Sisterly love and endearment burst from her face. “Oh, Jules,” she reached out to hold one of my hands, “I knew it was going to happen to you sometime. I had a really good feeling about Ryan. I’m so happy for you.”
Then, honest to God, she actually cried tears of joy.
Tuesday morning arrived and it was time to return to the reality of life. It seemed like forever since I had been in the office. I had unofficial permission to “work” from home, but habit and a moral sense of obligation compelled me to go in even though I technically had no real work assigned to me anymore. At least if I was in the office, it was easier for me to keep up the pretext that I was still employed and part of the team. I knew if I missed another week of work, people would start asking questions. I planned to stay out of Catherine’s way and hide in my office to look for new jobs.
When I got off of the elevator, I took the longer route to my office, intentionally avoiding passing Catherine’s. I found myself almost sneaking into my office and shut the door quickly behind me. As I docked my laptop and my machine beeped on, I heard my phone chime a text. It was Ryan. I smiled, knowing that I had left him only a little over an hour ago.
Ryan: miss you already
Me: me too
Me: I enjoyed my wakeup call this morning ;-)
Ryan: I can still taste you
I immediately flushed. Lord. I felt my pulse speed up and I swore the room just got warmer. Memories of Ryan’s tongue between my legs this morning flashed through my brain. He said he was merely returning the favor. I couldn’t think of a witty comeback to his text, as I was momentarily speechless. When I looked down, he had sent another.
Ryan: gotta run to a budget meeting
Me: c u tonight - love you, xoxo
Ryan: love u 2 - xxx
I loved flirty, playful Ryan. Who would’ve ever guessed that Mr. CVP could be so flirtatious or so dirty? Sexting at work. Whew.
Over the course of the next few hours, I planned to surf the internal MS career website for potential job openings. Thankfully, it was still early enough in the fiscal year that there would be no shortage of job postings.
I typed in level “62” and “Program Manager” as my initial search criteria. The results came back with 200+ positions. Ugh. I needed to narrow this down somehow so I could sift through the list.
I was sure to stay away from the US Subsidiary job postings, since that’s where my boyfriend worked. That would certainly be an HR violation.
Boyfriend, hmm … I surprised even myself that I now considered him my boyfriend. I chuckled; calling Ryan my boyfriend sounded so juvenile. The term just didn’t fit him, considering the fact that he was a hot older man in his late thirties, though Sugar Daddy was way off base. I guess he was my boyfriend now. The thought made me smile. In fact, I found myself smiling an awful lot lately, despite the fact that my career was going down in flames.
The search results showed a lot of marketing roles in CMG, my current org. I skipped past those pretty quickly. Stephanie was likely no longer a fan of mine and since she had the final say on any of my promotions or bonuses, it wouldn’t be very smart of me to remain in her organization. Not that I thought someone like Stephanie would hold my relationship with Ryan against me, but it would just be really awkward to see her on a regular basis. Not to mention the potential conflict of interest with Catherine.
That narrowed it down to IT, Operations, or Services. Boring. I had just left IT and the idea of going back was as exciting as watching golf on television. Operations and Services didn’t sound any better.
I slammed my laptop shut in frustration and decided I needed to take a break just as Mia knocked and waved through the window next to my door. I motioned her to come in.
“Did you eat lunch yet?” she asked casually. Instantly sensing my mood, she raised her eyebrows. “We should go out to eat somewhere. Come on.”
I let out a big breath. Relieved to be rescued from the irritations of my previous activity, I grabbed my purse and followed her out my door.
“Any preferences on where to eat?” she asked.
“How about Bento Box?” I suggested.
We headed down the stairs towards the main lobby, since Mia was parked out in front of the building. As we rounded the stairs to go down to the next level, I halted as I saw Catherine walking up with a tray of food.
“Hi, Catherine,” Mia greeted cheerfully.
Catherine looked up to the sound of her name and then immediately froze when she noticed the two of us. “Um, hi,” she replied with a smile that didn’t touch her eyes. She made eye contact with me briefly, but her face was a mask and showed only iced calm.
“We’re just heading out to lunch. But don’t worry, we’ll be back in time for our team meeting,” Mia said, oblivious to the chill emanating from Catherine to me.