I ran a hand through my hair as I stared at the screen of the computer, my eyes burning. Letting out a frustrated sigh, my head came down to rest on my hands.
'I hate my job.'
One of my co-workers walked up and set a cup of coffee on my desk, apparently reading my silent cry for help.
"Hey. what's wrong?" I raised my head to see the face of one of my friends Helena, looking down at me with concern.
"Trying to figure out how we can solve our marketing downgrade," I said while reaching to take a sip of my coffee. Even the delicious beverage couldn't cure my blues, and I found myself looking back up at Helena with a look of despair.
"Oh. I'd offer to help, but marketing is above my pay grade so I'll let you figure it out. I'm not very good with numbers you know," she stood up from my desk and started to tip toe away from me conspicuously.
"And yet here you are," I laughed lightly and shook my head, printing out some papers that I had absolutely no interest in except professionally. One look at my watch let me know that I was about to be late for an executive meeting and with widened eyes, I quickly gathered my papers began making my way to the board room on the floor above me.
The short elevator ride seemed to take forever, and by the time my hand was on the doorknob, the President of the company was already taking a seat. I quickly pushed my way in and sat down in one of the chairs, relieved that I had just made it on time and began to organise my graphs for the meeting.
'What are you even doing with your life?'
A throat clearing caught everyone's attention and I looked up to see a pair of cerulean grey eyes staring at me. It was the CEO, also known as 'the boss', or in worst case scenario my ex boyfriend. Yeah, I know. unfortunate right?
'Why do I work here, again? Oh that's right, he forks out good cash.'
"Amaria," he called me casually, still staring at me intently.
"Mister Greene," the same tone of voice came out in my reply. People were looking at us now. I wanted to die.
'Well, not just yet. I'm waiting for the right moment to wish that I could crawl in a hole and die, because this totally isn't it.'
"You're late."
"I'm sorry sir, it won't happen again," I could see the evil smile lurking beneath his stone faced exterior. He was despicable.
I realised I was being stared down. Again. By the CEO. Again.
'Jeez pal, I know this new lipstick is great but give it a rest with the creep eyes already.'
Nobody said anything for a few minutes, then someone cleared their throat awkwardly and everyone's eyes turned to the seat beside the boss, where the Vice President was supposed to be sitting. I say supposed to, because instead of the Vice President, Delilah was sitting there looking extraordinarily pleased with herself.
"Uh, if you two are done with your tit-for-tat, maybe we should start the meeting? Okay good. First order of business, Jason?" She turned to the boss and placed a hand lovingly on his arm. I could tell everyone else's eyeballs almost got whiplash from looking so hard at the contact.
'The audacity.'
"Right. For our first report, I'll have the head of HR speak up," Jason signalled the head of HR forward, and brushed off Delilah's hand in the process. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to hold back the smirk that was threatening to ruin my career. Delilah was absolutely fuming.
I promptly proceeded to zone out of the entire meeting, losing an incredible number of details from my coworkers in the process. It wasn't until I saw someone staring at me that I finally snapped back to reality.
"Ms. Waters, are you with us?" My boss looked incredibly annoyed, glaring apathetically at the folder in front of me.
"Right, sorry," I opened my folder and located the report sheet I needed. "For this quarter we're looking at a fifty-eight percent increase in engagement for our social media pages and website. Traffic has gone down thirteen percent and overall sales have been at a stalemate. I-"
"Why?"
I blinked, shocked that I hadn't even managed to finish my first statements.
"Sir?" I looked at my boss, confused.
"Why is our marketing failing?" My boss questioned again, leaning his chin on the back of his hand as he looked at me. I knew he was just picking on me. Jason hadn't interrupted a single person during their presentation, and I knew he didn't want to be here, so why drag out the meeting even more?
"Well I've been looking at the stats and the response to our last ad was underwhelming, and it seems that the design is outdated. I've been discussing things with my team an-"
"Well then we have nothing else to discuss here. Figure out a new design for the ads of the next quarter." Jason waved a dismissive hand and looked ready to stand up.
I panicked and leaned forward, "with all due respect sir, we can't just up and make new ads. We need to strategise a campaign and we need the head of the design department to cooperate with us." I looked at the President with pleading eyes, begging him to listen to me. This wasn't the first time he'd dismissed everything I said, so I knew what to expect.
"Fine. Delilah, take care of it. We're done here," he stood up and didn't even wait for another word from anyone before he was gone. I sat there shocked by his rudeness, but there wasn't much time to be upset because Delilah came up to me and smiled with a condescending flip of her hair over her shoulder. She made sure to say goodbye to everyone before actually addressing me.
"Amaria," she said kindly, leaning down to address me. The overwhelming urge to push her face away was beginning to consume me. "I understand where you're coming from with your concern for the next quarter, but as the head of the design department, I don't see a problem with the current ad. If you ask me, the flaw is in your department, so I suggest you maybe put in some overtime and start fixing your team's mistakes. Oh and there's a refill on those bagels you like in the break room!"
Delilah patted my shoulder and left the room, leaving me by myself with my mouth agape.
"What is it with not being able to speak today?" I asked myself whilst gathering my folder. I was seriously considering quitting.
A noise caught my attention as I was making my way down the hall to the elevator, and when I came around the corner, I saw Jason and Delilah talking... In a non-verbal way. He had her pressed against the wall and he was—Actually I don't even wanna know what he was doing. I quickly looked away and tried to tip toe past the, as quietly as I could with my heels.
When the elevator finally reached my floor, I was so relieved. It took little to no time to reach my office, and I quietly sat in my chair to put my portfolio away. Considering how the meeting went, it would probably be in my best interest to get started on a new marketing campaign strategy for the next quarter, so I opened my desktop and began my work intently.
After a few minutes of absolute hell, I heard a bell go off and my phone screen lit up. It was a text from my best friend Sabrina.
'Wyd?'
I smiled and then started typing back.
'Other than contemplating what my life would be like if I moved to a different continent with a new identity, nothing much.'
My phone buzzed almost immediately with a reply from her.
'Actually that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Let's move to New Zealand and live in a rustic-chic mansion'
'Let's do it. In fifty years.'
'Great! In the meanwhile, I managed to get you a new date.'
Kill me now.
It's not that my sex life was going great—because it wasn't. It was deader than my third grade goldfish—but I just wasn't about to spend energy trying to find a good person for consistent hookups. I would just have to live it out with longer showers.
'No thank you.'
Her reply had me considering whether I should love mine enemies or not.
'You owe me for the time you dunked my sandwich in water in fifth grade.'
I knew that would come and bite me sooner or later.
'Fine, but don't expect me to not leave early.'
When she didn't text me back, I took that as a safe bet to try and continue my work as fast as possible. I wanted to be home immediately.