I have always had an alright life. I was married, it wasn’t anything spectacular, my husband and I had been married for 10 years and we’d become more like people just having to co-exist with one another instead of the wild lovers we were when first married. I had no children, a problem with me had caused that, and because of this I threw myself in my work to make up for a lack of a family. My job was good, and today while leaving the house I felt excited. Today was my review, and with this review I should be getting a promotion that was promised to me six months ago when the position opened.
I pulled up in the parking lot of work, and checked myself quickly. I had my brown hair pulled back, with just a few strands of my bangs hanging over my eyes. My make-up still looked good, my eye-liner and eye-shadow bringing out my green eyes. My lip-stick bringing out the fullness of my lips and shape of my mouth. I smiled at myself satisfied with the way my face looked.
I walked into the office, and went to my desk, sorting papers that needed to be looked at today, and ones that were ready to go out. About half way through my morning my boss called me into the office. This was it, I thought, the day that I’d manage over my department instead of just working in it.
I greeted him with a smile and a firm hand shake.
“Please sit, Candice.”
I tucked my skirt under me and sat in the chair facing his desk. I crossed my legs and fixed my skirt so it hung below my knee. My boss gave me a hard look, but soon it softened into a smile.
“How are you this morning?”
“Just fine, Sir.”
“That’s good.”
I heard his office door open and looked back to see who it was. I didn’t know the man standing in the doorway.
“Oh, hi Ron. Please sit.”
I looked at my boss puzzled as to why this man was sitting in on my review.
“Candice this is Ron, Ron Candice.”
I shook his hand and then looked at my boss.
“I don’t understand Sir.”
He cleared his throat and shuffled some papers that sat on his desk. He looked back up at me with a sorrowful look on his face.
“Well, Candice, Ron here is going to be the new head of your department.”
I felt hot tears of anger fill my eyes.
“But Sir, I was promised that position six months ago.”
“I know. Hey look it’s not my fault. I was pressured by my boss to hire him. He has the qualifications to run the department.”
“Yeah but so do I.”
“I know. It’s out of my hands. I’m sorry.”
“It’s because he’s a man isn’t it?”
I saw his eyes widened. No boss wants to ever hear that a woman thinks she’s been denied for a position on the sole status of her sex. They don’t want lawsuits on their hands.
“No, no. That’s not it at all.”
“Then what is it?”
“Look my boss just thought that Ron was more qualified. And look you’re not totally out of the deal. You will be supervisor of the department.”
“How could Ron be more qualified? He just walked in here off the streets. I have all the degrees needed for this job, plus I’ve been with this company for 15 years. I know how it works. So how is it that Ron is more qualified than me?”
“He’s done the same type of work, just for another company, and for longer than you have. Look, I can’t explain the thinking behind Jim. I just relay his messages. And that was it. Ron will become manager and you supervisor. You’ll be receiving a raise, and now be able to be a shareholder.”
“It’s not as much money as Ron’s getting.”
“No, but close.”
I looked over at this Ron person. I could see how uncomfortable he was as I fought for the position that I’d been promised. I sighed deeply and turned to him.
“Ron, I’m sorry you had to witness this, but it was supposed to be my position. You can understand right?”
“I do.”
“Good. I’ll take the supervisor position. But know that I’m not happy with it.”
“I know you aren’t Candice. Maybe in a few months we’ll have something opened in management.”
“Yeah I’m not falling for that again.”
I stormed out of my boss’s office and went back to my desk. I shuffled through papers and contracts but my mind couldn’t focus. Around lunch time my boss came over to me.
“You can move your things over to your new office. Leave all this paper for the person taking this position. After lunch you can fill her in on all she needs to do.”
I just nodded and got up to put my things in a box and take them over to my new office.
“I know you’re mad Candice. And I apologize again.”
“It’s alright.”
My boss patted me on the shoulder, and walked away. I gathered my things and walked across the office to my seat. When I opened the door I saw that Ron and I would be sharing space.
“Oh, didn’t know I’d be getting a roommate.”
“Well, I could have taken my own office, but decided that since you and I would be making a lot of the same decisions that it would be better if we shared an office.”
I nodded and began to unpack the things that I had taken from my old desk.
“I know you’re not happy about all this, and I understand why. But please can you and I get off on the right foot. We’ll be with each other for a long time, and I don’t want this to get in the way of decisions that will be critical later on.”
He was right, I was acting pretty immature. I looked over at him and smiled.
“Let’s start all over then.” I walked over to his desk and stuck out my hand, “Hi I’m Candice.”
He smiled and took my hand, “Hello Candice I’m Ron.”
“Pleasure to meet you Ron.”
“The pleasure is all mine Candice.”
I laughed.
“See that was much better now wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was.”
“Are you hungry? Want to have lunch with me?”
“I usually work through my lunch break.”
“Well, it doesn’t look like you have much work right now. And I want to get to know my new counterpart.”
“I’m a counterpart now?”
“Look, I’m thinking that though I have power over you,” He gave a wicked smile that made me blush, “that there is no reason for you not to share in all the pleasures of managing this place with me. Besides you are the supervisor, we’ll have to make a lot of decisions together.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Yeah okay to managing this place together, or to going to lunch.”
“Both.”
“Great let’s go.”
I grabbed my purse and followed him out the door. He took me to a Mexican restaurant not far from work and there we talked a little about the job but more about our personal lives. I found that he was easy to talk to and as I talked with him I noticed that I was attracted to him too. He was very professional in his look, keeping his dark hair brushed back, not a strand out of place. His brown eyes were softened with little laugh lines around them, his eyes were always moving, taking in all that was around him, and documenting it in his mind. He had a nice smile, and a wonderful deep voice that I could listen to all day. I shook myself, this isn’t professional, I thought. I’m having lunch with my boss; I shouldn’t be looking at him this way. I’m married for god’s sake.
We got back to the office and finished the day. When I got home my husband asked me how the promotion went. I told him everything, and realized that I was still quit angry about it. My husband consoled me for a while but then lost interest in it and started watching a program on TV. Months went by and Ron and I worked together very well. We both agreed on everything, and we worked hard to make the department that we headed better than it had ever been. One day as we worked on a proposal our boss came in.
“Hi guys.”
“Hello.”
“Hey, we have a deal going up in New York and we need you both to go there and secure it for us.”
Ron seemed happy to be able to travel, “When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow morning. I have your tickets here and the reservation for the hotel.”
I looked up, “two rooms right?”
“Ummm…not exactly. More like two beds.”
”What?”
“It was short notice. We couldn’t book two rooms.”
“Candice, it’ll be alright. We share an office; we can share a hotel room for the night.”
“Umm…more like a week.”
“We’re going to be gone for a week?” I said my eyes growing wide.
“Hey, you took the job, and you have to travel.”
“I know that.”
“Well, then you guys are dismissed for the rest of the day to get your things together.” He handed us two packets.
Ron looked at him, “What’s this for?”
“It’s money. For food, transportation, and clothing.”
I looked at him confused. “Clothing?”