Nothing Out of the Ordinary

For the last ten minutes, Josh had droned on and on in so many corporate buzzwords, I literally couldn’t keep track of the nothingburger he was trying to feed me. If I was not already having a day from hell, it might not have gotten under my skin the way it did. I found out my dad died that morning. I wasn’t close to him. In fact, I hadn’t talked to him in years, but it’s one thing to cut ties with a person. It’s another to know that the opportunity to ever cross paths is completely severed. It’s weird to grieve someone you hate. So, while I was trying to finish the final slides for the presentation of my findings, the last thing I wanted to do was deal with Josh’s incessant opinions. Honestly, I had only accepted the project because I thought it would help me get that promotion they’ve been teasing me with for months. Jeanine told me that this project was really important and that it would have a lot of eyes on it. It was exactly what I needed. That was until Jeanine said she was assigning Josh to help me. Something about synergy and streamlining the process. I could not remember the last thing Josh streamlined, but if I said no, that would show I couldn’t work well with others and I could. I sat at my desk, the PowerPoint slides nearly complete, as he pointed to the graph, “Those colors, they’re pretty ugly, aren’t they?” “Those are the brand colors. We have to use them.” “Do we? Couldn’t we make things more streamlined if we used a more monochromatic scale?” To be honest, I was shocked he knew the word monochromatic. “No, that wouldn’t work. They’ve told me before they need the presentations to use the approved templates and colors.” He sighed. “This is not going to go over well.” “They used this exact template and color scheme in the presentation from HR just last week.” “Exactly. It’s boring. It’s tired.” “And going monochromatic is better?” “Here, let me show you.” He reached forward, leaning over me, to grab the mouse and start making changes. I admit, my reaction was a bit over the top, but the second I felt his hot breath on my neck, I scrambled out of my chair. Trying to save face, I said, “While you’re doing that, I need to use the lady’s room.” “Uh-huh.” He continued clicking and moving the slides around. He was going to change everything. But at this point, I didn’t really care. If he wanted to ruin the project, that was on him. In the bathroom stall, I sat down and pulled out my phone to check my emails. Among the junk trying to sell me pills for ED — clearly the marketing team missed the blazing single label on all my socials — I saw a reminder for the vet appointment. I had almost forgotten, but I had set up the appointment a couple of weeks ago when I noticed Sebastian’s strange behavior. He was twelve years old, so not that old for a cat, but he’d been acting strange, puking a lot, and not using the bathroom a lot. I would have thought he was just eating his food too fast and not drinking enough water, but when it went on for a week, I googled the symptoms, freaked out, and immediately made an appointment for the earliest time that he could be seen. If I could have afforded emergency care, I would have. But this clinic was the only one with affordable rates and the receptionist didn’t seem to think it was an emergency. The next email was a notice of overdue rent. I told my landlord I had to wait til I got paid on the fifth, and they told me it wouldn’t be a problem, but the email said they were going to charge me fifty dollars per day that it was late. They had already raised the rent by two hundred dollars a couple of months back. I swiped closed the mail app and pulled open i********:. I watched a few stories until I got to Michael’s. Apparently he’s got a new girlfriend now. I knew it was inevitable he would move on. He was the one who broke up with me after all, because I didn’t want to go with him to all his random events and parties, but the girl was definitely prettier than me and I couldn’t help but feel like I made a mistake. She clearly spent a lot on her hair and nails. And she had the kind of makeup that took a lot of time but convinced i***t guys that she was not wearing any. I had yet to master that skill, so I just wore mascara and some concealer if I needed it. I shoved the phone back into my pocket, flushed the toilet I didn’t use, and washed my hands. When I got back to my desk, Josh was still hard at work changing everything I did. I glanced over his shoulder, and it was a completely different presentation now. “How’s it going?” I asked him tentatively. “Great! I’m almost done. Doesn’t it look better now?” The real answer? No. The answer I gave him: “You really put in a lot of work in those last few minutes.” He turned long enough to grin at me. After a few more minutes, he clapped his hands together. “There it is.” He played the presentation and clicked through the slides. It was soulless, lifeless. But the longer it went on, the more I realized the presentation I had made was equally soulless, it just had more color. I used to really try with these presentations. I would make creative transitions and fun animations, but one day Jeanine pulled me to the side and told me I was doing too much and to stick to the templates. “I don’t think that Jeanine will like this.” “What? Sure she will!” Josh stood up, gesturing for me to take my seat back. What a gentleman. “The layouts have changed quite a bit.” The screen flickered as I scrolled through the slides. “Exactly. This is a little more pleasing to look at, don’t you think?” He was staring right at me with those pale blue eyes that the other girls seemed to swoon over. “It’s definitely minimal.” He grinned. “Exactly. I’m glad you like it. I was worried you would think I was just taking over.” “This is both our project.” “You’re right. I’ve been told I can be a bit controlling.” His smile went lopsided. I never understood how the other girls found him so attractive. He was so full of himself it was unreal. “Nope, not controlling.” “Good!” He reached over me again and clicked the save button. “So, how do you want to split the presentation?” For the next half an hour, I spent every fiber of my patience listening to his terrible ideas about how to present the idea. He could not take a hint to save his life and it was tiresome. By the end, I had no idea what we were about to present, and I just wanted to go home, eat some ice cream, and watch home videos.