On the Other Side(31)

“Hey!”

She gazed at Damita quizzically. “You okay?” Wendy asked.

“Me? Sure, I’m fine.”

“Okay.”

Wendy decided to leave it alone. She wasn’t sure if it was the car accident, getting married, her return to work or a combination of all three, but she had worked with her long enough to know she wasn’t okay.

“I’m so glad to see you. If you had taken another week I would have gone completely insane. This old boy network is even more intolerable without you here.”

“Does that mean you missed me?” Damita responded.

“Hell, yes, I missed you.”

“We girls have to stick together.” She paused. “You know, Wendy, I’ve been thinking about that. We should reach out to Tina more often and welcome her into the fold, so to speak.”

“Okay, that must have been some good nookie you got while you were on your honeymoon. Or, maybe it’s some kind of head injury you got in that car accident? Aren’t you the same women that not even two months ago, said Tina was sleeping her way to the top?”

“I know, but that was wrong and catty of me and I don’t want to continue that kind of behavior. It’s hard enough breaking through that glass ceiling. The last thing we girls should be doing is helping to hold each other back. We’re stronger if we support one another. We shouldn’t be tearing each other down.”

“Wow! Look who went and got married and came back a grownup. I’m officially ashamed of myself. However, I do agree with you. I’ll try if you try.”

“Great!”

Wendy and Damita seldom spoke to Tina, unless it pertained to work.

While in the staff break room, Tina walked in.

“Good morning, Tina,” Damita said.

“Good morning, Damita.”

“Hey, Tina! Damita and I are going to hit Fitzpatrick’s tonight. Wanna come with?” Wendy asked.

“Sure, I would love to!”

For a moment Damita considered saying no. She was concerned about whether or not it would be okay with Neal. That’s when she remembered he was still in rehab.

Damita smiled at the thought of freedom and an opportunity to unwind. She walked back to her office with an uncustomary spring in her step. She was slowly returning to normal. Before she married Neal, she would go on and on, with anyone who would listen, about her stuffy office with the rotten view and how much she wanted one of the corner offices one day. Now, after all that happened her stuffy office felt more like an oasis.

Once she got into the swing of things, Damita was surprised at how good it felt to be back. At first she was concerned that people would badger her about the accident, the wedding and the trip to Jamaica that she had never actually taken. Surprisingly, the questions were kept to a minimum. That was the nice thing about her industry. Her colleagues were equally as driven as she was. Typically, they didn’t spend a great deal of time on idle chitchat. Instead, office talk was mostly about who scored the biggest client or who put together the best pitch. And, of course, the occasional office gossip.

Damita heard a knock on her office door, just before Mr. Underhill opened the door and walked in.

“Whitmore, I mean Westman, you got a minute?”

“Sure, Mr. Underhill. Please come in. Have a seat. Also, feel free to continue to call me Whitmore. I won’t be using my married name when it involves my work and I don’t believe in that hyphen nonsense.”

He took a seat at one of the two red wine, tufted leather guest chairs directly across from Damita’s glass desk.

Mr. Underhill looked at Damita intently. “When you didn’t come back to work after a week, as you had planned, I was concerned. I thought maybe you had opted for the life of a housewife. It’s nice to see you’re the same old Damita Whitmore; driven as ever.”

“Don’t worry about me. I have no intention of changing. The life of a housewife is definitely not for me. So, no worries; I’m as driven as ever.”

“If only I had ten more like you, I’d be set for life.”

“I’m so glad you don’t have ten more like me. You might be set for life but I wouldn’t. I would no longer be a unique commodity if there were ten more exactly like me. Besides, you may not have ten more, like me, but you do have at least two.”

Mr. Underhill raised his eyebrows and looked at Damita doubtfully. “Oh, do I now?”

“Yes, you do,” she responded confidently.

“Who exactly did you have in mind?” Mr. Underhill asked.

“Tina and Wendy. They’re badasses in their own right.”

Mr. Underhill stared at Damita with a look of surprise. “Tina? Now, Wendy I agree with slightly, but Tina? I don’t know what my old man was thinking when he hired her. Well, actually, I do know what he was thinking,” he said, smiling.