Beauty and the Beholder

She knew that he was beautiful, and that’s the problem. She knew that she’d never be treated fairly in the workforce. She just had to accept that and move on. Maybe it wasn’t so bad being given special treatment by the men superior to her, but the women she had to face on the daily was the issue. They treated her as less than a woman because she didn’t feed into all their feminist crap. She sits in her car looking in the mirror. She stares at her caramel skin and the freckles speckled across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose. Her hazel eyes sparkle as she thinks about seeing Major today. She double checks to make sure her falsies are good before getting out of her 1980 Corvette. She stands and straightens her mid-thigh-length black skirt and adjusts her tucked in white dress shirt. She slips her black heels back on before adjusting her natural hair in her bun before walking towards the entrance. Dallas Violet Jones struts into her workplace, the Law Offices of Booker and Major Johnson. Before she can even unlock her office door Booker shouts her name across the building. She doesn’t even set her stuff down, she carries her designer briefcase and her coffee with her as she walks briskly to Booker’s office. “Yes, sir?” “Mind telling me why you are just now getting here? We needed to already be started on the paperwork for the Clarke case,” Booker’s deep voice booming as he talks, irritated. “Booker, we discussed last night that I would come in at normal time and you and Major would have it covered, since we stayed in really late last night. But I figured this would happen,” Dallas says as she sets her coffee down on his desk and she begins to rummage through her briefcase. She pulls out a manila folder filled with paperwork, “here is all the paperwork, completed.” Booker takes it from her, “All of it? How late did you stay up, Dallas?” “I had about an hour of sleep, but I am ready for court today, shall we get going?” Major walks in, “You’re not coming with us today Dallas. You are going to go home and get some rest, we can take it from here.” Booker stands up behind his desk, “Major, we need her there, she is the encyclopedia of this case, if she says she is up for it, then she is up for it. She knows her own capabilities, if she feels like she is able, then we shouldn’t punish her for doing her job by not allowing her to come.” “You make a good point brother,” Major hesitates as Dallas looks at him with determination, “Come on you two, we have to get going before we end up being late.” Major leaves the room and Dallas turns to Booker, ecstatic, “Thank you, Booker, for getting him off my back.” “Dallas, you’re coming along to court for this case, but next time, I’m not going to defend you. This is going to damage you if you keep spending all these late nights on cases. This is your last warning,” He hands her the file back, “Put this back in your bag and grab your coffee, we gotta go.” Booker leaves his office and Dallas just looks at the doorway, her mind racing. She spends so much time focused on this job so that she can’t think about anything else. She uses work as an excuse to not hang with friends and to not go see her family. It is her escape. What is she going to do on sleepless nights now that she isn’t permitted to work on cases? She swallows back tears and takes a deep breath. She walks out of Booker's office, locking the door behind herself. She runs to Major’s Porsche and gets in the passenger's side. Major looks at her as she flounces down in the seat and shuts the door. “What are you looking at, Major? We gotta get going.” “Dallas, chill... I know what happened with you and Carl. He came to me two months ago trying to come up with this huge story about why I should fire you. I fired him instead. He really hurt you, Dallas, and you need to face that. You need to accept it and grow from it. Learn a lesson from that piece of crap,” he says, pulling out onto the street, driving towards the courthouse. Dallas takes a deep breath, willing herself not to cry, “Thank you, Major. I just need to get through today and all should be good. Nia and Odessa want me to go out tonight, and now I have to. Booker kinda threw the book at me after you left the room, so now I’m going to try to live my life.” “Dallas, Booker and I want to give you a higher position. But, you need to step back from the job for a bit. After this case, you are taking two weeks off, it’s not up for discussion.” Major pulls into the parking garage and parks the Porsche. “Okay, I really need a break from the job. I think I’ll treat myself and the girls and go up to Staten Island for that time, if they can get off. I’m going to soak up some sun and enjoy life.” “Good, Dallas. You deserve some happiness. Honestly, I’m glad you got rid of Carl, I know that was over two months ago, but I could tell he hadn’t wanted to let you go.” “He didn’t but I needed it, I owed it to myself to get away from that. Now enough about me, let’s get in there and win this case!” Dallas says as they get out of the car.