“I think that you’re missing the point here,” Cora says in a huff. “That’s the problem with all these bigwigs. They take all the credit and all the money while we do all the work. This conference coming up is a lot of work, and they are the ones who are celebrated. Why are we the grunt workers?”
“Yeah, and why do I have to put the bio together for this crap? Don’t they already know their own bios?” Marina hisses.
“So what exactly is this conference?” I am worried anarchy is about to break out. “I’m not even sure what these bios are for.”
“I guess for shareholders or something.” Cora shrugs, her eyes blank. “Do you know, Xander?”
He looks off to the side with a bored expression. “I just know that some of the guys on the board are extremely attractive. I’ve been gathering the photos to put into the slides, and hello—if any of them are gay, please let them know I’m single.”
“Marina, do you know?” I ask her, wondering if she had a clue.
“I mean, there’s a conference coming up.” She shrugs. “The slides are for the conference.”
“Yeah, but what’s the conference about?”
“I don’t know 100%, but that’s because I wasn’t invited to the conference,” she says quickly. “I’m just a lowly?—”
“Guys, come on. This is our job. We are creating the slideshow presentation for this conference, and not one of us knows what it’s about.” I looked around, not wanting to be a bitch, but this was ridiculous. No wonder no one knew who they were.
“Well, why should we care? He didn’t even know I’ve been his employee for 20 years,” Cora frowns. “I’m most probably the longest-serving employee at the company.”
“Are you?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I mean, I don’t know if technically that’s true, but I have to be one of the longest. I mean, I’m sure if we put the hours I’ve worked and the amount of money they’ve made, then I’m most probably responsible for at least a couple of billion in revenue.”
Xander, Marina, and I all give her a look. Her logic is just not reasonable. “From doing what, Cora? Calling your husband and eating free food in the cafeteria?”
“Well, I’ll have you know that I was instrumental in putting together the email list that went out to banks for dinner that was held many moons ago when Senior was still here.” She huffs.
“Senior?” I ask.
“Jack’s dad. He used to run the company.”
“I see, anyway, let’s rally. Let’s make a name for ourselves! I feel like we are all looked upon as lowly nothings. But we’re not. Each one of us brings something meaningful to the company.” I don’t actually believe that, but you can’t be 100% honest when you’re trying to give a pep talk.
“You know what we should do?” Xander says wickedly.
“No, what?” I’m hopeful he will have a good plan.
“We should write fake bios for all of them. Slam them. Expose all their secrets.”
“What secrets?”
“No idea, but I’m sure I could guess a couple of them. Or make some up. And then when it gets presented, they’ll all be so embarrassed.” He bursts out laughing. “They will know who we are then.”
“That’s not a good idea.” I groan.
“I don’t know. I’m just talking out of my ass. I’m still shook that you know Jack Heathcliff — and you didn’t even tell us. He’s our enemy.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be shook, because as I said, I dated his brother, and his brother dumped me after cheating on me, and… well, if I’m truly honest, it was Jack who made him dump me. He didn’t think I was good enough for his brother.”
“No way. You see? He’s a jerk, too,” Xander continues. “We totally need to write those fake bios. You down, Cora?”
“They need to be named and shamed.” She nods.
“Marina?”
“I mean, I don’t really know them, but sure,” she shrugs. “Let’s do it. It’ll be fun.”
