"I thought this was a team project," I say. "I dropped everything to come in on a Saturday for an emergency team meeting, and it's just you and me? That's just awesome. I love this company." I sling my laptop bag onto the armchair in the corner of your office, put my hand on my hip and pop the top off my coffee. Mercy, I haven't even had my coffee yet.
"Barb told me last minute that she thought you and I could handle it," you say, always trying to make the best of things. Always the team player. "Don't be so pissed, maybe she's looking at us for Ken's position."
"Maybe what she's looking at is your ass. And you know she hates me, it's no secret. So what? So here we are, on a beautiful Saturday morning, stuck in this climate controlled prison, doing quality control on these reports. It's proofreading; they hire temps to do this crap. I feel really valued. I get the comfy chair." I flop down in the armchair in your office, knowing my little corduroy skirt and crisp white shirt will be annoying the hell out of me by lunchtime, wishing I had worn more comfortable clothes to curl up in since it's just you and me. I grind my teeth grumpily.
You spin towards me in your office chair, the good kind with the mesh seat, why do I still have an old clunky one? Because Barb wants to fuck you, and she wants to fire me, of course. But you spin towards me and say,
"Is there something wrong with my ass?" You half-smile, god, you're always so relaxed, it's infuriating. I pull up a little table and set my coffee on it after a few desperate gulps, cross my legs and open my laptop.
"You know perfectly well how cute your ass is, and that it's the reason Barb loves you so much. You couldn't 'project-manage' your way out of a wet paper bag. I have twice your experience and three times your leadership potential, and here you are getting curried for a promotion because you're a strapping young lad who flirts with your supervisors. It's sexist and it's disgusting." Boot, you stupid laptop. More coffee. More teeth-grinding. Tug on my skirt, put my hair up, take it down. Ugh. I'm looking forward to putting on some music.
"So I'm strapping, am I?" You smile at me over your shoulder and clackity clack on your keyboard.
"Bravo, genius. You're hunky and young, and you have this gift for being both smug and charming at the same time. You're the prince of the office, and I'm not telling you anything you don't know." I log into the system and then the internet, and scroll through my music for something that won't make me want to slit my wrists or build a pipe bomb. No Ani today. "You're the golden boy, and I'll be in this position for another eight years while you're flirting your way to vice president. Long live the corporate ladder," I say, pulling up a report and starting my mind-numbing project. I wonder when the next season of Mad Men starts.
"You know," you say, not bothering to turn around, "you have a lot of pent-up frustration behind those gorgeous breasts." Oh, look at you, wanting to scrap. Well I've had my coffee now, so anything that will make this day move faster is fine with me.
"Someone missed sensitivity training," I say, trying not to look up from my screen.
"So it's not sexual harassment when you talk about my ass, but it is when I talk about your short skirts and your great rack?"
"I'll let it slide because it's just a fact that I have a great rack, but my skirts aren't short." Scrolling, scrolling, tired of Chili Peppers, tired of Counting Crows, seriously, I need some new music. . .
"There are men in this office who would disagree with that," you say, typing typing typing.
"People don't talk about my skirts, they talk about how big your cock is. It probably is big, isn't it? Jerk."
I look up to get the last of my coffee, and I almost spill it because you've spun around in your chair again, and you're looking right at me, smiling. Not typing, not tossing out any witty comebacks, just leaning back in your chair, and smiling.
"Who talks about my cock? No one here has seen it. I don't dip my pen blah blah clichΓ© about sex with co-workers. Did someone tell you they saw it? Tell me." You lean forward in your ergonomically designed chair and I shift in my seat, caught a little off guard. I shrug.