Invitation

The Invitation

"Josephine! Can I see you in my office for a second?" My boss smiles at me after I returned from my lunch break. One thing about my boss... She was the worst. Abilene was in her mid 60's and was so conditioned to having people do everything for her that she never did anything for herself... correctly. In my old position, I was an admin. I would help other event managers and Abilene with any small task that came to an incoming group at our hotel. Usually it consisted of scanning documents, making folders, sorting things, or running specific reports. Except there was Abilene. I was written as her personal assistant 6 months into my position. She would tell her clients that I would do anything for her, or I would fix a mistake that she made. It was known around the hotel that I was her b*tch. someone can take that especially wrong, and I'm not saying I didn't, but because of who she was, I kept everything very short and sweet with her with my fingers crossed that I would eventually take her position one day. Now, 9 months later, I have a management role. It made me feel good to be let out from under Abilene in the direct assistant kind of way. she is still my boss, but I simply do not have to do anything she tells me that isn't my own work. I smiled back at Abilene and said "sure" as I walked back to my desk. I dropped off my water, said my last prayers and went into her office. "go ahead and close the door for me." she said. I closed the door and looked at her leaning on her desk. I couldn't read her as easily as I wanted to, which meant I couldn't figure out if this was going to be a good or bad talk. 

"so, I've been hearing things from your fellow co workers that I just wanted to briefly touch on with you. there have been some people that have told me you haven't been at your desk and spend 10-20 minutes getting coffee in the mornings. I don't want this to alarm you in any way but I just would like to say that we really expect you to be at your desk all the time." I look at her. you've got to be kidding me. How do I respond to this in a nice way? "um okay. I'm sorry, but I honestly haven't left my desk much. Am I supposed to ask someone if I can go to the bathroom? I guess I'm just curious on how that's supposed to work..." I shot at her with kind eyes. She looks at me, almost stunned I even said that. "Josephine, all I'm saying is you should think about staying at your desk. you are a manager now, and that comes with responsibilities. Basically we don't want you wondering around the hotel when you have nothing to do." I looked at her with an expression of what i'm sure looked awful. "I understand what you're saying, and the responsibilities that come with my role. I wouldn't have applied for this if I knew this was an issue. I need stimulation. After so long my brain needs a break, and my legs certainly do too. I'm sorry if this really bothers some people, but I'm only human and I have needs too. I find this also very hypocritical considering my fellow office mates are gone from their desk for longer than a bathroom break, to find them talking to someone else at their desk. I don't mean to be rude or come across that way, but it's almost a double standard. If you or anyone else has a problem with me, and not someone else and we do the same thing, I will take this to the GM or corporate for evaluation." Abilene looks at me stunned that I just said all those words in a sentence. "I understand. I will let them know. thank you for your honesty." she takes off her glasses and looks towards the door. I got up and left. There was nothing in me that even wanted to finish that conversation.

 To make the situation better, I went back to my desk, grabbed my phone and headed straight for the kitchen. I stopped on the way and talked to my friends at the bar, and the engineers doing their duties in the lobby. All I could think about was the rage that went through my body, that my boss had the audacity to bring something like that up when there were multiple people who just get away with it because they've been there longer than 2 years. heck longer than 20 years with the way this placed has aged. I get to the kitchen and walk into William's office. He's sitting at his computer going through paper work and writing on menus for what I assumed was next weeks events. " hey do you have a minute?" I asked standing in the door way. William looks up at me and smiles while nodding his head yes. I walk in and sit down in the chair across from him and closed the door. "so I officially hate my boss. But besides the point, there's a party this weekend for one of my friends, do you want to come?" William's smile widens and I hear a little chuckle come out. "hold up. lets rewind. You hate your boss because why?" He puts down his pen and puts his full attention on me. I felt my cheeks get warm by his stare. "I don't want to rant, but listen to this. Abilene pulled me into her office to explain to me that my coworkers have a problem with me not being at my desk all the time, and that they have found me 'getting coffee' for 20 minutes. How ridiculous is that?!" My hands were in the air with obvious annoyance in my voice. William laughs. "listen if there's anything I know about Abilene, or anyone here for that matter, they all suck. don't listen to it." I mean he wasn't wrong. "I know, and I told her it was such a double standard compared to my other office mates who like to spend 30 minutes talking to someone else in their cubicle. its very hypocritical and I will not stand for it. I literally do not even know why she still has a job here with all the mistakes and assumptions that are made." he laughs and shakes his head. "okay I get it. Chocolate?" he says with a handful of dove chocolate hearts. I smiled and took one. inside the wrapper it read "don't settle for a spark... light the fire instead." I smiled and crumbled up the foil and threw it in the trash. Yeah yeah. "but onto the party, where is it?" he said, eating a chocolate himself. my insides were starting to jump for joy thinking that it was a good percentage that he would show up. "its actually on this side of town, about 10 minutes from here. It's on Saturday, anytime after 7pm." I paused and looked at him square in the face. Trying to read what he was thinking was taking so much energy out of me. "its totally no problem if you can't make it through, I know you work and all." I said, trying to lighten the fact that I totally just asked him to a party. "hmm actually yeah, I'll go. I think it would be fun to do something different than stay home for an evening." he said, running his fingers through his hair. Oh my gosh. he said he would come. my brain was going a million miles a minute as I now had to figure out what I was going to wear and how I was going to wear it around him. "great! here's the kicker, the party has a theme of glitz and glam. so I guess wear your best glam outfit, or not, but there will be plenty of alcohol. I can text you the address if you want?" He looks at me almost hesitantly and then cracks a smile. "okay, I have no idea what to even wear for something like that... but I'll figure it out." he hands me his phone and I put in my contact information and hit save. I handed William his phone back and then felt my phone buzz. *hey* it read. already a text and i'm internally freaking out. "well.. good talk, I will text you the details on Saturday morning. Thank you for listening to my rant by the way. these old folks are killing my vibe." William laughs and said no problem. I opened his office door and walked out into the banquet hallway. my insides were all giddy and my face felt hot. What was I going to do?!

~~~~~~~~~

Friday came and gone and I was in one sticky spot with no outfit picked out for Saturdays party. I knew the look I was going for, but pulling it off in less than 24 hours was going to be so hard. I rummaged through my closet what felt like 100 times to find something, and all I had was a blazer, a bra and a black pencil skirt. nothing in this outfit were there sparkles or anything glitzy or glam about it! I didn't have much time to go shopping so this would make do. I put the items of clothing on and stood in front of my mirror. I looked hot. you could see my stomach, and my boobs had a nice shape to them. my legs were unshaved, but in this light you couldn't even tell. I  found some black stilettos shoved deep in my closet and put those on. Yep this was it. this was my outfit. I went to the bathroom and took another look. I could straighten my hair, and possibly put a smokey eye on with a bold lip. go crazy with the shimmer even. I took off my clothes and threw them on my bed. I ran a bath and put some epsom salt and essential oils in and let it sit. just relax I thought. William will see you tomorrow night and completely forget about any girl he's ever dated. actually who am I kidding. I probably don't even compare to those girls. I bet they're gorgeous. I got in the bath and slid down until the water just barely covered my face. calm down Josephine.