rec: Professional Development by johne

[thisbluespirit]

Story: Professional Development
Author: johne
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1403
Author's Summary: Once, Karen was just Lucie's friend at work. Now, she's her bitter enemy. Lucie knows what the next stage has to be.
Characters/Pairings: Lucie Miller, Karen. (Slight Lucie/Karen).
Warnings: None (or maybe for the sort of insults you might expect between these two).

Recced because: Well, for one thing it’s great Lucie fic, and there’s not nearly enough of that. For another, it brilliantly uses Lucie, Karen and the scenario to poke fun at the concept of an archnemesis and it’s very funny. And it even comes with cake. Does a person really need to ask for more in a fic?


"Only 'cos I was trying to stop you." Lucie sounded positively upbeat. "Hey, does that make me your personal archnemesis?"

"No!" Karen said, suspiciously quickly.

"Really? You don't have to do a personal archnemesis module or anything?"

"...I'm not saying."

"Bloody hell, you do, don't you?" The rhythmic metallic scraping briefly faltered. "Do you have to have me picture under your pillow? Or on a chain round your neck? And come up with plots all the time to humiliate me? And all the time you're cursing me but you secretly sort of fancy me, cos I'm the only person who might understand how you feel?"

Comments

[john_amend_all]

Thanks for the rec!

(Of course now you made me ask the generator for Lucie / Karen summaries. "With her bright clothes and even brighter outlook, Lucie is no ordinary PA! And Karen is beginning to wonder why she's hired her...")

[thisbluespirit]

My pleasure. :-)

And, LOL, they work quite well - I got this:

232) Falling for Her Rival by Jackie Braun
For chef Lucie Miller, it's time to turn up the heat. Three years ago she hit rock bottom. Now she's ready for a comeback, starting with winning a TV competition to secure a spot running New York's trendiest kitchen! She just didn't count on her attraction to rival Karen Coltraine burning a hole in her plans…

Karen has worked her apron off for this opportunity, and total focus on the competition was the plan — which is difficult when all she can think about is wanting her opponent out of the kitchen and in her bed! But there can only be one winner, and sometimes, to win, a girl has to play dirty!

[john_amend_all]

As Lucie might put it, bottoms don't get much rockier than To The Death :-)

And those two playing dirty tricks in a TV cookery competition? There'll be cake everywhere...

[thisbluespirit]

I thought you'd be impressed with that one. :-)

[aralias.livejournal.com]

i really liked the fic (shall leave a comment in a sec), and i'm enjoying this comment thread too ;)

[john_amend_all]

Karen / Lucie seems to hit quite a few of Mills and Boon's buttons; depending on taste, you can have a fluffy office romance or a damaged war veteran.

166) What Should Have Been by Helen R. Myers
Her past was standing right in front of her…
She’d heard Lucie Miller was back in town. But nothing prepared single mother Karen Coltraine for her first heart-stopping glimpse of the woman who’d changed her world forever one passion—filled night… only to vanish from her life.
Lucie didn’t want a heroine’s welcome. She’d left home prepared to die for her country. Now a woman who seemed hauntingly familiar was tempting her to risk much more than her life. But she wasn’t the woman she once was—the woman Karen seemed to remember.
The question was…was this a good thing?

Oh, and I'll have to wash my mouth out for linking to Another Place on calufrax, but lost_spook's prompt bore fruit.

[thisbluespirit]

Hurrah! :-)