CHAPTER FOUR - The Offer
1207 Words
f**k, f**k, f**k—f**k!!!”
“Calm down. If you keep saying f**k so much, you might get f****d,” Alice said while chuckling, obviously finding all this funny.
“Wow, you’re so helpful! What would I do without you??”
“Okay, relax, girl. Calm down.”
“How can I calm down when the man who hit my car and didn’t feel empathetic about it is also the man who wants to invest in the company, and is also the man I wanted to hire me!!”
“Well, to be fair, his assistant hit your car, not him.”
“Well, his assistant was sorry about it!! And whose side are you even on??”
“Yours, girl, but you need to chilllll. Okay, what happened when you saw him at Ted’s office?”
“Well, after I recognized him, I froze up.”
⸻
FLASHBACK
“Well, fuck.”
“What was that, Heather?” Ted asked.
“No… nothing, sir,” I said, straightening out my pants and clearing my throat.
“Well, it’s good to meet the young woman who is going to give the presentation,” Kamal said, filling the silence in the room.
“Yes… yes, of course. Well, Heather here has been working in our company for two years now, starting at the ripe age of twenty-one, immediately after she got her master’s degree, and since then has made a great impact in this company,” Ted said with a smile.
I had no idea why he was doing all this ass-kissing, but if he thought it was going to get him in my pants, he was dead wrong.
“Well, not long before Miss Heather got here, you were telling us how women were only good for kitchen and bedroom activities, and also how you can easily switch her to one of the young men in the department if, during her presentation, I find her to be incompetent. So, Ted, where’s all this sudden praise coming from?” Derick said, looking more irritated than confused.
I was in complete shock and also quite embarrassed.
Not because of what Ted said—I was used to Ted’s misogynistic behaviors—but because he actually suggested giving away all my hard work to someone else to present after all my sleepless nights.
“Oh… um, well, like you said, sir, if she wasn’t fit for it, it would have been given to someone else,” Ted said, nervously laughing.
“Well, anyway, I’ll leave you men to it,” I said, basically running out of that room.
“Oh my heavens! How f*****g embarrassing.”
⸻
PRESENT
“Wow, well at least now you know Ted’s only being nice to you to get in your pants.”
“Yeah, like we didn’t already know that,” I said, rolling my eyes while she laughed at me.
“Well, it could be worse, you know.”
“How exactly could it get ANY worse?”
“Well, that Derick guy could have taken one look at you and decided he wanted someone else to present. Then—bye-bye pay raise, and bye-bye new job opportunity.”
“There’s already no job opportunity! That man doesn’t like me.”
“He doesn’t even know you, Heather.”
“Well, he knows me enough to dislike me.”
“I think…”
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the door opening and everyone piling in. Last to enter was Derick, who seemed to immediately notice me from the corner of the room. Weird.
When everyone took their seats, Ted addressed the room.
“Good day, everyone. It’s my pleasure to be in the midst of one of the greatest young minds in the country, Mr. Benjamin Derick, and hopefully, with what you will be shown today, you will find it in your best interest to invest in our company.”
A round of applause could be heard in the room—but definitely not from my hands, that’s for sure.
“Okay, now I’ll be calling on Miss Heather Mayers to give the presentation,” Ted said, looking at me with a disgusting smile on his face.
“Thank you, sir. Good day, everyone. As was already stated, I’m Heather Mayers, and I will be presenting today.” I scanned the room to see everyone’s eyes directly on me. I looked over at Alice, and she gave me a reassuring smile, which instantly made me calm down—well, not until I saw that dickhead Mr. Derick looking at me. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking through his blank stare, though.
“So, I’d like to start by stating all the achievements this company has acquired over the past fourteen years of its existence.”
⸻
AN HOUR LATER
“And that brings me to the end of my presentation. Any questions?” I was silently begging for there to be none at all, but unfortunately, Derick just had to ask one.
“Yes, Miss Mayers. Um, so when you mentioned the marketing research program that took place, I wanted to know—were you a part of that program?”
“Um, well, I don’t see how that relates to the presentation, sir, but yes, I was the chief director for the program.”
“Okay, that will be all.”
“Okay, thank you, sir.”
“Wait… no, one more thing.” Ughhhhh… what could this bastard possibly want next—my soul??
“Yes, sir?”
“I overheard your conversation with your friend earlier about wanting to work for me. I would like for you to know that the offer is now on the table if you’re willing to take it.”
Wait. What??
What???? Did this huge dickhead just offer me a JOB?? Here??? In front of all these people??? In front of my boss, Ted??
“Wait, I don’t understand. How did you hear that conversation? It was minutes before you walked in??”
“Let’s just say I have very, very good hearing, Heather.” Very good hearing?? How good was his hearing, and should I be afraid??
I looked around the room, and everyone seemed just as shocked with the offer as I was—well, except Kamal, who seemed calm and unfazed by his boss.
“I would also like you to know that, in my company, we treat women equally and like human beings, and we do not condone such sexist, misogynistic bullshit that the women here obviously face on a daily basis.” He was referring to the comment Ted made earlier, and I’m sure he’d also heard about the old perverted manager who tries to sleep with all the women under forty.
“Well, Miss Heather, I would like an answer, and you can think of it as my way of apologizing for our earlier encounter.”
The f**k?? His way of “apologizing” was offering me a job opportunity that would give me enough money to retire my father??
“Well, this isn’t an easy decision to make, sir. I was wondering if I could have some time to think about it?”
- Writer
