#5 million dollar lawsuit
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Cardi B finds herself back in court to defend her mix tape cover that includes a photo of Kevin Brophys Back tattoos and he tries it with a 5 million dollar lawsuit But it backfired leaving him to pay all Cardi Bs court cost. #CardiB #KevinBrophy #Court Subscribe for more banger content about your favorite celebrities right here on How I See it!
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INSURANCE Settlement Options that ChatGPT can help us laugh about....
#Me: Please write 3 clever taglines for this thread
“Settling for justice: One person’s fight against the odds”
“Breaking the blacklist: An elderly, disabled person’s pursuit of fair settlement”
“From toxic exposure to social justice: A legal battle worth fighting”
#Me: Please summarize this thread written by me and ChatGPT and why people on social media may find it of interest
#ChatGPT: In…
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#ChatGPT humor and LOL funnies#InsurerWars - InsurerWars.com#StateFarmFiles#StateFarmFiles not to be confused with TwitterFiles#ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HUMOR#Holding the Powerful Accountable: The Importance of Civil Litigation - and How AI CAN HELP#Insurance Adjusters Lawyers and Public Adjusters#LindaAyres.com - LinkTree#Linkedin Posts#Michael Tipsord has an annual iincome of over $24 million dollars and treats policyholders like this? YIKES!#Please write 5 Tweets about this Thread#Settlement negotiations Insurance company Legal dispute Elderly Disabled Home damage Health damage Toxic exposure Lawsuit Fair settlement Bl#VIDEO CHANNEL- InsurerWars.com#Why Settling Now is the Smart Choice: An Open Letter to Attorneys Representing Defendants in My Case
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If you still hold any notion that Google Chrome’s “Incognito mode” is a good way to protect your privacy online, now’s a good time to stop.
Google has agreed to delete “billions of data records” the company collected while users browsed the web using Incognito mode, according to documents filed in federal court in San Francisco on Monday. The agreement, part of a settlement in a class action lawsuit filed in 2020, caps off years of disclosures about Google’s practices that shed light on how much data the tech giant siphons from its users—even when they’re in private-browsing mode.
Under the terms of the settlement, Google must further update the Incognito mode “splash page” that appears anytime you open an Incognito mode Chrome window after previously updating it in January. The Incognito splash page will explicitly state that Google collects data from third-party websites “regardless of which browsing or browser mode you use,” and stipulate that “third-party sites and apps that integrate our services may still share information with Google,” among other changes. Details about Google’s private-browsing data collection must also appear in the company’s privacy policy.
Additionally, some of the data that Google previously collected on Incognito users will be deleted. This includes “private-browsing data” that is “older than nine months” from the date that Google signed the term sheet of the settlement last December, as well as private-browsing data collected throughout December 2023. Certain documents in the case referring to Google's data collection methods remain sealed, however, making it difficult to assess how thorough the deletion process will be.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda says in a statement that the company “is happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.” Castaneda also noted that the company will now pay “zero” dollars as part of the settlement after earlier facing a $5 billion penalty.
Other steps Google must take will include continuing to “block third-party cookies within Incognito mode for five years,” partially redacting IP addresses to prevent re-identification of anonymized user data, and removing certain header information that can currently be used to identify users with Incognito mode active.
The data-deletion portion of the settlement agreement follows preemptive changes to Google’s Incognito mode data collection and the ways it describes what Incognito mode does. For nearly four years, Google has been phasing out third-party cookies, which the company says it plans to completely block by the end of 2024. Google also updated Chrome’s Incognito mode “splash page” in January with weaker language to signify that using Incognito is not “private,” but merely “more private” than not using it.
The settlement's relief is strictly “injunctive,” meaning its central purpose is to put an end to Google activities that the plaintiffs claim are unlawful. The settlement does not rule out any future claims—The Wall Street Journal reports that the plaintiffs’ attorneys had filed at least 50 such lawsuits in California on Monday—though the plaintiffs note that monetary relief in privacy cases is far more difficult to obtain. The important thing, the plaintiffs’ lawyers argue, is effecting changes at Google now that will provide the greatest, immediate benefit to the largest number of users.
Critics of Incognito, a staple of the Chrome browser since 2008, say that, at best, the protections it offers fall flat in the face of the sophisticated commercial surveillance bearing down on most users today; at worst, they say, the feature fills people with a false sense of security, helping companies like Google passively monitor millions of users who've been duped into thinking they're browsing alone.
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"25 years ago today, a jury in New Mexico announced its verdict in one of the most infamous and misunderstood cases in recent memory: Liebeck v. McDonald's, also known as the "hot coffee lawsuit."
This case is held up as one of most egregious examples of frivolous lawsuits. The story goes that a woman bought coffee from McDonald's, drove with it between her legs, spilled it on herself, sued McDonald's because it was hot, and took a cool $1 to $5 million (depending on who's telling the story) off of them. "Wait, she sued because coffee was hot? And she was driving with it between her legs? What did she expect? Anyone can sue for anything these days."
Guess what? That story is almost completely false. I mean, Stella Liebeck did have hot coffee spill on her. That part is true. But here's what's not. Liebeck wasn't driving. The 79 year old was in the passenger seat of her grandson's car. He pulled into a parking spot, where she was trying to add cream and sugar to her coffee. The car didn't have cupholders, so she put it between her legs, and when she pulled the lid off, it spilled all over her.
The spilled coffee wasn't just unpleasant; it was served at nearly 190 degrees, which caused 3rd degree burns over 6% of her body, required multiple skin grafts, necessitated further care after she left the hospital, and left her permanently disfigured. She originally tried to settle with McDonald's and asked for $20,000; they responded with an offer of $800.
At that point, she hired an attorney who discovered that 1) McDonald's required franchisees to serve coffee between 180-190 degrees 2) no other coffee in the city was served at more than 160 degrees 3) 190 degree liquid causes third degree burns in less than 3 seconds and would burn the mouth if consumed at that temperature 4) 160 degree liquid takes over 20 seconds to cause third degree burns and 5) McDonald's had been sued over SEVEN HUNDRED times in the prior decade for coffee being too hot and had settled up to $500,000 in cases and been told to lower the temperature.
Ultimately, McDonald's refused an arbitrator's suggestion of a $225,000 settlement and the case went to trial, where a jury ultimately awarded Liebeck $200,000 in compensatory damages, and $2.7 million in punitive damages. "A ha!," you sa, "so she still got millions! That's still frivolous!" Well...no.
First, the jury found Liebeck was 20% at fault, so the compensatory damages were reduced by that amount, to $160,000. Then the judge reduced the punitive damages to three times the compensatory, or $480,000, for a total of $640,000. We don't know how much Liebeck got because they eventually settled for less than $600,000, but between medical expenses and legal fees, it's a FAR cry from the millions she got for a slightly warmed leg in the well-known story.
So how did this become so legendary? Simple. McDonald's knew the case was going poorly, so it looked to the one thing it had that Liebeck didn't: a bully pulpit. They started a massive PR effort that was basically a smear campaign, painting Liebeck as some irresponsible scofflaw trying to take their hard-earned money. And it worked, to the point that the annual "awards" for frivolous lawsuits are known as "The Stellas."
As for Liebeck? The then 81 year old didn't have the money, platform, or desire to fight back, and used the money to pay for a live-in nurse. She watched company after company use her case as an excuse for tort reform, to stop the big bad consumers from hurting the poor, poor multinational billion dollar corporations, before passing in 2004 at age 91."
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid021Lfd937eiZt1XprMuMMjjDEaUwG8qC97ENcgpoGfCd2rhczgPjW7RSDybjDU3iZ2l&id=5708003
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CD projekt red really spent 5 years crunching only to make a shitty GTA clone that doesn’t work and gives people seizures, and then they had to pay 1.85 million dollars for the class-action lawsuit
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The Monaco wedding….
Did you watch the Amber Heard/ Johnny Depp trial when she was interoggated about pledging vs donating?
Until that moment, i had no interest in the trial and was barely aware that it was happening.
Then that interrogation happened and it went viral….I.WAS.HOOKED. didn’t miss another moment after that.
That’s how the Monaco wedding was for me.
There are too many moments of disaster in the days before, during and after of that wedding, BUT you have to hand it to Monaco PR.
They swang into action in the following weeks, threatened to sue anyone who reported any of those details, infact successfully sued The Times of London.
All videos and articles about the disastrous wedding week were pulled down and only very few happy/ neutral pictures from the actual day remain. Even the infamous video of the bride weeping bitter tears to the visible irritation and annoyance of Albert was pulled down.
Withthe media sufficiently cowed and scrubbed, Monaco pumped an alternative narrative of the wedding week, but of course didn’t supply the necessary pictures because they had none to share. They went as far as saying her tears in the wedding were of joy and feeling overwhelmed by the joy of the moment…lol. Not if you’d watched it live.
The couple gave an interview to a french channel to refute the real picture, but the bride didn’t speak french and didn’t smile once.
It’s one of those things like the pledge/ donate Amber Heard vs Johnny Depp trial that i’ll never forget.
*************
Did I watch the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial? Anon, I lived the Depp-Heard trial. I’ve had jury duty in that very courthouse. Friends went to the courthouse to try and get in (they didn’t). It’s 20 minutes up the road. There was wall-to-wall coverage here because it was international news, national news, and local news. It was the only thing on TV to watch and I watched every single second of it, and all the legal commentary, and all the social media commentary.
Some background:
Johnny was suing Amber over an editorial she wrote for, and published in, the Washington Post. The Post’s printing press and its servers are located in Fairfax, Virginia, which allowed Johnny’s team to file the lawsuit in Virginia, despite him and Amber both never having lived here, claiming that Fairfax VA had jurisdiction because that’s where her defamation claims were published.
The pledge/donate controversy was Amber claiming that a pledge is the same thing as a donation. It’s not. A pledge is a promise to donate money. A donation is the actual giving of money. Amber claimed that she “donated” the $7 million divorce settlement she received from Johnny but it turns out, she had only pledged to donate. She hadn’t actually fulfilled the obligation.
The pledge/donate fiasco is important because it exposed a) Amber for lying about her financial status and b) an important distinctions celebrities make when they PR their philanthropy. If you look at a lot of stories about celebs who donate huge multimillion dollar sums, a lot of those stories talk about “pledging.” As in, the celeb has made a verbal promise to donate money.
Like The Rock/Oprah Maui fire fundraiser. They didn’t outrightly donate to survivors and recovery. They pledged $5 million each, contingent on enough people donating to their fundraiser. They didn’t actually donate their money. At least, not until everyone got angry and called them out about it.
It is semantics. You don’t have to fulfill a pledge. It’s nice if you do, but at the end of the day, it’s rarely a legally-binding contract so a lot of celebs get their PR from using these semantics. They promise to donate money if X condition occurs so they look good to the public but they sometimes don’t actually follow through with it.
To bring it back to the royals, look and watch carefully the vocabulary that the Sussexes use to describe their philanthropy and humanitarian work. Are they using pledge to describe their work? Or are they using donate, or other action-based words?
And anyway, just to sum all this up with anon’s original post about Monaco: I am fully expecting the BRF to give the Sussexes the Monaco treatment if there’s ever a divorce. All the footage will be scrubbed. All the articles will be sanitized, if not scrubbed outright.
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Ollie Akana Headcanons:
(Warning: mentions spoilers, mentions abuse, mentions sexual assault)
1.) Despite his vehement denial of all things ghosts and spirit like, Ollie likes supernatural shows like Supernatural (he stopped watching after season 5 or 6, whenever the Leviathans came) and Stranger Things
2.) Ollie had nightmares for weeks about being turned evil by the Void King and Void Queen, then working as a double agent for Zedd. His s/o reassures him for hours after these nightmares.
3.) Ollie wasn't evil during his time with Zedd. He was a double agent working around the clock to help his friends in any sort of way he could
4.) Ollie's father was a piece of shit and abused him and his mom. Ollie was six when his father died, via falling down the stairs. Ollie doesn't regret it. Ollie also doesn't miss him.
5.) Ollie is protective of his mother to the point that he checks on her three times a day outside of normal texting
6.) Ollie is the youngest of the Rangers, not Izzy. He's 16 at the start of Dino Fury. He skipped a few grades, currently he's registered for online college classes. There's also a reason that Solon and the other Rangers call him Boy Genius/Baby Genius
7.) Ollie's heroes include: his mother, Billy Cranston, Rose Ortiz, Riley Griffin, Nate Silva, Hayley Ziktor, Andros, Jen Scotts, Taylor Earhardt, and Cam Watanabe
8.) There was a point in his life when Ollie very much wanted to be a pirate
9.) Ollie's been in karate since he was a kid, fencing since he was 14
10.) Billy offers Ollie an internship at Cranston Tech when Ollie graduates college. Ollie happily accepts.
11.) Ollie is well aware of other dimensions and would LOVE to go visit them if given the chance
12.) Ollie can speak and understand multiple languages due to his travels with his mother. The only ones he'd say he's fluent to mastery in are English, Japanese, and Hawaiian
13.) Ollie was bullied in school and people did tend to stay away because he was young, not just because of his attitude regarding group projects
14.) Ollie was sexually assaulted as a kid, around age 12 to 13. His mother won a million dollar lawsuit off the situation in order to take down the school, that teacher, and the board of education members that allowed it. She refused to let Ollie testify because he burst into tears at the thought and she refused to out him under more duress
15.) Ollie has ptsd, anxiety, and a minor form of OCD
16.) Ollie's OCD contributes a lot to his attitude regarding group projects, not just his pride
17.) Ollie is bisexual, leaning more towards girls, and polygamous
18.) Ollie writes poetry to cope with his trauma and his feelings
#power rangers#power rangers dino fury#power rangers cosmic fury#ollie akana#thoughts and headcanons#thoughts and rambles#possible spoilers#spoilers#mentions abuse
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The deal that the writers got is a good one, right? Almost all their demands were met. Why do you think the studios agreed this time?
It is a good deal. They did get most of what they wanted. As I expected, the agreement is mostly the same as the offer back in August (X). I predicted that the studios will agree to minimum 5 - 7 writers in the writers room, however in the new agreement the minimal numbers don't kick in until episode 7. Now I could be wrong but it looks like broadcast shows on streaming will not receive any streaming bonus, meaning Eric Kripke and SPN writers will not get any thousand dollar bonus per episode while Supernatural continues to rank in the top ten streamed shows.
The studios agreed because they also got a good deal in the long game. The studios wanted the strike so that they can cancel projects and deals with expensive talents that weren't producing contents worth their value. This wasn’t so much as a strike, it was more of a lockout. In the long run they can game the system with their infamous creative accounting. Remember kids, the house always win.
This deadline article(X) talks about market contractions, meaning there will be less TV shows, which come on, do we really need 500 to 600 scripted TV shows every year? Contents will be drastically reduced and budget slashed. No more $20 million per episode for series like Stranger Things, The Good Omen, House of the Dragon, One Piece, and some Marvel/Star Wars shows. It's back to $5 to $10 million per episode instead.
Going forward there will be much less jobs for writers and actors, but at least those that will have jobs will see a nice salary bump.
So what to you the viewers get?
Seasons that are 6 episodes or less and with longer run times.
Seasons that 12 episodes but are split up to make it feel like two seasons; one late in the year and one earlier in the year. Like what The Walking Dead did in its latter seasons.
See more lawsuits similar to Gabrielle Union's lawsuit against BET network. Double the episodes ordered in a single season but will air through two seasons so that they don't have to pay actors their raises in the second season.
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It has been a weird year for combat sports. Plenty of great fights and cards, but at least partially overshadowed by promotional shenanigans outside the ring/cage. Many of those outside the cage things are coming to a head in 2024.
So here are some things to be on the lookout for in combat sports in 2024.
1. The UFC antitrust lawsuit: Cung Le and the fighters will be going to court come in 2024 barring a Hail Mary from the Zuffa legal team. The outcome of this case, whether it’s the UFC paying hundreds of millions of dollars to the fighters directly or being forced to have less restrictive contracts, could change the entire sport as we know it. It’s the most important thing happening in MMA. As we move closer to the case, I really hope more of the MMA media (outside of Bloodyelbow) starts talking about it more.
2. PFL-Bellator merger: for as pessimistic as I have been about this, I really hope the PFL team manage to get this thing off the ground. They’ve got a new deal with ESPN that includes some shoulder programming. They’ve got one of the hottest names in combat sports right now with Francis Ngannou (also that one Paul brother). They’ve got a good roster that has a bit of depth to it now. I want them to succeed, I’m just not confident the team that tried to sellout MSG on NYE can figure it out.
3. ONE Championship - MMA, $$$, and BS: despite putting on amazing fights, I have to imagine 2023 will be another year where ONE operates deeply in the red. With rumors of their investors in Qatar, growing tired of losing money, ONE needs to start making cash. I can’t imagine their recent addition of $40 PPVs will be the cash cow they need, but it’s showing some desperation for liquidity. But that’s not the only trouble bubbling with the promotion. ONE put on something like 20 kickboxing bouts and most of their MMA champions fought at most once, or not at all. The focus on Muay Thai and a handful of grappling “super” fights has come at the cost of MMA fighters and kickboxers. So much so that a handful of them are openly complaining and were attempting to leave the promotion before legal action was taken to keep them in house. ONE has booked a couple big MMA bouts for 2024, but without booking of younger talent there’s really no infrastructure to build future challengers. And that’s concerning for a promotion that wants to run cards in the US and potentially land a big TV/streaming deal.
4. K-1 ReBoot - More J-Kick disappointment : K-1 ReBirth aka ReBoot has been a disaster. While the first event produced a new exciting Chinese Light Heavyweight challenger and was main event Ed by a terrific fight between Kaneko and Kumara, the card was streamed on the Quintet YT channel because something kept it off DAZN and FITE TV. And while Rebirth 2 was fire start to finish, the card was only accessible via VPN and ABEMA as their international streaming rights still had not been settled. If K-1 wants to be a globe trotting promotion that does business in Europe, China, and the US, they need to sort all this out.
5. PBC post Showtime: Showtime Boxing is dead after almost 40 years of business, meaning one of the last bastions of boxing on US TV. It was recently announced they will continue with PPVs being broadcast thru Amazon prime (and traditional providers) but it’s unclear how many events they will hold and if this will exclusively include PPV? Word is they are shopping around for another partner but this has understandably been a big blow for the entire industry. 2024 is an odd year for PBC, especially if they have to trim down their roster because they can’t get everyone fights.
6. Glory Kickboxing - What next?: Glory kind of limped thru 2023. While they had some highs, there were a lot of events and stuff that fell flat. Relying on heavyweights is always a gamble like that I suppose. But the guy they got to fight for the welterweight title against Endy Semeleer last week had like 3 fights to his name? So in an effort to build contenders and momentum, they’re bringing back the one night four man tournaments of Spike era Glory. We’ll see if that works for them. They also have that big heavyweight Grand Prix coming up apparently so we’ll see.
Feel free to add your own
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Sir.
Pt 2. Coming soon...
CEO/BossHarry x FemReader
A little bit of enemy’s to lovers. Fluffy 🥰
T/w: aggression, attempted assault.
*********
Pleasing.
One of the most wild and out there inclusive and sustainable brands of a generation. Also your workplace since it first opened. You came on to a temp position as a lawyer planning to leave once they found someone with more experience to fill the position permanently, which turned into your contract being extended which turned into being offered the permanent position as the legal executive anyway.
It wasn’t your typical lawyer job, the dress code was a little more relaxed compared to previous companies you had worked for, even to this day you couldn’t bring yourself to not wear heels of some description to work. You held yourself to high standards in regards to your appearance, particularly when you never knew when the CEO would pop in.
You had really only spoken to Mr Styles a few times, but that was enough for you to form your opinion of him, he was your least favourite person to roam the Earth. You had major differences of opinion to how legal issues should be handled, you had always been down the line and straight to the point and you had the results and reputation to prove that it worked majority of the time. However Mr Styles was of the opinion that things should be negotiated and that Pleasing should be the sweet side of the deal rather than get to the point which meant in a number of cases you spent a lot longer negotiating deals than you should have and was also resulting in the company losing money.
You knew this was fact because your best friend worked in marketing and things were slow for him at the moment because there wasn’t much money to spend on promotion. Just last week Joel had been given a four day weekend just because there was no work to be done.
******
Today was a big day for you, the quarterly financials meeting, these generally involved the heads of each department, yourself included as well as the CEO and a few key investors. These were also the meetings you hated every last second of because the CEO never agreed with you or even bothered to look at your reports on how much the company was losing just in law suits in a week. Mr Styles was oblivious and honestly, you thought sometimes he was living in his own fantasy land, just creating the company as something to fill in his time.
Taking your seat a few places down from where Mr Styles would be seated, you place your cup of coffee above the meetings agenda and reports that were stacked at each seat. The other department heads and investors begin to roll in before finally Mr Styles himself arrives “apologies for the tardiness everyone, small family emergency” he mumbles taking his seat at the head of the table, “let’s get started shall we?” He looks around rubbing his hands together. The COO Adam stands and starts going through the overall loss and profit margins for the last three months and surprise surprise the company was still running at a total loss of almost 2.5 million per month.
Each department head then goes over their own profit-loss margins working their way around the table towards you. When it was finally your turn you look over what you had prepared before standing just as the others had. “Mr Styles, I would like to bring to your attention a string of recent lawsuits against us from another major skincare and cosmetics brand. In the last month alone we’ve run at a 5 million dollar total loss in just settlements to this company, the way we conduct ourselves in legal matters is simply not effective. I understand our sales have improved significantly since expanding the collections however, if we continue on this type of trajectory our reputation will eventually take a hit, NDA’s won’t stop a company that we’ve already settled with from dragging our name through the mud”
Mr Styles sits and ponders your words for a moment “I don’t see an issue with how we handle our legal issues here, we’re going to run at a loss when it comes to settlements.” You felt yourself getting angry at his statement “with all due respect Mr Styles, we should be fighting these lawsuits harder, we have the resources and knowledge to be able to so why aren’t we?” You ask the agitation clear in your voice. “Miss Y/L/N” Adam scolds you shrug “I’m just telling it how it is, we run at a ridiculous loss in legal because of these lawsuits because we’re not allowed to fight what we know we can win, I want to change that then Pleasing will flourish, this isn’t about ego or status, it’s about keeping this company afloat, we have staff in other departments having three day working weeks because we have nothing for them to work on!”
Mr Styles has was resting under his chin glancing between you and Adam, who was seemingly hoping his glare would kill you there and then, “alright Miss Y/L/N, I’ll give you this next quarter do run legal the way you want, fight which ever battles the way you see fit and we’ll see who’s method works better” you nod “thank you Mr Styles, I’ll be sure to keep you up to date” you say before sitting down trying to hide the fact that you were quiet impressed with yourself in that current moment.
The final piece on the agenda was the annual company holiday party. This was often something that would occur in early November to beat the holiday rush that the company experienced later in the month and into December. Since you had begun at Pleasing a large majority of the planning for the holiday party was left to you. The last few years this party had been held in the function room of a local hotel, this year however you were changing things up wanting booking a local winery instead with gorgeous views and amazing wines and cocktails, just what you needed to get through a day of celebrations with colleagues and of course the snobby CEO.
Finally once the meeting is over your able to go back to your office shutting yourself away. You turn to walk towards your desk to find Joel already sitting in your chair causing you to jump, gasping “what the hell are you doing?!” You exclaim “you scared the life out of me!” You scold placing your papers on your desk “I was bored, thought I’d come and see what you were up to, Harry has literally nothing for us to do in marketing because we have no money” he sighs dramatically. Joel was one of the first friends you made here at Pleasing, he took the gay best friend stereotype to another level. You think about his words for a moment “Harry?” You ask confused causing Joel to scoff “are you insane?! The ridiculously hot man you just had a two hour long meeting with!” You glare at him to tone it down “you mean Mr Styles…get out of my chair” you pester needing to get some work done.
“Mr Styles and I finally sort of understand each other, he’s letting me run legal the way I want for the quarter” Joel sits in a chair on the other sise of your desk giving you a sly eye “maybe he likes a powerful woman” he winks “stop it. He’s our boss” you say sitting down to go through some paperwork “are we going for drinks tonight?” Joel asks swiping through Grindr on his phone “for the millionth time, I said I would be there” you say a little snappy causing Joel to look up “for the love of all things gay we need to get you laid, snappy exec isn’t a good look on you.” He chimes in standing up “I’m sorry, I just have a lot to do,I got really angry in the meeting, I want to prove to Mr Styles that things need to change around here for good” you sigh. Joel comes around to you hugging your shoulders, “you’re the best lawyer here, I’m sure whatever you need to prove, you’ll be able to do it, and if you don’t just flash him your tits or something, I don’t really know what straight men want” he shrugs letting you go walking to your office door “I’ll see you tonight, don’t be late!” He calls out as he walking out.
*****
By the time you left work it was 7pm, drinks were supposed to be straight after work at 5:30 but you got so caught up in a new lawsuit and then planning some more of the office holiday party that you didn’t even realise what the time was. You quickly pack up and rush off to find everyone already a few cocktails deep “I’m so sorry I’m late” you whisper to Joel with a pout he shrugs “it’s ok, we were just thinking of going to a different bar, look over in the corner” you look at him confused before looking over to see Mr Styles at a smaller table with a woman, presumably on a date “ugh, I agree with that, let’s get out of here, there’s a new bar just opened not far from my apartment, should we try there?” You ask starting to clear the table off a little to help the staff. The same group from work came here almost every fortnight so now you were all just in a routine of helping to clean up after yourselves before you left and it sometimes meant you got free drinks.
Heading out you glance once more in your bosses direction to see him already looking at you. You glare at him as his date clings to his side playing with the collar of his shirt. You roll your eyes before following Joel out the door. The group of you pile into an Uber and head over to the new bar near your place. Sitting down next to Joel you begin chatting to another of the girls from marketing as your first round of drinks arrive. You get a few rounds in before Joel nudges your side “my girl…what’s wrong?” He asks wrapping an arm around you, you shrug “I think it’s just work, that finances meeting took it out of me today” you sigh “I think I just need a night at home” you say softly spinning your glass in your hand glancing at Joel. He nods slowly “finish this round?” He asks and you nod breaking into a smile “of course” you giggle a little. You spent another twenty minutes or so with the group before you started to gather your things to go home.
Joel walks you out to the front of the bar pulling you in for a hug “look after yourself yeah? Please don’t work over the weekend” he sighs a little you nod hugging him back “I’ll try not to but lawsuits don’t sleep, see you Monday?” You ask softly. Joel nods “go get some sleep, love ya bitch” he smiles kissing your cheek before letting you go.
*******
The weekend went by slowly, but it was what you needed to reset. Sunday you had spent the afternoon sending off emails to vendors for the work party so that replies would come in early in the work week. You were lounging on the couch scrolling through Pinterest looking for decoration inspiration when your phone began to ring with a number you didn’t recognise. You glance at it for a moment before picking up “Hello?” You answer down the line waiting a moment for a response “Y/n? It’s Harr- uh, Mr Styles” you sit up a little “um Mr Styles Hi, what can I do for you?” You ask he clears his throat “I have a breakfast meeting tomorrow for a potential collaboration and I would be really grateful if you could come alone to go over contracts and everything?” He asks you process the question for a moment “Bess usually handles new contracts Mr Styles, do you really need me?” You ask “Bess has had a family emergency she can’t make it” he responds you sigh a little “yeah ok, I can fill in for her” he let’s put a sigh of relief “thank you so much, I really appreciate it, I’ll get the contracts and meeting details sent over to you and I’ll see you in the conference room at 7am” before you knew it he had hung up, you groan tossing your phone to one side giving yourself one last moment to relax before picking your phone up heading to your desk to look over the contracts overnight.
Spending most of the night going over the contracts and making changes to benefit Pleasing, you left your desk at 5am to start getting ready, having a shower trying to wake yourself up. Putting some makeup on around 6am your phone begins to chime with Mr Styles phone number illuminating your screen you quickly pick up “Good morning” you chime trying to sound enthusiastic and at least awake “Good morning, you’re up already by the sounds of things, have you had a chance to look over the contracts?” He asks hearing him clattering around in his kitchen “yeah, I looked over them last night and added in some proposed changes to benefit us, I’ll send them over to you now” you place your phone on speaker sending the documents off. “Did you sleep at all? This is an entire days worth of work” you giggle a little “after we spoke last night I got straight into the contracts, there’s a few more changes I wanted to make but it got to 5am and I figured I should probably get ready” the line goes silent for a moment “Wow Y/n that’s real dedication, are you sure your going to be ok to work all day?” Mr Styles asks “I’ll be fine, not the first time I’ve done long hours like that, I should probably get going, I’ll see you at 7 Mr Styles” you say before hanging up, wanting to end the conversation quickly.
Harry was honestly surprised at how dedicated to your job you were and he appreciated that a lot of the work you did was under the radar. On his drive in to work he stopped at one of this favourite coffee shops picking himself up his usual espresso and a latte for you hoping that he got your order right. He felt as though he had been a little tough on you, seeing that you were so dedicated to ensuring Pleasing was succuessful and even having the guts to make you opinions known in the finances meeting made him regret how he had treated you. Pulling into the car park Harry grabbed his bags and made his way up to his office dropping a few things off and picking a few up before heading to the conference room.
Heading down the hall Harry expected to be the first one there, but inching closer to the conference room he noticed the lights already on and the room essentially set up for the breakfast meeting due to start in half an hour. Walking in Harry finds you sitting at the table, head basically in your laptop still going over the contracts. “Morning” Harry smiles softly, you just about jump out of your skin partially due to sleep deprivation, but also not expecting anyone to arrive until closer to 7, “Mr Styles!” you exclaim trying to catch your breath “I didn’t expect you to be here so early” you sigh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you, I actually came in to set up but looks like you beat me to it...I um I got you a latte I hope that’s ok” He says a little shy compared to how he usually presents himself. You look up from your computer smiling a little “thank you, you didn’t have to do that Mr Styles” He shakes his head placing the coffee cup next to you “Please... call me Harry.” You couldn’t help but blush a little at your boss asking you to call him by his first name. You were about to respond when some other lawyers and execs start to flow into the conference room.
The meeting ran reletively smoothly, both you and Harry managed to negotiate most of the changes to the contract, which for you, meant the night without sleep was worth while. Once everyone had left and it was just you and Harry you stretch in your chair, trying to hold in a yawn and failing miserably, you hear Harry chuckle off to the side “if you want the rest of the day off I wouldn’t be mad in the slightest, I understand now why we asked you to stay on permanently” he says softly moving closer to you.
You couldn’t help but smile a little at the compliment it was the first time that you’d felt appreciated in this role. You look up at Harry with tired eyes “I’ll be ok Harry, nothing a little bit of coffee can’t fix” he smirks a little “I’m sure your right but I’m concerned that that’s already your third coffee since we’ve been here, let alone the coffee you probably consumed before you got here” you sigh softly knowing he was right but not wanting to give in “Harry. I’ll be fine. End of” you retort. He holds his hands up in defeat. “Ok, I’ll leave you to it then, thank you for saving the day, I truely appreciate it, let me know if there’s anything I can do for you today” you shrug “no thanks needed, it’s what you pay me for” you smile softly. Harry only nods before making his way to his office.
The rest of your day dragged on, you got through a few contract changes and spent most of the afternoon on party prep to keep yourself awake. It was this weekend and everything was organised. Vendors has emailed you back with confirmations this morning, the last thing you had to do was find yourself something to wear. The company usually kept things semi formal for this particular event. You wanted to let your hair down a little and be a little more daring this year. You shoot a message off to Joel to see if he was free to help you pick something. Before he could reply your office phone began to ring. “Legal, this is Y/n” you answer not really looking at where the call was coming from “Y/n, it’s Harry, could you come to my office for a moment?” He asks you stammer a little trying to find your words “umm yeah ok, I’ll be there in 5” you hang up and collect a few things expecting this to be work related.
You make it to Harry’s assistance desk and smile softly at her “Hi, I’m just here to see Mr Styles” without saying a word she motions for you to head into his office. You walk towards the door and knock softly before opening it seeing Harry sitting at his desk on the phone. He motions for you to come in and take a seat. He finishes up with his phone call directing his attention to you “Hi” he smiles softly. He almost looked nervous and it made you a little bit giddy for him, which you weren’t sure how to feel about. “I just wanted to touch base and see how you were feeling, haven’t fallen asleep at your desk yet?” He asks you smile a little and shake your head “no, no unexpected naps yet” you giggle. Harry just smiles at you taking you in for a moment before realising himself that he was just staring at you, clearing his throat you bite your lip a little trying to hold in your awkward laugh “I um was hoping you had some time to talk to me about the company party? I know we touched on it briefly in the finances meeting but I’d love to know what you’ve got planned” Harry explains giving you his undivided attention “yeah of course” you spent about an hour going through all of your plans with Harry to which he hardly spoke and could barely take his eyes off you the entire time.
“This is amazing work, really thank you Y/n, a lot of what you do goes unrecognised because you never make a fuss or take credit for these things so thank you so so much” Harry smiles. All of a sudden you felt this wave of affection for the man sitting before you. You always thought he was some stuck up CEO when in fact he actually really cared for his company, it was nice that the feeling was mutual. “I should have let you run legal the way you wanted a long time ago, I’m sorry I’ve been so uptight” you shake your head a little “Mr Styles this is your company, you’re allowed to run it the way you see fit” he chuckles a little “even when I’m telling you your right you won’t take credit, be honest with me though, is it that bad?” He asks. You just nod “I think everyone tried to cover it, I just prefer to be brutally honest about it all“ Harry sighs softly “i really appreciate you bringing everything to my attention, I wish I’d been more open to listening to you in the first place...hey I usually have something at my place after the holiday party, I’d love to have you there this year...and you’re more the welcome to bring Joel everyone else brings their partners so you should to” his smile soon fades at the confused look plastered on your face “Mr Styles-“ you begin before he cuts you off “Harry” he says before letting you carry on rolling your eyes a little “Harry, you know Joel’s gay right?” Harry’s eyes grow wide and he begins to apologise profusely causing you to laugh “it’s fine, really it’s fine, quiet funny actually” you smirk. Harry’s cheeks has gone cherry red and was shaking his head to himself “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed anything, but either way the invitation stands” he says softly. You nod and smile “It’ll be just me, but I’d love to be there” you say softly causing Harry to smile “great”. You finalise a few other details for the company party before you head out making your way straight to Joel’s office.
“You will never guess what just happened” you giggle sitting down. Joel takes one look at you and speaks up “baby girl, have you slept?” He asks. You simply shake your head “no and that’s not what I was coming to tell you, Harry thought you and I were a couple” Joel breaks out in hysterical laughter “that’s the funniest shit I’ve ever heard, no offence sweetheart your adorable but even if I was straight your not my type” you pout a little “thanks?” You say softly not sure if it was really a compliment or not. “So it sounds like you and our hunky CEO are getting along?” Joel asks with a knowing look “I guess we are, he invited me to an after party at his place, he’s been really nice I don’t know what’s going on but it’s kind of hot” you sigh annoyed that you found yourself attracted to a man you usually despise.
“Don’t get too caught up ma’am, remember you saw him on a date like three days ago.” Joel reminds you. You tilt your head to one side for a moment thinking about his words “I guess your right, I hadn’t really thought of that” Joel shakes his head a little “babes you just need to get laid it’s been too long, what about that Tom guy from HR didn’t he ask for your number?” You nod “yeah he never texted me but maybe I’ll get drunk enough at this holiday party that I’ll make a move on him, but that’s a later problem right now I need your help to pick a dress can we go shopping after work?” You ask. Joel smirks “we could go now?” You glare at him “it’s only 4:30” Joel just nods and glares back “yeah and you’ve been here since 6:30 and been up all night and not had a lunch break so news flash sunshine we’re going” you groan a little “fine, let me go and grab my things” you say heading off to your office.
You head up to your office and grab your bags swinging by the legal receptionist desk “Hey Maria, I’m heading out for the day, just forward any of my calls to my mobile” you smile softly she nods before you begin to walk off “oh Y/n wait!” She calls out standing up coming after you “Mr Styles assistant dropped this off for you earlier” she says passing you an envelope you thank her before continuing back to Joel’s office. You open the envelope to find a note ‘consider this a bonus on top of your bonus, thank you for all of your incredible work, I’d be lost without you - H x’ you blush reading his note as you walk into Joel’s office. You pull out a cheque for five thousand dollars and gasp a little only expecting it to be a small amount. Joel looks up at you “what’s wrong?” He asks “Harry just gave me a bonus on top of my Christmas bonus…. And a note that’s ridiculously sweet” you pass it over to Joel who’s quickly reads over it and smiles “he’s got the hots for you, c’mon if your going to end up fucking the CEO after the holiday party the least you can do is look ridiculously hot”
******
Saturday morning. The day of the holiday party. It had both you and Harry all kinds of nervous. You and Joel had come to the venue first thing to help them set up before heading home around lunch time to start getting ready. “Do you really think Harry is going to like this dress?!” You call out from your walk in robe. Joel soon appears in the doorway “wow, now I’m no straight man but damn sweetheart you look fucking incredible, I’m so glad they had that dress in your size” his compliment causes you to smile a little looking yourself over in the mirror again. Joel had found the dress and you were initially a little skeptical that it was too much but you felt amazing in it.
The red fabric hugged your hips perfectly and the low back really complimented your shape, you pop some earrings in and some perfume on before grabbing a coat.
Arriving you see there’s already quiet a few people at the venue. You hand your coat over to the clerk before heading into the venue seeing several familiar faces. You take a moment to take the room in, everything was perfect. Joel nudges your side a little “you’ve outdone yourself….someone’s already gawking at you” he smiles “enjoy tonight please, I’m going to go and cause some trouble” he smiles heading away from you leaving you standing at the entrance. You look over towards Harry and see him staring at you not at all involved in the conversation around him. You decide to play hardball and head over to the bar first grabbing yourself a drink mingling with a few people.
About an hour passes you’d kept your eye on Harry and found him already looking at you almost every time you caught his eye. Next thing you know Harry is at the front of the venue with a microphone in hand. This was his usual every year, he would make a speech thanking everyone for another year of hard work. “Hi everyone, thank you all for coming out tonight, I’ll keep this short and sweet, I just want to thank you all for the hard work and effort you’ve put in this year, I just wanted to highlight a few that have gone above and beyond this year, Joel in marketing you’ve done some incredible stuff this year and boosted our exposure ten fold so thank you. Tania in development you and your entire team have put a lot of hours in and given us some of our best ideas this year and finally, Y/n our legal exec, Y/n goes above and beyond every single year with late nights, early mornings and sometimes missing out on sleep all together because the CEO is a bit of an ass” the room erupts in a sea of laughter as you smile a little watching Harry who was watching you “Y/n is also the reason we have a holiday party each year, she organises every last detail so on behalf of everyone thank you Y/n we appreciate you so much. And thank you everyone for coming out, now please go and enjoy your night blow off some steam!” Harry chuckles as everyone cheers as glasses begin clinking together as people toast.
You sip on your drink and glance over at Harry again noticing he was making his way over to you “Hi” he smiles softly “Hey” you respond “nice speech” you smirk trying to hold in your giggle. He chuckles softly “well you do way more than I expect of anyone you deserve the recognition” you shrug a little “the bonus check ontop of my bonus check was a bit much, but thank you Harry, I really appreciate it” you smile softly he chuckles a little looking at his feet “you deserve it and I would definitely be lost without you…” Harry pauses for a moment “you umm, you look stunning by the way that dress…wow” he sighs out. You blush and smile softly “thank you, you scrub up pretty well yourself Harry” from a corner you hear Joel calling out to you you sigh a little “sorry I better go rein him in, see you later?” You ask placing your hand on Harry’s forearm he nods smiling “of course” he says softly helping you off the bar stool you were perched on before leaning down to kiss your cheek.
You reach Joel who was just standing giggling at you clearly tispy “What the hell man, I was just talking to Harry and your big mouth just had to but in” Joel glares at you “excuse me Miss thing back that attitude up” you bat your eyes looking back at him “fine, I’m sorry, what’s up?” You ask “I was just talking to Harry’s assistant, that girl he was with at the bar when we saw him, complete doozy his assistant said she keeps calling him at work and he keeps screening her calls saying he’s not in or he’s busy” you look at Joel before scanning the room finding Harry chatting to Bess “ok, so?” You ask coming back to Joel “are you insane?! He gives you cute notes, bonuses and just talked about you like the sun shines out of your ass, he wants you dummy” you groan a little “but I hated him like a week ago” Joel grabs your shoulders “who cares? He’s got the hots for you and let’s be real you only hated him because of work crap, you actually don’t really know him they well, I’m not saying to have to marry him just go and have fun, let your hair down please” Joel begs you sigh and admit defeat, heading back to the bar for another drink.
Waiting for your order you hear someone slide in next to you, thinking it was Harry you turn and smile only to see if was Luke one of the office rascals, he did this to you at almost every work event, got up close and personal, making moves on you and using every derogatory joke in the book, you turned him down every single time. He’s appalling. You quickly turn away from him “awww c’mon sweet cheeks, got any love for Lukie?” He questions you groan a little not wanting to hear another word out of his mouth you feel him move closer to you and his breath that reeked of alcohol next to your ear “with an ass like that you’d have enough love for three of me-" he mumbles your drink arrives before he finishes his sentence. You walk away towards the bathrooms needing a moment to yourself.
Luke was the kind of guy that never took a hint so when you rounded to corner down the corridor to the bathrooms you turn a little and see him following you catching up to you quite quickly, “Go away Luke” you call out wanting to be left alone. He rounds you preventing you from making it to the bathroom “what’s wrong baby, we’re just having fun” he says inching closer towards you backing you against a wall “Luke leave me alone please” you beg scared for whatever fantasy he has going on in his head in one swift move he pins you against the wall your back slamming up against the brick kncocking your drink from your hand and some of your breath from your lungs. His knee moved between your thighs preventing you from kicking out against him his hands trying to make their way up your dress but trying to wrangle your arms as you try to push him away. “Luke get off me!” You yell as he leans in trying to connect his lips with any part of you he could get his mouth on.
Thrashing and panting in his arms trying to break away from his hold one of his hands starts to move up the slit in your dress, tears sting your eyes your lip trembling about to accept what was going to be your fate when all of a sudden it was as though Luke’s body weight had never been upon you. Without even thinking you drop to the floor covering your face sobbing into your knees trying to cover as much of yourself as you could feeling overly exposed. All you could hear was two men yelling at one another and the echo of fists making contact with skin rung through the corridor until finally everything stopped. All that could be heard were your sobs, you felt someone kneel down next to you causing you to shudder and hold yourself tighter. “Hey hey hey” the voice whispers reassuringly “it’s just me” you recognised Harry’s voice, but you didn’t want to look at him in your current state he places his hands next to your elbows trying his best to comfort you “c’mon, let’s get you out of here for a moment” he whispers.
Very slowly you stand still not wanting to make eye contact with him, with either of them, once you’re upright he slips his blazer off placing it over your shoulders “is there anything I can get you, do you want Joel instead of me?” He offers politely. You simply shake your head not really wanting to talk or even think. Harry begins to guide you outside to get some air. You weren’t sure who he was speaking to but you heard him talking to someone “make sure that piece of shit never steps foot in my company building again, he’s not welcome to pack his desk either, there will be nothing left of it” Harry’s tone was stern but very reassuring, he had your back right now and its exactly what you needed.
Sitting down outside your still hadn’t worked up the courage to look at Harry he just sat with you in silence ready to listen if you needed him to. You eventually break the silence when Harry hands you a clean tissue from his pocket “thank you” you whisper, quieter than you’d ever been, you soon follow up “I’m sorry” you glance up a little to look at Harry who was looking at you with a red mark to his jaw but with nothing but concern for you “please….don’t apologise” Harry whispers in reply “none of this was your fault, he’s a tool” Harry whispers taking your hand in his rubbing the top of your knuckles softly “is there anything I can do?” He asks shaking your head you move to rest your temple on Harry’s shoulder the come down from all the adrenaline making you sleepy.
You stay like that for what felt like hours, not speaking, just sitting “I think I want to leave” you say softly hugging Harry’s blazer closer to you taking a deep breath in “want me to take you home?” He asks it was evident in his voice he felt more uncomfortable about leaving you alone after what he just witnessed. You nod a little “yes please”. Harry wraps an arm around you hugging you a little “need me to grab anything for you?” He asks softly “I- I left my coat inside….but please don’t leave me Harry” you beg you voice beginning to shake. Harry scoops you up holding you to his chest rubbing your back “it’s ok, you’re ok I promise, I’m not going anywhere” you both stay put until you calm down again “how about, we walk around to the front of the venue and get your coat so no one sees and then we can go?” He asks you nod softly in his chest “thank you” you whisper softly.
Harry helps you to your feet before guiding you around to the front of the venue you go to walk up to collect your coat when you stop “I’m sorry Harry” he shakes his head “please y/n don’t apologise, he was being an ass hat” you shake your head “I’m sorry that he hit you” Harry let’s out a huff, when you look up at him he was smiling at you “I’d happily take a few hits if it means stopping him from getting to you y/n, please don’t apologise for his shitty behaviour” he says softly holding a hand out to help you up the steps to the front entrance to collect your coat. Taking Harry’s hand you felt safe so safe that once you made it back into the venue you didn’t want to let go. Harry let you hold his hand to collect your coat, walk to his car even on the drive home he never once asked you to let him go. Pulling up outside of your apartment you just stare at the building not wanting to get out Harry gives your hand a squeeze “why don’t you stay in my guest room tonight?” He asks “I want you to feel safe” he adds you look over at him and nod “please” you whisper Harry just nods and smiles.
Harry came up to your apartment to help you grab a few things but in reality you just didn’t want to be alone. You sit in silence on the car ride to Harry’s. Making it up to his penthouse he helps you get settled showing you the guest room and bathroom. He lets you get settled and into some comfy warmer clothes while he makes you both something to eat as you make your way back to the open living and dining space Harry makes his way to you with a cup in hand as the smell of eggs fills your senses “hot chocolate?” Harry offers you nod smiling a little for the first time tonight “thank you” you take the mug from Harry’s hands and sip the warm liquid. “Are you hungry? I’m making omelettes” Harry offers you nod a little “yes please.”
You follow Harry back to the kitchen and sit at the kitchen island watching him cook “thank you” you say after a few minutes after you sat down “I’m sorry I haven’t always been the nicest employee ever” Harry turns a little smiling at you “you’re probably one of the only employees who’s is completely honest with me and I really respect that and appreciate it, so I should be thanking you” you couldn’t help but blush a little.
You and Harry ate together and chat for most of the night, you happened to glance at your phone and see it was almost midnight “Harry weren’t you supposed to be having an after party here?” You ask. He nods “I actually decided to cancel, my staff as individuals come first, especially when without them I’d probably be broke” he jokes you smile a little “I’m sure on the back of such a successful music career it would take a while for you to go broke” Harry chuckles before you reach out rubbing your thumb over the growing bruise on his jaw “y’ok?” You ask softly Harry nods taking your hand in his “I’m ok, I want you to be ok though” he says softly you shrug a little “I’ll be ok, I think it just shocked me more than anything I didn’t expect it to happen” Harry’s brows crease “you shouldn’t expect it to happen, no one should expect for something like that to happen to them” you sigh looking down and yours and Harry’s hands “I don’t even know why I reacted the way I did” you let out a shaky breath trying to hold your tears in “because it’s never happened before? Because I should be able to provide you with a safe workplace” you let out a little scoff as some tears slip “I wish I could say it’s never happened before” Harry sighs standing “shit” he mumbles softly pulling you into his chest “I’m so so sorry” he holds you close as you give in letting your tears fall staining Harry’s white dress shirt with your tears and makeup.
After what felt like forever you calmed down and collected yourself, looking up at Harry you see him trying to hold back his own tears “I’m so sorry that happened to you, I’m sorry for every shitty man you’ve ever had to put up with, no one deserves to go through that” Harry places a kiss to your hair still holding you close “thank you for looking after me” you mumble sighing out, “Anytime” Harry whispers softly.
*****
Once you had both collected yourselves Harry got you set for the night in the guest room, but part of you didn’t know what to do, you felt too disgusted to even think about sleeping but you were more tired than ever. Then there was the fact that you were at your bosses place in his guest bedroom in your underwear. Harry had really gone above and beyond for you in the last few weeks and you had been so tough on him prior to that. You felt terrible.
At around 4:30 your usual alarm started sounding from your phone you rolled over groaning a little turning it off sitting up a little, you sigh a little and drag yourself out of bed to the bathroom before heading out to the kitchen for a glass of water you head out to the couch and sit down watching as the London breeze moves the trees in the park across the road. You sigh softly you pull your knees up to your chest it wasn’t long before the kitchen light flicked on. You turn in your seat looking over to see Harry in track pants, chest bare.
You sit just watching your boss making coffee, it was such a mundane activity, you’d never really thought of him doing these things himself, you figured he had a whole team of people that did a lot of these things for him. “Morning” you say loud enough for Harry to hear. His head pops up looking in your direction “Hey” he smiles, “I thought you’d be asleep still” you shrug a little “I couldn’t really sleep” you sigh getting up to sit across from Harry at the kitchen island. “Coffee?” He asks, you nod slightly “yes please” Harry passes you a cup before coming to sit next to you. “I won’t stay long I’ll just have this and order an Uber” you say softly glancing over at him “don’t rush please it’s only just gone 5am, besides it’s nice having company” he starts before sipping from his cup.
“I’d love to hear more about you, and how you plan on helping me run Pleasing permanently” Harry’s statement causes your ears to perk up. You look over at him confused as ever “what are you talking about?” You ask softly he just grins “I don’t need to wait for the rest of the quarter, you’ve proved to me this week that I’ve been doing things wrong, and I’d love your help to fix it, Adam gave his notice Thursday his family want to move back to the US and put their roots down permanently I had a month to find someone to fill the position but I think I’ve already done it” Harry says glancing at you trying to hold in his smile.
“Is this a joke?” you ask not believing Harry completely he just laughs before turning to look directly at you “Miss Y/L/N, I would like to formally offer you the position as the new COO for an immediate start….please say yes, the CEO’s been on my back about this” he whispers the last part causing you to giggle before nodding biting your lip softly “Ok…I’ll do it” you smile, Harry just about jumps out of his seat “are you serious?” He asks, you just nod giggling a little “yeah I’d love to” you smile Harry jumps off his seat pulling you into a tight hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you” Harry whispers kissing your head softly.
You pull away looking up at Harry who was already smiling down at you. You reach up running your hand over the bruise that had popped up on Harry’s jaw from the night before you sigh a little. Harry moves to cup your cheeks shaking his head a little “it’s ok” he whispers. He leans down a little to rest his forehead against yours but hesitates “sorry, I should have thought about that more” he pulls away a little.
Before you even thought about what you were doing you pulled Harry back down to you connecting you lips to his in a quick kiss. Harry stumbles back a little shocked at your actions. He looks at you wide eyed panting a little you feel the heat rise in your cheeks embarrassed at what you’d done. “I- I’m sorry” you whimper hastily making your way back to the guest room ordering an Uber while you pack your things. Harry waits a moment trying to process what had just happened “y/n” Harry’s says softly standing in the doorway “I’m sorry Harry, I’m- I’m just going to go” you say softly pulling your bag over your shoulder pushing past Harry heading to the front door “y/n wait please” he sighs trying to head after you. Before Harry could go after you you’d slipped outside and into your Uber.
******
You spent the better half of the rest of the weekend feeling like that dumb cliche employee. Monday morning rolled around and you were dreading it more than ever. You’d have to face Harry and more than likely face the millions of questions to where you disappeared to on Saturday.
Parking your car you sigh a little just sitting for a moment trying to hype yourself up enough to go inside. You hadn’t heard from Harry all weekend Joel had tried to text and call but when you never replied he stopped. You wanted to talk to him about this in person and God knows he’ll be sitting in your office waiting for you when you finally make it up there.
You drag yourself inside and head up to your office. You should get into betting, just as you expected Joel was sitting in your chair waiting for you when you walked in the door “Hi lovely” he says giving you a sympathetic look. “You already know?” You ask “I think everyone does” he says softly you groan a little sitting across from him “but I do have some questions, where did you go? After I tried to call and you didn’t answer I went over to your place and it looked like there was no one there but your car was in your spot” you bite your lip softly knowing there was no talking yourself out of this one. “Umm, Harry let me stay at his place for the night, I didn’t want to be alone”
Joel’s eyes go wide as he grips the edge of your desk “I’m sorry ma’am he let you stay with him? I don’t want to break away from the main issue here but that a big thing for even you to be ok with” you shrug “he did literally everything to help me feel safe, then I fucked it up Sunday morning by giving him a peck on the lips and then running out of there like a 15 year old girl” Joel sighs running his hands through his hair “I’ve known you for a while now, whatever is going to happen with you and him will happen, and I know you’ll work it out, I was honestly just coming to make sure that your ok” he says standing up coming around to hug you tightly “I will be I promise” you mumble into his shoulder hugging him back “text me if you need anything?” He asks you nod before he lets you go kissing your temple before heading out.
Sitting at your desk sighing softly you felt guilty. Like you’d just left out a major detail of the weekend where you would essentially become Joel’s boss, well, everyone’s boss really just a step under Harry. You get settled in for the morning working through the piles of papers on your desk. Just before lunch your office phone rings. You jump a little before picking it up “legal, it’s Y/n” you say softly pushing some papers away “hey, it’s just Harry, have you got some time to come up and talk about your new contract?” He asks. You suck your teeth for a moment “umm yeah, sure, I’ll be up in a few” you say softly.
Heading up to Harry’s office you couldn’t help but hesitate to knock on his door. You knock softly and instantly cringe realising how awkward this was going to be. Harry calls out for you to come in. You smile softly as you walk in and Harry looks up from his computer “hey” he smiles wide standing up “how are you?” He asks leaning against his desk you blush a little “I’m good Harry, what’s up?” You ask, “I have something to show you” he smiles “follow me” he says softly heading out of his office. You follow suit heading away from Harry’s office to another. “I thought you might like an upgrade” he smiles softly motioning to the door with your name and new position on it “wow, you work quick here Styles” you giggle softly. “Well I wanted to make sure it was perfect” he smiles softly opening the door letting you in first you smile wide at the newly decorated office.
The walls were a light grey but still crisp and relaxing a timber accent wall behind your desk to lighten the room up. Harry had even decorated with a new, bigger desk than the one you already had, a new desktop and some plants scattered around your office “I um, noticed you had some plants in your office I thought you might like some more” he says softly from behind you “Harry, thank you so much I love it” you smile turning to face him to find him already staring at you.
Biting your lip softly you speak up “Harry I wanted to apologise, for Sunday morning I shouldn’t have done that” you say softly. He shakes his head “it’s ok, honestly. I was actually going to ask if you were free for dinner tonight?” He asks nervously letting out a breath that he felt he’d been holding in forever. You glance at your feet before nodding a little “I’d be ok with that” you smile softly. Harry tried to hide the childish grin plastered across his face “great, I’ll come and find you later?” He asks. You nod smiling a little “oh feel free to move into your new office whenever you’re ready, Adam decided to work from home for his last week so this is all yours whenever you want” Harry says softly stepping closer to you.
“I just wanted to say thank you, you really saved my butt on this, I think we’ll make a great team” you look up at Harry your breathing unsteady as Harry leans down to peck your cheek. You blush a little before there’s a knock on the door making you both jump stepping away from one another.
“Mr Styles there’s a phone call for you” his assistant calls out. Harry steps closer again his hand slowly falls to your waist squeezing a little “take a message please” he calls out softly looking into your eyes “happy?” He asks softly you nod moving your hands to rest on his chest “very happy” you smile softly as Harry’s hands snake around your waist. “Y’know I kind of didn’t like you when I first started here, but you’ve grown on me really quickly H” you admit glancing up to Harry’s eyes seeing him chuckle a little “hmm, I love being called H” he smiles before letting out a shaky breath “is this ok? I don’t want to push anything or go to fast I-” you cut him off before he could finish “Harry it’s ok, I trust you” you whisper.
Harry smiles widely leaking down kissing your forehead softly before pulling you in for a hug. You sigh softly relaxing into his chest, it was only a few moments of complete relaxation before your phone began to ring. You slowly pull away from Harry’s warmth glancing at your phone “it’s Maria…I should probably answer it” Harry smirks a little “probably just passing a message on from your boss, I hear he’s hard to please” he smiles as you release from his hold to grab your phone.
“Hi Maria, everything ok?” You sit at the end of your new desk as you talk to Maria, she soon brings up a job you’d be working on for a few weeks you move to the desk chair logging into the desktop phone held to your ear with your shoulder as Harry just watched you. After around twenty minutes and a few transfers of the call it finally ended and Harry was still patiently waiting for you sat on the sofa smiling at you.
“What’s that look for Mr Styles?” You ask trying to hold back your smile to hide how much you enjoyed this. “Just thinking about how glad I am that you said yes to this job, you’re perfect for it” Harry smiles you blush and giggle a little “I’m glad I said yes too” your phone begins to ring again causing you to sigh a little “I should get back to my old office, but I’ll see you later?” You ask standing up Harry following suit “definitely” he smiles you come over kissing his cheek softly.
******
The rest of your day flew, you hardly got a chance to look at your phone the rest of the day. When your finally caught up with everything it was almost 6:30 and you hadn’t heard from Harry yet, everyone else had started to head home you wanted to try and get as much work done before you moved out of this job for good. You go so caught up the next time you checked the clock is was 8pm you started to pack up your things to head home when your office phone began to ring. You recognised the extension as Harry’s office you pick up smiling a little “Hey Harry” you sit down again “Hey, so I was thinking considering I’ve left it pretty late to go out for dinner, how about I order in for us? Maybe I could help you move office tonight as well?” He asks you blush and giggle a little you felt like a giddy teenager “that sounds great, I’ll start packing some stuff up” “I’ll meet you in your office in a few” Harry responds you nod a little “sounds great H, see you soon” you smile before hanging up.
Harry felt genuinely nervous to spend some time alone with you that wasn’t after a traumatising event. He really wanted to get to know you better but didn’t want to go to fast. Harry ordered some dinner for you both setting it out in your new office before heading to your old office finding you still working “Hope your boss pays overtime” he smirks leaning against the door frame “he’s buying me dinner so I can’t complain” you wink as he walks in “c’mon, it’s only Monday and you’ve been here for 12 hours dinners in your new office” he smiles holding a hand out to you.
You gladly take it looking around your office a little “mind grabbing a box?” You ask look at them all scattered around your office “of course” he smiles picking up a couple of boxes stacking them on then each other. You grab a box of your own a few other bits and bobs. You walk with Harry in silence to your new office “it’s kind of scary only being down the hallway from you instead of on an entirely different floor” Harry chuckles “I didn’t know I was that scary” he glances in your direction “I wouldn’t say scary, maybe a little bit intimidating, but I think I’ll get used to it” you smile up at him turning into your new office seeing Harry had set dinner out already “H….you did all this already” you say softly looking around placing the boxes in your desk. “Thank you” you smile as Harry places the boxes he had next to yours and kissing your cheek on his way back up “my pleasure” he says softly cheeks a little red.
*******
Sitting down to dinner with Harry was honestly a little…awkward to say the least but in a good way, in a goofy way. The last time you sat down together in a work environment like this you basically argued about how legal should work. But this was a nice change, a mundane change. “So..” Harry starts “tell me more about yourself, I know where you went to uni and I know what you do for work so tell me about siblings, home life all that fun stuff” He finishes sipping from his water as you kick your heels off tucking one leg under the other on your seat. “Ok, I’m the oldest of four kids, my siblings Jared, Nick and Ashlinn think it’s crazy that I work for you. Grew up on a farm outside of Cheltenham then moved to Oxford and you know the rest” you say softly glancing at Harry. “Wait” Harry chuckles “why do they think it’s crazy?” He asks “well because you’re you, Harry Styles had, or still has, a successful music and acting career and is CEO of multimillion dollar company.” Harry hides his grin “well their sister is quiet impressive herself” he says glancing up at you as you try to hide your red cheeks.
“Tell me something no one knows” he says softly you giggle a little “like what?” You retort, Harry just shrugs “there has to be some deep dark secret there that no one knows” he says grabbing some more food you think about it for a moment “oh here’s one….I had a major crush on you growing up, when you were on x-factor……I don’t know why I told you that, it’s kind of embarrassing”. Harry laughs scooting a little closer to you “that’s actually really sweet, can I ask what changed? We’ve had a rocky work relationship the last few years.” You ponder Harry’s question for a moment “when I started here I loved it, and I still do now but in between I think I felt a little like the legal exec at the time was taking advantage of my commitment to the job which meant I resented you because he always blamed you, I think I just needed to see that young kid with curly hair in the CEO that I work with now, and I have, and he’s one of the nicest people I know here” you smile a little “you’re too nice to me Y’know that” you giggle a little “you just grew on me, I guess especially over the weekend, I’ve never felt so supported until that moment so thank you.”
Harry shrugs “honestly you’re my favourite employee I trust you more than anyone here m’glad we’re getting along better, m’glad I offered you the legal execs job, that’s not the first time I’ve been told he was hard to work with, I’m sorry some of my staffing decisions haven’t been the best” you start shaking your head “don’t apologise Harry, jobs interviews are basically just trying to judge someone character is half an hour it’s hard to do” you giggle a little turning your body to face Harry more your knees touching “what about you H, tell me about you and your family” he shrugs a little “there’s probably not much you don’t already know, I’ve got mum and Gemma they’re both really supportive….I’ve always found this really difficult trying to get to know people when they already know everything about me.” Y/n was giving Harry her undivided attention she understood where we was coming from because he was right she already knew a lot about him.
****
You and Harry finished up dinner and moved the rest of your office before moving back to the couch sitting next to one another “I haven’t told anyone yet, about the job offer, not even Joel” Harry glances at you “are you worried?” He asks softly you shrug moving to rest your head on his shoulder lightly “a little bit, it’ll be ok right?” You ask, your anxieties really coming to light. Harry nods wrapping an arm around you “your going to do great, I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t think you could do it” he says softly placing a kiss to your hair you hum a little snuggling into him a little more a wave of fatigue coming over you “we should get out of here, it’s almost 1am” you mumble trying to stifle a yawn. Harry chuckles a little “c’mon, I’ll walk you to your car” he smiles before standing up.
Harry holds his hands out to help you up which you gladly take. He pulls you up a little too quickly causing your tired body to jump into Harry’s. His hands move to your waist to steady you “y’ok?” He chuckles looking down at you. You nod rubbing your eyes a little “y’too cute” he smirks you smile a little “your not bad yourself Styles” you say wrapping your arms around his neck edging him closer towards you. Harry begins to slowly edge his lips closer to your and then back a little as if he was having his own internal struggle “you wanted to know about me?” He asks softly referring to your earlier conversation. You nod a little as Harry sticks your hair behind your ear, he pauses for a moment letting out a shaky breath. “I was harsh on you on purpose...” he starts “because I find you really attractive…I didn’t want to let myself get too caught up if you had a partner or if you weren’t looking for anything but I think working closer with you these last few weeks seeing how compassionate you are and how strong you are-“ even though he was pouring out his feelings to you, you couldn’t let him finish because you knew how you felt about him already. You wrap your arms around his shoulders pulling him in for a kiss, nothing to extravagant just enough for him to realise you didn’t need to hear anymore because you already knew.
His hands automatically drop to your waist pulling you closer to him you smile on his lips Harry hums against you one hand moving to cup your cheek softly. He slowly pulls away looking into your eyes trying to read how you were feeling and where the sudden confidence came from to kiss him. Harry grinned at you like a kid “sorry” he chuckles a little “I didn’t mean to just stare at you” he pulls away a little seemingly catching his breath. “It’s ok” you say softly “we should get home…” Harry says softly, you shrug a little “Honestly we have to be back here so soon we may as well just sleep here” Harry looks at you a crease present in his brows “why’d I get the feeling you’ve done that before” he says softly you shrug a little “I won’t confirm or deny” you knew Harry could read straight through you in that moment. You’d done it before on several occasions in fact.
“Well if you’re going to be too stubborn to go home then it’s only fair I stay here too” you giggle a little “c’mon then I’ve got a spot” you take Harry’s hand leading him to the elevator “it goes without saying, this is kind of my secret spot, not even Joel knows about it but as my boss please don’t get mad at me” Harry wraps an arm around your shoulder as you lean into him “not making any promises” he says softly before kissing into your hair, you glance up at him “I’m joking” he chuckles “your dedication is what keeps this place going half the time I don’t think I could ever actually be mad at you, frustrated, maybe. But not mad” he smiles softly as the elevator dings to the very top floor.
It was smaller than all the other floors, which is why it was used for storing spare furniture, sometimes you came up here just for some peace and quiet, it also had the best views in the building, Harry thought it was his office, but he was wrong.
The nights you stayed too late were the nights you ended up sleeping up here and using the office gym to shower and change to make it look like you had been home. “What are we doing up here?” Harry asks as you lead him towards one of the offices that you’d basically turned into a bedroom “this is my little spot, for me” you say softly opening the office door to reveal the makeshift bed, with blankets and pillows and an overnight bag on the floor holding a spare change of clothes and some comfy clothes for you to sleep in. “Ok” Harry says softly “I’m not mad, but I am a little concerned to how much overtime you probably haven’t been paid for since you worked here, sweetheart be honest with me, how often do you stay the night at work?” Harry asks dropping your hand to look at you properly. You shrug a little “once a week sometimes twice, it just depends really, on really bad weeks I’ve stayed up to four nights, I go home on my lunch breaks to get more clothes.”
Harry stares at you in awe “why did you never tell anyone?” He asks genuinely shocked by what you were telling him “it’s my choice Harry, I truely love my job, but it takes sacrifice” you say looking down at your feet. Harry sighs softly kissing your forehead “thank you” he whispers softly “for every single thing you do I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you enough” he says wrapping his hands around yours bumping his nose to yours “thank you” you say softly “this is kind of my favourite place, look at the view” you tug Harry’s hand a little.
“I already like the view” Harry says pecking your lips softly you giggle against Harry’s lips “I’m serious you goose” you say after he pulls away you tug Harry’s hand again causing him to turn to look out the window “wow” he exhales looking out at the London sky line “I’ll never get used to being home all the time” he says softly you snuggle into Harry’s side a little “cold?” He asks softly you nod it wasn’t very well heated up on the top floor “c’mon let’s get tucked in….umm, do you mind if I sleep in my boxers?” He asks nervously “no not at all” you smile up at Harry kissing his cheek before grabbing your bag taking out some clothes before slipping out to the bathroom leaving Harry to get comfortable.
Arriving back Harry was snuggled into the makeshift bed with just about every blanket and throw over him waiting for you he smiles in your direction an oversized jumper covering a quarter of the way down your thighs. “This is quiet domestic of us” Harry’s says softly pushing the covers back for you. You giggle a little climbing in next to him “it is, I hope it’s comfortable, half the time I’m so tired by the time I get up here I just fall asleep” Harry smiles a little turning to you “it’s surprisingly comfortable” he says softly you raise an eyebrow at him “ok it’s not the most comfortable thing ever, but I’m not worried about comfort” he says smiling a little.
“Do we need a pillow wall?” You ask jokingly. Harry chuckles “I think we’ll be ok don’t you?” He asks you nod smiling “I was joking” you giggle. Harry smiles as you lean over to kiss his cheek. “Goodnight Harry” you whisper softly snuggling down into the covers already becoming groggy due to current lack of sleep. “Goodnight y/n” Harry whispers before you fall asleep.
*****
Waking up the next morning the weather was less than pleasant, you were almost hugging the side of the bed trying to keep some distance between you and Harry. It had been a confusing 72 hours to say the least between kissing Harry, accepting a new position and now sleeping in the same dodgy ass bed with him you didn’t know what to think about any of it. You sigh a little rolling over expecting to bump into Harry but finding nothing.
You sit up looking around the room seeing no one else there you sigh a little look at the time seeing it was only 6:30 you drag yourself from the bed packing everything up before grabbing your overnight bag heading down to the work gym you shower and get yourself ready for the day. Heading down to your car to drop your overnight bag in the trunk you see Harry pulling in. He steps out of his car coffee and breakfast in hand a Pleasing hoodie hugging his torso.
“Good morning” you say softly causing Harry to jump “Hi” he smiles before glancing at his watch “it’s early, I thought you’d be asleep still” you shrug a little “honestly this is like a sleep in for me” you giggle a little Harry just smiles looking you up and down “I love that sweater” he chuckles referring to cream coloured knit with lemons on it. “How does coffee and breakfast in your new office sound?” He asks beginning to head to the elevator to take you both back inside “I would say you know how to keep a girl happy H” you smirk glancing in his direction.
You both climb into the elevator Harry hands you your coffee kissing your temple “I hope I didn’t wake you this morning, you looked so peaceful” he comments as if it wouldn’t just make you melt you just look at him smiling trying to find your words eventually giving up lifting your jaw to close. You make your way up to your office with Harry beside you in silence you sit down together stealing small glances at one another every so often. 8am rolls around and everyone else slowly starts to flow in meaning both yours and Harry’s phones soon started ringing yours first with Joel’s name illuminating your screen “sorry I should grab this” you say softly picking up the device sliding across to answer the call. “Hey you, wha-” you didn’t even get to finish before Joel was booming down the line “what the fuck?! Did you quit?!” He almost screams “What? No why?” You ask “your office is empty” he says genuinely sounding disappointed “oh my goodness honey no, I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet, I’ll be right down don’t move” you say before hanging up.
Looking at Harry the crease in his brow present “is everything ok?” He asks softly you nod “I haven’t told Joel about the promotion and he thinks I’ve left because my old office is empty” you say softly standing grabbing your phone “I’m sorry I’m running out on breakfast” Harry shakes his head taking your hand “it’s ok y/n do what you need to I’m here all day” he smiles a little standing as well grabbing his things “I’ll see you later?” He asks softly, you nod as he pulls you closer checking the coast was clear before pressing his lips to your causing hands to rest just under Harry’s jaw “don’t get us a caught Harry, dunno what the boss would think” you hum against his causing him to chuckle and smile “you’re so cheeky” he chuckles against your lips pecking them a few more times “let me know if you need anything ok?” You nod slowly peeling away from each other.
*****
Racing down to your old office you find Joel sitting in the new bare office “hey” you say softly he looks up at you and you couldn’t read him at all, he looked angry upset and confused all at once but you couldn’t pin point one. “Let’s go talk” you say softly “just tell me one thing…are you leaving?” He asks you shake your head smiling a little “no sweetheart, I’m not leaving” you say “c’mon I have something to show you” he follows you up to the CEO floor, “what are we doing up here?” He asks. “Going to my new office” you smile as you make it to your office door with your name and position printed upon it. Joel looks at the door then back at you then back at the door “that….that’s you, it…it says COO” you nod giggling a little “yeah it does” you say softly letting the information sink in yourself.
“Are you serious? Babes that’s amazing! I’m so proud” he smiles pulling you in for the tightest hug you’ve ever had “thank you” you giggle a little hugging him back “we need to celebrate!” He says pulling away holding your shoulders “drinks Friday night to celebrate you?!” You nod “I would love that! Come in, there’s more to tell you” you say softly opening your office door for Joel. You chat for about an hour and tell him everything about what was going on between you and Harry.
Once you had finished Joel just looked at you a little shocked but also processing everything still “invite him along…on Friday, we can all hang out together and try and sus him out for you” you nod “ok, but hear me out for a second, I like him, he’s actually really sweet, I’d love to spend time with you guys and with him all together it’ll be great” Joel stands coming to hug you “I’m so proud of you, I’m glad that you guys are doing whatever it is that your doing, you’d make a cute couple, and freakin hot power couple I mean look at this, working on the same floor just down the hall from one another” Joel smiles giving you a squeeze causing you to giggle “ok, ok calm down” you laugh. “I better go, my best friends my boss now I don’t want to upset her” he chuckles you pout a little before saying your goodbyes.
****
You spent a large majority of your week on zoom calls with Adam trying to fill in the gaps for the COO job and trying to find someone else to pick up the leftovers in legal now that they were one down. You and Harry had kept things pretty relaxed most of the week you had texted on and off throughout and he had arrived with coffee for you both almost each morning. Starting the morning ritual of coffee a kiss and a little catch up on the main issues for the day. Neither of your had brought up that fact that you weren’t sure what was happening just that you were enjoying being around one another. You didn’t want to leave the little bubble you had created it was comfortable and it felt incredibly safe, just what you needed.
Joel swung past your office Friday afternoon double checking you were still on for the night you assured him for what felt like the 10th time this week that you and Harry would be there on time, with bells on.
At 5:30 you had for once managed to get everything done for the day, you took yourself down to Harry’s office his assistant already gone for the day, you knock softly and hear him call out. You let yourself in smiling softly “hey you….almost ready?” You ask softly moving towards his desk. Harry stands “just finished up, what a day, I didn’t realise how hard my job was going to get when I have such an attractive COO, it’s hard to focus with you walking past all day, especially in those jeans” he teases as his hands move to hold your waist “can I steal a kiss before we go for drinks?” He begs pulling you closer. You giggle wrapping your arms around him “mmm I’m sure I can spare some time for you” you say softly before pressing your lips to Harry’s.
Harry pulls you closer his hands moving lower to grip your rump your hands move to his chest grinning on his lips “can I tell you something?” You ask. Harry nods pulling away for you to look up at him “I kind of missed you this week” you say softly causing Harry to smile “I missed you as well” he sighs softly pulling you back to him kissing you again. After a few more minutes you pull away “c’mon we don’t need to be late, Joel will destroy us both” you say softly. You walk out with Harry keeping a bit of distance between you both you didn’t need investors seeing you all cuddled up to one another.
The walk to the bar got you thinking about what you would say if someone asked what you and Harry were doing. “Hey H” you say softly glancing over at him, he simply hums in response hooking his index finger around your pinkie “what are we going to say if someone asks what we are? We’re not exactly great at keeping our hands off each other” Harry glances at you sucking his lips in “that’s a good point, what would you like to tell them?” He asks you shrug a little “I don’t really know, I know I like you” he takes your hand properly giving it a squeeze, “I’m the same, I don’t really know what I want to tell them but I know I like you” he smiles softly pulling you into him kissing your temple softly you blush a little as you walk up to the bar.
Joel had organised an courtyard table knowing that Friday nights closer to the Holiday season got stupid busy and that you and your work mates liked being outside in the fresh air after being in the office all week. You guide Harry through the crowd of people until you make it outside to the courtyard seeing Joel, Kim and a few other work mates sitting around a table. Joel sees you first, coming over to give you a hug that you gladly accept “I’m so glad you made it” he says softly “me too, I hope you guys haven’t been waiting long” you smile a little pulling away “obviously you know Harry” you giggle a little as Harry smiles at Joel before Joel yanks him in for a hug “look after her, us gays may seem sweet but we’re vicious” he says just loud enough for you to hear. Harry just chuckles “no intension of going anywhere or hurting her” Harry says smiling in your direction staring at you in awe, you blush a little and kiss his cheek once Joel lets him go you head over to sit down with the rest of the group.
You were all pretty squished up on the picnic style benches and the others couldn’t really stop staring at the fact the CEO was there sitting at the table as well. Joel helps you to get the conversation flowing and after an hours and a few rounds everyone was having a great time, the other girls partners had arrived and Joel was getting you all to help him find someone on Grindr for the weekend. You all ordered some food for the table and being a few drinks in you were getting a little clingy to Harry’s delight it seemed, he had wrapped an arm around your waist pulling you into his side kissing your head causing Kim to shriek “hold the fuck on” she says pointing at you both “wait…are you guys… y/n?” She asks you giggle a little shrugging “we like each other it’s as simple as that” you say shutting down whatever else was going to come out of her mouth next. You look up at Harry who was simply smiling down at you trying to hold in his laugh. “Well I think you two would be adorable together, full on power couple right?” She says looking at Joel who then looks at you “she’s not wrong you know that” he just smirks you nudge him a little before Kim continues “I’m just saying, you know that Dan and I met at my old job and we both really liked each other, poor thing didn’t ask me out until that day I was leaving to work at Pleasing and it’s all worked out we’re engaged now” she says flashing her ring more towards Harry than you, given this was information you knew already.
Harry just reaches for your hand giving it a squeeze not wanting to put any pressure on you about whatever you were both doing you peck the corner of his lips “thank you” you whisper softly you sit around for a while before Harry squeezes your hand again holding up his phone “I gotta take this” he sighs softly you simply nod moving in to kiss his cheek but Harry moves to catch your lips instead smirking when he pulls away “just missed you” he smiles “I’ll be back in a few” he says softly pecking your lips once more. You giggle a little as he walks away to take the call, turning back you find the rest of the table staring at you.
“You have to tell us everything” Siobhan pipes up, you giggle a little and tell them most of what happened at the holiday party the weekend prior “Harry’s hardly left my side all week, it’s kind of comforting knowing he’s just down the hall too, I feel safe with him around, I feel terrible that I used to think he was horrible, he’s actually one of the nicest people I’ve ever met” you groan a little covering your face with your hands “I really really like him” the others were just looking at you giving you their undivided attention “oh my god she’s got the feels” Kim’s partner says you smile a little “I kinda do don’t I? I’m just scared it’s a little too quick I’d love to date Harry but I wanna get to know him better first” you say softly before taking the last sip of your drink “anyone else want another round? Must be my turn to buy?” You ask.
You get everyones order before heading inside to place it. While you wait you check your work emails to make sure nothing major had come up since you’d been out, when a strong pair of arms wrap around you and an all to familiar scent filled your nostrils. You smile a little wrapping your arms around his leaning into his chest “your supposed to be having fun not working” Harry whispers you giggle “says you taking work phone calls in a bar” you retort Harry just smirks placing a few dainty kisses to your neck “wrong Miss Y/L/N it was actually my sister, she was just checking in we do it every week at the same time because we’re both so busy” you turn in Harry’s hold smiling a little “H, that’s so sweet, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have assumed it was work” he shakes his head “it’s ok, I can understand why you would think it’s work, we are there a lot and it never stops” he says as you wrap your arms around his neck “I like your friends” Harry’s whispers his lips a mere inch from yours “really?” You asks smiling he just nods “they’re really fun, and I like that they’re ok with us not labelling things” you hum smiling a little “but, they got me thinking a little bit” Harry continues “I would love to take you on a proper date…if you’d like that?” He asks.
You pause teasing Harry making it seem like you were thinking about his offer “I’d love to H” you smile as Harry pulls you in close “you’re so cheeky sometimes you know that” he smirks before kissing you softly hands squeezing your waist as the bartender placed all the drinks you ordered on a tray for you to carry back out. “Do you guys do this every week?” Harry asks helping you to carry a few drinks back yiu shrug a little “we try to do at least once every two weeks but sometimes it’s more sometimes it’s less just depends on what we all have on, why?” You ask glancing at Harry for a brief moment “I was just wondering, seems like it’s good for morale” as soon as the words leave him mouth glare at him “don’t go all boss on me Styles, don’t overanalyse things, we do it for fun and to blow off steam if we’ve had a hectic week. It’s nice to just socialise with one another outside of work” you say softly making it back to the table placing the drinks down.
Harry moved to take your hands turning you towards him “hey,” he says softly “I’m sorry babe, I didn’t mean to read into it too far” he cups your cheeks kissing your nose before chuckling a little “you look so cute like this” he smiles you shove his chest a little trying to hold in your smile “you just called me babe” you smirk a little Harry jaw drops open to argue back before he stops himself “I guess I did, are you mad about it?” He asks his hands dropping to grip your hips you shake your head “not at all, I kinda like it” you wink smirking up at him before pulling him down til his lips meet yours in a needy kiss, you run your tongue across Harry’s bottom lip before realising your still with all your friends your pull away giggling a little “sorry” you smile seeing Harry looking all flustered he shakes his head a little dropping his head to your ear “what are you doing to me sweet girl” he whispers causing goosebumps to erupt on your skin. You look up at Harry with innocent eyes “stay at my place tonight?” You ask Harry nods leaning down to kiss you once more before you both sit down.
*****
Gathering your things to head home with Harry felt a little odd. Harry had said goodbye to everyone already and was headed out to flag down the Uber he ordered for you both. You did the rounds giving everyone a hug as they all started to collect their own belongings so they could head home too. You make it to Joel and hug him tightly “I was skeptical about this thing with you and Harry, but seeing you with him you look so happy sweetheart and he hardly took his eyes off your tonight, I have a feeling this is more than just liking each other and screwing around for fun” Joel smirks raising an eyebrow you smile a little “well I don’t want to jinx it, but I think that too, he’s everything I’ve ever wanted and more and he’s so damn supportive…he asked me on a proper date because of you guys, so thank you” you smile hugging him once more before saying your goodbyes and heading out to Harry “Hi handsome” you smile walking up behind him kissing his arm he turns to look at you smiling a little phone to his ear he leans down kissing your head softly taking your hand giving it a squeeze you rest your head against his arm as the Uber pulls up.
Halfway to your apartment Harry finishes up his phone call he leans over pecking your cheek placing his hand on your thigh “we have a problem” he sighs softly you look up at him with worried eyes “Luke’s suing for wrongful dismissal….says he didn’t do anything wrong and we had no right to terminate him.” You felt the anger rising and your blood rushing in your veins, you sit up instantly feeling sober “are you fucking shitting me?” You look at Harry already getting angry enough for tears to begin brewing.
“That’s not everything…he’s suing me personally as well and he’s trying to get me with an assault charge for punching him” your jaw drops you felt so incredibly guilty, “Harry I’m so-” he cuts you off before you even begin to apologise “No, please don’t do that pet, he did the wrong thing, we’re going to fight this” you sigh kissing Harry’s cheek hiding your face in his shoulder to hide your tears that we’re trying to escape “what do you we do H?” You ask softly “we’ll he’s trying to make it look like we planned everything down to him coming after you, so my lawyer said we just need to limit our public contact with one another and keep it professional at work, we’ll be ok sweetheart, I promise” Harry says grabbing your hand squeezing it as the Uber pulls up at your apartment. “I should go home” Harry sighs softly “need to do some damage control” he says pulling you in close to hug you you whimper some tears slipping as you nod. “Hey, we’re going to be ok, this isn’t forever he’s just a small problem, c’mere” Harry whispers lifting your chin whipping your tears kissing your head then moving to connect his lips to yours, resting his forehead to yours he sighs softly “I wish I could just sneak you home with me” he smiles a little.
You giggle a little sniffling “me too” you peck Harry’s lips again “I’ll call you in the morning” Harry says placing little kisses over your face “thank you” you smile a little before collecting your things getting out of the Uber you wave a little as the car pulls away.
You turn to your apartment and sigh as your lip begins to tremble again.
Why did this have to happen now.
#Harry Styles#harry fanfic#harrys house#harry styles pleasing#pleasing#ceo harry#harry fluff#harry#one direction#harry fic#harrystyles harrystylesimagines#harry angst#imagine
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Jamie Dimon's name is being floated regularly for him to be a presidential candidate. Under his leadership, JP Morgan Chase has had 5 felony convictions. And now it's coming out he was Epstein's banker. Currently his bank is buying up failing banks at rock bottom prices with money from the fed, and he's being dressed up as a savior of sorts.
After much delay and legal protests by JPMorgan Chase, its Chairman and CEO, Jamie Dimon, was forced by a Manhattan federal court to testify under oath in a deposition about what he personally knew about the bank’s long-term customer relationship with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. (Epstein died in a Manhattan jail on August 10, 2019. His death was ruled a suicide by the medical examiner.)
The deposition was held last Friday, May 26, at the offices of JPMorgan Chase in Manhattan. In a surprise move, opposing counsels agreed yesterday to release the transcript of the deposition, with some segments marked as sensitive and redacted.
The deposition arose as a result of two lawsuits being heard by Judge Jed Rakoff in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. One lawsuit is on behalf of an alleged sexual assault victim of Epstein, Jane Doe 1. The other lawsuit was brought by the Attorney General’s office for the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) where Epstein maintained a secluded compound on a private island he owned.
According to Dimon’s version of events, he lived a cloistered existence in a corner office on the 48th floor of 270 Park Avenue where even the executives who directly reported to him and worked only “a couple hundred feet” away from his office, never shared with Dimon the bank’s many years of internal investigations about Epstein’s massive cash withdrawals from his accounts at the bank, that sometimes averaged more than $20,000 to $40,000 a month, or its investigations of Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage girls. According to the lawsuits, Epstein had accounts at the bank from 1998 to 2013, at times amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to Dimon, even the former Director of the Division of Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Stephen Cutler, who became General Counsel at JPMorgan Chase in February of 2007, worked in the office next door to Dimon and reported to Dimon, didn’t share his numerous objections with Dimon to keeping the Epstein accounts at the bank.
An email was introduced by opposing counsel during the deposition, showing that as far back as 2011, Cutler had written in an email referring to Epstein that “This is not an honorable person in any way. He should not be a client.” According to the deposition transcript, it was two executives who worked on the 48th floor with Dimon, Jes Staley and Mary Erdoes, who decided to retain Epstein as a client after his Florida indictment, arrest, jail term and after multiple internal investigations of his large cash withdrawals from his JPMorgan Chase accounts.
Despite dozens of news articles about Epstein being indicted in Florida for soliciting sex with a minor in 2006; despite bestselling author, James Patterson’s 2016 book, “Filthy Rich,” covering Epstein’s sexual assaults on young girls; notwithstanding Julie Brown’s blockbuster series on Epstein’s crimes against young women in the Miami Herald in 2018, which caused a viral media storm, Dimon’s under-oath position in the deposition was this:
“I don’t recall knowing anything about Jeffrey Epstein until the stories broke sometime in 2019. And I was surprised that I didn’t even — had never even heard of the guy, pretty much, and how involved he was with so many people.”
That testimony came despite Dimon stating during the deposition that he read the following newspapers: the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.
Another serious challenge to Dimon’s efforts to distance himself from any knowledge of Epstein or involvement with him came toward the end of the deposition when well-known lawyer, David Boies, of law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, introduced an email directly referring to an Epstein meeting with Dimon. (Boies is one of the lawyers representing the Jane Doe 1 victim of Epstein in her lawsuit against the bank.) The exchange went as follows:
Boies: “On February 26, 2010, Lesley Groff writes Mr. Epstein on the subject of, Jes [Staley] and Jamie. ‘Shall I have Lynn prepare heavy snacks for your evening appointments with [redacted], Jes Staley and Jamie Dimon? Or is this to be a nice, sit-down dinner at 9 p.m.?’ And Mr. Epstein replies, ‘Snacks.’ “
Dimon responds:
“I have never had an appointment with Jeff Epstein. I’ve never met Jeff Epstein. I never knew Jeff Epstein. I never went to Jeff Epstein’s house. I never had a meal with Jeff Epstein. I have no idea what they’re referring to here.”
The overall thrust of the U.S. Virgin Islands case against the bank is presented in its second amended complaint as follows:
“…based on documents reviewed and interviews conducted by the Government, JP Morgan knowingly facilitated, sustained, and concealed the human trafficking network operated by Jeffrey Epstein from his home and base in the Virgin Islands, and financially benefitted from this participation, directly or indirectly, by failing to comply with federal banking regulations, [redacted]. JP Morgan facilitated and concealed wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of—and were in fact part of—a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude of dozens of women and girls in and beyond the Virgin Islands. Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JP Morgan.
“Upon information and belief, JP Morgan turned a blind eye to evidence of human trafficking over more than a decade because of Epstein’s own financial footprint, and because of the deals and clients that Epstein brought and promised to bring to the bank. These decisions were advocated and approved at the senior levels of JP Morgan, including by the former chief executive of its asset management division and investment bank, whose inappropriate relationship with Epstein should have been evident to the bank.”
The second amended complaint by the U.S. Virgin Islands also adds a Fifth Count, charging JPMorgan Chase with obstruction. It reads in part:
“By providing financing for Epstein’s sex trafficking organization from at least 2000 through about August 2013, and concealing its actions thereafter, JP Morgan obstructed, interfered with, and prevented the federal government’s enforcement of the TVPA [Trafficking Victims Protection Act] against Epstein. To the extent that the federal government was able to ultimately charge Epstein with TVPA violations, the filing of these charges was delayed by JP Morgan’s actions. Because of that delay, women and girls in the Virgin Islands were coercively caused to engage in commercial sex acts.”
The second amended complaint also incorporates information obtained from a deposition of Mary Erdoes, one of the highest female executives at JPMorgan Chase. Much of the new information is stunning in terms of just how much it alleges that the bank knew about Epstein’s sex trafficking while it displayed a callous disregard for the underage girls being impacted by its failing to take action. It reads in part:
“In 2006, a JP Morgan Rapid Response Team noted that Epstein ‘routinely’ made cash withdrawals in amounts from $40,000 to $80,000 several times per month, totaling over $750,000 per year. In addition, Mary Erdoes admitted in her deposition that JP Morgan was aware by 2006 that Epstein was accused of paying cash to have underage girls and young women brought to his home. In the years that followed, JP Morgan employees, including senior executives, emailed internally that Epstein was under investigation or had been sued for trafficking or sexual abuse. This includes an email in 2010 between Mary Erdoes and Jes Staley regarding a federal investigation of Epstein for child trafficking; a 2011 email summarizing a few 2010 news stories connecting Epstein to human trafficking and promising to ‘monitor the accounts and cash usage closely going forward;’ and a 2011 compliance memo noting that ‘[n]umerous articles detail various law enforcement agencies investigating Jeffrey Epstein for allegedly participating in child trafficking and molesting underage girls’ and that ‘Epstein had settled a dozen civil lawsuits out of court from his victims regarding solicitation for an undisclosed amount.’ Internal emails also questioned who Epstein’s clients were, circulating an article regarding whether Epstein was running a Ponzi scheme.
“Indeed, Epstein’s behavior was so widely known at JPMorgan that senior executives joked about Epstein’s interest in young girls. In 2008, for example, Mary Erdoes received an email asking her whether Epstein was at an event ‘with miley cyrus.’ In her deposition, Mary Erdoes testified that JP Morgan terminated Epstein as a customer in 2013 after she became aware that the withdrawals were ‘actual cash.’ However, Epstein had made substantial cash withdrawals every year he banked with JP Morgan, including more than $800,000 per year in 2004 and 2005.”
There is also this devastating claim in the U.S. Virgin Islands’ complaint:
“One internal document [obtained from JPMorgan Chase] describes the account of Epstein’s ‘assistant or young lady he brought over from Prague (or some place like that),’ clearly referring to Jane Doe 1. The document describes charges in New York, Palm Beach, and St. Thomas for lingerie and other sexually explicit material. Elsewhere, JP Morgan describes media reports referring to the fact that Epstein purchased her at age 14. She remained a customer of JP Morgan, and Epstein paid her more than $600,000, from his accounts at JP Morgan, including more than $165,000 after Epstein’s plea.”
One of the more curious parts of the deposition on Friday came when Boies asked Dimon the following:
“In the entire time that you have been the chief executive officer of the bank, who are the three bank customers whose business with the bank has been most reputationally damaging to the bank?”
It should have taken Dimon about 1 second to blurt out the name Bernie Madoff as his biggest regret. JPMorgan Chase and its predecessor bank held the business account for Madoff for decades as he conducted the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. On January 7, 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice charged JPMorgan Chase with two criminal felony charges over the way it handled the Madoff account. The bank admitted to the charges and entered a deferred prosecution agreement. (This would be the first two felony charges, with three more felony charges for rigging foreign exchange, precious metals and Treasury markets to follow over the next six years.) (See our 2014 report: JPMorgan and Madoff Were Facilitating Nesting Dolls-Style Frauds Within Frauds.)
But instead of giving Boies the name of Madoff, or any other human customer, Dimon instead named Bear Stearns, an investment bank purchased by JPMorgan Chase in the early days of the financial crisis in 2008.
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Ban List for Sane People
Hi Skippy & Friends-Pilgrim with some thoughts after reading the dismal news headlines on this quiet August Sunday morning. All I can come up with for survival is to not support activities that are rotting the core of our countries as we the people are being hamstrung by leaders that seem to be wolves in sheep’s clothing. 1. Disney-any and all parks and products. The latest Twitter photos showing huge middle-aged men greeting small girls in front of a princess dress shop with bewildered parents is mind boggling. How can these families even walk by those huge monsters wearing ill fitted costumes, while entering the store? How can this slime ball company consider hiring these cretins because of new company policy???
2.Ignore all Instagram influencer$$ posing in their bathrooms in all forms of undress or useless, ugly clothes, shoes and accessories that cost minor fortunes. How many more 100-million-dollar jets or mansions do the Kardashian girls need these days for being total narcissists, adoring and in love with their own newly augmented image? For sure, the ILBW will not be on my list of people to make super rich with this nonsensical system brought to you by questionable brand designers and administrators creating “fashions” which are not only ugly, but they are also worthless in the real world. At least Italy has the sense and courage to ban the last former husband of Kim as he parades his basically naked new wife in public places. I have had it with other people’s boobs & butts in my face 24/7.
3. Shopping in designer stores where you might get shoved/hit/shot by a mob of bash & grab gangs. Our car was hit during our LAST trip to infested San Fran…we won’t set foot in that state now. If a store does attempt to stay open…how about showcasing & selling those clever knockoffs made in China-that would get those robbers really mad. Gumps, the once stately emporium since 1861, has decided to shutter it door, located steps from Union Square in San Fran…no one is safe from this illegal free for all right now.
4. Don’t invest in campus housing especially for sororities. In Laramie, Wyoming the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority lost their lawsuit to keep non-females out of their dorms! A very big guy who “feels like a female” has talked his way into living with them, drooling while watching them…WHAT??? The court said they would not define what a woman is.
5. Don’t book a campsite at the ultra-secretive 2,700-acre Monte Rio, CA club called Bohemian Grove, which is part of the Bohemian Club, the San Fran based non-profit that runs the more than 100 exclusive camps??? Don’t let anyone you like work there…the world leaders who go there don’t pay well as it is off the books…of course it is. They are also very demanding and have huge bonfires for very creepy things.
6. Don’t buy any super expensive mediocre artwork by (you know the name) a drug addict/cheating husband, who did shifty Ukranian & Chinese deals for his father’s coffers. This middle-aged man, lawbreaker is allowed to live in the White House, travel on Air Force One and spend over $15,000 a month on rent in Malibu with his security team also billing the same rent nearby and yet they want to arrest a former President of the US for questioning voting procedures in Atlanta?
7. Don’t take the new tour just announced in NYC!!! This late night, free walking tour of rat hotspots is getting popular?? “The rats are like the new celebs.” proclaims the owner of the Real NY Tours. Time to go weed the garden as I ponder my one single vote. Over and out from a crowded Cape Cod.
Wow! So much happening, and the world gets crazier!!! Thank you dear Pilgrim! Praying for better days!❤️
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How Audible steals from creators (an Audible exclusive)
If you listen to audiobooks, chances are you get them on Audible, Amazon’s monopoly platform with a 90+% market-share in many genres. But my books aren’t for sale there, even though that means foregoing the majority of the market. I explain why in a chapter of “Chokepoint Capitalism,” my forthcoming book, co-authored with Rebecca Giblin.
Audible is a classic “chokepoint capitalism” story — that is, it’s a story about a company that has corralled an audience inside some kind of walled garden, and used its control over the audience to demand greater and greater concessions from the creators who want to reach them, eventually abandoning all pretense of fairness and literally stealing from creators.
In Audible’s case, the walls are made from DRM, or “Digital Rights Management” — this is the “copy protection” system that Audible requires of all creators and publishers who sell on its platform. The company claims that DRM prevents listeners from stealing from creators by making it impossible to share the books they buy.
In reality, though, removing Audible’s DRM is not hard; if you’re a dishonest person who wants to share an Audible title widely, you can figure out how with a couple of quick searches. But while removing DRM is easy, it’s also very, very illegal: under Section 1201 of the DMCA (a 1998 US copyright law), selling someone a DRM-bypass tool is a felony carrying a 5-year sentence and a $500k fine.
That means that DRM never prevents copyright infringement (because infringers don’t care if they break the law), but it always prevents competition. If you’re a rival of Audible, hoping to unseat it, you have to convince potential customers to give up their Audible titles or maintain two separate libraries. You can’t just give them a tool to convert Audible files to MP3s or even another DRM format.
Audible doesn’t give creators a choice about DRM. Whether you’re Penguin Random House Audio (the audio division of the largest publisher in the world) or an independent producer, Audible requires you to use its DRM. This is so transparently abusive that I actually coined “Doctorow’s First Law” to describe it: “Any time someone puts a lock on something that belongs to you, and won’t give you the key, that lock is not for your benefit.”
Every time a publisher or creator allowed Audible to sell their work on its platform, they put another brick in the wall that surrounds audiobook listeners, making it more expensive and cumbersome for those listeners to defect from Audible to a rival platform.
The higher the walls got, the harder it was for listeners to leave.
The harder it was for listeners to leave, the worse Audible could treat creators.
This reached its apotheosis with the slow-moving crisis dubbed Audiblegate, in which the independent creators using Audible’s self-serve ACX discovered that the company had stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from them, an act of wage-theft to rival any media baron’s most brazen crimes:
https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/03/somebody-will/#acx
Audiblegate was discovered by Susan May, who publishes on ACX, and worked with Colleen Cross, a forensic accountant who also publishes on ACX. Now, a growing cohort of Audible authors are banding together, trying to recover their stolen wages from a trillion-dollar behemoth that was careful to subject them to binding arbitration waivers that take away their right to file a class-action lawsuit.
We interviewed Cross for Chokepoint Capitalism, as the centerpiece of Chapter 13, “Transparency Rights,” which explains how if state legislatures in just three states (NY, CA and WA) passed laws requiring certain accounting disclosures, we could shift millions of dollars from monopolists’ balance-sheets to creators all over the world.
“Transparency Rights” appears in the second half of our book, which is entirely given over to shovel-ready, realistic ideas for providing immediate, material returns to creators of all kinds — proposals for local, state and national governments, but also creators, artists’ groups, tinkerers and entrepreneurs, and fans.
This solutions-based approach was really the reason we wrote this book. For 40 years, the only lever creators thought they could yank on to improve their situations was labeled “MOAR COPYRIGHT” and despite the ballooning of copyright term and scope, creators’ share of artistic revenues has contracted, even as entertainment industry profits soared.
That’s why we called it “Chokepoint Capitalism.” The tech and entertainment monopolies have created hourglass-shaped markets with creators on one side and audiences on the other, and they sit at the pinch between them, demanding all that creators have to give as a condition of entry.
Giving creators more copyright under these circumstances is like giving your bullied kid more lunch-money. No matter how much lunch-money your kid brings to school, the bullies at the gate will take it from them. Indeed, the bullies will lobby for you to give your kid more lunch money — the more you give your kid, the more they can take from the hungry little beggar:
https://doctorow.medium.com/what-is-chokepoint-capitalism-b885c4cb2719
“Chokepoint Capitalism” is built on the idea that we make creators richer by restructuring the arts market by neutralizing monopolies — not by giving creators more easily expropriated rights for monopolists to take off them and use to increase their power.
After all, giving creators more copyright — the power to prevent DRM-removing tools, even when used for legitimate purposes — didn’t make us richer. Instead, it made it possible for Audible to lock up our audiences and then steal hundreds of millions of dollars from us.
[Image ID: ‘Are you a writer, a musician, an artist? Is Big Tech eating your brain and sucking your financial blood? Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin’s new book, Chokepoint Capitalism’, tells us how the vampires crashed the party and provides protective garlic. Your brain must remain your own concern, however.’ — Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale]
The book is getting amazing advance notices. Margaret Atwood loved it and Publishers Weekly named it one of the most anticipated books of the fall. You’ll be able to buy it anywhere as of September 27.
https://twitter.com/rgibli/status/1563648065197981697
Well…almost anywhere. We won’t be selling the audiobook on Audible, for reasons that I hope are obvious by this point. Instead, we’re running a Kickstarter campaign for an independent audio edition, and we’ve raised nearly $100k that way! Better still, our backers have added on 377 hardcover library donations and our publisher has pledged 200 more donations!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/doctorow/chokepoint-capitalism-an-audiobook-amazon-wont-sell/description
Now, I say that the book won’t be available on Audible, but that’s not quite true. As from today, you can buy an “Audible Exclusive” edition of Chapter 13, “Transparency Rights,” which explains in eye-watering detail how Audible locks in its listeners and uses that control to steal from the creators they love:
https://www.audible.com/pd/Transparency-Rights-Chapter-13-of-Chokepoint-Capitalism-Audiobook/B0BCR3J8WJ
This is the only part of the book that’s available on Audible. Instead of audiobook listeners who hear about our book and search for it on Audible getting no results, they’ll get this “exclusive” book, which is 35 minutes of Stefan Rudnicki’s outstanding narration of our detailed indictment of Audible’s business practices.
The price of this “Audible Exclusive” is different for every listener, because Audible won’t let its creators set their own price. It shows up as $3.95 for me. But rather than buying this short excerpt, I hope you’ll back the Kickstarter and help us blow the doors open on Amazon’s rampant wage-theft and abusive monopolism.
We’re about to head out on the road with the book, with several tour stops that are still being finalized. The first one we’re ready to unveil is coming up in NYC on Sept 23, sponsored by NYU’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chokepoint-capitalism-funtime-book-party-tickets-411552222777
We hope you’ll come, and bring the creators in your life. We’re giving space to several grassroots groups that are organizing resistance by creative laborers and other workers, and we want this to be as much about sharing tactics as it is about presenting the book.
[Image ID: The cover for 'Chokepoint Capitalism' surmounted by a black bar with white text reading, 'Chapter 13: Transparency Rights/An Audible Exclusive!']
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Seattle's Unification Church owned mansion sold – and will be demolished
6601 Northeast Windermere Road, Seattle, WA 98105
The original Rolland Denny estate home in Seattle’s exclusive Windermere neighborhood has been sold. On the market since 2022, Loch Kelden was recently sold to developers for what real-estate sites say is $5.999.900.00, “pending feasibility.”
Preservationists could not nominate it as a city landmark because the state Supreme Court has exempted religious entities from landmark designation unless such owners support or seek it. Thus, demolition appears imminent.
This gem of Seattle history is nestled behind a curtain of trees: it's the 7,700-square-foot mansion that Rolland Denny, the first son of Seattle pioneer Arthur Denny, built in 1907.
Shortly after moving in, in 1908, Denny named his new domain "Lochkelden" — loch, meaning "lake" in Scottish; "Kel" for his wife, Alice Kellogg; and "Den" for Denny. Today, it's the only residence left in Seattle where one of the original pioneers lived.
Rolland Denny was an infant when Arthur Denny and the original pioneers arrived on Alki Beach in 1851. The Duwamish Tribe helped keep him alive by teaching his mother to feed him clam broth through the winter.
Like any 100-year-old institution worth its salt, the old Windermere mansion, as it's called, is not without intrigue.
In 1974, the Unification Church, a nontraditional church established by Sun Myung Moon in Korea in the 1940s, bought the property and its remaining 1.7 acres for $175,000.
In 1977, a group of Windermere neighbors, "Save Our Neighborhood," brought a lawsuit against the new owners, questioning their right to use the residential property for religious and commercial ventures. The lawsuit, spurred partly by a popular condemnation of the church's mass marriages and recruitment techniques, was dropped in 1982.
A community feature is access to the waterfront/private beach.
While some neighbors remain uncomfortable with the Unification Church's hold on the property, others applaud the church's efforts to refurbish the house, which suffers from the inevitable internal decay of 100-year-old plumbing and wiring.
"There's so much to fix. I have so many projects. And it's an absolute bottomless pit for money," said Scott Dolfay twenty years ago. He is a carpenter and had been a church member since 1981. In 2001, he helped raise $180,000 from the church for maintenance purposes and estimates he and other church members have contributed over a million dollars more in personal cash, materials and volunteer work since then.
Exploring the old mansion is like peeling back layers of time, he says: There's the false-backed cupboards in the master bedroom, that can be revealed using a pulley-system, rigged to the closet.
_________________________________
Boston UC Mansion at 46 Beacon Street purchased in 1976 for $475,000 now sold for $20.5million
Unification Church sells Cardinal Cushing Villa in Gloucester for $5 million
Jin-joo Byrne was raped and murdered in August 2002.
She was just 18. She was fundraising on her own with costume jewellery in Charlotte NC. Some time later it was arranged for Hak Ja Han, on a visit to Seattle, to meet the family who lived there. Hak Ja Han was not very sympathetic. One person understood what she said in Korean.
All these UC members were killed while fundraising for Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han
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A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints investment arm misused hundreds of thousands of dollars donated by three men by investing the money instead of using it for charitable purposes as they claim was promised.
The legal action brings more scrutiny about how the faith, known widely as the Mormon church, handles its vast financial holdings bolstered by so-called “tithing” from by members who contribute 10% of their income. The church doesn't publicly disclose details about its finances.
This new lawsuit against the business and investment entities under the church in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City is similar to one filed in federal court in California by James Huntsman, brother of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr., that recently scored a partial success on appeal and remains pending. That lawsuit seeks the return of $5 million he donated before he left the church.
In February, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fined the church and Ensign Peak $5 million for using shell companies to obscure the size of the investment portfolio under church control. The church agreed to pay $1 million and Ensign Peak will pay $4 million.
Church officials didn’t immediately respond for comment on the lawsuit.
The church has previously defended how it handles member contributions, calling Huntsman’s claims baseless while claiming contributions go to a variety of religious purposes including missionary work, education, humanitarian causes and construction of churches, temples and other buildings important to church work.
At issue in both lawsuits is whether the church's investments in stocks, bonds, real estate and agriculture reflect the wishes of its donors.
The church's corporate arm, the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solicits donations for humanitarian relief with promises that all donations are used to help those in need. But those promises are untrue, the latest lawsuit argues.
Instead, the church allegedly hid the fact that some if not all donations are permanently invested in accounts never used for charitable work. That includes tithes; regular donations amounting to 10% of a person’s income expected from members of the church. The money instead has gone to Ensign Peak Advisors, a nonprofit created in 1997 that has grown to over $100 billion in value, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit is filed by Daniel Chappell, of Virginia, and Masen Christensen and John Oaks, both of Utah. They claim the three of them combined have donated about $350,000 to the church over the past decade. Their lawsuit seeks class-action certification, potentially involving millions of church members, and an independent entity to oversee collection and use of church donations.
Like the lawsuit filed by Huntsman, the lawsuit filed by the three men leans on allegations by whistleblower David Nielsen, a former Ensign Peak investment manager who this year submitted a 90-page memorandum to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee demanding oversight into the church’s finances.
Ensign Peak has spent funds only twice in its 26-year history, according to both lawsuits. In 2009, Ensign Peak spent $600 million to bail out a failing church-owned, for-profit life insurance company. From 2010-2014 it put $1.4 billion to build a mall near Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.
A judge ruled in favor of the church in Huntsman's case but in August the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed in part and sent the case back to district court for further proceedings. The church has filed for a rehearing in the appeals court, saying the church president had explained the project would be paid for through investment earnings and not tithing funds.
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Michelle Madden, 18 (USA)
18-year-old Michelle (known as Shelly to her family) was a student at Mobile College in Mobile, Alabama. She had epilepsy and was taking medication to manage it, but was otherwise perfectly healthy.
When Michelle found out that she was pregnant, she was told that her epilepsy medication would “probably” cause birth defects. (It is unknown if any tests were ever run to see if there actually were any birth defects at all.) The teenager went with a friend to the Family Planning Medical Center, which was actually an abortion facility. The facility later claimed to have given Michelle counseling, but she was on the operating table only 15 minutes after she walked through the door.
That same day, Michelle’s parents were preparing to go to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with a family member. They got a call from Michelle’s roommate telling them that their daughter was sick.
“We didn’t think anything of it. We told her we were going to come the next day to pick her up,” Michelle’s mother told the Mobile Press Register.
But before they even left the house, the house mother at the dorm called, asking if Michelle had abnormal periods and saying that she had a strange mark on her face. Again, the parents weren’t particularly worried.
But when they arrived at the dorm, they found out that Michelle wasn’t there. She was in the hospital having emergency surgery.
When doctors operated on Michelle, they found a leg bone, two pieces of her baby’s skull and some placenta left inside of her uterus. The surgery to save her life was too late. Sepsis already set in from the rotting pieces of the corpse, and Michelle died three days after she was admitted.
Michelle’s parents sued the abortionist and his facility. A judge awarded 10 million dollars to the grieving family, but Evans appealed on the grounds that this would “devastate him financially” because his malpractice insurance would only cover $1 million.
Michelle’s parents agreed to settle for $5 million with the insurance company paying the entire amount. Not content with that, Evans then sued his malpractice insurance company for not having settled with the family for $1 million prior to the trial, claiming that he had been subjected to “emotional distress, humiliation, damage to his reputation, and loss of business” — such “emotional distress”, he asserted, was “so severe that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it.” (Apparently the lawsuit was what caused Evans such distress and not the unnecessary deaths of a teenage girl who had trusted him and her defenseless unborn baby.)
Michelle’s parents told the news about the horrifying treatment their daughter had endured in the final days of her life as well as the complete lack of parental consent. “Two weeks before, she crushed her finger and had to have it X-rayed at the hospital.” said her mother. “We had to ensure the hospital we would send them the signed release to have her hand X-rayed.” Yet Michelle underwent a dangerous unnecessary surgery without her family’s consent or notification.
Mrs. Madden gave a message in the newspaper after her daughter and grandchild were killed in the hopes that it would spare others from sharing Michelle’s fate: “Too many young girls out there are picking up the phone book and looking for abortion clinics saying, Here's a quick easy way out of it and nobody has to know. I think people see it as an easy out, but there are other options that are safer.”
Michelle and her baby deserved better. Even if Michelle’s baby might have had disabilities, there was no reason for anyone to pressure her into an abortion— no reason except ableism and greed.
“Lawsuit is filed against abortion clinic,” Mobile Press Register 6/6/91
“Parents Finally get to tell daughter’s story,” Mobile Press Register, 6/16/91
Evans vs. Mutual Assurance
#tw murder#tw ab*rtion#tw abortion#tw ableism#tw death#pro life#pro choice#abortion#abortion debate#unsafe yet legal
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