In a Wild Moment(3)

The building she entered housed a number of companies. Hers occupied the top three floors. It was owned by a reclusive billionaire, and as such she had never met the man, but he always made sure that his employees had all the best equipment. She heard that he dropped by every now and then, but even if he did, she wouldn't recognize his face, for she only new his name—Jack Keyes.

The mystery surrounding the man was something that had kept many people preoccupied in her previous office and she wondered if it would be the same on the new floor. She'd heard a number of theories, including one that suggested he actually did work in the office as someone just to keep an eye on his employees, but Scarlett didn't give that any more thought than it deserved, figuring that a billionaire would have much better things to do with his time.

She tried not to put too much thought into it anyway, as she figured that she would most likely never meet him.

Almost by habit, she started to press the button to her old floor and just managed to stop herself. The elevator whirred as it took her up and up and up, and then stopped to a halt as the doors opened. The floor looked the same as her old one, but different. The layout was identical but the colors were new, and it was like she had stepped into some strange alternate dimension. She walked up to the front desk and told the receptionist that she was new. The girl, a platinum-blonde bombshell, flashed a white-toothed smile and told her to wait for a few moments.

A few moments came and went. Scarlett was about to go back up to the receptionist and ask her what was going on, when a man in a suit rushed out of the office to greet her. He introduced himself as Sam. His skin was tanned a deep orange, but it looked fake, and she got the impression that he was a man trying desperately to hold onto his elusive youth. He took her through the main office, where people were tapping away at keyboards in cubicles. He showed her the main conference room and the break room, then opened the door to her office.

“And this is where you'll be staying. I've got Mandy to collate the files you'll need—I'm sure she'll be along in a moment. Other than that, keep checking your e-mails for the meeting schedules; we usually have a couple a week just to make sure everyone is happy with the direction. Otherwise, I think you should be good to go. Welcome aboard!” he said with a twinkle in his eye. Just before he left, she noticed his eyes drift down her body and rest on the curves of her breasts. Scarlett rolled her eyes.

She took a seat at her desk and the first thing she did was adjust the chair. Then, she pulled out a few of her personal belongings and set them down on the desk to give the place a more homely feel. Her computer was already on so she logged in to check her e-mails to see if she had received anything from the company yet. There were just a few general newsletters—she never bothered to read those.

A few moments later there was a knock at her door.

“Come in,” she called. A mousy-haired petite woman came in. She was holding a stack of thick files and blew out her cheeks when she heaved them onto the desk. Her round glasses had been falling off her nose so she pushed them back up, placed her hands on her hips, and then nodded at Scarlett.

“I'm Mandy. Welcome to the floor,” she said, and took a seat. Scarlett was a little taken aback at how quickly Mandy had made herself at home, but it was nice to see a friendly face, especially one who wasn't going to check her out.

“I'm Scarlett, thank you. And thank you for these,” she said, gesturing to the files.

“Seems like you have a lot of work already!”

“Yeah, there's no real adjustment period. I thought I was going to have to take some time to get used to my new surroundings, but I don't think I'm going to have the time to.”

“Ah, you'll be fine. We're all harmless here. Do you know anyone already?”

“No, just Sam.”

“Ah, yeah. Watch out for him. He likes the pretty ones.”

“I gathered that already. I saw his wandering eyes.”

“It's not the eyes you have to worry about, it's the hands. He basically runs this department. Just don't give him any encouragement.”

“I didn't plan to. So I heard that Mr. Keyes sometimes drops by here?” she said, idly flicking through the files just to get a glimpse of what was waiting for her.

“Very occasionally.”

“Have you ever seen him?”

“The last time he came in was for an impromptu visit. It sounds embarrassing but I was just getting back from a bathroom break when he left, so I saw him but I didn't get to meet him.”

“What's he like?”

“What do you expect a reclusive billionaire to be like? Handsome, magnetic charismatic. Frankly, I'm surprised he bothers coming in at all. If I had that much money, I'd be jetting off all around the world.”

“That's what I said to my old co-workers! They even thought that he was someone in the office, working undercover to keep an eye on his employees.”

“Well, that right there is why they're on the lower floor,” Mandy said, and they both burst into laughter. Scarlett took an instant liking to Mandy and they continued to chat for a while longer. Mandy told her all about the people working on the floor and a lot of gossip, which Scarlett was grateful for since it meant that she was going to avoid making a faux pas. Eventually, however, Mandy had to return to work, and Scarlett had to get started.

“It was nice meeting you, though. Come and find me in the break room. I think you're going to be a great addition to the floor! Oh, and did Sam tell you about the party?” she added just before she was about to leave. Scarlett looked up from her desk.

“What party?”

“We're having a birthday party for... I forget whose birthday, but it's going to be towards the end of the week, Friday afternoon probably. It'll be a good chance for you to get to know everyone,” Mandy said. Scarlett was feeling pretty happy at that point. She liked parties and was looking forward to getting to know everyone else on the floor, especially if they were as friendly as Mandy.

Yet, unfortunately she found out quickly that they were not. Mandy was the exception to the general rule. Everyone else she met was rather standoffish and didn't seem to have much time for her. They were polite, but no more, and Scarlett soon felt isolated. Working in her own office was different than working out on the floor as she couldn't look over a cubicle and speak to someone else. Instead, she was forced to keep working, and she had plenty of work to be getting on with—it just kept piling up, and no matter how hard she worked, she felt like she wasn't making a dent in it. She stayed behind later than she should have, and barely got any sleep for she wanted to make a good impression.

Adding to her frustration was the fact that Matt was still calling her and still trying to get her back. On most nights, she ended up leaving her phone switched off just so she could get some peace and quiet. Her only respite was Mandy, and it was a sad state of affairs because on the lower floor they all respected her and liked her, and she counted a number of them among her friends.

On one afternoon she made an excuse and left her office to go and visit her old floor. When she got there she imagined it resembled what going back to high school would have been like. People were the same but they saw her differently, and she didn't feel like she belonged.

It's probably just teething problems. It'll get better, she told herself, although she wasn't quite sure she believed it. But she had worked hard for the promotion so she wasn't about to let it get the best of her. So she threw herself into her work. However, when it came time for the meetings, she found that Sam and the others weren't accepting or inclusive. Whenever it came time for everyone to share their ideas, Scarlett listed a number of what she thought were rather good ones, but they were never given serious consideration and the others were all dismissive of her. She left the meetings feeling like she wasn't making any progress at work, and it was entirely demoralizing.

On one instance, she had spent the whole morning noting down ideas and an entire action plan for one of the accounts that was on the agenda. The client had been suffering in the marketplace due to aggressive tactics by their competitors and they'd paid Scarlett's firm a lot of money to bring them back to the top and revamp their image. The conference room was long and a huge table stretched down. Scarlett was towards the end of the table and found it hard to be heard. Whenever Sam asked for feedback she raised he hand and called out, but he ignored her, as did the rest of them. It was only when she cleared her throat loudly that everyone turned to her and looked at her expectantly. With the pressure on her, Scarlett looked at her notes and told them about her ideas, but the fact that she was still new made her speak without confidence. After she had finished, there was an awkward silence. The rest of the people looked at each other and then all turned to Sam. He leaned forward and took a heavy breath.

“Look, Scarlett. We appreciate your enthusiasm, but we think it would be best if you spend some time observing us so you can get a sense of how we work. It's nothing personal, but obviously it's going to take some time for you to integrate yourself into the floor. So try not to run before you can walk,” he said in a patronizing tone. Scarlett was dumbfounded and Sam moved on to the next piece of business so swiftly that she didn't get a chance to respond to his advice, but she was annoyed that he hadn't even given her feedback on her ideas, he had just dismissed them easily.