Chapter Eight
Eight
I kept my head down for the rest of the day; every time Gary came out of his glass office, I could feel him trying to murder me with his eyes. I was never getting my fifty-three dollars back. On the bright side, I was getting a paycheck. A full-time-salary paycheck. A $1,611 paycheck to be exact. I tried to prepare myself. When I opened the envelope and saw the amount on the pay stub, my breath caught. But as I sat in the bathroom, locked in a stall, I cried happy tears. I had never in my life had that much money at one time. This was mine. No one could take it away from me.
I also cried because this might be the last time I ever saw that kind of money again. Gary terrified me. Maybe I just wasn’t cut out for this kind of environment. I mean, I have dealt with abusive jerks at work, but this guy could really keep me from having a career altogether. I was a fighter, but this seemed like an arena I was outmatched and underprepared for.
I left the bathroom stall and splashed cold water from the sink on my face. I was dealt a shitty hand at various times in my life, but the one thing I could say was that I was very blessed that my face never bore the effects of a crying episode. Sure, my eyes were a little red, but they didn’t get puffy. So I guess one could say I was a pretty crier. I’d take it, since I had to walk about out there.
After four on Fridays, upper management was gone. I could breathe easy knowing that I would have no more confrontations with Gary today. I really didn’t have anything to do. I finished all my busywork from the rest of the accounting team, and now Gary didn’t trust me to help him on any other projects. Even Lisa had gone for the day. Becky from HR was typing furiously at her computer. Our section felt empty and lonely.
Besides Danuwoa and Phoebe, I didn’t really talk to anyone else here. After what Kyle said, I doubted anyone at his level would bother to talk to me either. It was like I finally crossed the line into the corporate world, but I was still other . I was still treated as less than. Even if I finished school and moved on to get a bachelor’s degree, I didn’t know how I would overcome that feeling. Was it in my head, or did people really treat me that way? I recalled the awful people at the bowling alley, and yup, I was definitely treated as a second-class citizen meant to serve, and then Kyle’s words cracked through my mind like a whip.
It was stupid. His approval shouldn’t mean anything to me. I didn’t even know him. But having someone tell me to my face that I needed to know my place was beyond embarrassing. I just knew anytime I was happily doing any mundane task that the memory would come assaulting me left and right. I cringed with the anticipation of it.
“Hey, when are you headed home?” Danuwoa leaned against my cubicle wall, hands in his pockets with his ankles crossed. He looked so sure of himself, so comfortable in his own skin. Maybe I should have gone to school for IT.
“I don’t have anything to do right now, and Gary is gone.” I shrugged.
“Let’s go.” He pushed himself off the partition and motioned for me to follow him.
“I’m allowed to just leave?”
He turned his head over his shoulder and raised his eyebrow and kept walking to the front of the office.
I guess I could. Fuck it. If I was getting fired, then what did it matter? I popped my laptop into my bag and shuffled after Danuwoa.
He was waiting by the elevator chatting with Phoebe when I approached. The printer was resting on top of the IT cart.
He nodded at me and said to Phoebe, “Have a nice weekend.”
I slowed to a casual, cool, and totally collected walk as Danuwoa pushed the button to call the elevator. I stood next to him, my orthopedic flats giving me maybe an extra inch of height so I came up to his shoulders.
The elevator dinged its arrival, and when the doors opened, we were confronted with a very pregnant Natalie.
She smiled and said, “Great, I caught you before you headed out.” She said it directly to me. “Hey, Dan.” She barely glanced his way before she grabbed my arm and pulled me into the elevator. “I only need you for a moment. You can come too, Dan. Mr. Stevenson’s having problems with his laptop again.” She rolled her eyes, and Danuwoa gave a heavy sigh before joining us.
“Is there something wrong?” I asked, still looking at her hand on my arm. She followed my line of vision and let go of me, giving me an apologetic smile, then pressed the floor seventeen button like a maniac. Pressing it more times does not move the elevator faster. People know that, right?
“No, the opposite. Some great news. I’ll wait for Mr. Stevenson to tell you himself.”
“Mr. Stevenson?” I thought I would throw up right then and there. For the rest of the day, if not my life, I was done talking to rich old white men with “executive” in their titles.
Danuwoa stepped closer to me; his presence was reassuring.
“He was very impressed with you today, and he just wants to tell you himself. You have nothing to worry about.” Natalie smiled before hissing a breath and hunching over.
“Are you okay?” Danuwoa leaped forward, steadying Natalie.
“Braxton-Hicks contractions, I’ll be fine.” She rubbed her visibly tight stomach over her fitted dress.
As the elevator stopped at floor seventeen, Danuwoa and I looked with concern as she straightened and led us onto the executive floor.
This place was a glass castle. Everything was modern and shiny. Where floor twelve was kind of a cheap modern attempt, everything on floor seventeen screamed money . I felt as if my presence alone sullied this place. I’ve never been in any five-star hotels in my life, but this looked like the movies. It smelled exactly as I imagined, like clean leather. Shit, we couldn’t afford leather. Not even for our regalia. I didn’t have any besides some beaded jewelry my auntie and I made when I was younger.
I glanced over to Danuwoa to see if he was affected the same way I was. He appeared unfazed as he walked beside Natalie. She smiled over at him like they had done this walk thousands of times before, and they had.
“They’ve passed, no need to hover over me. I’m fine. You go ahead and make sure his laptop is in working order for the weekend, I need a moment with Ember.”
Danuwoa looked at me and raised his eyebrow, wordlessly asking, This is weird, will you be okay?
I silently nodded and faced Natalie.
“What you did in that meeting today took guts. Gary sucks. Since I’ve been here, he has been awful, but Mr. Stevenson gets attached to people, and he chooses to overlook a lot of things. I don’t condone it, but it’s the way it is. I have a baby on the way, and I need a paycheck.”
I stood there awkwardly listening to her tell me these things. I could see Danuwoa through the door.
Natalie continued, “I’m sure you’ve heard I’m looking for a temporary replacement for me while I am on maternity leave?”
I did not like where this was going.
“I did hear some rumblings.”
“Great, Mr. Stevenson is going to offer the role to you.”
“I don’t even know him!” I squeaked.
“It’s fine; I still have a few weeks before my due date to train you. You can call or text me anytime.”
She made it sound so official, like I’d already agreed. I had not agreed!
“You need to ask for at least a ten percent raise. He likes when people negotiate. He’ll respect you for it.”
“But I just started.” All my life, I had never asked for a raise. I didn’t even know that was allowed. I thought that was a reward for doing a good job for a year or two: a raise was bestowed upon you. In this world, you could just ask for more money?
“Being the executive assistant to the CEO has a lot of responsibility.” I immediately took a step back, and she quickly added, “It’s not hard, but you will have to keep track of many things, and being ‘executive facing,’ you get a higher salary than just a typical admin. So, when he offers, just say you would love to and ask if he would be interested in increasing your pay by ten percent to cover the new role and responsibilities. Okay? Got it?”
I was wide-eyed, trying to absorb it all, but she was spraying everything at me like a hose on full blast.
“Great, let’s go in.” She waddle-marched her way into the office.
I had no choice but to follow.
“Why don’t you go ahead and close the door?” Mr. Stevenson asked. I stood there like an idiot until Danuwoa and Natalie looked at me. He was talking to me. Mr. Stevenson wanted me to close his door.
I sprang into action and released the glass door; it made a low click as the magnet in the bottom activated. It was see-through. Rich people probably took a shit behind glass thinking that was enough privacy. I bet they wanted everyone to see their golden toilets.
Like magic, the glass turned opaque.
I faced everyone else in the room in awe. Mr. Stevenson, in his red sweater-vest, chuckled.
“I love doing that,” he said as he waved a small white remote. “It’s smart technology. I press this button, and it connects the door to electricity, and the crystals in the glass turn opaque. When I turn it off, the glass goes clear again. It never gets old.”
Danuwoa snickered as he leaned over the desk, practically on top of Mr. Stevenson as he fiddled with the sleek computer.
I smiled as I crossed and uncrossed my ankles.
“Please have a seat.” He pointed with his hand to the empty chair next to Natalie. I took three large steps to get to the seat, grateful this man took pity on my awkwardness. But by the side-eye I was getting from Natalie, my big ogre steps were only adding to it. I tried to take a calming breath, but with my luck, I probably looked like a gaping fish. I just wanted this over with. Clearly, they had the wrong person in mind for the job. I didn’t even know where to start with being an executive assistant to the CEO. That sounded too fancy for my ass. I glanced at the corner, where the floor-to-ceiling windows connected, and in front of them was a bronze saddle sculpture. This may have been a new tech company, but in Oklahoma, people took cowboying seriously.
“Great work today,” Mr. Stevenson began, leaning back in his chair. Danuwoa scooted himself and the laptop a few inches away to get some space. “Gary has been a loyal employee, but he can be lazy. Natalie told me you’ve only been here two weeks, and in that time, you were able to go through the old invoices from the Portland office. I need someone like you. Sharp, with great attention to detail, and a real go-getter. Natalie said you’d be perfect to fill in for her, and I agree. How about it?” He brought his arm down and looked at his watch.
He offered me the job so casually, as if he were ordering a meal. Natalie nudged my foot with her own.
“Thank you so much for considering me. I don’t have any executive assistant experience. I don’t want to fall short of your expectations.” I gave a genuine smile to Natalie, because I was being honest—unlike how I landed at Technix in the first place.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” Natalie spoke up. “I’ll train you myself and leave very detailed instructions. I’ll make sure everything runs smoothly, and I think you’ll enjoy yourself.” She wiggled her eyebrows, and I knew she was prompting me to haggle a pay increase.
“If I were to take this position, er, that is to say, I would be happy to consider this position; however, it seems like it’s a job that has a lot more responsibilities. Would it be possible to increase my compensation to match…those new responsibilities?”
Mr. Stevenson’s face lit up with a smile. “What would be fair to you?” he asked me.
I looked at Natalie, who smiled encouragingly, and then I caught Danuwoa’s eyes when I glanced back toward Mr. Stevenson. What was he thinking of all this? It was kind of absurd to be talking about a job offer and money with an IT guy in the room. And not just any IT guy, but Danuwoa, the hottest guy on the planet.
“Ten percent?” I asked, internally cringing at how high my voice sounded. I should have sounded more confident, but what the hell did I know about any of this? I was in too deep.
“Perfect! We’ll have you start shadowing Natalie on Monday. You almost done with that, Dan the Man? I have dinner reservations with my wife.”
“What about Mr. Horowitz?” I asked.
“You don’t have to worry about him,” Natalie said, beaming as she stood. She motioned me to follow her out. I got up and looked back at Danuwoa. It felt like a century had passed since he asked me to skip out early and take the printer.
“You’re all set,” Danuwoa said, and relinquished the laptop back to the CEO.
“Wonderful!” He slammed it shut. “I hope you all have a great weekend.” He started packing his briefcase, the three of us forgotten.
“Come on,” Natalie whispered. Outside the white opaque glass, a new Ember emerged, a richer and more reassured me. The kind of person I had always dreamed I would become. Gary wasn’t going to fire me, and now he had no power to ever fire me! I never had aspirations to be anything other than an accountant, but this new job, temporary as it was, was a huge break for me. I could be anything.
“Congrats! Stealing the show and not even a month in.” Danuwoa nudged me as we walked to the elevator.
“Thank you, Natalie,” I said, and turned and hugged her around her belly. “You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”
“You earned it. I look forward to training you on Monday. Now get going. I have some things to wrap up before I can kick these shoes off.”
The doors to the elevator shut, and I grabbed Danuwoa’s toned arm. “That just happened, right?”
“Yup, you just got a raise and a new job. With all that new money, you can buy a new printer, ya know?”
“No way, I want that dinosaur.”