Beauty by Louise Mensch

be like that , Dina thought, only sitting in the inner office. Working for a big company. Chief Executive . Visions of success danced in her head.
    ‘Can I help you?’
    ‘Dina Kane for Mr Markos.’
    ‘He’s expecting you. You can go right in.’
    Dina walked up to the main door. The sound of her footfalls was muffled by carpet an inch thick, but the sound of her heartbeat crashed again and again in her ears.
    She pulled the door open and walked in, trying to look more confident than she felt.
    Markos was looking at a computer screen, his oak desk a small island in the vast room. Behind and below him, she saw the New York traffic crawling through the city’s concrete canyons, flashes of sunlight glittering on the windscreens. This was money; this was power. Dina Kane felt it as a sexual thrill.
    ‘Have a seat.’
    There was a large chair right in front of him. Obediently, Dina sat, smoothing her dress on her lap. Steady. Don’t look nervous .
    ‘Thank you.’
    ‘You impressed me yesterday. I asked my aunt about you. She told me some of the things you’ve done at that restaurant. How old are you?’
    ‘Eighteen,’ Dina lied.
    ‘Why aren’t you at college?’
    She winced. ‘It’s a long story.’
    ‘I see a lot of young people work tables. I make it my business to notice quality. It’s pretty rare.’
    ‘Thank you, Mr Markos.’
    ‘What are your goals for yourself, Dina?’
    ‘To make the rent next month. And then to go to college, when I have enough money.’
    ‘And then?’
    She grinned. ‘I like your office, Mr Markos.’
    He laughed. ‘This job is taken. Found your own goddamned company. I have an opening for a junior manager in my new restaurant uptown. It pays thirty-five thousand a year, with a Christmas bonus.’
    Dina quickly did the sums. That was almost three thousand a month. But, of course, there were taxes. She would need the bonus.
    ‘Do I get to keep the tips?’
    He raised a brow. ‘The words you’re looking for are “thank you”.’
    ‘Thank you. Sir.’
    Markos waited till she’d shut the door behind her. Maybe this was a mistake. They’d never hired a manager that young. Oh, and there was the question of her looks. Eighteen and all kinds of sexy, with a face that could stop traffic. As a waitress, she was an attraction. As a manager? Would they take her seriously?
    He almost felt a stirring. Ludicrous. She was practically jail-bait. And he’d taken a fatherly interest because the kid reminded him of himself.
    Guiltily, he tilted the black-framed picture of his wife, Athena, towards himself on the desk. She was the love of his life. He’d lost all interest in women when she died. All interest in everything, except the game of business: the thing that kept him sane.
    His wife’s forty-year-old face – so lovely, so classic – stared back at him, frozen in time, in that blessed year before she got sick.
    Gently, he calmed himself. He would never take advantage of Dina Kane, teen beauty alone in the big city.
    Other guys will do that, said the voice in his head.
    ‘Susan –’ he punched his intercom – ‘get me the manager of the store at a hundred and twelfth. He’s got a new colleague.’
    Edward Johnson was a golden boy.
    He was in his second year at Columbia – Ivy League – studying pre-med. His plan was to become a plastic surgeon, one of the most upmarket in the city. He wanted offices on Park Avenue and a string of starlets and news anchors begging him to perfect their faces and tits.
    Not that he needed money. Edward, smoothly handsome with his dark hair and even features, was an only child. He was close to his mother, Penelope, and stood to inherit everything from his daddy one day – Shelby Johnson was president of the hugely successful Coldharbor Bank. They had a townhouse on Eighty-First Street and Amsterdam, close to Central Park, Zabar’s and the best delis in town. Edward had already succeeded to a portion of his trust fund. There would be more when