Carefully serving Simon breakfast, then respectfully seeing her boss off.
Once the sedan disappeared from view, Zoe Parks and Isabel Dunn exchanged a glance and ran upstairs together.
At the doorway of a certain bedroom on the second floor of the Shell Villa, both women lightened their steps at the same time, quietly pushed the door open, crossed the outer living area, and entered the bedroom. They saw the scene inside at a glance.
The large bed clearly showed the disarray of the aftermath.
The housekeeper was still sound asleep, lying face down with her head slightly turned to the side. Her arms hugged the pillow, exposing a large rounded breast.
Yet the two women's attention was instantly drawn to the many "strawberry" marks on the housekeeper's exposed skin.
On her neck, on her arms, on her shoulders, and near her nipples… inside the quilt, there were surely more.
Mouths slightly open, they leaned in to take a closer look. Isabel turned to Zoe beside her, her voice trembling slightly as she whispered, "She isn't… dead, is she?"
She immediately received an eye-roll in return.
Sensing the movement nearby, the housekeeper soon opened her eyes. Noticing the two heads at the bedside, she blinked in brief confusion, then instinctively pulled the quilt higher to cover herself. Forcing a small show of dignity, she glared at Isabel and Zoe. "What are you two doing?"
Seeing the housekeeper awake, Zoe jumped onto the bed and leaned in close. Her tone carried a hint of teasing. "Alice, have I been dumped?"
Alice wanted to reach out and knock Zoe on the forehead, but remembering the marks on her own body she gave up the idea and answered irritably, "Yes, so now, can you two please leave?"
"Ah, women really are unreliable."
Zoe spoke in the tone of someone abandoned by a "heartless man." Her pretty eyes flashed. Suddenly she reached out.
The housekeeper had been on guard. Zoe's attempt to pull the quilt away failed. After a short playful tussle, seeing that Alice looked about to lose her temper from embarrassment, Zoe finally stopped. Together with Isabel she withdrew from the bedroom.
Still huddled under the quilt, the housekeeper waited a moment longer to make sure the two would not burst in again. Only then did she get out of bed, quickly lock the bedroom door from the inside, and finally breathe easy.
Turning toward the bathroom, she opened the faucet to let hot water run. After a brief hesitation she still walked to the vanity and glanced at herself in the mirror.
Then she immediately looked away.
Bastard!
Scenes from last night flashed through her mind.
S he only remembered biting him hard at the very end.
But.
It seemed.
Mm, at least she had definitely used every ounce of strength she could muster at the time.
An hour later, after showering and cleaning away every trace, fully "armed" once more, she came downstairs. She shot a glare at Zoe, who was staring at the silk scarf around her neck, sat down in[ the dining room, and began eating breakfast.
Only moments later did she realize something.
She glanced at the "sumptuous" spread on the table, then glared at the two women who had stubbornly stayed beside her.
These two.
They had done it on purpose.
Preparing so much food.
Still.
She really was starving.
Isabel remembered something and asked curiously, "How exactly did you manage to seduce the boss?"
How?
Alice paused mid-bite. She thought carefully.
It seemed there was no clear sequence.
Last night she had stared at a certain guy in a daze for a moment because of her curiosity toward him.
But that did not seem like seduction.
She had indeed felt guilty at the time and could not quite remember some of the details.
Or perhaps.
It had simply been one of that guy's sudden whims.
She had anticipated this day long ago and had no intention of refusing.
Yet.
Exactly how it had happened, she could not recall at all.
She thought back carefully once more. Vaguely, at one moment last night in the living room, the way he had looked at her had been… different.
Different in what way?
She could not say.
In the end she could only treat it as one of the man's passing impulses.
Since she could not figure it out, she stopped thinking about it.
By the time breakfast was finished, it was already past nine in the morning.
She had come back to Los Angeles this time specifically to discuss something with him.
The idea of embedding an instant-messaging software developed by one of Ygritte's teams into the Amazon online mall as a communication tool.
She had spoken with Jeff Bezos and the others in advance. Bezos believed that doing so would require hiring a large number of service staff and could sharply increase the mall's labor costs.
Although no one opposed it and everyone agreed it was necessary, the entire Ygritte Company was already operating at full capacity in the short term. Suddenly adding another team would greatly raise pressure on every side.
Moreover, the instant-messaging software that a certain guy had personally named ICQ was said, in his own description, to have a far longer-term layout than merely serving as a communication tool for the online mall. Using it just for mall-customer interaction would feel like a waste.
Still.
She had now decided to discuss these matters with him through email.
To avoid being bullied again.
Since she did not plan to stay any longer, after breakfast the housekeeper hurried off to Houston, Texas.
This was a headhunting trip.
Ygritte's demand for high-end computer talent had been steadily increasing. For this reason the company had already begun lobbying the California government to raise the visa quota for overseas senior technical personnel.
The Amazon online mall was recently developing an entirely new recommendation system to suggest books that browsing users might be interested in.
Because the internet industry was still emerging, there were not many specialized technical talents available. They could only target and recruit people according to specific abilities.
The planned recommendation system required, beyond basic programming, developers with strong mathematical computing skills.
After several rounds of searching, Alice discovered that NASA actually had quite a few people with similar expertise.
The operation of space shuttles and the calculation of satellite orbits demanded professional standards no lower than those needed for Amazon's recommendation system. That was how the idea of directly poaching from NASA had arisen.
After recent contacts, thanks to Ygritte's generous salary packages, some people had indeed responded.
This time the housekeeper was personally flying to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for interviews. Afterward she would fly to Washington as well.
With Easter approaching, many North American students had begun their annual spring break, and the Easter release window officially opened.
On April 10, one week before Easter, two new films opened in North American theaters: Columbia Pictures' horror film Sleepwalkers and Fox's 2D animated movie FernGully: The Last Rainforest.
Sleepwalkers was yet another adaptation of a Stephen King novel, telling the story of a half-human, half-cat sleepwalking demon who kills people. The film opened on 1,864 screens.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest opened on 1,401 screens and counted as Fox's experiment in the animated-film field.
From April 10 to April 16, Sleepwalkers ultimately earned 12.4 million dollars in its opening seven days, taking the weekly box-office crown. The opening was neither particularly high nor low; its future would depend on the subsequent box-office curve.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest failed to create the response Fox had hoped for. Despite its 1,401-screen opening, the seven-day gross was only 5.14 million dollars. Even riding the family-friendly Easter atmosphere, its best potential was probably no more than 20 million dollars domestically.
Yet the production budget for this animated film was also 20 million dollars.
Fox could only hope to recoup costs through later ancillary revenue.
This year's Easter fell on April 19. Simon and Janet set off for Australia on April 16.
At the same time, Daenerys Entertainment's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 officially opened on April 17 on 2,976 screens.
The success of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had largely come from the IP's widespread recognition and audiences' curiosity.
However, live-action turtles were not actually that appealing.
After repeated deliberation by the production and distribution teams, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles2's market positioning had been locked onto teenage audiences from the very beginning. The film therefore emphasized exciting action design and thrilling adventure elements. Media platforms aimed at teenagers, such as MTV, also became focal points of the sequel's promotion.
The risk of this adjustment was actually quite high.
Because in the first film a large portion of the audience had bought tickets out of affection for the cartoon.
Yet Simon had personally approved the gamble.
After all, continuing along the original route would very likely repeat the box-office decline that New Line had suffered in the original timeline, with each sequel earning less than the last.
Even if the new positioning and attempt failed, the first film's popularity and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IP's name recognition would at worst lead to the same situation as in the original timeline.
Besides Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, another film opening the same day was Warner Bros' City of Joy, starring Patrick Swayze, the male lead of Ghost. The film told the story of an American doctor practicing medicine in the slums of India.
Simon had reviewed materials on City of Joy in advance.
City of Joy was directed by Roland Joffé, who had twice been nominated for best director. During filming in India the production had been obstructed by authorities more than once and had gone through many hardships. However, compared with Joffé's two previous Oscar-nominated films, The Killing Fields and The Mission, City of Joy's critical reception was merely average.
Warner Bros had arranged only 811 opening screens for the film.
While Simon was in Australia, data on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 still reached him at the first opportunity.
After release, even with some promotional influence, North American media generally gave the sequel relatively positive reviews, with a composite score of 7.1.
Variety's review article had even gone out of its way to praise Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2's breakthrough in plot structure.
As the most anticipated Easter release and the one with the heaviest promotion, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2's opening performance also met expectations.
Over the first three days of the weekend, 2,976 screens delivered 26.13 million dollars.
Although it failed to break ten thousand dollars per screen in three days, the 26.13 million dollar opening-weekend gross was still enough to make every other film released that week look up in awe.
City of Joy, which opened the same day on a 27-million-dollar budget almost matching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2's 30-million-dollar production cost, earned only 3.39 million dollars over its first three days.
Simon and Janet arrived in Melbourne on April 17 and did not set off back to the United States until April 23.
Besides visiting the little one, the Johnston family also settled another matter during this Melbourne trip: the wedding of David Johnston and Lesley Wickett.
Although somewhat reluctant, under his son's insistence Raymond Johnston had finally given his consent.
The wedding was ultimately set for November at the end of the year, naturally in Melbourne.
Back in the United States, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2's first full-week box office was also officially released.
Over seven days the popular animated adaptation earned a final 37.38 million dollars.
A quite impressive opening, more than five million dollars higher than the first film's 32.16 million dollar opening week.
For Simon this figure also broke the box-office decline trend that neither New Line nor Paramount had managed to escape in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequels.
Therefore, even though after Easter Daenerys Entertainment's distribution department predicted, based on April 24 daily figures, that the film's second-week drop might reach forty percent, far worse than the first film's seventeen-percent drop, Simon still felt no dissatisfaction.
A 37.38 million dollar opening, even assuming a forty-percent second-week drop, meant North American totals were still on track to break the 100-million-dollar mark.
Compared with the 30-million-dollar production budget and 15-million-dollar marketing investment, Daenerys Entertainment could already turn a profit on North American theatrical earnings alone.
With both domestic reputation and box office exceeding Simon's expectations, overseas box office would surely rise as well.
After Easter, however, the most attention-grabbing news was that Cersei Capital's Apollo Management had successfully acquired Victoria's Secret's parent company LTD for 2.45 billion dollars in its competition with KKR and Blackstone.
The acquisition that had dragged on for more than two months since February had finally reached its conclusion.
In the final round of bidding KKR's offer had been one hundred million dollars higher than Cersei Capital's acquisition team, reaching 2.55 billion dollars.
However, compared with Cersei Capital's one-time full cash payment, KKR had offered a three-year combination of cash and bonds.
KKR still had not shaken off the shadow of the original Reynolds Nabisco deal. Its financial health made LTD shareholders uneasy. Even with a higher bid, its competitiveness could not actually compare with Cersei Capital's.
Moreover, on corporate control KKR's demands had been far more stringent. It not only refused the Wexner family's request to retain partial shares but also demanded that founder Leslie Wexner leave immediately after the acquisition closed.
As LTD's founder and current chairman and CEO, Leslie Wexner held a large block of voting rights and still wielded strong influence over the company's shareholders and board.
KKR's aggressive stance on control had undoubtedly pushed Wexner toward Cersei Capital.
In addition, after Blackstone's attempts to partner with either KKR or Cersei Capital failed, it had also submitted a non-public bid for LTD.
According to information revealed afterward, that proposal's total offer had been only 2.4 billion dollars and had naturally been eliminated.
In the end the LTD board voted and decided to accept Cersei Capital's proposal.