Also, I hated beingthis girl.
I wanted the recordto show, I loathed being this undecided, fickle,crazy personterrifiedfemale that didn’t know what she wanted or who she wanted or when she wantedit.
But I couldn’t seemto talk myself down from thispsychoticledge.
I couldn’t evenpaint my way out of these feelings. And believe me… I’d tried.
I barely sparedHenry a look when I explained, “I’ve been really busy with the EFB Enterprisesaccount. Sorry. I’ll get to the updates in a bit.”
“I need them now,”Henry gritted through clenched teeth.
The second meetingwith Black Soul wasn’t until next week and all I had to do was change the colorscheme they didn’t like. And no, for those interested, I hadn’t used gray andyellow.
I’d used black andwhite with some striking reds. It had a vintage Guns and Roses vibe to it. Thesuits wanted something subtler with softer colors. Basically, I should havegone with gray and yellow to begin with.
It would be a painto go back through everything and re-shade, but I didn’t have to createanything new. I just needed a few focused hours to get it done.
Giving up on thegraphic in front of me until Henry had slithered off, I pushed away from mydesk and bit back a growl. “I don’t have them ready for you right now. But ifthey’re that important I can walk away from what I’m working on and startthem.”
Henry’s expressionturned sour, reminding me of a petulant child. “I had a feeling two majorprojects were going to be too much for you. You’re not ready for a lead roleyet, baby. I told my dad that he should have let me run the EFB account. “
I resisted, barely,the urge to punch him in the throat. Was he seriously attacking my work ethic?If I had slacked on anything it was the Black Soul project and that was all hisfault. And I would be more than happy to have a conversation withhis dadabout why I wasn’t totallyenthusiastic about working with his deviant of a son.
But to Henry, Iremained professional, poised, and only mildly bitchy. “They’re not too much,”I said coolly. “I’ve carved out plenty of time for each, but I was planning onstarting the Black Soul touchups later in the week since my EFB account is on atighter timeline. Why do you need them right now?”
Ignoring myquestion and my explanation and my entire A-plus work history, he tapped hisfingers on the chest high partition and said, “I want those updates before youleave for the day. Got it?”
Clenching my teethtogether to keep fromchoking himsaying something I would regret, Inodded once. “Fine.”
“Good girl.” Hesmirked.
Expecting him toleave, I was surprised when he stayed. He stood there for another minutestaring directly at my chest. He didn’t even try to hide it. I’d taken towearing the most modest, dowdy clothing I owned to work. The chambray button-uppaired with the Aztec printed maxi skirt I was wearing were hardly revealing,and yet Henry salivated all over my cubicle like he was front and center at astrip club.
“Do you mind?” Iasked bluntly.
He reluctantlylifted his lascivious gaze and winked at me, thenfinallywalked away.
That’s when I threwup all over my computer. Okay, maybe not all over my computer, but at least alittle bit in my mouth.God, he was suchan asshole!
A gross,disgusting, asshole.
After hedisappeared, I contemplated running to HR again and demanding that they file areport for his employee record. I wasn’t imagining his gross behavior.
He was out of line.
At least, to mypersonal standards, he felt very, very out of line. Maybe Doris hadn’tunderstood before. Maybe she hadn’t realized how out of control he was. I knewshe wanted to protect her own job and felt that writing up a formal complaintabout the boss’s son maybe wasn’t the best way to do that. But she couldn’tignore his behavior anymore. He was a liability. And pissing me off!
I stood up andwalked over to her desk, but she still wasn’t there and writing a handwrittencomplaint wasn’t going to get me anywhere if she still wouldn’t be back forseveral days. Spinning around, I observed the whole office, trying to decidewhat to do. I spotted Mr. Tucker’s office and wondered about going directly tohim. What would he say? What would he do? Was I prepared to accuse his son ofsexual harassment directly to his face?
No, no I was not.
When I got back tomy desk I opened all of my Black Soul files. But I just wasn’t mentally readyto start working on them yet. The last thing I wanted to do was give Henry whathe wanted. He’d interrupted my entire day. Plus, now my planner was all out oforder. He was the absolute worst!
Out of spite, Ipicked up my cell phone.
Henry would get theupdates when I was finished with them. Which might be today. Or maybe tomorrow.Or maybe I wouldn’t do them after all and he could make the adjustmentshimself.
Wasn’t that a crazythought?
