It All Started With Magnets

.27.

Lavoie

Alexander Lavoie took a heavy drink of his Yukon Jack, making a slight face. Thanks to Lawrence's little tantrum, he had been on the phone for the rest of the day. Being bombarded with irate calls from a full firm of lawyers was not what he wanted to do to spend his time. He understood why the calls were happening but it didn't make his headache go away.

He sat down at his desk and turned on his monitors. The desktop chimed and he joined the meeting as he took another heavy drink from his glass. "Bit early for that, Alex." The Minister of Finance, Harvey Telland chuckled and Alex made a show of holding up his glass for his webcam and then grabbing the bottle, dumping more of the alcohol into it.

"It was needed, was it?" Henrietta Dumont the Minister of Internal Affairs chuckled as she said it and Alex nodded.

"Donner un char de marde. Given shit. Those lawyers are relentless." He gave a flippant wave of his hand as he said it. His accent thicker. Usually he did his best to mitigate it but he was tired and his head hurt and her didn't care at the moment.

"That Hathaway even called me." George Finnigan, the Minister of Justice let out a heavy breath. "I never want to have that conversation again in my life."

"She is-is-is, how you say, pit bull." Alex took another heavy drink of his glass. "Will probably have troubles sitting down from that ahh as you say, ass chewing." He shook his head, his irritation rising up. "J'ai le feu au cul." He spat it out with another shake of his head. He was pissed, so very pissed.

"How fucked are we?" The question came from George but the rest of the Ministers on the call seemed to echo the sentiment.

"They are uhhh receiving offers from German, UK, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Italy, and I am sure the rest." Alex gestured with his glass before taking another drink and then another in quick succession. He needed the burning alcohol to distract from his pounding headache that the entire situaiton was causing him.

"Are they serious about entertaining any of them?" The question was asked low from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jaques Roy.

Alex shrugged. "I do not know." That was the bare and uncomfortable truth of the matter. "It is hard with her family being here but I do not doubt that if they-they wished, they would ahhh make it happen."

"Why the hell was Jack even at that meeting? I thought we had decided he wasn't to know and we would tell him later." Henrietta's sounded deeply irritated by it and Alex raised his glass in salute to the question.

"He bullied it out of my assistant." George raised his hand on the screen and Alex just shook his head, polishing off his drink and pouring himself another. He knew he should probably slow down or he was going to avoir mal aux cheveux in the morning, have a hangover. He wasn't in his twenties anymore, he was well passed that. "Don't worry, I've mitigated the issue as best as I could, my assistant will no longer be privy to these types of meetings or situations."

"Good." The word was echoed along the little screens as well as nodding following close behind.

"What did you think of Roxanne Matthews?"

At the question from one of the ministers, Alex snorted in amusement. "Elle est amusante. Amusing." He took another drink. "She said, how you say, that he suckle on the-the tits of a trust fund." He chuckled into his drink. The woman knew how to turn a phrase, that was for sure. There were following chuckles from the rest of the cabinet and he smiled. "Terrible politician. Could have had ahhh, better but she has done okay." All in all, while he had his reservations about her and her inexperience on the political stage, for the Galactic Union at least, she put the best foot forward that she could. Apparently a very good foot forward.