typing away. "I'm going to be doing some consulting work for them next week, starting this Thursday, actually. As soon as we get Nuke Black off the ground. Kind of feels like I'm getting back to my roots..."

"Uh, no... you didn't mention them. Knife Slaves? Are they, like, prisoners or something?"

"They're a white organization. Martial arts freaks. They keep themselves a bit of a secret. But that's changing now that they've started pivoting towards a new, more organized... corporate model. I'll be getting a nice little chunk of change out of the deal. I'm thinking about investing some of it into a little business opportunity Black Smoke was telling me about. Oh, he's just so smart! And handsome!"

"Wait. Hold on. I have no clue what you're talking about. What's this whole consultation thing about? Why are you doing this?"

"Okay. So. You know how we've been having some issues with our distributors? They don't understand what a good customer service experience looks like. And it's hurting the bottom line. That's one of the reasons why we're trying to go in a more 'luxury' direction with Nuke. So we can leverage our sales team and our brand power... you get what I mean. Anyway, I had an idea. The Knife Slaves have this whole network of underground fighting rings where we can foster professional, high end athletes to help spread word of mouth and create brand awareness. It's just the kind of high impact advertising campaign I was looking for. Imagine some tough street kid smoking Nuke Black to power up before a big match!"

"Oh. So it's like... a sports league?"

"Yep. See, the Knife Slaves have top-of-the-line equipment. Training services, personalized coaching, nutrition, all that stuff. They pick out the best, most promising athletes, give them access to everything, train them to fight in the ring, and sell a fantasy to people. 'You can be just like that fighter.' So we'd just be working within that framework. Paying their bills and getting some exposure in the process. They've been kind of struggling lately because they got way overextended. They could use a little extra cash to keep their feet on the street, you know?"

"Huh."

"And I get a nice consulting fee out of the bargain, whether it works out or not," said Miss Planner with a proud drum of her fingers. "It's like I'm double dipping!"

"Then you're going to invest into a business Black Smoke was telling you about?" asked Erica.

"That's the idea. I'm going to be sponsoring my own street gang! Isn't that wild?"

Wow. That sounded crazy.

She was always doing this. Getting herself with involved with weird, scary stuff just because she felt like it.

Erica wished she could be like that. She wished she could throw herself into whatever came her way without hesitation, without fear. But she wasn't strong enough. There was a part of her mind and heart that always just made her back down and hide under the blankets like a scared little girl.

"That doesn't sound like a very good investment," replied Erica slowly, trying her best to ignore her pounding head and failing miserably. There was an awkward silence as the two stared at each other, neither quite knowing how to move on from the subject. Erica felt like a piece of meat. A cold, sweaty lump of dead flesh like the nasty, fatty wad of cold bacon inside Miss Planner's unwanted burger.

Miss Planner broke first.

"It's not as bad as it sounds," she said quietly. "It's kind of a speculative bet with the potential for massive returns. But I can afford it."

It didn't just sound 'bad.' It sounded 'insane.' It sounded 'really illegal.' It sounded 'really dumb.'

Erica took a deep breath. Her heart was beating fast. Her palms were clammy with nervous sweat, but the words started to pour out of her mouth, unstoppable.

"You know what?" whispered Erica, staring into the dark night. "I think... I want to invest too. With Black Smoke. I'll sell all my... my World Alliance Bank stock."

"What?! Really?!" asked Miss Planner, eyes sparkling. "Oh my God! Wow, okay. Let me... hold on, let me call him. You sure about this?"

"Ye-yeah. Yes. Why not?"