Fling

Fling -CHAPTER 2

In Emma's life, she was engaged to a guy I was going to meet soon. Darryl Lancaster, the fiancee. Darryl sounded like a douche. Oh and he was one. Unfortunately she met her true love down the street. Darryl owned D.L. Designs, funnily enough it was a print advertising company. I shook Darryl's hand and knew my fate was sealed. Emma thought I was living off what my sugar daddy in New York gave me. She thought I would be running out of money and decided to beg Darryl to hire me on as a graphic designer. I really didn't want to, but Emma put such effort into getting me a job. I relented.

I was not prepared for what this job was. It was an all male workforce. I would be the only female in the entire small company. Some good ol' boys. Sexist. Not even as high of a level as my design expertise. It was beneath me and yet I was looking to please Emma for trying so hard to get me a job.

I had an impromptu dinner with Emma and met Darryl and some guy he worked with named James Ash.

What my first impression of Darryl was: he wasn't attractive, he's very macho-alpha male, a completely corrupt business owner who was a control freak. Darryl's smarts pertained to illegal activities. My sister was more sophisticated than Darryl. Not a good guy as far as I could tell. Darryl treated my sister like a delicate flower and she was the person in control of this relationship. Darryl was whipped. I liked that because he was an unkind person to everyone that worked for him and soon that would include me.

Then there was James whom would be my boss over the design team of now 3 (including me). I shook James Ash's hand and noticed he was kinda hot. James seemed pensively studying me during dinner. It was odd that James was kind hesitant to talk to me until he saw me design, he commended my talent in surprise and later seemed to check me out. I didn't know what to make of him. The very sexy James never strayed from business professional. The rest of the employees however... that's a no. They were sexist and douche bags like Darryl. You see, Darryl only hired on former college buddies, never any true talent.

James Ash had showed me around the dump. No hard working people were here except my boss, James Ash and me. The other 2 designers were:
Peter Jacobs (Blah)
Max Miller (couldn't say enough nasty things about him)

There's a special place in hell for Max Miller. How that dumb ass Max came this far in the design world was a mystery until I found out Max and Darryl went way back to high school. A good ol' boys club. Max was riding on the coattails of my work immediately. Taking credit for all my beautiful work, that was so simple to make. But only James saw through that. It was allowed for some reason for him to lie about that to the printers on the other side. It irked me.

When I designed in front of James, he stood back and wondered why I was so good to be working here, but because Darryl liked having a pro, he never said a thing! Lies. Lies. Lies! Serah was gone, Only Una here, nothing special. I didn't belong there, but I did it out of love for Emma. I'd do anything for her.

Just natural talent that I played down and was embarrassed to show because I knew I was purposely toning down the quality of my talents. I was Una with a simple art degree from NYU. Don't look into who I am or give me any special attention. I was in a void to avoid reality that I was actually Serah. Una was my cover and armor.

I was Una Sand, the uniquely vagina equipped person at this business or house of debauchery as I would soon find out. This was an unequally male oriented office where women were seen as sex objects and definitely never heard.

I was in the dregs of a war zone against women on the front-lines.

A job in advertising to make her think I was for a real ordinary girl.

Emma finally had her sister though, family who loved her and that was what I wanted. I thought...

Part of the plan was working. I found work in a field I hadn't bothered with since college or maybe even before that very dull. Graphic design/advertising. Programs change, artistic endeavors never do. It was beneath me in my mind and everyone who knew me in New York would have laughed had they seen me on Photoshop behind a computer instead of holding a paintbrush. As the newest graphic designer for D.L. Designs I impressed Darryl so much that he used me. Darryl knew I was better than him. Still, he kept me there in that rinky-dink advertising company because he was greedy. I stayed because I was getting to know Emma and she loved that I worked for her fiance. I had been a phenomenally successful painter for the last five years, and now I was back to the grind as a small time designer who was far too good for this place and was beaten down by the male staff. And Darryl knew all that. I knew that. Darryl was an awful sort. James said nothing because he was employed by Darryl, his best friend since college. I got the feeling he wanted to say something, to pay me more, to get me recognition in a better place, but he was loyal to Darryl. We all were, sadly. This was my plan and I was doing it for Emma or better or worse.

My biggest problem was my wardrobe was fancy. Perhaps too fancy for D.L. Designs, but I didn't care until that first meeting in the conference room. I chose to wear a Chanel suit with a skirt. The weekly meeting in Darryl's big conference room was teeming with men. All the men colleagues looked around the room to me to be sexy in my Chanel suit immediately staring at my tits, face and if close enough, my legs. So I found out I would be the eye candy for men in this office. Great. Just fucking great. James saw what I dressed like and it bothered him. This was a scenario I had never encountered or was prepared for. My boss James Ash took me aside and told me my wardrobe was 'borderline inappropriate' around these morally corrupt men. There was really nothing wrong with what I wore. I just wasn't plain in dressing or my body wasn't plain. I was louder than life sexy no matter what.

Working with all men was trickier than I had thought. I thought I could handle it being from a big city. Oh I was so wrong.

I liked to start off my day by saying,
"Fuck off Max."

I might have said that a few times a day. Max would be looking at shit on his computer across from me instead of working. Or he wouldn't speak at all to me. Anything he said was sexist, inappropriate or mean. HR was Darryl, so no, Una would not get her comeuppance in this undesirable position. Una lived a lie, worked for jerks and it was all for one Emma Baker. Just digging holes for when Emma finds out, kills me and is ready to bury me I guess.

One Week Down.