"Goddamn middle managers!" Katelyn raged to no one in particular as she took out her frustrations on the dashboard of her car.
Her meeting had not gone as she'd hoped. The prick from Gerson Manufacturing was not the decision-maker she'd hoped he was, but just another suit that stood between her and her first big sale. The labyrinthine corporate structure was a mystery Katelyn was only just beginning to understand, and the meeting with Blake was another lesson in the layers of bureaucracy wedged between sales people and the buyers.
It wasn't like Blake was a bad guy, either. He was just a regular working man, too boring and unremarkable, in both looks and personality, to feel much of anything for, even frustration. And he had told her he had to take her proposal to his boss, so it wasn't like he'd given her a hard "no." But the frustration was still there.
Katelyn was still feeling her way along in her new job, but she had always had high expectations for herself. And the fact that she still had not closed a big sale annoyed her.
Pounding her steering wheel was not a constructive use of her energies, so she put her car in gear and drove out of the parking lot toward home. She put in her favorite CD and lost herself in the drive, blasting Britney Spears and feeling the frustrations ebb away with the miles.
Jake was out of town this weekend, so she had to find a way to work out her frustrations that did not involve a nice angry fucking. Perhaps a little wine and some mindless television would help get her back to her normal self.
She flipped on the TV and popped poured herself a glass, but she could still not let go of her frustrations. Katelyn really wanted to be good in her job, and the fact that she could not make headway with Gerson bothered her.
A more experienced salesperson would probably know what to do, she thought. But her background as a waitress and a secretary had not prepared her for the twists and turns of closing a sale.
Executive assistant, she corrected herself. Secretaries like to be called executive assistants now. Corporate speak was like a foreign language to Katelyn, and its speakers were prickly about titles, she'd found.
Jake always said he jerked off to relieve frustration. That she could do, even if she couldn't close a sale, and her shower head did things to her that made separation from her boyfriend decidedly less boring.
It was too early for Cinemax to be showing anything that would help her get off, but she flipped it on anyway. A silly Chris Farley comedy was showing, but it looked like something good might follow. Katelyn went to get another glass of wine to help drown the self-imposed stress.
As she sat down with her liquid stress reliever, Farley and his little buddy David Spade were sitting in a diner on the television. They were discussing sales, and Katelyn's ears perked up. When Spade said something about selling yourself was more important than the product, Katelyn gasped.
"Holy shit!" she said. She realized that this dumb movie had just given her an insight. She had been trying to sell Katelyn, the hardcore corporate salesperson. She had largely forgotten about Katie, the fun and flirty waitress that earned big tips by being herself. Her ample breasts did not hurt her quest for tips, either, but she always thought her fun-loving personality had been the key.
In fact, she realized, Katie had probably been the one who was promoted from secretary into the sales department, as her sales manager always smiled and had a joke for her when she was answering phones and taking messages for him.
Monday morning came, and Katelyn's first order of business was calling Blake at Gerson.
"Blake, did your boss get a chance to look at my proposal?" she asked.
"Not yet. He doesn't work on the weekends, you know," Blake said a little huffily.
Thinking of Katie, she said, "Come on, Blake, couldn't you talk to him about it now? I'd be forever in your debt." It was corny, but also a little flirty. Surprisingly his tone softened, and he said he'd talk to Mr. Gerson today.
That was a big step. Katelyn knew that Gerson shipped computer components all over the country, and her company's pricing was very competitive. And they had more trucks than the other logistics companies in the area, so she really felt that she had a chance of closing the deal.
The rest of the day was taken up with expense reports, call backs and all of the other minutiae that go with being a salesperson. Her phone rang late in the afternoon, and it was Blake.
"Katelyn, these numbers seem a little too good to be true," he said without preamble.
Her boss had said she had some discretion when it came to Gerson. The company had been trying to land the account for more than a year with no success. When she had first been assigned the account, Katelyn had assumed it was a test that new salespeople were given to test their humility. She knew it was a tough nut to crack, but she wanted to show her days as a waitress were over.
She told Blake that the figures were accurate, and used the opening to ask for a meeting with his boss. Blake said that his boss wanted him to check the accuracy of these figures, and asked if she was willing to meet before the end of day. She thought this was a good sign, so she agreed immediately.
Upon arriving at Gerson, she found an empty parking lot. Fearing that she had messed up the time, she called Blake from the parking lot and was relieved when he picked up his office line. Remember Katie, she said.
"What's a cutie like you doing working so late," she said.
"My wife never expects me home for supper, so I usually eat here," he said. "Managing logistics don't really allow for a lot of time off."
"Well a hard worker like you deserves a little reward every now and then," she said flirtingly. "Why don't you bring your stuff down and talk to me over dinner. My treat."
Blake protested a little, but eventually agreed. He came out the front door with what looked like a laptop bag and several folders. It looked like it would be a working dinner.
"McGill's ok?" Katelyn asked when he sat down in her passenger seat. Blake agreed. McGill's was a nice little bar and grill around the corner. It should be fairly slow tonight, as it wasn't really a sports bar, so they should be able to talk some business.
As she walked through the doors, she could feel herself relax. Little places like this were familiar territory for her, and she could feel her confidence returning. The stares she was getting from the guys at the bar didn't hurt her confidence level either, as she could almost hear them asking what a cute blonde like her was doing with a boring guy like Blake.
When they found a table a pretty young waitress stopped by to take drink orders. Blake ordered a beer and she followed suit, glad to have some liquid courage to help her burgeoning confidence.
