Assignment: Write the first 2-3 pages of your story that will be worked on for the rest of the semester.
“What a bitch.” Viola complained to herself under her breath as her boss walked away. She willed herself to stare at her computer screen instead of glaring daggers at Bette's back. As soon as Bette was out of sight Viola opened her email. Her fingers flew over the keys as she typed a coded message to her best friend three cubicles away: SD strikes again...must have had bitch flakes for breakfast...give you details at ten.
Twenty minutes later the girls were sitting in their lunch room. Fluorescent lights flickering over their bent heads, a low-fat bran muffin split between them, neither of them noticing the crumb that hit the table like drops of rain.
“So I'm in the middle of the LES report when the She-Devil stalks over, tosses the Lancaster proposal on my desk and says ‘Do it over’.”
“What?” Lacey asked, her eyes widening. “Vi, you spent weeks on that. You even missed Thursday night drinks.” She said, shoving another section of muffin in her mouth. Thursday night drinks were really coffee or tea from Starbucks. Both girls had weak stomachs and couldn’t hold their liquor.
“I know and apparently it still isn't good enough.” Viola slumped back in her chair
“Did she say what was wrong with it?” Lacey's eyes darted to the clock over the fridge. There were so many clock nazi's around you couldn't get away with taking an extra minute over your break.
“I believe her exact words were,” Viola paused in order to compose herself in Bette fashion: head tilted back, nose in the air. “Lancaster proposals are always done in Edessa font not Times New Roman font. Everyone knows that.”
“Oh of course.” Lacey responded, rolling her eyes. “Yet three days ago she wanted it in Times New Roman. Typical.” Every since Bette was promoted from the floor to a corner office she had been pulling rank on Viola, despite Viola’s impeccable work record. Blame it on stereo-typical woman-on-woman competition if you want but Viola thought there was more to it.
Deciding to risk her boss’s wrath she made a b-line to the ladies’ room before going back to her desk after break. As she was struggling to get her dress pants re-buttoned she overheard what sounded like muffled crying. Viola knew that sound well as she had spent many afternoons nursing hurt feelings or a broken heart herself. Would I want to be interrupted, she thought to herself? Usually not. So she tried to wash up as quickly and quietly as possible. Red snake skin shoes under the bathroom stall door caught her attention on the way out. Those were familiar.
Viola puzzled over the shoes as she walked through the maze of cubicles back to her desk. She saw Jean poke her head up like a gopher trying to catch late comers. She’s such at time warden, doesn’t she have work to do? Viola quickened her pace before Jean could tattle on her. She didn’t need Bette’s classic “work time versus personal time” lecture this morning.
It was near lunchtime when Viola was finally finished reprinting and assembling the Lancaster proposal. She dropped it off then met Lacey for lunch at the front doors of their building.
“So I guess SD is trying out the “Dorothy” look today?” Lacey asked Viola as she adjusted her jade gloves then pushed on the doors to outside. The fall air was crisp on their faces, a welcome wake up after the busy morning.
“What do you mean?” Viola questioned back. They double check the pedestrian light then made their way across the road to Oliver’s.
“Didn’t you see those ruby red Wizard of Oz knock offs she was wearing?” Lacey snorted. “Okay they weren’t quite ruby red, or bejeweled but they definitely didn’t go with her pink sweater.
“Though,” Lacey paused, a thoughtful look on her face. “Her hair did look like it went through a tornado!”
That’s where I saw them, Viola realized. Then felt weird as it occurred to her that she had witnessed Bette crying in the bathroom. It made her more human like, and Viola was not used to seeing her boss as a human.
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