Sofia finally arrived at work after an arduous ride on the bus downtown. It was a short walk from the bus stop to the law office where she worked. She tried and tried to get the image of the young man on the bus out of her head. The way he handled her and insulted her as he left, was still weighing heavily upon her. She caught a glimpse of herself as she walked by the tall ceiling to floor mirrors in the lobby.
"God, I look like a tart." She whispered as she waited for the elevator to take her to the tenth floor, and Mr. Graves' office. She couldn't understand what had overcome her, dressing the way she did today. There was nothing to be done about it now, she would just have to ride it out, and hope that no one really noticed.
"Ms. Fazio!" Mr. Graves had the reputation of a bulldog in the office and in the courtroom. He was tall and heavyset and carried himself like a Mack truck when he moved around. A stack of files were slammed down on Sofia's desk as Mr. Graves stood towering over her. "These depositions have to be proofed, retyped and on my desk by eight o'clock tomorrow morning. If that means you have to stay here all night to complete them, so be it!" Sofia held her breath as he stood not inches from her, waiting for him to leave, but he didn't. "What are you wearing Ms. Fazio?"
Not knowing how to respond. "Ummm...clothes." She replied meekly, practically whispering.
"I'll have you know that this is a respectable law firm and I expect my employees to dress accordingly." Mr. Graves swung around to face her over the top of her desk. "However much I personally like the look," he chuckled "It's just not appropriate." He stomped back to his office, leaving Sofia cowering in her chair.
"Holy shit!" she said under her breath. "at least he likes the way I look." She went about her job, proof reading the depositions for tomorrow's court appearances. Her job was pretty hum drum for the most part, except for the days she was allowed to accompany her boss into the courtroom. Today was no different, file after file was proofed and corrected until there was a stack of them to be retyped. Some of the more senior paralegals had secretaries to do their typing. Sofia would need to do all of this on her own.
The day went on and the pile of files got smaller and smaller. Frequent trips to the copier to collect the finished work found more and more people staring at her and making comments to each other under their breath. She knew how revealing her clothing was, but she didn't realize it would cause this much of a stir. As five o'clock came and went,she still had one more file to complete. People were filing out of the office around her desk and making their way home. As she was typing, she noticed a small red dot flashing in the corner of the screen that she had never seen before.
"Sofia? Are you asleep?" A soft female voice chimed from over her shoulder. Sofia jumped as if startled and stood straight up in her chair.
"No Ms. Campbell." Sofia started. "I just phased out for a minute." Ms. Campbell was the office manager, and although Sofia and Ms. Campbell were on the same level in pay grade, reality was much different. Ms. Campbell had been with the firm for nearly two decades, and garnered a lot of respect in the firm.
"Sofia...you have been staring at that computer screen for nearly a half hour, I've been watching." She crossed her arms in front of her angrily and then tapped on the desk. "What do you think your wearing today anyway?" She chided "This isn't high school you know Sofia, you can't just wear anything your little heart desires." She walked back to the door to leave the office "I've got my eye on you Ms. Fazio."
"Fuck!" Sofia was so pissed at herself. Why did she do this, and what was with the lost time again. She quickly finished her work and made her way to the garage level of the building. "What the hell am I thinking." She said, with a disgusted tone in her voice. She didn't have a car, at least not anymore. As she turned to walk back up to the street she was shocked. There, right where she had parked it the day before was her car. She ran over to it and checked to make sure her key fit, and it did. Sofia dropped into the driver's seat and wrapped her arms around the steering wheel. "Oh, baby, what the fuck is going on." She sat and wept for a moment, half in fear and half in gladness that she had her car back.