Stacy's foot tapped along to the beat, not to the headphones in her ears, but of the subway car as it clacketed along the rails as she grew closer and closer to her destination, work.
Just the thought of another day in the office sent a shiver down her spine. The work was ok, she'd been working as a graphic designer for a big marketing company for 3 years. She'd gotten the job right out of college and the experience had been priceless.
That was up until six months ago when the new managing partner, Ryan, had taken over. Oh, he'd always been there, but mostly in the background, pressing the flesh with the clients more than anything else. But with Jerry, the previous managing partner's retirement, Ryan had been promoted.
She had heard the stories of course, and even experienced a few of the lesser infractions by Ryan herself. Nothing that could be considered outright inappropriate or that met the legal definition of harassment, but all of the female staff made sure to stay away from him as much as possible.
That, of course, was no longer an option. Ryan strutted around the office these days like the king of the world and there were few women that didn't catch his eye. Stacy, being a young blonde with a reasonably fit frame, had drawn a lot of his attention recently.
The song coming across her headphones ended and the announcer came on, "That was 'Welcome to the Party' by Jessi Beatz! We've got more on the way right after this quick commercial break... Looking for a makeover? Need to make a change? Come visit Bimbotech..."
Stacy tuned out the ad as the train slowed down and came to her station. The ads were annoying, but she hadn't signed up for the ad-free version yet and so she was still suffering through them. To be honest, she'd only downloaded the app on the recommendation of one of her friends. It hadn't seemed like the kind of thing she'd like, the bright pink design had really irritated her professional taste.
And the name... BMBZ Radio... who'd come up with that brilliant marketing idea?
After she'd installed it and slipped in her headphones, she'd started a playlist and almost winced at the sugary sweet pop music that came out of them. She'd skipped around to a few different tracks but they'd all seemed the same to her, until she'd stumbled on one that was at least a little bit tolerable.
She could still remember the guitar riff that dominated it, the distorted sound striking a chord with her and she'd at least listened to the rest of it. It was more of her style, dark though not brooding, serious but energetic.
Stacy was a series of contradictions that way. Today she was wearing a classic Nirvana t-shirt, but a set of slacks and a blazer as well. Her hair was short-cropped, with one side shaved, and the rest of it styled to look like it was going in the other direction. On her backpack was a WWF sticker along with a "Proud Vegan" badge as well. But in her hand she held a plastic cup and straw with a smoothie in it.
As she walked up the stairs of the subway station the next song started to play and the poppy electronic rhythm brought a slight smile to her lips. The app had learned pretty quickly the kind of songs she liked, but everyone in a while it messed up and inserted something else entirely. Though she had to admit, that after a week of listening to the app each day on the subway, both to and from work, she was growing to almost like the mistakes.
* * *
Stacy tried to hunker down into her seat without *looking* like she was hunkering down as she caught Ryan out of the corner of her eye. He was walking in her general direction and, after a quick check, she saw no one in between her and him that would distract him.
"Hi Stacy." Ryan said with a predatory smile and a wave as he stopped in front of the cube and leaned over the 3/4 divider of it.
"Hi Ryan. What can I... I mean, what do you need?" she replied, catching herself just in time before opening a verbal door that he would surely have walked right through.
"Oh nothing, nothing. Just wandering the office to make sure everything is going well. Is there anything I can *do* for you?" he came back with, overemphasizing the do.
"N... no, thanks. I should get back to working on this..." she said, waving her hand at her computer monitor.
"Well, ok." he replied, looking slightly disappointed but not taking it any further. As he walked away she watched him to make sure he didn't turn around.
'He has kind of a cute ass...'
The thought had just popped into her head and she gave it a little shake and blinked several times, where had that come from?
It wasn't like he was ugly or anything, he was in his mid-thirties, maybe 5'9", was trim but not athletic and had the traditional receding hairline that he was clearly trying to comb forward. But she'd never thought of him as cute, butt or otherwise.
She passed it off as having spent too much time at work and picked up her stylus again, working on the logo design for the current campaign she was assigned to. She'd been working on it for days, normally she'd have banged off several possible designs in a few hours, but each time she thought she was on the right track, it had gone off the rails.
It was the same with this one and in frustration, she closed the file without saving before opening a clean slate and starting again.
* * *
Stacy listened to BMBZ Radio as the wheels of the subway clattered along.
Gonna get me a real man,
one that can go all night long.
Gonna get me a real man,
one that can seal the deal.
The song echoed in her ears as her head bobbed from side to side along with it. On her lap was a sketch pad, she had several coloured pencils in her one hand and was outlining a new logo idea that had just come to her.
Her hands seemed to almost move on their own as pencils were swapped, lines were drawn, fills and shades were added. Her eyes seemed to dart around the page, never taking in the whole thing, until her hands stopped and she was staring at the page like it was a thousand miles away.
She blinked several times and looked up, "Damn it!", she cried out, realizing she'd missed her stop three stations ago. Pushing her sketch pad into her backpack, along with the pencils, she darted for the doors before they closed and just hoped it wouldn't be too long before a train came the other way.
* * *
Frowning, Stacy looked at the sketch, it wasn't very like her, but for some reason it seemed really good as well. The bright colours, bold design, and highlights were very much out of place for her usual designs.
"Hey Stacy, how's that logo coming?" a voice called over her cubical wall and she looked up to see Ken, her manager. He'd been the one to hire her and she respected him a lot, but she'd also kinda had a little crush on him when she'd first started. It was long over with, but he always brought a smile to her face when he dropped by her cubical.
"Oh, ah..." she stumbled to respond.
"Don't tell me it's not done yet... you've had it for three whole days..."
"No... well, it's..." she almost panicked as her eyes darted down to the sketch pad and then back up to Ken several times.
"Is that it there?" he asked, pointing to the pad.
"Well... ah... maybe?" she replied and meekly held out the pad so he could see it.
His face looked shocked and he blinked several times before he finally responded, "Wow, Stacy, I mean. I mean I was a little worried when I gave you the account... I mean you do great work... but, well, not always what the client wants. But I mean, you've really knocked this one out of the park! The client's going to love it!"
If she had thought Ken's face looked shocked, she could only imagine the look on her own face.
Ken gave her a thumbs up and walked away, "Get it in the computer and over to the client.", he called over his shoulder.
Stacy dropped the sketch pad on her desk and her shoulders slumped, was it good? She wasn't sure, but picking up her stylist, she started digitizing the design.
* * *
