After an eternity, Glasses stopped talking. She gave Sean a brief glance, then turned to grab her stuff. That was it. All done.
Krista stifled a giggle. So. Weird. How did Sean deal with these people on a regular basis?
Next up was Red Suit. Sean carried her boards and got a grin and thank you for doing so. She stood in front of the clients, got introduced by Sean just as Glasses had, and started up the engines. Red Suit—Krista liked that name better than Betty—at least looked at the clients when she spoke. She wasn’t much better in her delivery, but she smiled a couple times and shifted every once in a while. Sean still had to help. He still had to dance around her words and brief pauses, basically giving the presentation for her.
If Krista were the client, she would definitely think this was rinky-dink. She’d say no just because they didn’t have it together. But these guys were apparently still listening, not bothering to look at Red Suit, just waiting for Sean to tell them what they needed to know.
Too soon it was over. Which meant…her turn.
As Sean carried the boards back, he glanced at her in anticipation, expecting her to head up front. Since she only had her laptop, and didn’t need help carrying that, she excused herself around Pink Shoes and headed to the podium where she quickly plugged in her computer and made sure everything was displayed properly on the large screen behind her.
Show time!
Krista exhaled all the wind out of her body with a half-controlled release of tension. With the small plastic remote in a white-knuckled grip, she turned to the clients with a smile.
Sean was off to the side, lazily leaning back against a cabinet with his legs crossed and arms in a pose of relaxation. He went from participant to audience. As his gaze slid over her body, she felt like she should have a pole instead of a laptop. It was disgusting and discontenting at the same time.
Trying not to be daunted, she lifted her chin as she met his eyes, silently asking if he was going to introduce her. He looked back with a closed-off expression that spoke volumes. She was on her own.
So be it.
Turning to the panel, ignoring the rising panic of stage fright, she brought up her first slide with a click of the remote. “Hello, my name is Krista Marshall, and I’ll be walking you through some numbers and research that support our ideas for this campaign.”
Besides the guy with his greasy, black comb-over, there were two other guys. One was average looking with brown, fluffy hair and stubble on his chin, and the other was older with salt-and-pepper hair and a suit jacket that didn’t quite fit.
Fat man in a little coat…
Krista smiled animatedly to hide the anger and borderline humiliation at the looks from Sean and the other creepy sales guy, who was taking this opportunity to molest her with his eyes.
Luckily, instead of acting like the two guys who were supposed to be on the same team as Krista, the clients all wore respectful expressions, each looking her in the eyes. Slightly relieved, she breathed out a smile-encrusted sigh and let her mannerisms relax as she started her lecture on numbers, figures, and all things boring in the marketing world.
Throughout the slides she paid each man equal attention, choosing her own pace to match their interest level. She rarely had to speed up, because their attention never wavered. They were focused and interested, nodding politely with each point she made and returning her smile when she gave one. Well, two of them did. The third was straight-faced, but still maintaining focus. He looked back and forth between her and the slides, occasionally writing something down.
At the end of her lecture she paused and asked for questions. The man who hadn’t smiled, Mr. Comb-over, asked, “I noticed all your figures rotate around a demographic slightly older. Do you have anything that hits a little closer to what we’re going for?”
Good question.
She had no idea.
She looked at Sean, expecting him to jump in. On average, her company didn’t go after a younger crowd. From what she’d seen while looking through historical information in their giant database, the company didn’t have as much experience marketing to that demographic. Based on the fact that this younger crowd was Sean’s idea, and because he didn’t tell her anything about it, she had absolutely no idea how he hoped to succeed.
And apparently he wasn’t planning on enlightening her or the clients, because he stood there, staring at her. No change in posture except for being slightly more rigid. Not very helpful.
Fine, if he wants me to do his job, he can eat the repercussions.
She put on a confident expression that she had perfected in college in order to hide the complete bullshit she spewed at a professor, and lied. “To date, with this type of product, we’ve been working mostly in the twenty-five to thirty-five demographic.” She used a cool, level voice. She was desperately trying to hide the crippling lack of knowledge. “Now, however, that market has changed, and we’ll be using our cutting edge approach to graphics, advertising niches, and already established connections in the sports world to aim lower. Aim for a younger crowd. We already do this with a number of our other products, so it is just a matter of tweaking our system, integrating your product, revamping the look, and inundating all those impressionable young minds with our message.” She smiled brightly as she said the last few words, aiming for humor to cover the tide of rabble that fell in clumps out of her mouth.
The man nodded once and looked toward Sean. The other two men were still gazing at her. So was Creep-O salesman. She was starting to feel a little self-conscious about the whole situation.
“Great,” Sean said, pushing away from the wall. The other sales guy stood up and conferred with Sean for a second before Sean sprang into action, no longer sparing her a glance.
Krista figured her time was up, and that she should exit the podium, when Sean introduced the art guy. With a ragged sigh, she grabbed her computer and headed toward the table where the rest of her team waited. Before she made it, she was intercepted by Creep-O. Confusedly, she let him usher her out of the room, making sure he didn’t touch any part of her person.
Once outside, the guy said, “Great work Kristie. Really good stuff. You’re excused.” He turned to go back inside.
Kristie? “But… what if they have questions?”
He closed the door again. “We’ll handle it. You’ve done enough. Thanks.”
And just like that he briskly walked back into the conference room, leaving her standing in the hallway alone, clutching her computer. She was the geek who was laughed out of the cafeteria by the cool kids. First the loser that has to sit on her own, now the unwanted geek.
The bitch of it was, she was a cool kid in school, and was always nice to the geeks. She did not deserve this karma.
With teary eyes she slowly walked back to her desk, everything she did and said tumbling through her mind. She came to one conclusion: She should have waited for Sean to answer that question. Obviously she messed up there. She’d done her presentation for the clients exactly how she’d gone over it with Sean. If there were any problems, he would have pointed it out then. It had to be that question. That was the only missing link!
And what was with the sexual overtones? What was with staring her down like she was supposed to take off her clothes and dance around for dollar bills? That wasn’t professional, it wasn’t cool, and it made her so angry and frustrated she wanted to find where he lived and set fire to his bushes. She hadn’t deserved that. No one deserved that. This wasn’t 1940. There were rules against that behavior in the workforce!
Krista’s anger, once ignited, now fumed. If Sean hadn’t been daydreaming about the best way to get her into bed, maybe he would have done his job and answered that question so she didn’t have to make something up. Maybe this was exactly how he got ahead. He made sure everything was ready and foolproof then waited for the right moment to let an up-and-comer hang themselves.
Krista’s resolve crackled. She did not quit. Not for her own mistakes, and certainly not those of others. She wouldn’t go down without a fight for this. If her boss talked to her about it, she would tell him exactly how it all played out. It wasn’t her fault she had to step in and do Sales’ job! And she knew that Mr. Montgomery, despite his faults, would have her back on this one!
If only she could pin sexual harassment on them, too. She’d have to think about that. Assholes!
The remainder of the day was a blur. The rest of her department was working on the thing for Dell, so they weren’t around, and she didn’t hear a peep from her so-called team about the presentation. All she did, then, was stew. Stew, and plot revenge.
When 5:00 rolled around Krista was seething. She shut down her computer and headed out with a scowl.
She walked the three blocks to the pub where she would meet the girls for Friday happy hour. She’d been there before a few times, and every time Kate had gotten there first she chose to sit in the miniature booths. Usually Krista would sit there until Jasmine came in, then they would all move to the bar. This time, however, Krista went straight to the bar.
“I’m over here,” Kate called from behind her.
“I know that. I saw you. But we are going to end up at the bar anyway, so I’m heading there now.”
“Wow,” Kate said as she changed locations. “You’re in a mood.”
“My day sucked!” Without further ado, Krista launched into an account of the specifics, starting when she got to the conference room, ending with why she thought it had to be that last question. Kate listened without saying a word until she had finished, then finished her beer and looked for the bartender.
“Well?” Krista prompted. Sometimes Kate had A.D.D.
“Are you sure it wasn’t something in the presentation itself?”
“Like what?”
“Fuck, I dunno. Are you sure you didn’t miss a slide or say some numbers wrong?”
“Even if I did, no one noticed, so it couldn’t have been a deal breaker.”
“And you’re sure you answered that question how you told me you answered it?”
“Not verbatim, but something like that. I know as much now as I did then, so the content is the same.”
“Well, I think that answer was fine, so I can’t see how that was it.”
“What else could it be?”
“This was that Sean guy?”
“Yeah.”
“Does he still want you?”
“He wants all women. He doesn’t want me any more than any other piece of ass in the company. Maybe less, actually. What does that have to do with it?”
“Maybe he’s pissed because you won’t f**k’im, and this is how he’s taking it out on you.”
A cold shiver went down Krista’s spine. He hadn’t actually asked her out, but he definitely wanted the poo-nanny. He wasn’t shy about that fact.
“Hmmm,” Kate said over Krista’s mental panic. “If it’s not that, I’ll be buggered, I have no idea.”
“I really did want that promotion, though.” Krista was promised a promotion and a raise if her first presentation went well. It was apparently how it was done in Research for new people. The promotion was a minor title change, and the raise was like half a percent or something stupid, but it was a much-needed start.
“Where the hell is Jasmine?” Kate asked, easily distracted on a Friday.
Kate got out her phone to text her as Krista ordered a beer for both of them.
Half an hour later Jasmine finally showed up, again looking like a painter. It seemed like these days she was doing more painting than numbers—it wasn’t her choice, and it wasn’t sitting all that well. She had started half-heartedly looking for another job.
At Kate’s behest, Krista retold the story to Jasmine, who listened intently, asking questions throughout, until the end. She then asked questions much like those Kate had asked. Krista gave the same answers.
“Then I just don’t know, you know? You’ll just have to ask,” Jasmine surmised.
“You think I should ask?” Krista directed the question to Kate. Jasmine tended to be the most truthful person on the face of the planet. If you asked her something, she would generally give you an honest answer. Often times it was a breath of fresh air because you really knew where you stood with her. Sometimes it was a curse because it turned out you really didn’t want the answer you were given.
Kate looked at Jasmine in thought. “I think you have to. If it turns out you totally f**ked up…well, at least you’ll know for next time. If that bastard doesn’t have a good reason for you falling on your face—well, I don’t know. We’ll have to plan that next step when we get there.”
“But what I am supposed to say?” Krista whined. “Hey Sean, how’s it going? Say, why did you kick me out of the meeting?”
“Yes, that is exactly what you say.” Jasmine nodded.
“No way, I’ll sound stupid.”
“Why would you sound stupid? Did he tell you beforehand he was going to have you leave after your thing?” Jasmine asked logically.
“No…”
“And did he give you any sort of explanation, anything at all, as he was doing it?”
“The Creep-O salesman did it.”
“Then why is it stupid to ask?”
“I don’t know,” Krista said petulantly, looking at her beer. “Because I don’t want to.”
“Well, then…”
The girls went back and forth on that idea for another couple minutes before Krista was resigned that come Monday, she was going to confront the problem.
She now had the whole weekend to fret about Monday.
Chapter Six