Minh entered her office, which looked more organized than she expected. All her boxes were emptied and sorted, the walls were already painted to her specification. Not really understanding how or why her office had suddenly been completed she called for her secretary to enter.
Waiting for her secretary to enter, Minh admired the new cocobolo desk that hadn't been there the day prior. She hadn't even told anyone to order it, yet here it was.
"You called for me, Ms Rose?" In came a young Caucasian blonde girl. Likely fresh out of college. Minh had already been informed that a secretary had been selected for her when she first got the notice of her promotion.
"Yes, I was wondering who had stayed here all night to get my office in order" Minh asked rather sternly.
"I'm not sure I follow?" Her secretary gave her a quizzical look. "It's been like this for the past three months, you insisted on overlooking the renovations yourself, remember?"
Minh was taken aback by the response. Apparently something HAD changed at work. It seemed the "New" Minh had gotten her promotion sooner? How in the world, the current Minh was supposed to be more agreeable and dumb, so why had she been MORE successful?
"Right, just a joke.. A very bad joke" Minh said a little flustered. Her secretary gave a halfhearted chuckle in response, probably because she felt obliged to do so. "Oh, almost forgot! I got you that table at Dorsia for your 12 o' clock". Her eyes practically sparkled, obviously being very proud of having landed a table for her boss at Dorsia of all places..
"Very well, you may leave. Oh, and fix me a ride there, will you?" Minh mumbled dismissively. Her mind was elsewhere at this time. The office, the secretary who she'd never met, yet had worked for her for months. A booking at Dorsia? With who? There were so many questions without answers. Minh concluded that she'd have to spend the entire day getting up to speed. She absolutely HATED IT when there were factors she wasn't aware of. This situation was a nightmare for a control freak like herself.
Minh spent the remainder of her time at work before her appointment getting acquainted with her subordinates. Apparently she was well liked as a boss. Her now more agreeable nature made her more likable over all, and her slight decrease in intelligence made her less of a know-it-all, but didn't hinder her abilities all that much. If she'd have to guesstimate, her IQ had dropped from the impressive 137 to a "mere" 120 ish. Still well above average, but not nearly as far down the curve as she'd been previously.
It was 12 and Minh was seated at her table. She'd already gone ahead and ordered some rather cheap wine. She wasn't usually one to drink, especially during the day. Still, there was a sudden need to drink. Normally her choice would've been an expensive scotch or wine, not this cheap stuff, or at least as cheap as you could get at a high end restaurant like Dorsia.
As she sat sipping on her red wine her appointment entered. Minh's eyes went wide as they came over to the table.
Minh was CEO. She was however still subject to the parent company, and as such still had to report to someone. That someone was Harry Stickislet. Harry was notorious for his sleazy nature. It was a miracle that someone as stuck up as Minh had managed to climb the ranks under the supervision of Stickislet, especially given how the best means to get on his good side was showing off their good side. Still, in this version of reality Minh had managed to achieve her goals sooner, which begs the question.. How?
"Glad to see you've still got time for me Minh" Harry said with a shit-eating grin as he sat down and made himself comfortable. God she couldn't stand that turd, and why did he refer to her by her first name? Literally no one did that, except for maybe her husband.. Minh wanted to throw her cheap wine in that assholes face already, but instead found herself leaning slightly forward, giving the fucker a nice view of her now much smaller cleavage.
"Good to see you haven't forgotten how to treat a man since we last met" Yuck.. Every word that came out of his mouth made her wanna throw up more, yet she acted increasingly committed to pleasing the damn pig.
"If I'm gonna be acting like a slut every time he opens his mailbox this'll be the worst lunch ever" Minh thought to herself, slightly terrified at how she was acting. It wasn't as though she did the things she did because she wanted to, it was more like a..compulsion? Like with many things, it's possible to suppress those urges, but in the back of her head there was something telling Minh that would only it could only work for so long..
"You know, there was a lot of really promising candidates for your position. But not many with your..commitment." Harry said with a smug face.
The situation was both irritating and terrifying. Minh had no idea what he was referring to, and she was not very excited to find out. She looked at the man with contempt, at least that's the expression she thought she was making. In reality her gaze was more flirtatious than anything. Her face carried a smile that seemed impossible to fake, and her eyes were giving some very misleading signals. Misleading in the sense that Minh herself didn't intend to give off any sort of positive vibe towards her boss, still she couldn't help herself. Had she been aware of how her facial expressions were betraying her she might've been able to fight it off, but it's hard to fight a battle you don't know is taking place.
"Treat me right this lunch and I'll show you just how committed I can be"
Minh caught herself just a moment too late, never having the intention of entertaining his sleazy comment with a response, especially like she just did. Her brain was sending signals left and right to her body that were simply being ignored, somewhere along the line something else was controlling or partly disrupting her own decisions and actions. Like a second persona that was fighting for control, and it was winning..
The rest of the lunch went by in a flash. She didn't want to admit it but Minh caught herself having a genuinely good time here and there. He might be a sleazy misogynistic asshole, but Harry knew how to charm a woman. At one point he had shown her how to fold a napkin into a bird. It was very important that he sat next to her as he demonstrated his less than impressive party trick. The takeaway from this situation was how impressed Minh was. She also didn't catch herself as she impulsively leaned against his body as he folded. When he finished Minh gave a small applause and proceeded to brush her hand every so slightly on his thigh as he stood up to return to his seat.
"You want to continue this at my place?"
Minh's eyes went wide at the proposal. Fortunately she was enough in control to safely turn him down, but god knows what would've happened had she been slightly more persuasive and agreeable. She made yet another mental note to never again pick anything remotely resembling agreeableness again. Whatever the other options, there's no way she could forgive herself if she happened to cheat on her husband. She felt bad enough already after how the lunch had gone down.
Upon leaving the restaurant there was already a taxi waiting, ready to bring her back to the office. Her day was still only halfway through, but it had felt like an eternity.
Maybe it was the relief of being clear of Harry, or maybe it was a lingering happiness from what was supposed to be a bad experience, but Minh felt more energized and ready to take on the challenges of her "new life" as she walked in through the doors of the company skyscraper.