#vgtracyfic
The wine was sweet. A little too sweet if he was honest, but he was open-minded.
The woman across from him smiled a little nervously and took another sip before clearing her throat. “So, Mr Tracy, thank you for inviting me.”
Virgil smiled over his glass. “My pleasure.” It was his turn to take a sip. This was usually Scott’s gig. Virgil wasn’t one to wine and dine anyone.
Not that he couldn’t be the suit in Tracy Industries. He had no problem with that, it was just that usually he was talking to other engineers and brainstorming, not taking them out to expensive restaurants.
But Lila was different. Or he hoped.
She joined the New York office early last year and had caught his eye during one of their crisis meetings.
Crisis meetings were specialist sessions Virgil held himself when a rescue involved faulty infrastructure. Faulty infrastructure that needed an immediate solution that Tracy Industries might be able to provide.
International Rescue saved the day. Tracy Industries saved the future.
The first time he met her, she had been yelling at him across a holocomm from the other side of the Pacific plus at least one continent. She had called him out in front of everyone.
It was morning in New York. It was also morning on Tracy Island…3am the next day, and Virgil was on his last straw after a very long rescue involving a bridge collapse that should never have happened.
She had far too much energy and was calling him out on both stress and financial calculations.
And she was right, which derailed him even more.
But all through that, she was wearing a bright cherry pink lipstick that set off her chestnut hair just perfectly. Her lips were distracting. They were the perfect colour.
“Mr Tracy?”
He shook himself, both in the past and the present, and took another sip of wine.
Definitely too sweet.
He cleared his throat. “I felt I owed you dinner after my poor conduct last week.”
She blinked before smiling a little nervously and looking down at her lap. “I think I’m lucky I didn’t get fired, shouting at you like that.”
Virgil put the wine glass down. “You had every right to say what you did. I was at fault.” Was it bad that he was happy she was wearing the same lipstick today? That he was quite mesmerised by her nervous smile?
He wasn’t one for physical attraction much. Sure, he looked, who didn’t? But the true lure was intelligence and personality.
If he was honest with himself, Lila’s outburst had reminded him more of family than anything else. Telling him he was being stupid when necessary.
It didn’t happen very often, Virgil was far from reckless, but there were times where his passion overwhelmed his sensibilities and took him a step too far.
This had been one of those times.
The team at Tracy Industries knew him as a Tracy. Sometimes Virgil wondered if Scott and their father had accidentally created some kind of cult with their workers. Their employees were often devoted to them in ways that Virgil didn’t quite see anywhere else. It spoke of far too many pedestals.
But then there were the team members like Scott’s executive assistant who pushed the employee/employer relationship to its boundaries by either yelling across the Pacific or alerting International Rescue that they had a situation in their own villa and could someone please put Mr Tracy to bed now?
So Lila.
At 3am.
With cherry red lipstick.
Had inadvertently joined a select group of Tracy herders in being the first one willing to yell at Virgil Tracy.
And he was having a minor quandary as to what to do about it.
-o-o-o-
