"Hey Will! Got a second?"
I was abruptly torn from my deep thoughts about what color I should pick when buying my new car. It always happens to me that I drift off when going through the tedious start up process of logging into my computer. I looked up to see John standing by the entrance of my office. Behind him, half hidden from view, I could see another person, a woman.
"Sure John, what can I do for you?"
"Remember how I told you that our new Human Resources Manager was starting today?"
"Oh yeah, of course."
John motioned to the woman to step into my office. I rose from my chair preparing to introduce myself to the new employee. The woman entering my office was about my age; early thirties. She was blond, had a straight and impressive posture, revealing that she most likely had been a top athlete. Her face was not ordinary, but not really striking either. Her hair was tied into a knot and she was dressed impeccably.
Thinking back to that first encounter I have to really strain my memory to remember anything else apart from the way she seemed instinctively skeptic, almost superior.
"Hi I'm Will." I said as I offered my hand to greet her."
She looked at it as though I was just about to hand her the garbage. Then she took my hand and squeezed it surprisingly firm.
"Susanne Wilcox pleased to meet you."
"Nice to meet you Susanne...Jones."
"Excuse me?"
"I mean that's my last name.....Jones."
"Ah, I see," she said throwing John a glance as if saying "is this really your Public Relations Manager?"
I went through the normal "welcome onboard" routine, noticing that it had never felt so shallow before. I guess pitching a new work place to a Human Resource Manager should be a hard sell. It's kind of like selling a seasoned car sales rep your old Buick.
A couple of minutes later John and Susanne were out the door to continue the introduction to the other members of our happy staff. I went back to working at my computer, wondering if this new addition to the company was a good or bad thing.
A couple of days later Susanne called me over to her office. I was surprisingly nervous as I knocked on the door. I say that as I almost never get nervous. Throw me in front of a board or a management group and I will steal the show. I heard Susanne call on me to enter. I opened the door and slowly entered. She did not look up from her papers as I stood there waiting for her to tell me why she had called me there. For a time, that seemed far too long, she did not look up. Is she for real, I thought to myself? Finally she looked up, as if she had run out of things to read and might as well look at the poor bastard standing in front of her.
"Well, Will. As you know we immediately need to hire two new guys in accounting. I was wondering if you could please help me write the job ads."
"Perhaps, when do you need them?"
"We need to send them to the newspaper by noon tomorrow in order for them to make the weekend edition."
"You're kidding right?"
"Excuse me?"
"Well, I don't know if you noticed, but I happen to be up to my neck with work preparing for the press conference on Monday." - Susanne seemed to ponder what I just said for a second. Good, she is coming to her senses I thought to myself.
"Who pays you your salary," she said looking at me with a content smile.
"What?"
"Who pays you your salary?"
"What the hell has that got to do with anything?"
"If we don't get these two new guys into accounting pronto, they will not be able to pay out the salaries on time. So now, what's more important to you, your salary or working an extra hour to complete those ads?"
I was shocked. I get along with most everyone, yet with this ice queen the situation had deteriorated faster than a Swiss cheese lying in the sun.
"Fine, give me the profile and you'll have the ads tomorrow morning, but for the record, you owe me."
"Oh please, Will, we're not in high school anymore. This is not a case of 'you help me with my home work and I'll help you with yours'."
Accompanied by her giggles I stormed out of her office, feeling humiliated to let myself be bossed around like that by somebody that had been on the job for less than a week.
The next morning I got into the elevator, and just as the doors were about to shut I heard a voice calling "hold that door". I quickly put out a foot preventing the doors from closing. As they slid open again I saw Susanne standing there.
"Morning Will! Thanks for holding the elevator."
"No problem."
"Do you have the ads for me?"
"They are in your inbox."
"Super, you're a real sport!"
You're a real sport? What cheesy management class had she been to thinking that that would put us back on even footing.
Days passed and we continued our little power struggle. I was extremely frustrated to notice that I seemed to be the only one not getting along with Susanne. I had not experienced that since University when I had sex and then dumped Mary Hasseldorf, the loved-by-all editor of the University paper.
On a Friday about a month and a half into Susanne's employment the office had arranged for Friday beer at the local pub. We had a surprisingly good time spurred on by the amazing sales figures of last month that had just come to our knowledge. Susanne was sitting across the pub chatting to some of the sales staff and John. She was the center of attention and everyone seemed to hang on to her every word. At one point she looked over to me and she quickly winked her eye. I almost choked on the beer I was drinking.
The evening passed and I decided it was time to call it a night as the beer was getting to my tired head. Well out on the street I tried to wave down a taxi. The rain was coming down heavily and I was almost starting to fill sober again in the cold wind. I finally managed to get hold of a cab and just as we were about to drive off the other passenger door was thrown open. Susanne jumped into the dry car escaping the pouring rain.
"Well, look at what the cat dragged in," I said smiling at Susanne.
"So I owe you another one. I'm drunk and would never admit it otherwise, so enjoy it while it lasts."
"Where do you live?"
"Don't get any ideas."
"Ok, we'll just drive around and whenever we happen to come across your apartment you'll let the driver know so that he can let you off. How does that sound?"
"Mmm, yeah, you're right....33 Bell Street, please," she said blushing. A reaction I believed she was not equipped with.
The taxi began driving and for the first minutes we sat in silence. She was looking out her window. It was Susanne who broke the silence.
"When I was a kid my dad used to tell me that rain was god showering the earth cleaning it from all the dirt. I almost gave my parents a heart attack when they, after looking for me for about an hour, found me sitting in a chair on the lawn in the middle of a rainy night. When they asked what I was doing I said I was just letting god shower the dirt off me. After that my dad stopped using symbolic and religious metaphors."
