Chapter 2

The next day, Ellie was at work suffering from a hangover. She had gone home and finished two bottles of wine by herself to celebrate her birthday.

Rod stopped dead in his tracks as Ellie came into view. Her typically striking appearance was nowhere in sight. "What did you do, sleep in that outfit?" Rod teased, cattily.

Ellie grabbed Rod's shirt and pulled him into the alcove by the water cooler. "I've had it up to here, Rod," She raised her hand over her head. "I've had it with men. I've had it with all these bullshit expectations." Her hair like graffiti—a crazed expression framing bloodshot eyes.

Rod calmly asked, "What is it? Is it Griffin?" He reached up and grabbed her raised hand.

At the mention of his name, she released her grip on his shirt and backed away. "No. It's definitely not Griffin."

Marie, whose desk was just down the hall, chimed in, "he was here last night."

Shocked, Rod angrily replied to his assistant, "he's not allowed in the building again, Marie! You hear me?"

Ellie, her guts aswirl with guilt, shame, and confusion burst out, "No, no! He's my friend! He didn't do anything wrong."

Marie added, "yesterday was her birthday, Rod."

Rod grabbed Ellie by the shoulders and pulled her in close, giving her a side hug as she buried her face in her hands. "Ellie, babe. I'm so sorry I forgot about your birthday."

"I don't care about birthdays," both of them knew that was a lie, but she continued anyway, "birthdays are stupid."

"Well, I'm here for you if you want to talk," waiting a moment he tried to shift the conversation to work. "How's the Williams account? Is everything ready?"

"I've got a consultation with Tanya at her condo this afternoon," she answered tearfully, attempting to pull herself together. "But I have an interview with a promising girl named Virginia before that."

"Good! You're taking my advice and delegating?"

"Trying to," she said, closing in the sideways hug for the real deal.

Virginia sat opposite of Ellie. On the desk before them was Virginia's design portfolio. At only 22, Virginia was a raw, but talented designer. Importantly, she had a thirst to prove herself.

"I just moved to the city from Atlanta. My uncle Daryll lives here and I'm staying with him and his family until I can support myself."

"Well, you're clearly extremely talented and I'm excited by the prospect of working with you," Ellie was very excited.

“Wait, I’ve got the job?”

Ellie grabbed a folder and handed it to Virginia, “Yes, you’ve got the job. Your first assignment is to get up to speed on the Williams account.”

Virginia opened the folder and looked over the documents, incredulously. “Paper?” She asked.

“Paper,” Ellie said, realizing that this must seem quite strange for someone unfamiliar with the situation. “Your last job was in retail?”

“Yeah. I worked at an Old Navy,” she said sheepishly.

“Were they having lots of IT issues then?”

Virginia replied, “yeah, come to think of it the registers barely ever worked.”

“Well, Rod got sick of the cyberattacks and the computers never working… so we switched over to paper last year.”

Virginia nodded and her gaze returned to the files now resting in her lap. She sifted through the documents and looked at the photos. She found one picture of the penthouse and asked, “is this an inspiration for the account?”

“No, that’s the penthouse we’re working on.,” Ellie replied with a grin.

Virginia’s eyes met Ellie’s, “I feel a bit out of my depth all of a sudden.”

Ellie grinned, “you’ll do fine.” Laughing, she continued, “and you’ll start today.”

Several weeks later Ellie and Virginia were at Tanya William’s penthouse. The deep green marble, priceless sculptures, and sterile lighting was as artificial as Tanya’s surgically altered cheekbones.

"I think there's an opportunity for a real masterpiece here," Tanya gestured at the foyer wall, her words tumbling out of her mouth with a manufactured accent meant to sound sophisticated. She turned to face Ellie, who seemed particularly small in this space. "Don't you think, Stella?"

"It's Ellie, Tanya. And yes. We can definitely change the plans we've drawn up, but it's going to add significant time and cost to the project." Ellie looked Tanya up and down. She'd always been a useless, gaudy, trophy wife-type, but today she was channeling Cruella de Vil. She glanced over at Virginia with a look of total exasperation crumpled on her young face.

"Well, I've told you this needs to be done by the 4th of July! We're hosting a bash here. Ariana Grande has RSVP’d," Tanya's demands fell on Ellie like a wet blanket.

"Right," Ellie closed her eye and pressed a finger deeply into her right temple. She paused for a moment to gather herself, "…but our plans aren't finished, you haven't even hired contractors yet, and given that you want to throw out a third of what we've already completed, it's just not going to happen on that timeline."

"What are you telling me, Sally?"

"It's... Ellie..."

"Are you saying that we're not going to have this work done on time?"

"No, I don't think so."

"We have a contract, Sully. I signed it back in November."

"Tanya. My name is not Sully. It's not Sally. You know what my fucking name is. And I'd appreciate it if you..."

“Don't take that tone with me, little girl.” Her shoulders reared backwards as she loomed over Ellie and Virginia. “I'll call Rod! I’ll call him right now and have you both fired. I'm one of Rod's favorite clients. We were working together before you were even born." Tanya's condescending tone at a fever pitch, "He'll bend over backwards to keep me happy. So you'd better apologize to me! And you’d better change your attitude!"

Ellie was fuming. She was sick of everyone demanding so much of her, but was too proud to admit that she couldn't please everyone. Before she knew what had happened, her consciousness seemed to snap into the moment as she exclaimed, "Rod doesn't like you, you worthless, entitled bitch." The moment that followed was nine months pregnant with shock on both sides.

Before Tanya could say a word, Ellie booked it to the front door. She made it an ornate elevator decked in gaudy green marble and hit the down button. She chose not to turn around. She didn't want to make eye contact with Tanya. Ellie could feel her glare like daggers in her back.

Virginia was frozen in fear and just stood there.

The elevator door chimed twice and they slid open. Ellie entered, turned around and slammed the door closed button. Then pressed Ground. As the doors closed, she caught a glimpse of Tanya's penetrating, icy stare and a shiver coiled its way down her spine.

Tanya spun on her heel to face Virginia, “do you have anything to say?”

Virginia couldn’t speak so she just shook her head.

"Tanya's a rotten old bitch," Rod's opinion landed like a cinderblock.

Ellie tried to ask, "so you're not mad?" But it came out more like begging.

"Of course I'm mad! She's filthy fucking rich, Ellie! I practically built this company on her checkbook."

Ellie didn't notice Rod trying to sequester a smile, too preoccupied with her own humiliation. "Rod, I need this job. Give me another chance." She was practically groveling at this point.

"Give you another chance? What? Do you think I'm gonna fire you?" He let out an unexpected laugh. "I'll tell you, she wants me to fire you. But she can go to hell. You're my best designer."

Ellie was confused. "I thought you built this company on her..."

"A woman like Tanya is quick to anger and even quicker to distraction. This will blow over." His wisdom was delivered softly.

Ellie was still trying to make sense of the last forty minutes and Rod's reaction, "So you're going to take me off the account, then?"

"Fuck no. You're going to march over there and you're going to apologize."

Ellie burst into tears, "Rod, I literally can't do that right now."

"I know," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You're going to take a vacation first."

"A vacation?" Ellie asked, almost disgusted.

"Trust me, El Nina," his use of the nickname was both comforting to Ellie, and a sign of him pulling rank. "Go hang out with some friends and unwind."

About The Author:

B.E. Waites

B.E. Waites is a New England-based author. They're also a gamer and an amateur photographer. When they're not writing, they work in the public health sector.