The Show Goes On

The Trouble With Lenny

It had been two months after the wedding when winter was starting to roll around in New York. It had been more than a year since Brandi had moved to Wall Street and it had gone faster than she could blink. Despite the scare they had gotten earlier, business carried on as usual and Stratton Oakmont's success hadn't faltered a bit. In fact, it was going so well, the company building was expanded to make room for more employees. Everyone was still making huge sums of money and things had kept going as smoothly as Jordan expected. Pretty much everything was going well for him right about then - except for Naomi. The post wedding/honeymoon phase was wonderful, but eventually all of it soured and Jordan and Naomi fought nearly every morning. He took Brandi to coffee one morning since they were already late to work and told her about it.
"How come you were late this morning?" She asked him, blowing on her very caffeinated latte. She popped two Adderalls and gulped her coffee.
"It's Naomi." He sighed.
"Oh?" She said, raising an eyebrow.
"We had another blowout this morning. She was mad that I drove that helicopter into her fancy new grass." He swallowed and scorched his tongue.
"Don't tell me - you were maybe under the influence of something."
He smirked. "You know me too well."
"Tsk tsk, you ruined her grass and came home high."
He groaned and pushed his hair back.
"She woke me up by throwing a glass of water on me. Then she did it again - with ice."
Brandi started to laugh and shook her head. "Did you retaliate?"
"You know I wouldn't. I tried to talk to her but she pushed me out the door before I got the chance to say anything. That's why I was late. Thank god she's leaving for her parents' house this weekend." Brandi nodded and swallowed more coffee.
Then he raised an eyebrow. "Why were you late?"
Brandi smiled a secret smile and stared into her cup. "That was all Lenny's fault."
Jordan was surprised. "Does that mean what I think it does?"
"Possibly." She looked out the window, holding a steaming cup.
Jordan gave her a short smile which he then dissolved into his mug.
Brandi looked at him before re-wiring the conversation.
"We picked quite a day to be late. Especially you, since Madden's IPO drops today."
"Thank god the festivities don't start until 1, I really needed to take a break."
Brandi swallowed the rest of her coffee and stood.
"Well, I need to get going. Someone should probably take care of those papers piling on top of your desk. I'm gonna head out."
"See you later, Brandi."
"See you." She put down ten dollars on the table, clicked her pocketbook shut and strolled out of the café to hail a taxi to Wall Street. He watched her walk away. Jordan swallowed his black coffee and found himself feeling unusually angry. What was Brandi doing, still sleeping with him? After everything he put her through, after all the shit he gave her. Why didn't she tell him earlier? It wasn't even that she just hadn't told him. It was something else too. He just couldn't put his finger on what... Where was all of this coming from, anyway? Then it hit him that he hadn't taken Brandi out to eat or for drinks or anything since he'd gotten married. Jordan bit his thumbnail. Why was he just suddenly remembering? No wonder they hadn't talked. Who knew what else happened since the wedding. The only times he'd even seen her were just at work. Why had it not occurred to him sooner? He'd been so caught up in Naomi's world he'd forgotten to maintain his.
Jordan snapped out of his thoughts and looked down. His drink was cold and his watch read 11:47. He dropped another ten on to the table and left to find his own cab.

Back at the office, Brandi's hands flew over her keyboard. This IPO was going to be big - maybe even the biggest in Stratton's history. She had a lot of work to do if she was going to get everything ready before 1 pm. She stopped to stretch her fingers and thought back to Jordan at the restaurant. That was the first time they had gone out since the wedding. Jordan looked a little bothered by something but she couldn't place her finger on what. Stress, probably, she thought. She was feeling sort of tired too.
Things were finally looking up with Lenny and they had even hooked up that morning. It was like they had found a way to move past the ice and got to a perfect middle where there was no fighting and a little bit of peace. He was helping out more, washing some dishes, cleaning up the place before she got home. It was more than she had expected and she was content to not have to fight anymore. He'd just been in such a good mood lately.
She wondered how things between Jordan and Naomi had soured so quickly. When she'd told him about Lenny that morning, he almost seemed bothered. But that had to be all in her head. Back to work, she thought, turning back to her computer and continuing to type.

Jordan arrived a few minutes later and got things settled in the office before Steve got there to present himself. Donnie made his rounds, letting everyone know they'd better welcome him right when he got there. When he finally did, Jordan had to help him move things along before he got laughed off the stage. After Steve finally managed to take over things, he found himself looking over at Brandi and watching her type. She had small hands. And curly black hair. It was getting long too, almost to her waist. Her back was arched and her hair fell over the desk and covered her face. She stopped then and cracked her knuckles, rubbed her eyes. Had she always looked tired? Brandi caught him looking at her and smiled. He smiled back. Then she went back to typing. She wore red lipstick, he thought. She had big eyes. Steve was droning on in the background. She didn't look like Naomi, or Teresa. Or Hildy. Or Kimmy or Danielle, Angela, Marie, Caroline or any of the women who worked at the office. There was only one of her. He kept looking at her long after she had turned her back because of how warm his chest felt when he did.